Shemos: Pharaoh’s Attempt to Divide Klal Yisrael and Moshe’s Ahavas Yisrael

Transcript

Matchilas shibud, shibud of Mitzrayim. How does it begin? How does it begin, a shibud of Klal Yisrael? Vayu b'ruma ma'alah. You know that when Yosef passed away, the Shvatim were considered, the Bnei Yisrael were considered the most chashuv in Mitzrayim. Most chashuv in Mitzrayim. People were mechabed אותם, to the extent that the father, they wanted to make him to avodah zarah. That's how much kavod, that's how much respect was given to the Bnei Yisrael. What went wrong? What happened? What happened that from an umah, tana, tan tantinia, a small little tiny nation, which everybody, wow, everybody was respecting, everybody held in great aloof, vayarad, vayarad, vayarad, ad shema shekorin baTorah, for what we read in the Torah, gezeirah yedah. Shibud looks like slaves, which people don't even realize, until you learn the Midrashim, you don't realize it wasn't only slavery. They used to take the women away from them, and the over aveirot with the women of Klal Yisrael. Knaani, the Mitzri, the one that hit makeh ish Yehudi. What was that? That's the story that they took the wife, and was menael the wife, and this was the child. The babies, they used to slaughter to make a bath for Paro. The children put into the walls. You see, when you read the Torah, when you read the pesukim, you don't see all this. All you see is shibud. Choshei ha-shibud. But you don't see the tremendous rishut from the shibud, the mitzicha, the sevel the Klal Yisrael had to go through from the hands of the Mitzriim. Like we're saying from the Midrashim, Paro used to kill quotas of babies, quotas, kol yom. Numbers, complete numbers, quotas of babies every day for his bath. Nerav v'nifla, nerav v'nifla. Ad kdei kach, the Medrash even says, when they were putting the babies into the walls, the malachim complained, How could this happen? So we all know the story with Micha, that the Medrash says that Hashem told the malach to go down and take out one of those babies, and they realized that those babies ended up being bad in the future. Micha, Micha, Pesel Micha. The story comes from one of the babies in the wall. But b'sha'ato, people who don't know the future, it's unbelievable sevel, unbelievable retzach against the Jewish people. How did that happen? How did uma chashuvah turn into such a yeridah? And it's interesting in the history, we see it over and over again, that when Israel was created, the Jewish state was created, there was a kavod for them, tremendous kavod. Even the Russians agreed. People don't even know till today why. What was the miracle? What was the miracle? What went into their heads? That they should be maskim to the little Jewish state. But there was a kovod for this little Jewish state over the years. We're not talking about hundreds of years, forty years. Yerida. The goyim look at us, the way the goyim are out to everyone to kill us. Even the United States of America, those that learned the history properly, shaky relationships many times. They're our friends, but also with lack of respect for this little nation. What goes wrong? How does an umah like Klal Yisrael go from the highest level, Ki shatem olim, ashreichem Yisrael, k'shatem olim, ein umah olah yodea mihem. Ashreichem Yisrael, k'shatem yodim, ein umah shmofelet yodea mihem. How does it happen? If we look at the parsha, first pasuk in Shemot chet, that begins, Vayakam melech chadash al Mitzrayim. A new king comes, new king comes on the scene. This king, asher lo yada et Yosef. He didn't know who Yosef was. So Rashi brings down.

Tu pshat, Rav and Shmuel, machlokes in the Gemara, Rav and Shmuel, if it was chadash, chadash mamash, or chadash shenischadshu gezeirosav. When we say new, do we mean literally a new king, or do we say new that he behaved new, new laws, new attitude towards Klal Yisrael? Rashi explains, so, מה שלא ידע את יוסף, if it's the king that was old that knew, the answer is, עשה עצמו כאילו לא ידע. He made himself like he doesn't know, but of course he knew. Of course he knew. I never understood this Chazal. How many years before this did Yosef die? It wasn't so far back. So even if it was a new king, even if it's a new king, he didn't hear of Yosef. And any person—you go to a president today, he never heard of the two, three presidents before him. They study this. They study the history of the country and its presidents and its leaders for many years. So how could it be a new king comes, אשר לא ידע את יוסף? If it's the old king, the chachamim don't understand, what does he mean he don't know? So the answer is he made himself like he doesn't know. But I don't understand. Let's say it's a new king. It still doesn't make sense. A new king doesn't know who Yosef is? מה זה לא ידע? לא ידעו בהיסטוריה, שהוא הפסיק את הרעב, וישולט בכל ארץ מצרים, וכל מה טוב שעשה במצרים, they didn't know. What's there not to know? What is it, asher lo yada dat Yosef? What does it mean? So I was thinking to myself maybe a pshat like this. You understand the question? It's a beautiful question, a simple question. Even if it's new, dashe lo yada dat Yosef doesn't click. If it's the old king, some chachamim have to say that he made himself asatzmo k'ilu lo yada. Unless maybe Rashi means on both. Asher lo yada dat Yosef, asa atzmo k'ilu lo yada, is actually going on both kings. Both kings had to be asatzmo k'ilu lo yada, because even if it's a new king, it's not going to change the idea of Yosef. He had to know who Yosef is, maybe. But when the Gemara there, if you read the Gemara properly, if you're medayek in the lashon of the Gemara, you'll see that actually there's a teretz for the new king, for the old king. The old king, asher lo yada, that he didn't know because he made himself like he didn't know. But the new king, obviously the Gemara seems to say, taka didn't know. And I don't understand what's there not to know. So, boys, I was thinking like this. If you look further on, when Moshe comes to Paro and he starts telling him that they want to leave, Paro gets upset and he puts a decree. What's the decree? Teven, that they're not giving any more teven, that they have to go, helchu vikoshshu lahem teven. Teven is straw. They should go and get their own straw. The question is, what did he gain from that? If he wants them to work harder, you know what I would do? I would give them more straw and tell them to make more buildings. If you want someone to work more, well, you take away the supplies in the office, or you add more supplies and more hours. What was the cheshbon? What was the cheshbon? You want to make someone more selfish, you make him work more hours. Listen, listen, you're obviously not thinking before you answer, right? Think before you answer. What's the difference if I make you work more hours by collecting teven, or if I make you work more hours by building buildings? What's the difference? I mean, you want to make someone—so what was the point? The point was they should build pis and rampses, right? So do it this way. You know what? Instead of building five buildings, today you have to build six buildings. Why is this the cheshbon? You could still possibly do. If you have material, you could—ten buildings, twenty buildings—you still could do it. Yeah, you could still do it. If I give you two hours to build six buildings, you could do it. Now you're giving me a limit now. I'm telling you this, so you add on more buildings that they have to do. You put more pressure. What's the difference? What pressure? You know, maybe we don't understand each other in business. If you have a business, right, they're building buildings, and you want to hurt the people, what do you do? Take away the supplies, or you tell them, Build more hours. Depends how they look at it. They, you know, just go this now, and you to find the straw, so...

And they want the building to be built. Right, so why do it this way? Give them the straw and let them work more hours. Say six buildings. What's the difference, huh? Till now, Mitzrayim was giving them the straw. They can wait the problem from each other. They have a problem. Right. That could be involved anyway. Why? Let them run the whole show. Let the Jews command the other Jews. Oh, now you're saying something else. Now you know that you jump from one—one second, you're asking. Yeah, yeah. You see, that's the point. קודם צריך לחשוב. You just jump from one thing to the next thing to the third thing. I have no problem. Ramperu, we jump. You know, we jump from one thing to the next thing to the next thing. We have to go pshat. In pshat, when you read this all your life, you were thinking that, oh, it's much harder. You want to make something much harder, you could come to work more hours. I mean, what's the difference? What's the difference? So the truth is, I'll give you a pshat like this. Working is one thing, but they have to look for teven, then people begin to fight amongst themselves to get that teven. Here we come and say you have to build six buildings. All right, so we're all in it together. All of Klal Yisrael has to suffer: more hours, more product, more produce. If within themselves they're going to have to start finding teven to fill their quota of building, you know what the next step is? I found it first. No, I got it. I got it. Fighting within themselves. You know who had this cheshbon? The Nazis did this. This was their cheshbon. What did they do? They took the nokshim in the prison camps, Jews themselves, what were they called in English? Kapos. Why? Like this, that makes it worse, because the pshat is you fight within yourselves. You end up self-destructing, because if the pshat is achim batzara, we're all in it together, so there's a koach in achim batzara. If, let's say, the whole community has one tzara, something called achim batzara, together it makes it easier to survive the suffering. But if you mifared and make the problem within the community, then it becomes a tremendous pirud and a weakness to be solve the problem. The Nazis, yimach shemam, were geonim in retzach and in making people suffer. They had enough soldiers to make that the Jews should be under Nazi watch and Nazi guard, but they understood that this weakens the morale. This weakens the morale, that if Jews themselves have to start policing, and those that police will get extras officially, which they did, of course, they ended up killing them anyway, right? This makes the morale, makes it fall to the floor, doesn't give them the koach to withstand the sevel that they have to. I found a Medrash Rabbah about this nekudah. The Medrash Rabbah writes that the ones who were in charge of the teven was not the Mitzriyim. The ones who were in charge of Tenveiction, the Jews, who were supposed to police the other Jews to build. What happened? They were supposed to force them to get more teven and build more. What ended up happening was the nokshim didn't want to do it. What happened? They got punished, beaten by the Mitzriim, and b'schus this, says the Medrash, they were zocheh to ruach hakodesh, these nokshim. The watches over the Jews. Yeah, they appointed people within the community to be in charge, to overlook. And they became the ziknei ha'am. And the ziknei ha'am that we have later, that they came to the ziknei ha'am, this is it. These people, these people, these people were zocheh because they withstood the sevel that the Mitzriim put on them for not policing the Jewish people. And it says, the Medrash is clearly that he put the Jews in charge of the teven. So it came out that they had to police, that they should make sure that the teven was good, that they brought enough teven. Fact is, they didn't do it, so they got rewarded that Hashem made them ziknei Sanhedrin. Hashem made them ziknei Sanhedrin. So this, l'chora, we could say.

