Tazria–Metzora: The Tor and Yonah, Loyalty to Hashem, and the Torah’s Darkei Noam

Transcript

This shiur is brought to you by the Lev Aaron Foundation. For more, visit levaaronlibrary.com. Parshas Tazria, perek yud-beis, pasuk vav. Torah Kedoshah writes, about a woman who has a child that she has to bring a korban. What is her korban? Says the pasuk, וּבֶן לֹא יִמֵּא טָהוֹר לְבֵן אוֹ לְבַת, תָּבִיא כֶבֶשׂ בֶּן שְׁנָתוֹ לְעֹלָה. She has to bring a sheep, a keves ben shnaso, one year, l'olah. וּבֶן יוֹנָה אוֹ תֹר לְחַטָּאת. A yonah is a dove. A tor, I guess, is translated a turtle—what do they translate tor? Huh? Turtle dove. Turtle dove, right? So a regular dove and a turtle dove, which is basically the same family. Like the yonah and the tor is somewhere in the same branch of bird. לְחַטָּאת, וְעַל פֶּתַח אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד. So l'choira it's a very unassuming pasuk. It's just telling you what the korban is. The Baal HaTurim asks an interesting question. He says it's interesting the order that the Torah brings the dove and the tor. Why? Because usually it says tor before the bnei yonah. Shtei tayrim u'shtei bnei yonah. Two turtle doves and two yonahs. What do they call yonah? Dove also. It's also called a dove. There's a dove and a turtle dove, okay? So the question is, why over here does it say first the word yonah and tor after the word yonah? Interesting observation. You would say the pasuk is so unassuming. So before we get into the answer of the Baal HaTurim, I'm trying to stress this point that you see from the most unassuming pasuk, seems like it's just telling you halacha, what you're supposed to bring, this keves. We're going to learn tremendous lessons in hashkafah and mussar from the words of the Baal HaTurim, the answer that he gives. Unbelievable. You see from the smallest nuance in the Torah, a pasuk which doesn't seem to say much, but the way the pasuk brings the order, it changes. Ah, we learn tremendous things from it. We're going to learn a tremendous lesson from the fact that it says the word tor before the word yonah. I'm sorry, the word yonah before the word tor. Says the Baal HaTurim, b'chalmakom magdir torim livnei yonah. Always tor comes before, chutz mikan, except for here. Here, it first brings the yonah and the tor after. Why? Says the Baal HaTurim, here it's different. You're only bringing one. Lefi she'eina meivi ela echad. Normally when it says to bring the yonah and then the torim. The way it says it is, the turim shnayim, yoina shnayim. Mashenkin over here, that you're bringing one, the yoina comes first. Why? Why does the yoina come first? Because, v'im yimtza yoina, lo yisikach tor. Because if you can find the yoina, better take the yoina. Yoina is the elevation? No, yoina is the dove. It's a different bird. The yoina is the dove, and the tor is the turtle dove. Better take the yoina. If you're bringing one—if you're bringing two, so it doesn't make a difference in the order. But if you're bringing one, it makes a difference. Bring the yoina first. Why? Says the Baal HaTurim a chiddush, which comes from a pesikta: lefi sheben zugo mis'abel alav. When you take the zug, when you take the husband or the wife away from the tor, from the turtle dove, it never goes to another bird. It stays—that's it. It never remarries. And because of this, if you're taking one, so normally when you grab, you grab two, so you're taking a husband and a wife, a group. But if you're taking one, you're destroying the tor because it's never going to find another mate. But the yoina is no problem; therefore you can go and what, and take one yoina. It's unbelievable chiddush, chiddush nifla, that the turtle dove...

