Pirkei Avos 1:12: Ohev Shalom, Rodef Shalom, and the Balance Between Emes and Peace

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. ובשמאי קיבלו ממנו. הלל אומר: הוי מתלמידיו של אהרן, אוהב שלום ורודף שלום, אוהב את הבריות ומקרבן לתורה. Talmidav shel Aharon is about shalom. That's the statement in the Mishnah. What is shalom? It's a very good topic of discussion, a big sugya. What's called shalom? You know, we say every day in davening, to Rabbeinu Shel Olam, it was oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu v'al kol Yisrael. So we ask the Ribono Shel Olam, who is an oseh shalom bimromav, He makes shalom above, bimromav, above in heaven, in the Shamayim, hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu. First of all, what does bimromav mean? So there's an interesting Avudraham. The Avudraham says that the Ribono Shel Olam makes peace among the malachim, among the malachim. He says that each malach theoretically could have been mekaneh the avodah that was given to him over another malach. Why this malach gets this tafkid and why this malach gets this tafkid. Zogt the Avudraham, it's a rishon, Avudraham on the peirush ha-tefillah says, therefore the Ribono Shel Olam gave each one his avodah, his job. And he gave them names. That's why a malach has his name, Michael, Gavriel. Like this, each one is clear in his tafkid, and so becomes peace in Shamayim. This becomes the heichi timtzeh how it's oseh shalom bimromav. So the Ribono Shel Olam, who makes shalom among the malachim, we ask He should make shalom among us. Noch a sefer learns the pshat is bimromav, because Shamayim is eish u'mayim. And still, the Ribono Shel Olam puts it together. Eish u'mayim don't go together, no way. It's not a physical thing that it could be able to have eish u'mayim together, fakert, one extinguishes the other. And yet the Ribono Shel Olam is oseh shalom bimromav in Shamayim. Either pshat you learn, l'choira comes out a me'oredike insight into shalom. It's not that easy, rabosai. Shalom is nishkein pashte zach, that medavbeten the Ribono Shel Olam that makes shalom between the malachim. Avudraham's pshat, malachim, you would say, malachim, tachmamish kuloi laasos retzon haborei. And yet the Ribono Shel Olam has to make shalom between them. You see how difficult shalom must be. A malach that has no retzones. A malach that has no personal want, and yet still, oseh shalom bimromav, that the Rabbeinu Shel Olam has to go and actively make shalom among them. I've told you many times that ki ish echad b'lev echad there was achdus. Shteit in sefarim that the b'lev echad is la'asos retzoncha, and mimeila it's ki ish echad. The only way to have that there should be achdus and shalom, it needs it should be b'lev echad, that they all have the same goal, and that is la'asos retzoncha, and it's a pasuk, it's a memra, v'yaasu chulam agudah achas, la'asos retzoncha b'levav shalem. That's the only way agudah achas works. When the focal point of everyone is the same, the b'lev, la'asos retzoncha b'levav shalem, then it's agudah achas, and that's ki ish echad b'lev echad. And that's what was needed by Matan Torah, because by Matan Torah we said—

Retzoneinu is la'asos retzoncha, retzoneinu liros es Malkeinu, naaseh v'nishma. A direct result of all of Klal Yisroel saying naaseh v'nishma, then it was memeila, ish echad b'lev echad. There's a statement in all the sefarim. So the malachim who have the la'asos retzoncha, and af al pi kein, the Ribono Shel Olam has to be oseh shalom bimromav. He has to actively create shalom amongst the malachim, peli ployim. Or if you take the Chasam Sofer's pshat, things which are not possible to have shalom, eish u'mayim, it's just not possible. The Ribono Shel Olam makes shalom, and that's what we're asking the Eibishter: oseh shalom bimromav, hu yaaseh shalom aleinu, because sometimes it's almost impossible. I don't want to say it's impossible, but it's forces which cannot be put together, so we ask the Ribono Shel Olam to intervene. So either pshat in the oseh shalom bimromav, either like the Avudraham, that it means the malachim, or bimromav means eish u'mayim, shamayim. You see the difficulty in making shalom. Not easy to have shalom, to make shalom, and that we ask the Ribono Shel Olam, who creates such shalom bimromav, either by the malachim or eish u'mayim, whichever pshat you use, hu yaaseh shalom aleinu. We ask the Riboish for help. We ask for siyata dishmaya because, obviously, it's not that poshut. Sholom