is the havanitchakma of Paro. Paro, and I'll prove it to you, knew the way to get to the Jewish people is to destroy them from within. If they're going to come from the outside to kill them, it's not going to work. Tashiyanu oto, ken yirbu v'chen yifrotz, it doesn't work. He wanted them to self-destruct. I'll show you what I mean. If you take a look, an interesting diyuk in the pasuk: Hava nitchakmah lo, pen yirbeh, v'haya ki tikrena milchamah v'nosaf gam hu al soneinu, v'nilcham banu, v'alah min ha'aretz. Now notice, it doesn't say Bnei Yisrael here. It doesn't say it. It talks in third person: Hava nitchakmah lo, vayasimu alav, k'asher yanua oto. Then it says, V'yakutzu mipnei Bnei Yisrael. Why doesn't it say, V'yakutzu mipneihem? I mean, we're talking about them. We're talking about the Bnei Yisrael. Until now, we talk in third person, right? We're talking third person: oto, right? Here, v'vayasimu alav, v'kasher yanua oto. So the end of that pasuk should say, V'yakutzu mipneihem. We know who we're talking about. The answer, rabotai, is V'yakutzu was mipnei Bnei Yisrael. What do I mean? If you take a look, Vayomer el amo, Hinei am Bnei Yisrael rav v'atzum mimenu. What is am bnei Yisrael? Either it's am Yisrael or bnei Yisrael. What's am bnei Yisrael? What does that mean? Hinei am bnei Yisrael. If you would write, what would you write, or am Yisrael or bnei Yisrael? Ma zeh am bnei Yisrael? Beautiful diyuk. Either you write, ויאמר אל עמו, hinei am Yisrael, or, hinei bnei Yisrael. Ma zeh am bnei Yisrael? You know what the answer is? Bnei Yisrael is the achvah between them. Bnei Yisrael is the pshat that they're all the children of one father. They couldn't stand the nation, which was bnei Yisrael. The hate, the problem for them was that it was an am. You hear, Moshe, here? It was am bnei Yisrael. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's why the Torah writes, ויקוצו מפני בני ישראל. The Torah is telling us what was the hatred: the fact that they were together, the fact that they were called bnei Yisrael. That's the problem. You want to know? That's what bothers all the goyim throughout the generations. What is the Jew? Why do they so hate the Jew? What? What bothers you? I sit in my shul. The opposite, I don't bother you. You should be more happy. And the answer is, when they see that Klal Yisrael is together, they can't take it. There's a certain hatred to Klal Yisrael when they are mechubar, when they are connected, when they carry the name Bnei Yisrael. So the hatred wasn't Am Yisrael. The hatred was the am which goes as Bnei Yisrael. Bnei Yisrael is the description, not the name. See? That's what you should write here. Am, Bnei Yisrael is not the name. Am, Bnei Yisrael is the description of the am. It's an am which is Bnei Yisrael. You understand? Amalek says the Torah, what did they hate? They hated the Bnei Yisrael amongst this am. They hated the fact that they are like brothers coming from one father. That's what they couldn't stand. This Paro was hava nitchakma lo. He tried to get into that. He tried to outsmart it. Pen tikrena milchamah v'nosaf gam hu al soneinu, because it's a complete nation. Do you know, I see it today. It's very interesting. They have to go to war, right? They want to go to war in Iraq, right? What happens? There's 50,000, they ought, they should go, they shouldn't go, they will go, they can't go, they have to go, right?

לא יכולים לבוא לשווה אחת, one decision, right? We should go, we shouldn't go. He's wrong, he's right, we'll stand, we'll sit. When you want to have pentacle, animal, chama, v'nosaf gam hu, the biggest problem is when you have one nation which speaks bachdut. This is Paro's fear. Paro's fear is, Am, when it acts as Bnei Yisrael. So the havanit chachma, to outsmart it, was to outsmart it in the Bnei Yisrael. So he takes the nogshim, he takes those that are supposed to police, makes them, makes them the police to run after the Bnei Yisrael and cause pirud, to cause pirud. With this, I think we can explain also another interesting thing. The meyaldot were supposed to kill the babies. The mefarshim have many questions on this concept, on this idea of Paro, that the meyaldot should kill the babies. First of all, well, the... first of all, why didn't he kill it himself? Why didn't he kill the babies himself? It's so simple. He's the king, right? When he needed babies to kill for his birth, did he send other people to do it? He did it himself. He sent his guards, his SS troops, and they did it themselves. Why over here does he do it through the meyaldot? Why does he do it through the meyaldot? This question, Moshe, here, Moshe will come, come to the table. Listen, this is very... I'll make a deal with you, ready? If you don't enjoy the shiur, I'll give you a hundred dollars. If you enjoy the shiur, you just give me the hundred dollars. That itself is a hundred dollars. Sit down, come. I guarantee you, rabosai, at the end of the shiur you'll say, Now I understand the parsha of Shemot. Now I understand the story of Mitzrayim. Now I understand how the ditchachma that Paro tried to outsmart the Jews and how it didn't work, and how and why it didn't work. Here Moshe was trying to explain that the problem in the eyes of the Mitzriyim was, Am Bnei Yisrael. Lo Am Yisrael, lo Bnei Yisrael, because then you would say that's the name of the people. It's am. That's the nation, that they act. It's a description of them, not their name. They act as Bnei Yisrael. So therefore, Vayenatzu Miknei Bnei Yisrael. That's why the Torah writes clearly what bothered them. It bothered them the Bnei Yisrael. So all their tricks to outsmart the Jewish people, to make them suffer, was in this area: to make the pirud, to make them suffer from within, that the community, that the achvah, should disintegrate and then meila they'll fall apart by themselves. Miyaldot, rabosai. Why does he need miyaldot? And he has to come to them and they give him tirutzim that, you know, could you imagine coming giving your teretz to a king, I couldn't kill them, you know why? Kemo chayot heinah. They're like chayot. That's what he says. Says Rashi, chazal, like animals. An animal, you can't go and deliver a baby from an animal; it happens by itself. So it's over here too. It happens by itself. You think Pari was stupid? You think Pari was— I mean, let's think. Pari was the greatest king of the world, right? He was king of the greatest empire at that tekufah. All the chochmah came from Mitzrayim. So you're gonna think that he was so stupid to buy their excuse? Does that make sense to you? I'm sorry. We're just standing and watching as the babies give birth by themselves. What are you talking about? Another king would say, You know what? I see right with you. I have nothing to deal with. I'll take care of the problem myself. And why l'chatchilah does he go to them? Believe me, Pari has no problem with retzichah. If he needs to kill somebody, he'll kill. You know who asks this kashya? The Marshan Sanhedrin asks this kashya. What is he sending to me, Eldad? Marsha. Marsha asks for a kashya. Why is he relying on meyaldot haIvriot? Take care of the problem yourself. What are you talking about? You're king. Everything is in your hands. Answers the Marsha, brilliant teretz, and he says like this: Goyim are metzuvim al ha'ubrim bnei Noach. They're not allowed to do an abortion.