Because it never remarries after you take its mate, don't take one. The yoinah will find a way how to reestablish, you know, repair its problem, its life, so to speak. Meila, when you're taking one, take the yoinah first and then the turtle dove if you can't find the yoinah. Now, l'churah, when I see this baal haTurim, I read it simply as tzar baalei chayim. That's when you read the baal haTurim: the poor turtle dove, poor, you know, nebach, nebach, you know, rachmanut on the turtle dove. It's not going to ever remarry; it's going to be an almanah for the rest of his life. Tell me, I don't know, nowhere in the Torah do we find that we have to worry about tzar baalei chayim when we bring korbanos. I never saw that anywhere. So you know what? Don't be makpid any korban; it's always tzar baalei chayim. And if you take a eim al habanim, a mother and a child, there is no pain, there is no hagamdur, and there's many Rishonim that learn that שילוח הקן is about tzar baalei chayim, right? Many Rishonim learn that. But that could be also when you have the mother and the baby, you're taking the baby. But it's interesting that here, that it's not going to find the shidduch, you know, she's going to be misabel. I never knew birds are mitabel. You knew that birds are of the, what do you call that, maturity of mind to be mitabel. It's an interesting Chazal here. You know, I remember reading once. That the elephant, different than its name that it's, everybody thinks an elephant is dumbo the elephant, a dumb animal. They claim that the elephant is a very wise animal, as a matter of fact. Scientists claim that it's very wise because it's mitabel al zugo. It's very interesting. In other words, when it loses a spouse, its second, or it loses a, what should we call it, a child, or—you ever read this? The elephant stays over the body crying, and it's like it won't leave. Yeah, they talk, the scientists are very big into that, that there's an inyan called mitabel al zugo by an elephant. Masha'en kein, let's say like a zebra and all other horse animals, it's nothing. You eat elephant, they just move on, their kids—the lions and tigers eat up their kids—and they just move on like nothing happened. So maybe Chazal are teaching us a chiddush that the Torah is like that nature, and then hachanami, he is mitabel. What am I trying to get at? I'm trying to understand: do we take this balaturim literally? That's my question. Is it about tzaar baalei chayim, the pain of the animal? So maybe we have to say that that's what the Balaturim is teaching us, that it is mitabel. You see the lashon? Mitabel alav. It's suffering. It's mourning. Why make an animal mourn? I never knew animals are capable—they're in this mind frame of mourning. The answer is maybe Chazal, according to this Balaturim, are teaching us that the Torah is such a wise animal that it has the capability to mourn the loss of its spouse. Right, so that I'm trying to say is this is natural instinct. A mother and a child is a natural instinct, and even there many Rishonim question it: is it really about the mother and the child, or is it about us? Is it about our response to seeing a child being taken away from the mother? Which means it's not per se the tzaar baalei chayim. It's a question in the Rishonim. The Rambam and the Meiri vuchim, it's a big issue. I'm just bringing out that I'm trying to apply logic to this baal haTur. What is this baal haTur teaching us? Is he teaching us literally that there is pain, and if there's pain, then it's tzaar baalei chayim? Is that what he's saying? Then we have to say a chiddush that mitzvas haTorah are about tzaar baalei chayim, and then we have to come and say that the animal the Torah is like such a type of animal that is wise, that is able to sense pain and always suffer, mitabel tamid, forever. You know, the lashon, mitabel alav, it'll never remarry; it stays b'aveilus all its life. It's a very big chiddush. When an animal feels pain long term, it's strange, you know. Even the picture that the elephant that they give us, the scientists give us, it's not always. It's mitabel forever. I never heard that an animal should be mitabel forever over a spouse. Chiddush, huh?