is one of the most difficult things to attain, to hold, to keep, and to restore once it already has left us. Daf min hobin siyata dishmaya. Oiseh sholom bimromav, hu yaaseh sholom aleinu. So the Mishnah here tells us that talmidav shel Aharon is sholom. And if you look deeper in the meforshim, the Mishnah is not just telling us that we should have sholom, but actually the Mishnah is teaching us the secret of how to have sholom, attain sholom, restore sholom. I begin with the double lashon: ohev sholom v'rodef sholom. The meforshim all ask, what's the double lashon, ohev v'rodef? Shev ohev sholom, rodef sholom. What's the double? What are the two things that the Mishnah is addressing, ohev sholom v'rodef sholom? Good vort. I once was by a cousin's bar mitzvah. His name was Sholom. My cousin Sholom Kelemer, nephew—he's a son-in-law by Reb Shmuel Kamenetsky, shlita. At his bar mitzvah, a different cousin got up and said, I knew I understand what it means, ohev sholom v'rodef sholom. Your father, he's nice to you, he's called ohev sholom. Your mother runs after you, always kasaides on top of your back, she's the rodef sholom. So together you have ohev sholom, v'rodef sholom. I see you're all laughing. The reason why I am telling you this is because obviously that's not the pshat in the Mishnah. And obviously there are two things here. There's an ehev shalom and a rodef shalom. What is the difference, and why does the Mishnah make it into two separate things? So the pashut pshat, most mefarshim learn, it's not enough just to be an ohev shalom. You have to be rodef shalom. You got to work on it. A man, she likes that everything is peaceful. Okay, he's a nice guy, fine. But sometimes it's not rodef shalom. Sometimes it's not easy. You have to be amel to be rodef l'shalom. There's an interesting, the Barbenel, and he says the word rodef, which later on we'll discuss in more detail, the word rodef has many connotations to it. The pashut, rodef means to run after. Zogt the Barbenel, you know why he uses the lashon rodef? Because sometimes, and actually not sometimes, but most of the time, it runs away. It's running from you. Shalom runs. It's not easy, and you got to run after it. He says the fact that zogt the Barbenel uses the lashon of rodef, rodef is trying to tell—

It's not staying put. Gotta run after it, because it's a slave takaveh, because I'm klei fun dir. I'm kleift, leifes nach. So this is the pashut pshat, Rabbeisai: ohev shalom, v'rodef shalom. There's an interesting Ravon. Ravon is a rishon, Rabbeisai, and he says the pshat based on a Yerushalmi: bakesh shalom v'radfeihu. So we have actually, the Mishnah is based on a pasuk, Bakesh shalom v'radfeihu. Zogt the Yerushalmi: bakesh shalom bimkomecha, radfeihu b'makom acher. Now, you have two pshatim in it. Either it means, bimkomecha, around you. Sometimes people are very happy, okay, in his inner circle. That's okay. No, the olam is not mamish his inner circle; an afgemineh, it's not his business. In another place, b'makom acher, rodef. An ohev shalom is around him, bimkomecha. A rodef shalom is b'makom acher. And soon we're going to learn it's really one that is a result of the other, because if you're an ohev shalom, you're not just happy that you're content and what's around you is ohev shalom, that it's shalom, but you're rodef shalom because you really believe in shalom, and you understand, and, im yirtzeh Hashem, in the shiur we'll discuss the importance of shalom. Therefore you're a rodef. Ohev shalom is... The basis that leads to being a rodef shalom, and we're going to discuss this based on many mefarshim in greater length in a few moments in the shiur. There's an interesting Rabbeinu Yonah. Rabbeinu Yonah says, Ohev shalom balev, rodef shalom b'maaseh. Ohev is balev, rodef is b'maaseh. A lot of what we spoke could be nichlal in this Rabbeinu Yonah, that a person could be ohev shalom, lock himself in his house. He's not getting in trouble, not getting involved, it's not his business. But rodef shalom is b'maaseh. It means you got to go and do something in order that there should be shalom. It's not just enough to be a man of peace, peaceful person, but a rodef shalom is a person who makes peace. Here, Rabbeinu ... an ohev shalom, I would say, is a peaceful person. A rodef shalom is a peacemaking person. He's rodef shalom. So the Mishnah is telling us it's not enough to be an ohev shalom, but you also need to be a rodef shalom. And the truth is, a lot of everything