Chai mita. A Jew is not allowed to do it. It's not chai mita. There's no chiyuv mita. So you figure a cheshbon like this: me, if I do it, I'm gonna get punished eventually for it. You, it's not such a big issur for you. For the Jews themselves, it's not such a big issur, because it's only a lav. It's not a chiyuv mita. You do it. Pari killed the babies also. Pari killed the babies. He made a cheshbon that he must have needed for health reasons, for refuah. He needs more chiyuv mita. He needs more. Says the Maharsha, he made a simple cheshbon: why should I get my hands dirty in this inyan? Send the Jews to do it, because to them it's much less. This is a Maharsha. Famous Maharsha, that he made a halachic cheshbon. He went over to his local rabbi: Rabbi, tell me, borscht, borscht, borscht. My rabbi said it's much better for the Jews to make a borscht. So you know what? I'll send the yaldot. I'll send them the yaldot. What's the problem? Yeah. It's a very famous kasha on the Maharsha. It's a very famous kasha on the Maharsha. Ritva ... the baby's head came out already. I once gave a two-hour shiur in this neighborhood maybe eight, nine years ago, in Rabbi ... No, no, no, Shul past, huh? No, no, no, no, the corner of the block, Shainfeld. Shainfeld shul, about this kasha: how could the Maharsha come and say abortion? It's past abortion. ... the baby's head came out already. It's a long talk in halacha. That's what I'm trying to tell you. It's not simple. The real problem is, first of all, it's Rashi who says that they were Jewish. Shifra, Puah, Yocheved and Miriam. The Yalkut Shimoni in Yehoshua says clearly that they were goyim. You know who they were? All the geirot, the geyorot that we have throughout the generations were these meyaldot. And he says here, Osnas, Hogar, Hogar, Osnas, here—I'm sorry, here, yeah, yeah—Shifrah and Puah. Who's Shifrah and Puah? These were the daughters of Parah. Rochel, Ruth, Yael, all these meyaldot who didn't do this aveirah, says it's a Yalkut, a medrash. In the future became geyorot, but at the time they were Mitzriyot. And I was thinking, what's the pshat that all these became geyorot? Why? And you know what the answer could be is maybe, maybe they saw the kedushat Yisrael b'shaas the leidah. They saw. They saw father coming with the mother. By the goyim, it's not muchach. You can have women giving birth and they don't even know who the father is. There was suddenly that they saw, b'shaat haleidah, all the—it's interesting—all the women who were meyaldot ended up being geyorot. How does it be such a thing? I mean, what are the odds that every single meyaledet should end up becoming Jewish? And the answer is what? It came later. So why were they meyaldot takkeh? How did it work out that it should be that way? The Yaros because they were miyaldot. By Yiras Elokim is because they were miyaldot. They saw kedushas habayis. They saw something in the Jewish mother, father, child that they didn't see anywhere else, and the miyaldot ended up becoming what? Giyorot. So there's a problem. So we see that who were these, who were these miyaldot? They were Goyim. The whole teretz of the Maharsha is that they used the miyaldot to ivriyot because they were Jews. It's not so pashut. Rashi quotes that it was Yocheved and Miriam. The Midrashim say it was not. The Midrashim say it was the Mitzriyot. Ended up becoming giyorot later. Another question. Huh? Sheli. Who's right? What's wrong with them both being right? So machlokes. Okay, these seminar questions you have to ask me later. This is not a question for now. Now, another question. Tell me, if someone is trying to kill you, are you allowed to kill somebody else? What did you just say? Yeah, I was happy that you meant—I thought I meant that.

I got scared. If someone tells you to go kill somebody, if not I'll kill you, are you allowed to kill him? Of course not. Kashe shal, right? Yehareg v'al yaavor. Yehareg v'al yaavor. You let yourself get killed. Over here it was the same thing. Either Paro would kill the miyaldot; they were afraid they can get killed. So the question is, are you allowed to go kill somebody else? The answer is, of course not. If they had a din of Ben Noach, is there a din of yehareg v'al yaavor? This is a very deep kasha. The Prashas Derachim feels that they're mitzuvos. Even goyim are mitzuvos on yehareg v'al yaavor. The Prashas Derachim, the Prashas Derachim, the Mishneh LaMelech writes in this sugya, the miyaldot—he speaks about the sugya of the miyaldot—and he says that that's why the miyaldot didn't want to do it. The miyaldot didn't want to do it because yehareg v'al yaavor. Listen, you want to kill me, kill me. I can't kill these babies. Says the Prashas Derachim, I may be kodem Matan Torah, they had a din of Ben Noach, af al pi kein, even Ben Noach is mitzuvah on yehareg v'al yaavor. Very interesting halacha, rabosai, here, that a goy, a goy— Oh, I thought you said a idol. Idol is a little Jew; it's called an idol. Tell me his question in English. Who was idol worshippers? These midwives. Who was idol worshippers? What are you talking about? These midwives, the Shifrah and Puah. The question is, what halacha did they have? Do they have a halacha of a Jew, and it was before Matan Torah? Even if they have a halacha of a goy, says the parashas Derachim, they still were not allowed to do it. You know why? Because even the Ben Noach is mitzuveh al yehareg v'al ya'avor. In all three cardinal sins, or only this one? In all. All three. Yehareg v'al ya'avor applies to a goy as well as a Jew. Very interesting parashas Derachim. Very, very interesting. Al kol panim, he has maarech, he has raayos for it. He has raayos for it. Another famous kasha: What did Paro bechlal gain by killing the boys? What was he afraid? If he kills the boys, there won't be Am Yisrael, right? Tell me, if these women who were born, these nekeivos that are born, they would live and marry a goy, what would the child be? A Jew anyway. So his eitzah really didn't help him much. If the Moshiach shel Yisrael is supposed to be born to the Jews, he gained nothing by killing the boys. He gained nothing. And he gained anything. Famous kasha. All the mefarshim ask this kasha. What? Right. So what did he do? He went and killed the boys. You're not gaining anything. What are you gaining from it? But even preventing Jews to get married with... Yes. Huh? Exactly, exactly, exactly. Say it a little bit better. You know what I hold the whole sugya over here is? I hold there's a whole parsha to me'al something else. He wanted the Jews to kill the Jews and destroy the achdus in Klal Yisrael. That's what he wanted. Paro's cheshbon was that if he gives the miyaldot to kill the babies, you know what the next step is? A war within Klal Yisroel. He didn't care about the girls and the boys. That's what I'm trying to explain to you. The nekudah wasn't so much girls and boys. The nekudah was, Hava nischakmah lo. This is an eitzah: kill the boys, and the ultimate eitzah, the ultimate cheshbon was, like this he kills out Klal Yisroel. Why? Because within Klal Yisroel, he makes war. He makes a machlokes between Klal Yisroel. You have no idea. I'm telling you, you have no idea. People don't know the history, the demoralization of the kapos. People don't understand what it is, that the Jews were the ones who were taking other Jews to a gas chamber. The Jews were taking other Jews to a gas chamber. This was the most demoralizing thing. This is what Paro wanted. Paro didn't want that he should kill them. What does he have? Okay, he'll kill, he'll kill. He wanted even more. He wanted, he wanted that the miyaldot, the miyaldot themselves should go kill, like this, within the community, within the Am Yisroel, it should break out into a whole machlokes.

Okay, just break into ... But this, I think we can go back to answer the first kasha. I think we go back to answer the first kasha. Remember I asked you, what does it mean, Vayakem melech chadash asher lo yada et Yosef? What do you mean, lo yada et Yosef? What's there not to know? You read the history. You read that Yosef saved Mitzrayim. You know what the answer is? It doesn't mean yada et Yosef, the person Yosef, lo yada et Yosef, the historia Yosef, meaning understand the achva, the relationship between Yosef and his brothers. The way, after no matter what the brothers did to Yosef, no matter what they did to him, they sold him, they wanted to kill him, what does Yosef do? Does Yosef mifared when he sees them? Does Yosef make a pirud? The opposite. Yosef takes them, puts them together. Asher lo yada et Yosef, he didn't understand the parshat Yosef. He thought it's shayach to make a pirud in Klal Yisrael, and the answer is you can't. There's no way. There's no way to break it up. L'maaseh, l'maaseh, you want to know something very interesting? I was thinking about it. Al pi halacha, somebody does you an avlah, someone does you something bad to you, right? We have so many halachot. That you're not allowed to hate him. You're not allowed to take נקמה. When he comes to ask you mechilah, the halacha is you're mechuyiv to be mochel him. Let's say the person even died. So we have הלכות that what do you do? You come to the kever with ten people and you ask mechilah and it's finished. Who said the guy would be mochel you? Who said? Maybe the guy was so hurt and so angry that he's not mochel you. And you know what the answer is? When he's in the next world, he's mochel you. He's mochel you. Why? Because what is he not being mochel you for? Because l'maaseh he's so hurt. Those regesh of hurt, he doesn't feel over there. Ela mai? I hate you, I'm angry at you, I want you to suffer. That the Jew doesn't have anyway. Why is a person not mochel another person? A person not mochel another person, he was so hurt that I can't come to be mochel. Or I'm not mochel you is because I want you to get punished. The Jew doesn't have that. The Jew never mefaret from another Jew to the extent that I want you to get punished, I want you to get hurt. As a matter of fact, this is also halacha. It's also halacha. Halacha is, rabosai, that asur, it's asur to bring a din al chavercha min hashamayim, which means, Hashem punish that person, and I'll do that. Someone does the worst things for you, you're not allowed to say, Hashem, You punish him. Moser din laShamayim. The Gemara says, kol hamoser din al Shamayim, the Ribono Shel Olam takes out His files and says, Oh, I could find stuff that we could punish you for also. You're not allowed to do that. You're not allowed to be moser din. You know why? Because no matter what somebody else does to you, you could be hurt. You could feel angry. So the goy has a shita: you can't feel hurt, you can't feel angry. Turn the other cheek. That's the goy's shita. This is his holiday. So we'll say Torah b'shmo. Listen to the Torah that this fool said. Listen to a Torah that he gave you. If someone smacks you, turn the other cheek. Now tell me something. The trillions of people that they killed over the years, that's called turning the other cheek? You want to explain to me what the— I just want to know. I mean, the Spanish Inquisition was turning the other cheek? I don't know. He says, No? Good question. Supposed to turn the other cheek, right? You know what the answer is? Because that's hevel havalim. It's stupidity. It's baloney. I was telling you today, you know what's a davar nifla? Davar nifla. Like I said, today is the holiday celebrating his life. I'd rather celebrate his death. Hashem, mechayim to his death. Pope, you listen a few minutes. Maybe he said— maybe he said other chalakim of drashah, but the chalakim that I heard on the radio, a child could have said. A baby could have said the same thing. What are you talking about?