There's an interesting, interesting point of contention. What does it mean that it's mitabel, mitabel alav, v'eino mizdabek l'acher? What does it mean? What does it mean? Do we mean pain? And then we have to say chiddush, that it's wise enough, it's capable of having pain, and that's not pain, long-term pain, forever. It's a chiddush, a big chiddush. And then it becomes an issue of tzaar baalei chayim, which itself is a question. Mitzvas haTorah about tzaar baalei chayim. It's a big issue in the Rishonim. I would like to introduce another method, another pshat in how to understand this baal haTor. That maybe it's not about its physical pain, and maybe it's not about the Torah being a supernatural animal, that it has, you know, emotions and feelings. It's not what it's about. What is it about? So I want to introduce to you an interesting Ramban. The Ramban speaks about the nature of the yayin and the Torah in Parshas Vayikra, perek aleph, pasuk yud-daled. When you bring a korban from the birds, which birds do you bring? There's two types of birds that you bring: min haTorim u'min bnei hayonah. Why? So many... You walk into the zoo, rabosai, you'll find hundreds and hundreds of species of birds. Plenty of them can be kosher also. So why only the torim and the bnei yonah? Why only the turtle dove and the dove? So this question the Ramban asks, and the Ramban says pshat as follows: Bachar hakasuv bishnei haminim ha'eilu. The Torah chose, bedavka, these two types of birds. Only these two types. Bachar hakasuv, the Torah chose, minim eilu. Why? Bishvil sheheim metzuyim. They're the most common bird, easy to catch. Ukrovim litafes, yoser kashehizkir Rabbeinu. This is also, says the Ramban, found in a conceptual Chazal. Chazal say that the seh kevasim and the se'izim—why do we bring seh? Sheyakarim min hagedolim al avusoi. You could take what you have on your farm. V'lo yitztarech laasos kelev, tillyah v'kasht laasos tzayid. You don't have to capture it. Torah doesn't expect you to be a hunter, to hunt, prey, to hunt animals—what do they call it? Fodder, not fodder, I have an expression. Bird kill, what do they call it? Bird kill, they call it, right? To hunt, bird kill, yeah. You have a seh in your backyard, you brought it. You have the seh. The Torah says, the Ramban is using this Chazal to explain why he believes that only the turtle dove and the yonah. Why? It's common. You could just go and take it. There's no searching. There's no hunting for it. Common animals. That's the first pshat the Ramban says. Then the Ramban says, Aval, rotzah b'turim ha'gedolim. This would explain only why we want the tor ha'katan, the small turtle dove. But why is it the tor ha'gadol? Why do we bring torim, which are bigger? It's not the babies; we bring the big ones. And the answer is because they're very, very special animals, says the Ramban. You ready? Why do you think the Ramban says they're special? Because they're baalei turim, you hear? Ba'avur prishusan, because they're very, very exalted, exalted animals. V'hi davka miyadua meihem, shekivan she'avad, because once it loses its spouse, lo yidbak b'acher l'olam. It will never go to somebody else, which is this baalei turim, right? So, so far so good, right? So far so good. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Why is it for kapparah? The tor doesn't go—the same thing. The tor doesn't go to its other min. Therefore, the tor you don't take. Over here, you don't take it.

No, he says a ta'am. Avo ratza b'toarim hagdolim, v'avur prishusam, vidavka biyadua meihem. Yeah? This is what's special about them, okay? So, but the Ramban doesn't end with that it's a special animal. Ramban says, but this is actually special because there's an analogy from the tor to Klal Yisrael. Klal Yisrael also has this midah of the tor. Is that the same dove that they let out in Noach? That's right, but we're going to talk about that, you see, because you have to understand, there's two. There's the tor and there's the bnei yonah. We're going to learn that the bnei yonah is not like that. The yonah is not this kind. The yonah is a fighting bird. It's a very feisty bird. The Ramban is going to say in the next line, which we're going to speak about, because be'emes we find Chazal say, Yonasi b'chagvei hasela, that Klal Yisrael is like the yonah, like the dove. And as a matter of fact, there's many places that Chazal say because they have the ma'alah that they stick to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. We're