we spoke is nichlal in this ohev shalom of Rabbeinu Yonah. There's another pshat I'd like to share with the oilam, and that's going a little bit deeper into the Mishnah and a deeper into understanding of what it means to be an ohev shalom, and that is that you first have to be an ohev shalom in order to be a rodef shalom. And like I told you before, the Medrash Shmuel learns like this, that Oyev Shalom is the start, and Rodef is the end. Oyev Shalom is the beginning. It starts with Oyev Shalom, and the pele yeitzer is that he becomes a rodef shalom. You know, at times, people like to be the peacemaker when there's machlokes. The Mishnah is telling us a big yesod. In order to be matzliach in your endeavor of being a rodef shalom, it has to come from being an oyev shalom. I see you shaking your head. Okay. When I was a young boy, no different than today and no different than hundreds of years ago, there was machlokes between big factions and chugim in Klal Yisrael. There was a time that there was a machlokes between a big Chassidus and the Litvishe velt when I was growing up. It was in Eretz Yisrael, not in America, so try not to think it has something to do with America. It was a Chassidus in Eretz Yisrael, and they decided that they found the perfect peacemaker, the one who could bridge the gap together, as given a shtikel...

From the chassidishe, from that klug, from that cries, a klug, a mensch, a big askan. Oh, and got shayches with the Litvish Rosh Yeshiva. It was a perfect guy, and he was sent on a mission to make peace. I remember my zeides with it. It's never gonna happen. I said, why should you think negative zeide? What's the— to be an ohev shalom— I'm sorry, to be a rodef shalom, you have to be an ohev shalom, and that is not an ohev to be a rodef shalom. There are certain people who like to be peacemakers. It's not about you. If it's about you, it's not gonna work. You have to be the ohev of the shalom. You have to actually appreciate and understand the importance of shalom, and that's what the Medrash Shmuel is saying. In order that you can be a rodef shalom, to be a rodef shalom on an agenda, that you're making shalom and the people involved don't feel that it's coming from an ahavas shalom, it's not gonna work, rabosai. I would say, daf liba min shalom, nisht liba min zich. If it's about zich, it's not gonna work. As much chochmah you'll put into it. I found this in the Chiddushei Harim, rabosai. The Chiddushei Harim has a she'eilah: why would the Mishnah begin with havei mitalmidav shel Aharon? Just say a person should be an ohev shalom, v'rodef shalom. Why do I need— The whole hakdamah that you should be mitalmidav shel Aharon, what's the negeiah? Just tell us what we got to do. You got to be an ohev shalom and an rodef shalom. Says the Chidushei Harim that it's not only a lesson to be taken from Aharon, which is anyway a good vort, that Aharon was about the shalom and it wasn't about Aharon. That's true. Don't take credits, says Chidushei Harim, for being a rodef shalom, because if you have these ma'alos, it comes from the fact that one's forefathers, so to speak. Aharon already, Aharon HaKohen was matpia on Klal Yisrael the ma'alah of an ohev shalom v'rodef shalom. Don't walk around taking credits, says the Chidushei Harim. Walk around saying, Sidur Rebbe, s'nit mir. A lot of people want to be in the front page of the, or middle pages. He's the star. He made shalom. You know what you should say? Don't look at me. Aharon mitalmidav shel Aharon. This has to do with Aharon HaKohen. I'm emulating what Aharon HaKohen already was matpia on Klal Yisrael, a mahalach, a shita of being ohev shalom v'rodef shalom, tifevodcha beisai. When a person realizes that what he does, he's doing ma'aseh avos, ma'aseh yagia ma'aseh l'maaseh avosai. Aharon HaKohen, in his shalom, he brought an inyan of shalom to Klal Yisrael, and all we're doing is emulating. We're following. And what Aharon HaKohen taught us, havi mitalmidav shel Aharon. And the Chiddushei Harim is saying, don't walk around thinking, bist a greise Shalom macher. A talmid of shal Aharon. This is Aharon HaKohen. And what we're doing is following what Aharon HaKohen told us to do. I'd like to go one step further. You know, I found over the years many people, they talk about shalom all day, but if you look in their own private lives, they're very far from being shalom. Maybe their Mishnah is saying, you have to be an ohev shalom and a rodef shalom. Sometimes a person is just a rodef shalom without being an ohev shalom. He's busy darshening how everybody is full of machlokes, u'midach machlokes shalom, and he's guilty of the same thing. The Mishnah is telling us it's not enough just to be a rodef shalom, to talk about shalom and try to make shalom. Gotta be echad b'peh v'echad b'lev. It's gotta be sincere. When it's not sincere, it's not gonna work. Kents reden fun heint biz morgen until you're blue in the face about making shalom. Sincerity and understanding the importance of shalom is mashpia.