Peace and peace and more peace and peace and this and peace. Maybe he wants a piece of cake. Maybe that's what he wants. Maybe he wants a piece of the pie. No, I mean, what's peace? What are you talking about? ... What are you talking about? No, I'm just thinking to myself, what are you talking about? What, you have a solution? You have an eitzah? He has a message of peace. So guess what? For kindergarten kids, in nursery, you could say the same thing: I want peace. Okay, good. Okay, now what? No, I'm just thinking. This is all nonsense. There's no such a thing as turn the other cheek. If somebody does something wrong to you, you have to stand up to him. What are you talking about? Otherwise you can't live in this world. What's the gevurah and the koach of peace in Klal Yisrael? Mechilah. That after the sakanah is over, after he can't hurt me anymore, then I make up with him. See? While he's able to hurt me, what are you talking about? Mazel peace? Let's turn the other cheek. And you see what the turn the other cheek—Dor e dor, they were killing people with turning the other cheek. One also, maybe they shouldn't turn the other cheek. Maybe they kill less people. I don't know. It'd be better. Or maybe that's what it means: turn the other cheek, so he can smack you on the other side, you can smack him back, maybe. Maybe that's what it is. This, you know what the koach of mechilah in Klal Yisrael is? After the sakanah is over, after the problem that he could cause you is finished, oh, then. Then, the moichel. Halacha is, lashon hara is asur. Litoeles, sometimes it's mutar. Sometimes when you have to stand up to somebody, you have to stand up to him. Toelet. Once it's not a toelet, then starts mechilah. What is mechilah? Guaranteed that another person will be mochel. Do you know the first tefillah that we say on Yom Kippur? We say that each one—I don't know, tefillah zakah, maybe you don't say tefillah zakah. In Tefillah Zakah, you know what the whole thing is based on? Whoever did me bad, I'm mochel. In Klal Yisrael, the concept of forever fighting doesn't exist. Forever fighting—that they fight forever that year, but it's not forever fighting. You walk into the knesset, you'll see what it means, forever fighting. Ravim—it's a constant state of fight, but they're not fighting; they love each other. One has nothing to do with the other. Like I always say, Buchari and Lubav. What's the Buchari and Lubav? But they love each other. They love each other. What? This, rabosai, this, rabosai, is mechilah, the koach of mechilah in Klal Yisrael. I want to give you a nice story. You're leaving for good? You're leaving for good? I'm trying to explain to you, asher lo yada et Yosef does not mean lo yada, ben adam shekorim oto Yosef. It doesn't mean that they didn't know the person named Yosef, and it doesn't mean they don't know the history that Yosef did for Mitzrayim. Asher lo yada et Yosef—they didn't read parshas, the story of Yosef properly. They didn't understand. They weren't omed on the story of Yosef, because what is the story of Yosef? That no matter what, a brother is a brother. Pili ploy. After everything that they did to him, another person would have taken and thrown them from one side of Mitzrayim to the other, I mean mamish complete annihilation. They would have complete destroyed the other party. No, Yosef takes them, he's mekarev אותם, and he tells them, I'm not angry at you. Pili ploy. So they didn't understand this lesson, so they tried Haman hitchakma to rule the achavav Klal Yisroel by taking the miyaldot and making them kill their own babies, by taking the nokshim and making them hurt the Jewish people. They didn't come up with the right amount of teven. Little did they realize that the miyaldot are going to do it, and not the nokshim are going to do it, because that's not what Jewish people do. Jewish people, ma shelo yihyeh, ma shelo yikreh, come together, come together. At the end of the day, we come together. It's not l'olam me'ad, l'netzach nitzachim. I'll tell you a beautiful story. People who come to the shiurim hear a lot of stories about my grandfather. My grandfather was an ish...

Tzadik b'midos tovos. He was a very good person. He loved Klal Yisrael, tremendous ahavas Yisrael, tremendous. Almost never did he have a vikuach with another person. I once went into Bigelais in the sfarim store, and he remembers my grandfather, because my grandfather used to come. Obviously it's a machlat mishpachti, and we all run after sefarim. So not only did my father go to Bigelais, and my grandfather. As a matter of fact, my Shem Mishmuel that I have at home, I realized recently it has the letters E-L in it. Bigelais makes the prices of the sefarim according to the letters of his wife's name. Like the fourth letter of his wife is, let's say, E, for example, okay? So if you want to know 42, E, and the second letter would be, let's say, C, okay? So E-C is 42. That's how he has his siman. So I open up the Meshem Mishmuel, guess what I find? E-L, which means my grandfather. Maaseh avot siman l'banim. Used to go to Bigelais and buy sefarim day and night. I feel a little bit refreshed here. As I walk into Bigelais, and all of a sudden he starts telling me about my grandfather. So I tell him, Tell me, what was the biggest maalah that you found in my grandfather? You know what he said to me? It was impossible to fight with him. Couldn't fight with him. You couldn't have a machlokes with this person. This person was not a person who you could have a machlokes with. Let me tell you. How far it goes. Like I said to you, my grandfather didn't fight with people. But there was one person, one person in the neighborhood in Queens, that was really not proper, didn't behave properly, didn't behave properly. And I remember at the time, I was a young boy, I remember my grandfather was shocked from it. He was shocked. He never did anything wrong to this person. Oh, they were all bringing out the coats. He couldn't understand, what happened? How did this person— He never fought with anybody in his life. This person spoke very not nicely to him. Very bad story. One day, one day, my father walks into the house, and my grandfather tells him, Please bring the car because we have to go to menachem avel somebody. So my father said to my grandfather, Who? Who? He says, What do you mean, who? You know who. We have to go be menachem avel this and this person. His father died. So my father says, Him? Do you remember what happened like two, three months ago, the way he hurt you and everything? It was terrible. So he said to him an unbelievable yesod. He said to him, There's a time to fight, and there's a time that a Jew puts all fights away. You don't make cheshbonot like this. Not a time to make cheshbon, he did to me, didn't do. You come and you're menachem avel. My father told me that nobody ever hurt my grandfather like this person. And he was mitkaber, and he came. He walked into the house. He walked into the house. This person was shocked. Couldn't believe that my grandfather... He became the chazzan in the beit knesset. He came to pray. He was the gabbai, and he was mamash lo zaz yado miyad hasabba from that time. He said, the person could do that, person could do that. As a matter of fact, by his levayah, this person passed away about two years ago, his son said over that the kesher—he didn't mention the story—he said the kesher that became over later on in life between my grandfather and him was so strong that he would say all the time, this person would say, that he doesn't understand how Chasabba should להיות haMashiach. Chazeh kavod v'rachah yalo. Why? Because he was able to come to him after everything that happened. Not a time for machlokes. There's a time when, and there's a time when not. This Paro didn't understand. Paro didn't understand that by a Jew, all right, maybe we fight a little bit here, we fight, but at the end of the day, you know, make a cheshbon.