soon going to learn that there's a contradiction here in the Rishonim, but that's in a few moments, and also it's a side issue. The main thing is to see what's the point over here. And the point is, says the Ramban, not only that they have this exalted trait, which I would have expected the Ramban to stop and say, okay, that's it, they have this exalted trait, that's why Hashem likes them. No. V'chein Yisrael, because it's actually an analogy to Klal Yisrael, דבוקים בהשם אלוקיהם, ולא ידבקו באל אחר לעולם. They will never take another spouse. They'll never take another spouse. Yeah. We're soon going to get to the yonah, which is not that way, but I want to point out two things now. First of all, I want to point out this concept of not taking another spouse with Klal Yisrael is interesting because actually Hashem does that with us as well. We don't—what? We don't furthering ourselves from Hashem, and Hashem doesn't further Himself from us. I once told you over that my grandfather said that the Rabbeinu Gershon was called Me'or HaGolah, the light of the exile. Why was he called the light of the exile? So my grandfather said pshat like this: Rabbeinu Gershon enacted two takanos. One was that you can't be megarish בעל כורחה. You can't force a divorce, even though technically in the Torah, if you want to divorce your wife, you just get rid of her and that's it, forcefully, whether she likes it or not, too bad. Rabbeinu Gershon said, No, we don't do that anymore. And the second takanah he made was that you can't have two wives. You can't have two wives. You have one wife, that's it. That's your wife. Now, Chazal teach us that Hashem married Klal Yisrael by Matan Torah, that Klal Yisrael was the kallah, she was like a bride, and Hashem was the chatan. Oh, don't forget that the kallah didn't behave over the years. She didn't cook good meals. She didn't keep the house too clean, in a spiritual sense, right? The chatan wants to get rid of her! Because Rabbeinu Gershon stopped that. You know why? Because you can't force a divorce. So we're stuck, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, whether Hashem likes it or not, because He can't force a divorce on us. But maybe you can go take another nation with us. No, you can't have two. Rabbeinu Gershon made an enactment and made a takanah that if you have your wife, that's it, you're stuck. You live with it. That's it. So he was the me'ir hagolah. He was the light of the exile, because he kept us. Survival! Survival throughout the galus. If not for Rabbeinu Gershon's takanot, which Hashem has to listen—it's Torah now. Rabbeinu Gershon makes a takanah, then it's Torah. Hashem accepts the takanot of the beis din, of the tzaddikim, of the geonim. Hashem was stuck with Klal Yisrael. What are you going to do? You can't force us out of the house, and you can't take another one. This, rabosai, is Klal Yisrael and Hashem. We're stuck together. And then in case something goes wrong, we're not going to find another one. This is it. Hashem, You're our Hashem, You're our spouse, and Hashem has to say Klal Yisrael is our spouse. So this is the Torah. The Torah has this tremendous...

Then this attribute, and this brings out, resembles Klal Yisroel. So now I have a meirdiker pshat now. It's not so much that the Torah is a special animal, but that the Torah has in it something which is special about Klal Yisroel. It's not the pshat that the animal, it has feelings, it has pain. It's not about pain and feelings. It has this attribute which Klal Yisroel has as well. And Hashem is trying to stress that attribute. Hashem is trying to exalt and bring out the chashivut of such an attribute, that no matter what happens, Klal Yisroel stays devoted. If you think about it, we were thrown out of our land. The Beis Hamikdash was destroyed. Move on. Move on. What are you going to do? Move on. How many nations in the world stick to a dream of things that happened two, three thousand years ago? Oh, Matan Torah, and Hashem, and we'll go back to Yerushalayim, we'll be makriv korbanos. And the answer is, Klal Yisroel doesn't forget the past and move on. They don't do that. That's mitabel. Klal Yisroel is mitabel now for the past. Hashiveinu Avinu l'sorasecha, hashiveinu Hashem v'nashuva. Bring us back, take us back. We're ready to come back. Thousands of years we're waiting. Thousands of years we're waiting. Who waits so long? You know, a woman whose husband doesn't come back from war, they get married within a month, two