Shalom. To be a reid of shalom, you need to be an ohev shalom. It's not enough just to be a rodef shalom. Habeisai, now I want to tell you another pshat, a pamaisalach. Sometimes, shalom is a hard thing to attain, and you got to be rodef. And I asked you this in the beginning of the shiur: rodef is a very, very harsh loshon, rodef. What does it mean to be rodef shalom? Sometimes you have to be rodef the shalom to force it. It's not easy to make shalom. Sometimes when you need two people, they got to be forced into the shalom. Ohev shalom, if you come and you talk about the beauty of shalom, okay, that's good. But you have to take action, which is a rodef shalom. You have to put force into the making of the shalom, and I'll tell you a nice maaseh. My bar mitzvah, and this I learned a chochmah from my zeide; he did it many times. People in the shul were helping us with the seating arrangements. There were a lot of people at the bar mitzvah. Today there's rules on how big a simcha has to be. In my day, especially my bar mitzvah, I had thousands of people, a lot of people at my bar mitzvah. So the people in the shul were helping with the seating arrangements, and one of the guys in the shul runs to Zaidy and says, What do you mean? How did you put me on this table? Wait a second, you put me... You don't know that... So he says, Yes, chapst. Now you got it. You understood. The point was that he put them together. And the emes, if you look in Avos d'Rabbi Nosson, in Avos d'Rabbi Nosson says that Aharon HaKohen did that. He would try to put the people together. It's not enough just to calm and say, machshalim and darshen in shalom. You need to calm and do something to create that the two parties come together. I remember, my zeide used to do this all the time. I remember whenever there was a machlokes, my zeide had a funny minhag that he would invite both parties to come to him, not knowing that the other one didn't know that he would invite him for a tea on a Friday night. And then he would invite his adversary also for a tea, and they would end up at the same table. Azoi flegt er טון, yeah, till they chapt. I remember one balabos told my zeide, Are you inviting me because I have a machlokes with ...? Is that the invitation? Is that pshat in the invitation? Azoi flegt er טון. I remember my zeide once invited two rabbanim that they killed each other. It was a tremendous machlokes, shvei greise rabbanim, you hear? Two big rabbanim. One of them shows up, and he sits and he talks. He was a big gaon; he used to know every single Yerushalmi. He was a big gaon, this rav. The other rav shows up by the door, and all of a sudden he hears Yerushalmi up there. Az yener is do? Kumt nisht arayn in shtub. I remember, I saw it with my own eyes. Kumt nisht arayn in shtub. Not going to be caught under the same roof with this guy. He said in Yiddish, Shteinishn zelbn dachn dem mensch. But it's good. We go on the porch, there's no dach, there's no roof, no problem. What's the point? I'm trying to tell you a yesod in this. Sholom is b'etzem there. Gotta figure out how to get to the sholom. Needs a little push. There's a wisdom. There's an oyv sholom and an rodef sholom. There's a chochmah from a talmidei sholom, and there's a mahalach on how to make sholom. And that's how we started the shiur, oseh sholom bimromav, v'yaaseh sholom aleinu. The Ribono Shel Olam has to give us the siyata dishmaya that we should be able to make the sholom. Not easy. It needs a certain chochmah, a certain wisdom. And I spoke many times, even b'etzem have sholom, because the b'leiv echad is there. The Satan comes and he destroys the ki'ish echad. Habel yebel, shlita. ... once told me, Even shlangen zach nisht. I looked at him, Even shlangen zach nisht. A yeshiva, which planet have you come—have you landed on? Hot di mikes up, why vos shlangen zach? Hapoel lishi... today we don't have it this much, but ... that's how they used to fight after the war.