We never have milchemet achim. It's unbelievable thing. We fight and we fight and we fight. It never turns into milchemet achim. It never turns. There was never a civil war. But at the end of the day, if one Jew falls on the floor, the other Jew is not going to come to save him. Give you another story. Tell you a story just to show you an example. I was having my third or fourth baby. I was Mount Sinai—it wasn't Mount Sinai, it's NYU, NYU, okay? So we were through the night having the baby. So, listen carefully. So I'm sitting in NYU. Through the night, the next morning, of course, I'm the shamash and mother-in-law. She was hungry and she wanted coffee, and I became the, you know—okay, what could you do? That's the way it works, especially in Ashkenazi house. Okay, kids, I come and I start looking for a bakery. Bakery, a bakery. So right next door—I mean, all the Jewish women give birth over there, so it's Kemat a Jewish hospital, NYU—so they have a kosher bakery almost next door to the hospital. Walk in there. Don't forget, I had a baby, and it was all night. All of a sudden an old lady comes over to me and says to me, Did you hear what happened? ... I don't know what happened. I don't know. Tell me, you didn't hear what happened? What are you talking about? I have no idea what you're talking about. I thought maybe there was a milchamah, maybe something happened there. I don't know. ... I don't know what happened. She says, You'll know what happened with bubbes, with bubbes. I thought maybe the bubbe Rebbe passed away. I don't know what you're talking about. I started telling him I didn't hear, because I was all night in the hospital. I was all night in the hospital. And because of that, maybe I didn't catch on the news. I said, But what happened? He says to me, They caught two baalei chasidim that were stealing in drugs. And they caught them, and they took them, and... What? I mean, so I saw already who we have to deal with. I saw already that you're talking about a person that's trying to show, you know, how religious. I said, Let me tell you something. And the truth is, I could have said the wrong thing at this time. MaHashem maaneh lashon, adam ma'achein... the right thing came out of my mouth. Because, don't forget, I was tired. If I had a chance to think, I'd usually say the right thing. If I have a chazakah that I say the right thing, especially when you come to the shiur, you know, I usually say the right thing. But when I'm tired, meicha teisa? So let me tell you what came out of my mouth. I said, You know something? If you fell to the floor, fainted or you passed out, first people to run to help you would be these baalei chasidim. Don't talk about them. First people, to even blink an eye with you. If this happened, they'd run, everybody. You go further. The only people that would come to your rescue is these baalei chasidim. Don't talk about them. I got him. I got him. I saw I got him. What's the pshat? We could fight to him today till tomorrow. When you need ezrah, I'm there for you. When you need the help, I'll be there for you. This is what Pari didn't understand. Pari thought that, Mi ya'akov will kill the babies. Listen, it's a... Who could withstand such pressure? And you know what the answer is? A Mialedes wouldn't do it. If I have to go, I have to go. That's what happens. I'm not going to kill the other one. If it's the midwives that have to take the teven, the midwives, I'm not going to fight with this, and they'll take the beating from Mitzrayim and not be menadesh et haYehudiah. I'm not going to do it. Pari tried. Havanitchakma. He tried this. It didn't work. It didn't work. But this, I think we can explain another nekudah. What was Moshe Rabbeinu? What was Moshe Rabbeinu? Another few more minutes, another few. What was Moshe Rabbeinu? We see on one hand, Pari's tachsis milchamah, so to speak, was to go and destroy the achav of Klal Yisrael. What was Moshe Rabbeinu? So if we take a look, we have two stories about Moshe Rabbeinu in the Torah, besides that he's married and that he runs after a sheep, we have two stories. What are the two stories? Vayar, vayeitze el echav, that he's in where? He's in the Pari's house.

He sees and he goes out, Elachav. Vayar b'sivlotam. Says Rashi, Vayar, natan eino v'libo lihyot meitzar aleihem. He thought about it. Look at the Jews, they're suffering. I'll go out to them. You know, Paro, Moshe didn't have to do this. Moshe could have sat in the kingdom. He's here, a prince. And not only that, he could have made a cheshbon. You know something? It would be better off if I'm peaceful with Paro. Like this I could be mishtadel. No. What would another person make a cheshbon? Let me stay inside the palace, and from within, from within, I'll be able to do more. Like Esther. Vayar vayeitzei el echav. No, no, no. He makes a different cheshbon. I go out. I go out to look. And he sees ish Mitzri makeh ish Ivri me'echav, and what does he do? Vayach es haMitzri. What was he doing? What was he doing? And the answer was, he was being moser nefesh for another Jew. He was moser nefesh for the achav of Klal Yisrael. Next story. The next story is, he sees shnei anashim nitzim. Two people are fighting. What happens? Vayomer larasha, lamah takeh re'echa? These are the two stories that we know about Moshe Rabbeinu. Why? Because that was the koach of Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu was all about Am Yisrael. It was all about Am Bnei Yisrael. So he doesn't make cheshbonot, me, and then we'll see how it's good for the Jews also. First I go for the— I don't think about me. Make cheshbon. Make your cheshbon. What do you think? Vayach es haMitzri. He killed the Mitzri. It's so true. He looked here and he looked there and he didn't see. He didn't see that any Mitzri was around, right? An old person doesn't take a chance. Would you, would you go do something illegal in an alley without them? You would say to yourself, maybe, maybe someone is looking. Maybe they have a camera somewhere. Today everything has a camera somewhere, right? What's the answer? He didn't make these cheshbonot. He didn't think about himself. He saw the other person's matzav, I have to go help. He's hitting, he's hitting my brother. He's hitting my, my am bnei Yisrael. The first reaction is, I stop him. And then I think. And then I make cheshbonot. I'll tell you a nice story. I'll tell you a nice story. Two, three years ago, when my grandmother passed away, so the Gedolim put out a kol koreh that people should be mechazek in shmirat halashon, l'ilui nishmat my grandfather and his rebbetzin. Why? Because since they were so, let's say, themselves in shmirat halashon, so l'ilui nishmatam, in their memory, to learn from them, we're going to be mechazek in the area of shmirat halashon, especially at the time there was a problem with the Eruv in Boro Park. So there was a lot of machloket. There was a lot of lashon hara and fighting, you know, bickering over the eruv, no eruv, not eruv, you're kosher, you're treif, you're goy, you're not a goy, you're a Jew, okay, you know, the other way works, okay. So they put this letter out, and in the letter, everybody writes shachim about grandfather, about his wife, all those that were here, מסתמא saw the letter, most of you saw the letter, okay. One of the Gedolim on that letter, who is alive today, his name is Rav Paller, Reb Binyamin Paller. He was a talmid of the Brisker Rav. He lived in Shanghai with the rest of the Jews during the war. In Brisk. You're very careful before you sign something. You have to sign something, it has to be that it's so important, then you have to read it over twenty times. They have this thing, the hirut on signing a document, a kol koreh, yeah? Why? It makes sense why, because, you know, the kol koreh becomes... Remember we once had a kol koreh over here that you're not allowed to wear wigs. Remember that kol koreh? I don't believe any of the Gedolim on that letter signed. I don't believe it. People sign, yeah. Tell you even how far it goes. The whole issue about paysaks. They had a whole list of rabbanim, Gedolim, right? ... supposed to paysaks. So the first signature was Rav Moshe Feinstein. So I went over to Reb Reuven's son and I asked him, 'Is it true that your father signed on this?' It doesn't sound like the Rosh Yeshiva's that signed to sign on this, because he always held the shita, tamim tihyeh im Hashem Elokecha, and you leave it up to Hashem. We're not supposed to outsmart Hashem. Hashem feels that, okay, I'm not discussing the issue itself, because it's a halachic issue and I don't want to get into it. But I went over and I asked him, 'Did the Rosh Yeshiva sign it?' You know what he told me? He never signed. It's not true. No, not true. They took his signature and they put it down. And all the other rabbanim...