months, finished, have a nice day. What are we? We're like agunah. We're stuck. We're stuck. We don't look further. We don't look elsewhere. We try to find our original spouse. This is what Hashem is glorifying, exalting, by saying, you know what, I want you to bring a ben yonah. I'm sorry, a tor, a turtle dove. What about the ben yonah? So it says like this: Aval hayonim kanoim me'od. The yonah is a very feisty bird. U'vekinasa, and in its feistiness and its zeal and anger, yispardu, they do separate from their spouses, v'yachlifu, and they change. Al kein, bachar bahem. Therefore, Hashem only chose by them the ketanim, the babies, kodem sheyisdabku, before they get married. Ki hayonah b'katnusa, because a yonah in its prime, when it's a baby, az tosefes ahavah b'ken giduleha yoser mish'ar ha'ofos. That's when it brings out love. You know when a yonah is good? When it's a baby yonah. A baby yonah is sweet, right? But once it gets into the meshudach age, oh, that's some feisty bird. Reminds me of a lot of the chaps, the Jewish women. The young girls, they come to synagogue, they're sweet, sweet, nice. The minute they get into the marriage, oh, there's a... Boy, b'kanosam, zeal and anger and feistiness. B'kitzer, he brings, kichol ha'ofos, v'yogadim b'ken shelahem. Any other bird, if you touch it, they'll leave it. You hit a bird, it flies away, and that's all. It's not going to stay over its nest. You give it a tap, it runs. V'hayonah, but the yonah, oh no, lo sazvenu b'shum inyan. A yonah will not leave it. A yonah will not leave its nest. It has a tremendous devotion for the nest. וכן ישראל, and this also resembles Klal Yisrael, lo yachlifu boiram b'torasam l'olam. They also will not. So the older turtle dove has this good trait of being loyal, and the young yonah has this trait, but not the old yonah, because the old yonah, what happens? The minute it becomes married, it becomes a real feisty bird, and it'll disappear and ruin the marriage and move on. You hear? Very interesting, exactly here. You listening? Bashein kein, the young yonah, that's beautiful because she never leaves the nest. She stays with love and devotion to protect the nest. And Klal Yisrael is the same. When he brings the Midrash, the Midrash says, Ela o Yehudi oitzalim.

Jew says, Either I'm a Jew, or I'm a tzaluv. There's no playing games. There's no, you know, either you're a devout Jew or you're lost. That's what a Jew. A Jew is ready to stand up and say, I'm not going to do this. If you're going to kill me, kill me. As a matter of fact, the medrash that he brings—this is actually a quote of a medrash—this is what the medrash says: Yimol chatzufim. There are three very brazen, brazen things in the world. Chatzuv b'chaya—the most brazen animal is which animal? Kelev. It's a very brazen animal, a dog. Barks and barks. Chatzuf. Off. What about by the bird? It says the medrash, sh'moitz raba—tarnegol. It's the chicken. Chicken just plucks and picks and plucks, and they're brazen. They're brazen, they're brazen. What about in the world, the people? Yisrael. Klal Yisrael is the most brazen. Amar Reb Yitzchak—and this is the medrash that the Ramban is quoting—Reb Yitzchak said, Samru shul l'knai. You think it's a bad thing that they have chutzpah? No, it's a good thing. V'einah l'shvachan. It's a good thing. Why? O Yehudi o tzaluv. Because a Jew has to stand strong, steadfast. I'm a Jew and I won't do it. O Yehudi o tzaluv. Tzaluv is a Christian, a person who does the cross. The cross. Yeah, I'm saying, o tzaluv, which means I'm ready to die. O tzaluv, you hear? So the pshat is—ah, you're saying tzaluv doesn't mean—Tzaluv means I'm ready to die. Yehudi o tzaluv. Either I'm a Jew or I die. What's the pshat? The pshat is, brazen has its maila: devotion, loyal. Now I want to tell you, many years I said this. You know, I hear a lot of times people complain that the Israelis, eh, mechutzafim, they're so brazen, they're so... And I tell them, listen, here in America, we never went through wars. We didn't have all the problems. Yeah, a little bit when we came, but not major, you know, that you had to stand strong against the winds of the world. Israel, yeah, tremendous nisyonot. So Hashem gives it to them, the brazenness to be able to survive it. Eino ela l'shafchan v'lo lehitbayesh. I'm quoting this medrash. It's a maila sometimes to be brazen. Don't look at, chutzpahnim, so what? If you take a look, it says, Am k'shei oref. Hashem made Klal Yisrael am k'shei oref. So why would Hashem take