Nisht iblich. So this nisht amist, the Yidden shlogen zikh nisht. Der shtikel peyleshe goyim nem, shlogt zikh, der shtikel ungarishe goyim nem. Zei shlogen zikh, you know, wherever you go, you’re mushpa from the goyim. The metzius, the Rambam speaks about, adam nimshach achar s’vivosav. Der palak shlogt zikh mit ungarisha, aber di Yidden tzuvishn, zei shlogt zikh nisht. Der Yid, be’etzem, is kish echad b’lev echad. Mitalmidav shel Aharon is to come and bring out, with chochmah, what’s tamun b’lev, what’s really in the heart of every Yid. There’s an interesting yaivetz, rabosai. L’choirah, what’s the big deal about shalom? Shalom. Why is it so important? It’s so good, achdus, kish echad b’lev echad, good. Aber vos is shem d’shalom? So the Maharal says, ‘Ki shalom is shmo shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu.’ There’s all halachos about saying shalom in a beis hakisei. If it’s the name of the person, it’s not the name of the person. Stam zogt ‘shalom’ talmid, ‘Shvavos.’ Shalom is the name for the Ribbono Shel Olam. In Avos d’Rabbi Nosson, perek yud-beis, halachah, Mishnah gimmel, it says that how did Aharon make shalom? He used to lie. He would tell the guy the guy really likes you. So, loit unzer pshat, iz nisht kein ligen, because be’emes he does like you. Like I said, di peyleshe goyim vos harget zikh mit ungarishe goy, aber di Yidn alein, so it’s not a lie. But the Yaivetz really learns that it’s a lie, u’megligen in far shalom. Mutar leshanos mipnei hashalom, and we spoke about this many times. Leshanos doesn't mean that he's allowed to outright lie; he's allowed to be meshaneh. But what do I want from this yahrzeit? Efrecht a meiredike kasha. Efrecht, gut, shmoi shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu shalom, but what's chosamo shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu? It's emes. So why does shmoi shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu, as if, is it more important than chosamo? Tell me today, what's more important than the signature? On our signature, the John Hancock is more important than anything else. So if you have shmoi, but the chosamo is emes, so why does emes fall away mipnei hashalom? And for that, azoi zogt'n Chazal. The Gemara says, it's a medrash, that when the Ribbono Shel Olam wanted to create the world, Emes said not to create the world, and Shalom said to create the world. Emes said the whole world is full of sheker; what are You creating the world for? Shalom said, no, create the world. Which one did the Ribbono Shel Olam throw down? He took the emes and threw it off the floor, and He said, Shalom wins. U'meileh zogt, there's muchach that shalom is greater than emes. Howt a maaseh. Azoi zogt the yahrzeit. Efrecht a kasha: shalom, what about emes? On the teretz is, shalom takes precedence over emes. Zei deflekt iber zogn, tzvei sharfe verter of der Chazal. The first thing He said, emes. It's interesting, everybody's looking for the emes. Everybody claims that he's emes, and fakert, most machloikesin are based on emes. It's a little sad. Emes didn't want because of machloikes. Whose view? Most machloikesin are based on emes. Each guy claims that he has the emes, that he's the one who's looking, searching for the emes. Zogt der Kotzker, you know, it's interesting that everybody searches for the emes. It's true. You know, it's there. Chazal tell you where it is. It's on the floor. Hishlich mishamayim eretz, threw it to the floor. So why is everyone searching for something where we know where it is and the teretz is? Darf zach begen, dos ufheiben, to bend a little bit, says the Kotzker, you gotta bend. Nobody wants to bend. We know where the emes is, but to bend for the emes, that's not such an easy thing. And there's another vort. You know, why did he throw the emes to the floor and he kept the shalom? Chazal say, it's Gemara in Niddah, Ein kli machzik bracha yoser min hashalom.