You know why they signed it? Because Rav Moshe signed it. I heard this. Why am I telling you this? Understand that before you sign a piece of paper, read it well. Make sure you know the person who's bringing you this piece of document to sign. Make sure he's not going to use it for something else. You got to be careful when you sign it. This is a Brisker policy, and Rav Paller would never sign on anything. But they wanted this kol koreh to go out, so the Rosh Yeshiva told me to go to Rav Paller. Why? Paller was together with my grandfather, Shanghai, old school, old generation. So I told him, but he doesn't sign on anything. He says, Yeah, but you could try. Try. You have nothing to lose. And I thought it's a lost cause, a lost cause, it's anything. Matter of fact, I once asked him for two other things, something for the... I once asked for the yeshiva, and he said, No, you couldn't get him to sign anything. So I figured, you know what? I told my wife, Give me five minutes on a Motzaei Shabbat. I'll go, I'll be back in five minutes, and it'll be the end of the story, right? Back in five minutes, I said, Give me five. I really thought five minutes. So I called up his rebbetzin. His rebbetzin asked me first who I am, because, you know, that's part of... be careful, you have to know first who you are. So I told my name. Oh, I was able to get in. Okay, what do I want? So I start telling her what I want. So she, No, no, I remember—excuse me. She asked me what I want, and I was careful not to say. I remember I was careful not to say, because I knew if I start saying about signing letters, she'll tell me that he's not available, right? So I figured, let me not say that. What do you want? I came to speak to him about something. Well, something. Okay, so come. She says to me, I'm leaving in ten minutes, though. So I said, Don't worry, it's not going to take more than five minutes. You'll throw me out in five minutes. I don't start this conversation like this. I made the appointment to come down there. She's already with the coat on, with her coat on to leave, and I know that once she leaves, it's, I can't, you know, that's it. She wants me to leave. He was very old. I walk in there, and I start talking to him and start telling him about signing. He looks at me like I'm from Mars. Signing letters, I sign letters in my life, you know, and he's always close to 90 at the time. He's looking. He doesn't know what I want. See, he tells me that I don't do these things. He tells me, I don't. You know, I never sign letters, papers. I mean, I come from Brisker din, from, you know, and I saw by my rebbe we don't do these things. So I give him the letter. He looks at it, two seconds, starts, he gives it back to me. He says to me, How did you expect me to sign this? His wife, who heard me talking, said, maybe the Rosh Yeshiva should understand that it's supposed to be a commemoration in the zechus of the Rav and the Rebbetzin, my grandfather, and the tremendous chesedim. When he heard that, he said, Give me a pen. Give me a pen, he says, and he signed it right there in front of me. Look at that. Look what happened. He caught on my cheshbon. What changed in the middle? He says, When you were talking about Kokore lashon hara, I don't find Kokore lashon hara. You start telling me that it's a commemoration of the tzidkut of your grandfather. Let me tell you something about your grandfather. When we needed favors in Shanghai, when we came over to him, he didn't start asking us what, when, who. First he told us yes. And then he started asking, What can we do for you? First it was yes. Then he started making cheshbonos. Yes, what is? Can I help you? Same thing, I'll do the same. To pay back hakarat hatov, I say yes, I sign, here. Now, okay, you want me to read? I'll read the rest of it. See what it is. I have no problem. Unbelievable story. Unbelievable story. Yeah? Too cold? Too cold for you? So come, come on this side. Hashem should act first and think later. If he had to make a cheshbon if it was kedai for him to do all this, any other person would have made a cheshbon, it's not kedai. Let me stay in the malchut and let me work with him. First you do. You see a Jew in a matzav of tzarah, you do. Then you start thinking, okay, let's see. First you do. This was the koach of Moshe Rabbeinu. Vayar vayeit el echav, vayar b'sivlotam, vayach et haMitzri. He sees two people fighting, Rasha, lamah takeh re'echa? What'd you have to do? The end of the story was you had to run away. Yeah, but that's later. Now, I do this. This is what I have to do. Rabotai, if you pay attention carefully to the...

Parshah, you'll see it's even deeper than this also. Moshe Rabbeinu is born. What happens? They try to save him. Yocheved, she hid him for three months, it says in Chazal. Yocheved, it says that she saw that she can't hide him anymore. So what does she do? She takes a box and puts him into the river. Can I ask you a kasha? What'd she gain from that? What was she thinking was supposed to happen? You know, you ever see Alaska, they have all those crocodiles over there? The nilus. It's full of crocodiles. Imagine putting a baby inside the nilus. What did you think was supposed to happen? So what'd you gain from it? What did Yocheved gain by putting him into the ocean? You know, you want to save your baby, throw him into the ocean. What were the chances that he would live? It was killing him. What about the animals? What about dying from hunger? Nine months. What do you mean? Let's start again. What nine months? They were searching, they were looking for him. It says, lo yachlah tzpinoi, she couldn't hide him. That's right. Because they're gonna come. The Midrash says he was born premature. So what? So they're supposed to come at nine months when she's supposed to be... Okay, so what now? Right. So good, so what's the eitzah of putting him into the ocean? Why are they gonna come? Can I ask you a question? If you take a child and put him in the ocean, that's a better chance of him living? And who's gonna take him? A Mitzri will kill him. What's your mayla? I don't know what the mayla is. Yeah? Right. Right, so. Even why is the mother, why is the mother? He's mechaven to the shiur. Listen carefully. So the Ramban gives a teretz to this kasha. The Ramban seems to be bothered by this kasha. The Ramban says she was batuach that a miracle would happen to him. She was somech a miracle would happen to him. Don't forget, when he was born, the whole house lit up. So she understood that this was a special baby. So she was batuach that a miracle would happen. So I don't understand something. So if you're batuach that a miracle will happen, so why do this? Really? Again, but if you're somech on the miracle already, so it's not a shaila anymore. She didn't know what's going to happen, maybe. It's a simple question. If, if you were anyway being relying on the fact that he's Moshiach Yisrael, Hashem will make a miracle, so then don't throw him into the ocean. You know what's going to happen? They'll come to the house and they'll... Here, in Nazi Europe, how many times they came to the houses, they're searching the people, and they forgot to look in a certain cubby. Don't take your baby, throw him into the ocean. What are you talking about? You're being somech on a nes, so keep him at home. And I'll tell you the question's even better. The question's even better. Do you think that Moshe was the only baby that was saved? All of the Jewish kids were saved. You know how they were saved? They went to the fields, Chazal say. They had the babies in the field. Then the floor would swallow them up, and Hashem would feed them. And then when they came out of Mitzrayim, it says, Zeh Keili v'anvehu, they pointed with the finger that we already met Hashem years ago when He fed us honey and apples, right? Honey and apples. And look. So then why doesn't your cheved do the same thing? Why does your cheved come and take the baby and put him into the ocean, let it go into the field like all other Jewish women, let the ground swallow him up? Everything has made. Instead of answering maybe, think. Instead of saying maybe. What's wrong if you hear the question and think, and then say a teretz tomorrow? Why does it have to be, I don't hear the whole question fully, I don't think of the teretz, and I blurt out of my mouth maybe. What's wrong with that? No? It's a good kash. What's my question? The question is like this. The same way we could come and say, I didn't hear the question completely. I didn't think at all of the answer. I blurt out maybe, and Rabbi Walker will scream at me, or I can have a second option. I'll hear the question completely. I'll think about the question, because the מסתמא Rabbi Walker is asking you, and believe me, he thought about it for a long time. And tomorrow I'll give you an answer.

Then he'll be happy. I'll give you a kiss on the forehead. Maybe that's what you don't want. Maybe that's what you're scared of. No, you'll be here. Don't worry about it. Me and you are connected. Don't worry. We have a connection that no matter how far you run, I'll always be there. Yeah, what? Yes! I know, I know the answer that he said. That's why I'm saying. Why do you think I'm saying it? Because I'm trying to get to the answer. I'm trying to get there. So let me tell you what the answer might be. The answer might be like this. If you look at the Gemara Sotah, the Gemara Sotah says, Rabosai, that when she put mayim into the water, the astrologers stopped seeing you, story of Moshe Rabbeinu. Where did the whole thing come from? Because the astrologers saw that when she shall Yisrael will come out, and he'll have a problem with the water. So by her putting it in the water, that already took care of the astrologers. Rabosai, I believe that's why Yocheved did it. Yocheved did it. She was moser nefesh for the other kids of Klal Yisrael. She said, she made a cheshbon like this: even though I have the Moshiach shel Yisrael in my hands, what do I do with the other children that are dying because of this? I'll put my baby in the water, stop the gezeirah, save nefesh for Klal Yisrael. This is the pshat in the birth of Moshe Rabbeinu. We talk about the birth of Jesus, yimach shemo vezichro, right? What was the birth of Jesus? It was about nothing. It was about znut. That's all it was about. It was about znut. We celebrate—not celebrate, we commemorate—the birth of Moshe Rabbeinu because there was so much mesiras nefesh for another person in the birth. A mother is able to take her child and put him in the ocean, relying on a miracle. Thinking to herself, what do I do with the other children that are dying? I'm ready to give up my child in such a manner? You'll ask me later. I'm ready to give up my child in such a manner to save the rest of Klal Yisrael, the gezeirah. Now, rabosai, I want to show you one step more. You'll ask me in a few minutes. You'll ask me in a few— I want to finish. I want another few minutes. You ask me, you ask me a few minutes. Think of it like this. You know Moshe Rabbeinu, people don't know that his real name was not Moshe. Who here knows—this I'll answer—who here knows what Moshe Rabbeinu's real name was? They have a beis medrash named after him down the block here somewhere. Yitro had seven names. Moshe had also seven names? Okay, I only know one medrash. One medrash says like this: R' Meir omer, his name was Tov. Tov. Why? Because Vayar... she saw that it was light, and she saw tov. It says in the pasuk, tov. Ki tov hu. So the mother gave what name? Mother gave the name Tov. That was the name, Tov. So actually, the beis knesses that's called Tov is really called Torah Shebichtav. It's the real—it's really Moshe. Tov is named after Moshe. Now, another name says the medrash, it's a machlokes between R' Meir and R' Yehuda. R' Yehuda says Tuvya, his name was Tuvya. Moshe's real name was Tuvya. Maybe it was a Ashkenazi—Tov would be Sefardi, Tuvya would be Ashkenazi maybe. All right, we can play with that, you know. Sefardim would be called Tov, and Ashkenazim would be called Tuvya. Huh? Tuvya. Tet. Tuvya. Tov and Tuvya. Need, I need a... Okay, a little... No problem. Good. Okay. L'maaseh, who calls him Moshe? Who calls him Moshe? I see our oilam is getting more and more excited. The more excited the oilam gets, the more I'm starting to get nervous that I have to finish. Now listen carefully, yeah? Why the name that Bas Pari gave? Why not the name the mother gave? Says the Siforno. Says the Siforno like this. She called him... Bat Pari calls him Moshe. Says the Siforno. Go ahead, Nu. Vatikra shemo Moshe. Look at the Siforno. Peladik. Vatikra shemo Moshe, mimalet hushe mitzarah. Batomer, ki min hamayim meshitihu. Why did I call him Moshe? Lehorot sheyamalet es acherim. He'll save others. Moshe is called Moshe because he'll save others from water. Where did Moshe save others from water? Yam Suf. In Yam Suf, he also took the Jews out of the water.