us then? Hashem talks all the time how great we are, and then Hashem announces clearly in the Torah we're an am k'shei oref, stubborn neck. You know what the answer is? This medrash. It's a ma'alah to be stubborn. You know why? Because if you're not stubborn, you get washed away. The littlest thing, ah, you're right, that's all. They say, oh, the France government and the German came, yeah, no problem, sure, come in. Now without Israel has to withstand nisyonot, big, big tests that they have. And this is the middah of Klal Yisrael, O Yehudi. Ot saluf. O Yudi, if they didn't have this bris, they would never even come to Eretz Yisrael. You know, if you think about it, the way they came with such, such chutzpah. Here come the few people, partisans, the British government bombing, killing. Let's go, we're coming and we're here. Who, we're here? What are you talking... This is from the ma'alah. So instead of looking down, you're right. Now that you have this midah, you should work on it to channel it right. Lo lihyot chutzpan k'neged talmidei chachamim, lo lihyot chutzpan la'isha, lo lihyot chutzpan la'aba v'ima. It's true, but that's the test that a person has. But the midah, the shoresh, the root of it, is this Chazal, that it's good, it's eino ela l'shvachan. And this is whose midah? The yonah. The yonah is strong, brazen, you hear? And this is Klal Yisrael's midah, and that's why Hashem said, Take the yonah. I just want to make a quick chazarah for you, just tell you what we're talking about. The isha ki tazria, when she has her baby, she brings a tor or yonah. The Baal HaTurim says that you're supposed to better bring a tor instead of a yonah. I'm sorry, a yonah instead of a tor. Why? Because the yonah, once you take away his spouse, he'll find another one. But the tor will never find another one. So we asked, is it because it's baal chayim, that's what it means? So we said no. We brought a raya that Ramban explains.

Explains that this is the ma'alah of Klal Yisrael, like the Torah, that it doesn't find anything else. He's stuck with Hashem and that's it. And I show for years and years and years, Klal Yisrael could be without a nation, a country, land, without a Beit HaMikdash. We're still waiting for the original Hashem who we married under Matan Torah. This is the ma'alah. And it could be that's why Hashem chose the Torah, says the Ramban, to bring out this ma'alah. Maybe that's the pshat already in the Baal HaTurim as well. Hashem is trying to show that appreciate, respect, exalt, show that it's a davar tov what the yona is doing. Now I want to explain to you that there's an interesting machlokes over here. The yona switches its spouse. That's what it says: אבל היונה בקנתם יספרדו ויחליפו. Yeah? It switches. ויחליפו, it switches. And what? Because they break up. It's mashma even when alive, right? Meaning it doesn't stay married too long, the yona. They fight and they move on, right? Ramban is mashma that the yitpardu is bachayim, when they're still alive. The Chizkuni is saying differently. The Chizkuni brings the same Ramban, and he says like this: מן התורים, אבל אפילו גדולים, because the tor is very loyal, that it doesn't go and look for a different shidduch after its spouse dies. What about the bnei yonah? ולא גדולים, לפי שהיונה פותה, אין לה לב. The yona is a heartless animal. Here the Chizkuni says it's a heartless animal. Imeiz ben zugo, hi mizdaveg l'yona acheres. So it's a little different than the Ramban. Ramban learns that they make fights in the house and they break up. They're like the modern day, you know, the movie stars. There's twenty husbands and twenty wives because they can't stay married for too long. Love you and leave you, right? Ma she'ein kein the Chizkuni, the Chizkuni is learning, you hear, that it's after, which means the tor stays loyal to the spouse after, while the yonah doesn't stay loyal. Okay. Then the Ramban, right, no, it's quite the Ramban, it's divorce, and according to the Chizkuni they find right away, you know, like the goyim, they come to the funeral with their next spouse, you know. Okay, now. What are you laughing? And he's laughing. It's what it is, by the way. They come with their spouses to the funeral. Okay. LaRav amar b'ma'arei nevuchim. The Rav says, the Moreh Nevuchim, which is the Rambam, a different reason why Hashem wants דווקא the tor and the yonah, a different reason. What is it? Ki hatam bakrovos gedolei hatorem efrochei hayonim ki hu hatov shebahem. Those are the best animals. The best