It's a kli. It's interesting lashon. Kli. Kli. Sagt der emes, such as zeh sevara, rabosai. Der emes vet alemol blaybn, because emes is emes. Aber der sholem iz a kli, mevaftes la'aretz v'etzatzch tzurechen. You take a keli and you throw it to the floor, it's gonna break. Emes withstands everything. It's yedua that emes withstands all the tremors and trivials. Emes state. Aber der sholem is fragile. Kli, un az mevaftes la'aretz vet es zich tzurechen. What did I see from all of this, Chazal, rabosai? And I want to bring out a yesod, and I want you to think about it. Emes and sholem go together. Ha'emes v'hashalom ahavu. There's a fine line between emes and sholem. There's a fine line between emes and sholem. And that fine line needs to be understood and needs to be looked at to see: are you talking emes? Are you talking sholem? Because everybody walks around thinking that he's doing the emes, and it's a machlokes. So how does a person ever know, and the Torah says, Ohev shalom, v'rodef shalom, before you're a rodef shalom. There's a part of you that has to be an ohev ha'emes v'hashalom. It's the lashon of the pasuk, ... ohavu. You're fighting for the emes, you better really be a person who loves the emes. If you're fighting for shalom, you have to taka be a mensh that loves shalom, because if not, the lines get very, very blurry between emes and shalom. And that's really what Chazal are saying. The Ribbono Shel Olam, through the emes la'aretz. And He said, I create the world because of shalom. D'al pshat ha'yeshai is that shalom and emes, they're adversaries, but at the same time, they're both chlakim of how the world exists. The only way the world—emes and shalom. One is aretz, one is on the floor. You have to bend to get to the emes. Shalom, the world stands on shalom. There's no way that the world could exist without shalom. And the two of them have to come together. Emes v'shalom, ohavu, which is the ohev shalom and the rodef shalom. You have to bend for shalom. This is what I'm trying to explain to you, that the point is that there's a time and a place where you have to bend for the emes to bring the shalom. Emes and shalom is joined at the hip, so to speak. And there has to be an ahavah for both in order for a person to have shalom and in order for a person to have emes, because without it— Everybody thinks he's running after the emes, and everybody thinks that he's running after the shalom. Little do they know, das is nishalom and das is nisht emes, because of constraints of time. I'm going to finish with the following. That's right. So this is really the Chazal that we were trying to bring out. The truth is that shalom—this was the yaivitz that we spoke out, that we said, this yaivitz—that you see between shalom and emes, shalom takes precedence over emes. That was the raya from the Yaivitz, that even though it's chosamo shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu, emes, but you see that shalom takes precedence. But I want to tell you another thing about this. The Chasam Sofer, many other meforshim learn, there's a part of shalom which is to be rodef shalom when it's not the right shalom. Sometimes shalom is not the right thing. I have a letter in my possession from Reb Schneier Kotler, zichrono tzaddik livracha. He writes to a yungerman—the yungerman is not here anymore—he got divorced, and Reb Schneier writes to him that you shouldn't look at the divorce as a bad thing. Sometimes it's a good thing.