Ki amnam beshitihu min hamayim, ach sheaya mutal betocham, v'ze lo haya ki im bigzerat irin. This was the gezeirat of Hashem, irin, the one who stands above. K'dei sheyemale et hachem. I saw the Malbim explains the Seforno as follows. He doesn't bring the Seforno, but he explains it, and this is what he means. What does the Seforno mean? Says the Malbim, pirush פלא. The hashgacha wanted he should be called Moshe. A name of a person takes on what the characteristics of the person will be. The Gemara is always doresh, the Gemara is always doresh, the name of a person, his middot, who he was. Many Gemaras, many Gemaras like this. Matul, matul. The Gemara speaks about many places. Melamed sheshma kegarin. The name of a person has an effect on who the person will be. That's why we like to name after tzaddikim. Why do we name after tzaddikim? We hope that this name that was good, so to speak, for this tzaddik and brought out his life of a tzaddik, will bring out the same lifestyle and the same tzidkut and hanahagot in this child. Moshe's name was ki min hamayim meshitihu. This was already mutba in his mahut, sheyemale et hachem, that he'll save others. This was min hashamayim. Maybe she didn't know it, but Hashem made hashgacha that way. That's why HaKadosh Baruch Hu took the name, the name. I once heard an interesting story. There was somebody here in the neighborhood. A big talmud chacham, a lawyer. Many of the people here know the child of this person, so I'd rather not say any names, because maybe it's a private issue here. But the lesson of the story is unbelievable. He got sick with sartan, lo aleinu, Hashem yishmor. That's it. Sartan. He had cancer. So he had a very, very good friend who happens to be alive, he lives in the neighborhood, went to visit him, and he told him like this. It's an unbelievable thing. You're going through this thing. You're going through this thing. Why does Hashem want you to go through this thing? The answer may be that if you ever pull out of it, be'ezras Hashem, you should be able to help others cope and deal with the same matzav. This is what he told him. The end of the story was the person didn't live too much longer after that. That was the end of the story. But from the person who told him this nekudah, I learned a big lesson. It's very possible we go through matzavim in life so we can help others who go through the same matzav. Moshe went through the matzav of ki min hamayim mishisihu. The name throughout his life, and the name that he carried with him reminded him of his min hamayim mishisihu, that he should always help, min hamayim mishisihu, to help others in a matzav of tzarah. Bat Paro took you out of the water. Bat Paro saved you, now go save others. Many times we have an expression: Hashem saved you, now go save others. Hashem helped you, now go help others. Hashem sometimes gives a matzav to a person, and the name Moshe was to remind him, don't forget, you were also ki min hamayim meshisihu. Go help others. My father, shlita, always used to say, when the Bucharian Jews came to the neighborhood, we were the first ones to take you in. I don't know if you know that. The first, the first beit knesset. Eight—what was the name? What was that family of brothers? Maximo. The first to come off the boat was Maximo. Eight brothers. They didn't even know where to put them. Where were we going to put them? Which beit knesset were we going to plant them into? So there was a person that used to work. He was our Lofsky's son-in-law. Oh, what was his name again? He used to work in Kiruv. He called up my father and said, Listen, I have here a family of eight brothers, and they have children and grandchildren already, some of them. What do we do with these? Where do we plant them? Where do we put them in? No other synagogue will be able to accept them. My father said, What's your question? Bring them to me. Bring them to me. And that's the history. That's how we started with the Bucharian people. That's the history. People don't know. That's how we started. How did we start with the Bucharian Jews? Eight Maximo brothers. It was 1990, I think it was. 1990.

Something like 90, that's what it started. Yeah? Even remember their mother or somebody died, and the whole synagogue said Kaddish, because, you know, all the brothers. And I said that our shul is called the Chevra Kadisha. They said, Kaddish? Chevra Kadisha. The whole shul said Kaddish, the whole—yeah, the whole minyan. Everybody said Kaddish. It's called the Chevra Kadisha. Anyways, what was the point I'm trying to bring out? For years—see, now you see me, I'm able to relate to you. Our cultures were different in the beginning. Even me and you, Ephraim, we had it out. I didn't understand you, you didn't understand me. For many years— Want me to answer you? You don't want? Good, so I'll answer you. If you don't want, I'll answer you. You don't want to understand me, because if you understand me, then mechayev harbeh. You make believe you don't understand. It's like Parashah, lo yada. Atzmo ki lo yada. You know very well what I wanted. I'll tell upon it, yeah? I remember that not only we didn't understand it, klapei chutz also people didn't understand. They looked at our synagogue, Why are you bringing these people in? They're half not religious. This is what you bring into the synagogue? There was a problem. There was a problem with it, especially the stereotype outside. I'll never forget what my father used to tell me. You know what my father used to say? Forty, fifty years ago, we came off the boat from Europe. He was a stranger in a strange land. Would we have wanted that people should have treated us that way? So if Hashem gave us that we got off the boat and there were people to take us in, now it's our turn to take the people off the boat and take them in. Remember, for years my father said, today he doesn't have to say it, Baruch Hashem, it's a beautiful community, we have bachurim in yeshiva, today it's a nachas to have to deal with this community. But there was a time that it was a stigma. You know, your father always used to say this nekudah. Hey, wait a minute. When we got off the boat 50 years ago, we went through the same thing. Hashem made it that they should take us in and accept us. It's our turn to do the same. Hashem helped you, go help others with it. Moshe Rabbeinu lived his whole life with this nekudah. I was a ... and they gave him this name, that he should remember all his life, you were a ... now go help others. Go help others. With this, I want to tell you a big yesod. How could we help another person? How could we help? I don't ask you to go on the street to be moser nefesh, to go and have yourself get killed for another Jew. That would be kahanic style, to go put on a gun, go to Israel and fight on the front lines for the sake of the other Jews. I'm not asking you that. What I am asking you is, like Moshe Rabbeinu, what happens to you, give to others. Hashem was ... you here to become religious, give that to others. Give it to others. The biggest chesed you could do for somebody is help him out to be shomer religious, to have a purpose in life. You see another person in a matzav where he's depressed, where he's broken. You guys had it all when you came here, difficult situations. Help others in it. Take this matzav and use it to help other people with it. This is your contribution. This is your contribution. Sorry, where's contribution? This is your contribution. You see, with all the fact that I'm making fun, you guys are Russian, I'm American, you guys speak better English than me. This is your contribution. Believe me, I promise you, I don't care. To me it's all the same. As a matter of fact, maybe I am Russian. My father comes from Russia. Seriously, I look at myself, I'm also Russian. It says by mitzri, dor shlishi is still considered mitzri. So what makes me not? I'm also Russian. My father—I'm dor sheini Russian. I am. I'm dor sheini Russian. What am I? I'm saying, so what's the difference? Okay, now, this yesod of this requirement comes from one thing: a person who is not selfish. When a person's selfish, he takes and doesn't give back.