birds is the tor and the bnei yonah, yeah? Ki hu hatov shemipnei shehagadol b'yonim ein arvus bo, v'ein ze emes. He says the gadol should be yonim, it's not sweet to eat. It doesn't taste good. It's tasteless. That's what the Ramban says, the Rambam, that the reason why Hashem wants the tor, the big, and the yonah, the baby, because the yonah, the baby... That's a good-tasting animal, but the yonah, the big one, so you don't bring it as a korban. Says the Ramban, the ein ze emes. It's not true. Not true, Ramban. What are you talking about? You're saying a false statement. Kiktanei hayonim, shemat she'ein reuyim la'achilah. As a matter of fact, the lil yonah you can't eat. Who's gonna eat a little pigeon? You can't eat a little bird. You can't eat it. Mipnei rutva u'dfanish bahem, because of something, I don't know how to translate it, but there's something that it has in it. Aval im nachush l'ta'am ba'achilah, and if you're gonna say, like the Rambam, takan that it has to do with the way it tastes, yitachen shenifku l'sgulah. Maybe it does have something, that it has good health benefits. The tor has good health benefits and the yonah has good health benefits. Ki ha'torim segulasam chidud ha'seichel, makes you smart. You eat torim, you get smart. Ve'afrochim ha'yonim—what about if you eat eggs? Huh? You're saying from the egg, the afrochim, the chicks, yeah? Segulasam l'toeles gedolah b'mevutlei ha'evarim kepelges. Certain diseases make the disintegration of the bones, like arthritis or something, and it's good for arthritis. You think I'm making chizuk? You think I'm joking? It's a Ramban. I make it up? It's a Ramban.

Huh? Turim is good for brain. You want to be smart, go eat turim. Who eats this? Who eats it? No, it doesn't make a difference. But that's what's special about it. If you want to have a special animal, this is special. You want to talk about special, you want special. So the Ramban says, you know what's special? Because it brings out ma'alot of Klal Yisrael. Hashem is showing that this is a good attribute. Then the Ramban says that if you take a look at the Rambam, he says that they taste good. The turim taste good, and the ben yonah, that the baby yonah tastes good. You go to a wedding, they give you a little duck, a little chicken. You ever see they give you a little chicken? It's supposed to taste good, I guess. I guess. I look at it, it's supposed to be cheap on the money. You ate yonah? Tastes good? Yeah. I know a guy that had a child named Yonah, and he used to eat him up all day. Okay, now. No, I don't think it... It's the chashivus of the thing. It's not the point, but you have to bring a good... You have to bring a korban me'uleh. The korban itself has to be a chashuv korban. The question is, what's so special about this animal? And the answer is, it has special ma'alot. Here, you talk about bringing to Hashem, salmon. Salmon, they say, brings brain. It helps you, you become a brilliant genius if you eat salmon. That's the newest craze they have out there. You know, that's the new thing now. Fish, fish oil. I know, brains. About the fish oil. No, that's the whole thing today, fish oil, fish oil, your brains, mamish unbelievable fatty acids and then omega-3 and then the most is in salmon. You don't know all this. Okay, so that's it. It's the same thing. So you want to bring a chashuv fish, what are you going to bring, a crab? You bring a walleye. You bring a salmon. Salmon is a chashuv fish. Okay. This is the Ramban, okay? So you like it? Interesting. So we started off by saying that when a woman has a baby and she has to bring a korban, a tor o benei yonah, so better bring the yonah instead of the tor. And that's why the Torah says yonah o tor. Why, says the Baal HaTurim? Because this tor, when the zivug dies, it doesn't remarry; it's mitabel. So we said, kipshuto, what does it mean? Tzar baalei chayim. That's what it means. But then we said, if you look at the Ramban, there's more, more than just simple, Ah, it's a good bird. It's not about a good bird; it's about Klal Yisrael. Hashem is bringing out the attribute, the attribute of Klal Yisrael. The issue which I think is important to bring out: if you notice today, people get married right away. A spouse dies, and right away, two, three months later, people get married. The times, the mahalach hachayim, even big Roshei Yeshivas, they get married very fast, one after. In Europe it wasn't like that. In Europe, a woman, her husband died. How was it? Twenty years. They