And he says that Reb Berber, it ibergezogt b'shem Reb Chaim, that you see from light, an Avraham Avinu, he parted nami alai. Sometimes the pirud is the greatest shalom. Avraham Avinu is doch geven chesed, mitshalim. So he parted nami alai. Avraham, that's how you talk to light, he parted nami alai. When the teretz is, the teretz itself is shalom. Remember seeing many, you know, it was brought down from the Alter Zeide, there's a sefer called Eila Eskerah. Eila Eskerah is a twenty-volume set of sefarim that brings out the amol, the history of the generation before us. Those are the gedolim that were, nebach, coming in the Holocaust. It's twenty volumes of tzaddikim. It's called Eila Eskerah. You can look in any library, you'll find it. They don't sell it anymore. It's a picture of every gadol and every tzaddik and every rebbe that was killed in the milchamah, with a full article written about that. At the time, obviously, they thought that Belzer Zeide was killed in the milchamah. Later on we found out that he was nifter in one of the ghettos. Paklapanim, they have an article about the zeide over there. And they have an interesting story. And the story is that when he became Rav in Pinsk, and if the oilam knows that in Lita there was a lot of haskalah, a tremendous amount of haskalah. The Chassidim, baruch Hashem, they weren't... One was affected is the lita. The lita was a very— every family lost three children, taskala. There's a eideflekt alamos zugen. Every family, at least three that went off taskala. There was an organization called the Bund. The Bund was a maskilim, and they made a lot of trouble, especially for the rabbanim. The rabbanim had a lot of tzaros from them. So they went to the government to get permission that the Talmud Torah should become limudei chol, quote unquote. You see, what they did is they did it through the guys that it's limudei chol, and that's how they were able to bring into the schools their Haskalah, philosophy, and so on and so forth. So in Pinsk, plenty of Haskalah. They got reshus to take over the Talmud Torah and change the— The Alter Zeide found out about it. Early in the morning, he went with his dayanim, and he stood in front of the Talmud Torah, blocking the door. And they came, and they were shocked to see him so early in the morning. Rav, vos macht der rav? Of course, they make it sound like they're not doing anything fashist. Then they looked at the zeide and they say, Sholom aleichem tzem Rav. So the zeide gave a scream, Ein shalom, amar Hashem lareshaim. It's a pasuk. Refuses to say shalom to them. They were shocked. And then he turns and he says to them, Af mayn teyta kelpa, my dead body, you're going to walk into this Talmud Torah and get this Talmud Torah. They were so taken aback. Tanach remained all the years one of the places that were taka naki. Ein shalom amah Hashem larishayim. So there's a time and a place that you have to be oyev shalom. There's a time and a place, and there's a samseifa where you have to be a rodef shalom. And how do you know when? When a taka comes from being an ohev shalom. Havei mitalmidav shel Aharon, the talmidim of Aharon. You know, Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen, he also was shalom, brisi shalom. The Ribbono Shel Olam gave him brisi shalom. Why did he get brisi shalom? Because he went and he was kanai kinaisi, and at the same time, we're being meyaches it after Aharon. So there's a chelek of Aharon which is oyev shalom, and there's a chelek of Aharon which is a rodef shalom. And to know when to do that is havei mitalmidav shel Aharon. That's why we use an example of Aharon. Aharon HaKohen, on one hand, was a meyridike oyev shalom, and at the same time, mitalmidav shel Aharon is Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen to be a rodef shalom. And how does a person know? And the answer is, he has to be an ohev shalom, and he has to be ohev es ha'emes.

Emes and shalom come together. And then you could be an ohev shalom, v'rodef shalom. This is Rabbeisai, mitalmidav shel Aharon. What's it l'maaseh? Let's talk l'maaseh. You know, a lot of times we go out and we say, I have to put my foot down. Are you putting down your foot, or are you putting down a foot? Sometimes it's putting down your foot. You got to take the zicher out of there, because otherwise you don't see the difference where shalom is important, where emes is important. The mixture, that mixture is difficult. Ki Toras emes hoysa b'fihu. Who's it referring to, Rabbeisai? Huh? Who's it? It's Aharon HaKohen. Ki sifsei kohen yishmeru daas. The emes, yevakshu mipihu. Shalom is emes and emes is shalom. Aharon HaKohen knew what is emes and what is shalom and how to put it together. Oseh shalom bimromav, hu yaaseh shalom aleinu. We ask the Eibishter to give us and help us, guide us to have shalom. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.