Selfish person takes and takes and takes. Hashem, you gave me, fine. He never gives back, because it's all about himself. The ger who came to Hillel and wanted to become a ger, teach me the Torah on one foot. What did he tell him? V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha. That's the whole Torah on one foot. You know what the answer is? Yes. Because a goy cannot understand what it means not to be selfish. He lives for himself. V'ahavta l'reacha and kamocha? Are you kidding me? But what about me? A goy cannot fathom to live for somebody else. Klal Yisrael, Torah is based on this yesod: I don't live for myself, I live for the other person. And I'm going to show you this in an example. I'm going to show it to you. I'm going to show it to you an example and why. The first thing we could say is Moshe. Why Moshe and Moshe? Today it's your shiur, it's all about Moshe. ... we call you— or maybe ... we dragged you out of the waters. We call you Moshe Chayim. Yeah. Since every day I have to come with my fishing rod and pull you out, we call you Moshe, ... Yeah, you have to go, go. Yeah, so ... listen good. The first thing I could say is a person should be ... l'kono. ... means we should be like Hashem. Mah Hu kadosh, af atah kadosh. Mah Hu rachum, af atah rachum. Hashem does not live for Himself. Ramchal explains the whole yesod of briah is Hashem wants to be metiv l'zulas. That's the whole yesod. Why did Hashem create this world? To put good in it. To put good in it. I mean, a person should earn his good in this world to get it in the next world. Hashem chafetz leman tzidko. Hashem wants to do good. Lehidamot likono tells me a person should also not live for himself, and, what, strive to do for the others. That's one way we could say. Oh, Shmiraini was much right. Oh, it was taken away from you. Baruch Hashem. Here, here you like the Brisker rav. You know, the Brisker children, they lock up their houses with five locks. I don't know if you know that. Two, three, locking, one, two. Yeah? Tell you a story about it. Once upon a time, there was a talmid in the yeshiva that was confronted by Reb Dovid Soloveitchik, and he asked him, Tell me, talmid, they say about us that we're very nervous people. What are we so nervous about? I mean, the fact that we... We're not nervous people. It's because we talk... That's not... doesn't make... Explain to us, why does everybody think we're nervous? Could you imagine what the talmid has to answer? Could you imagine if someone came to ask, a rebbe asked a talmid, Tell me why people say this about me. What are you going to tell him? He says, Rebbe, no, no, it's not... You don't know what this... What's he going to say? Ma yacholim lehagid. He tells him, No! It's a value that you must tell me. He says, he's thinking, thinking, What can I tell him? Belashon hadin, to give him to understand why we think the world thinks that the Brisker, the talmid, the Brisker children are nervous. So he gives an example. He says, Rosh Yeshiva, tell me, when you leave your house... How many times do you go back to make sure the door is locked? Do you know what he answered him? What? That's what, not one, three or four times. That's what. No, yoter mi shalosh arba pa'amim. How many locks do they have? Two, three. So he goes back to lock two, three locks four times. You know, they say over, Parshas Zachor, the Briskers, they go to many different batei knessiyot to hear Parshas Zachor. Why? They want to make sure they heard it 100% with each syllable right. So many Brisker in Eretz Yisrael spend the whole day on this. They go from beis knesset to beis knesset here, there, this one, this one says a little bit more with this havarah, this one. They're busy with this all day. So Rav David Soloveitchik once said, Lo mevino tam. ... lishmoa al Zachor. Lo yotzei mechamesh, sheva pa'amim? Chamesh, sheva pa'amim? You don't have to hear it more than four, five, six times. Sometimes you have to hear it. We think you hear it once, yotzei. By him, normal is five, six, seven times. The teretz, already guzma. The kidser, I always want to understand, when they go back to lock the door, what are they locking it from? I mean, who's gonna—what are you gonna steal exactly? Who doesn't steal? What are you gonna steal, a broken chair?

No one's going to steal what from them. You know, I have books, they don't have books. No, Brisker don't have books either. Years and years later, I understood what they were afraid of. Rav Kustman, zecher tzaddik livrachah, he was a talmid of Rav Chaim Ozer. Here, Rav Kustman, learned by a big gadol. So they put out a sefer of his recently, and in the hakdamah they write that the family put out this sefer, and they're giving kochachot megulot to those that stole all the ketavim of the Rebbe, but they're mechuyav to bring it back to the family. And it's a whole letter in the sefer, and they have it signed by gedolim: You stole all the ketavim of the Rebbe, and you're mechuyav to bring it back. So I learned a big yesod from this, that the Rebbe's sefarim, they steal. So I'm trying to tell you that the fact that they're stealing your sefarim is a good sign. The fact that they're taking your notes away while you're writing it—usually they wait till you write and put it in the cubby—but you're just stealing it as you're writing it. Zechitah. The kids are—what I'm trying to bring out is like this: why is there a inyan, why is there a inyan to be mischased? The answer is, lidamot leKono. Lidamot leKono. Od dilma, or maybe there's a bigger yesod over here, and this is what I want to tell you, al pi mussar. Think, rabotai, do we go as yechidim or do we go as an am? Ki am kadosh atah laHashem Elokecha. Hashem did not give the Torah to me, you, him, this one. The Torah was given to an am. I want to show you the significance of this. Tell me, we all know that they slept late, not only for the shiur Sunday morning or the shiur Wednesday morning, whatever. For Kabbalas HaTorah they slept. That's why I don't feel bad. You think I feel bad? If Hashem's shiur, they slept and they came late, so for my shiur I don't feel bad. I don't feel bad. Why should I be different? Why should my Torah be different than Hashem's Torah? So I don't feel bad. But they came late. They came late, right? So the question is, I don't understand. Everybody overslept? You didn't have a few people waking up in the middle of the night to make a bottle for the baby and say, You know what, let's stay up so we can wake up everybody else? How could everybody sleep late? So if you look at that Chazal, many of the talmidim of the kabbalim, they say it was ma'aseh Satan. The Satan made a tardeimah that everybody should sleep. Takah pella. They all came late to Matan Torah. All came late. How could it be that everybody weren't some people up to wake up the rest? And the answer is, no, they weren't. No, they weren't. In Kelem, they used to have a different answer. And I told the story to you many times, and then you'll understand the answer. In Kelem, in yeshiva, used to pray, as a yeshiva, if one person was missing, they'd lock the door and say, Everybody else go pray somewhere else. That's it. Why? If one person is missing, that means the yeshiva is not here. We're a yeshiva, no? We're a group. When one person is missing in the group, what do you go further? Can you imagine you go on a trip, a group, a group of people. Ah, two people are missing. All right, let's leave them, let's go further, let's move along. Or you wait to find everybody to be there, right? In Kelim they held yeshiva means a group. Matan Torah was the same thing. Of course most of them showed up to Matan Torah. What do you think, everybody overslept? How can it be such a thing? The problem was that not all of them showed up. A few people missed it. The rov was there. The mi'ut didn't come. We don't start Kabbalas HaTorah yet. It was given to a nation. Torah was given to us as a nation. The reason for this, rabosai, is peleg. We have to learn to function as a community, as a group. You know why? Because the shleimus ha'adam comes out that way. To sit in a corner and try to say Hashem, Hashem, Hashem all day, that's nothing. It's not saying nothing completely, but you don't come to be an adam hashalem that way. You have to learn to interreact with other people. We learn al tifrosh min hatzibur. Al tifrosh min hatzibur. Why? So many mefarshim say, Yehuda, it's a ga'avah. You hold you're better than the people, so you stay away. You do different because you're special. In mussar, it's a deeper meaning. You know what the meaning of al tifrosh min hatzibur is? Al tifrosh min hatzibur because the shleimus comes from the tzibur. The learning how to interreact between people, that's where the people's koach...

And middot become perfected. This, rabosai, is the chatam sofer yesod, I believe, in hakdamah to Yoreh Deah. Chanoch was taken away. Why was Chanoch taken away? V'einenu, he's not here, ki lakach oto Elokim. Hashem took him away. He disappeared. How did he disappear? Because he disappeared because he was such a tzaddik yesod olam that he disappeared. Says the Chatam Sofer, so why? Good, so let him stay here and be a tzaddik yesod olam. Why does he have to disintegrate? Why does he have to melt? Says Chatam Sofer, Hashem is not looking for malachim. Hashem doesn't need malachim. Hashem is looking for people like Avraham Avinu, a people among people. I believe the Chatam Sofer means this nekudah: the true shleimut is to interact with somebody else. Sometimes people are poresh min hatzibur because they're running away. It's much easier not to deal with people. Stay away, I have no problem. The shleimut of your middot, your kochot don't perfect, they don't come—they be'toch shleimut till it's b'toch hatzibur, b'toch hatzibur. This, rabosai, was the koach of Moshe Rabbeinu. He wasn't mitboded. He was not mitboded. He wasn't a yoshev u'mitboded. He was among the people. The chiddush is that in being among the people, he wasn't even like Aharon HaKohen. Aharon HaKohen was one step more. Aharon HaKohen was so with the people that he was ohev shalom v'rodef shalom, mamash im anashim yom yom. Moshe Rabbeinu was with the people. Chanoch was completely separated, completely. Lakach oto Elokim. Hashem is not looking for that. This, rabosai, is the koach am, the mitzvot combination. You know what the Gemara says? The Gemara says one of the kinyanei haTorah is chavruta. Chavruta? Oh, mitzvah. Why? Why? And the answer is—