stayed. It's interesting the way the dorot hamishtaneh. And I was thinking, where does it come from? Where does it come from? Why all of a sudden did it change? And I would also like to question: should we learn from this Chazal that it's not the wrong thing to do? If Chazal are trying to bring out that it's a ma'alah... In the yona, which is also mala in the Klal Yisroel. So maybe we are to deduce from this, to learn from this, that this is the right way to behave. Which is also another question, because many people I've had discussions with about it, and they say, What's the difference? The person died. Who cares? He doesn't know the difference anyway, and then so on and so forth. And I ask, A person doesn't know the difference? What does that mean? If a person made a kinyan nafshi with somebody, there's a whole question when Mashiach comes, who are you going to be married to? So how can you come and say that they don't know the difference? The Bechoran vasserman officially, I don't know if it's true or not, because I don't know if he paskened it, but it's brought down in his sefarim that this is one of the chakiros of mita tabal. When a husband dies and a woman's allowed to get married, is the pshat because the old marriage is finished? It's finished. There's no more marriage. Or it's a poter, it's a ptur. You're allowed to go get married to somebody else because he's not here. But ein hachanami, it's not bitul of the original eshut. What's the nafka mina? What's the nafka mina? Limot Mashiach says, Reb Elchanan, when Mashiach comes, will you be married to the first guy or to the second guy? Which is an interesting—I'm not trying to get into yes, no, the olamot. I'm not—I'm just trying to tell you that it's an interesting...

Seeing ha'ara, that today it became so easy, lax. Yeah, of course, right away, as soon as a guy is his wife or husband died, right away people look for shidduchim for him. Who said? Who said? Why not? Why not? You see from this Chazal that it's not the right thing. This Chazal is saying that the Torah is special, that it stays loyal to its first zivug, it doesn't look for another zivug. You see clearly. I mean, Chazal say it openly. It says it, that this is the ma'alah of the Torah, that Klal Yisrael all says this ma'alah. The only thing is, you could come and say that the ma'alah that Klal Yisrael has is not b'yesod, klapi each other, but it's klapi HaKadosh Baruch Hu, which means it's a borrowed ma'alah from a Torah, which we apply to Yisrael when it comes to Hashem. But it doesn't mean that they have to apply it amongst each other. It's a little bit chiddushdik, right? Because if the Torah is about a zivug and you bring out that that's a ma'alah, yeah, this is something which is to me a dilemma. I don't know. But what I do know is, you understand what I'm trying to say, that even though Chazal bring this out as a ma'alah, but maybe it's a ma'alah meaning because Klal Yisrael applies this to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, but it's not a ma'alah b'etzem. But you see that we do say it's something special about the bird who does this. I'll tell you the truth, I don't have a verdict on this issue, but my feeling is like the Chazal, that it's the right thing, and for years they did it that way. All through the doros they did it that way. That's the way it was done. What changed? So to me this is more important than right or wrong. What, in the understanding, the study, and the limud of Zos Toras HaAdam, why did things change? And I think there's a tremendous... So the inyan of ne'emanut, of loyalty, changed. People are not loyal to one another. We lack loyalty. And therefore the concepts of loyalty don't apply today as much as they did. Pirush, if there was a ne'emanut klape Hashem, how does the lashon of the pasuk say over there? Go into the streets of Yerushalayim, if you're going to find one anshei... no, amana, right? The lashon of the pasuk. What does amana mean? Loyalty, trustworthiness. Lashon emunah. Amana to Hashem, if it's strong, then it spills over into your daily life with your family and your relatives. But if the concept of loyalty is lost, so it's lost by Hashem, and it's lost between people too. I think the times is a siman. It's a siman on the whole mahut of a person. It's not just that the derech changed. You know, I'll tell you another thing which I thought was very interesting. When my grandfather passed away, we went through his things and we found that any little thing that he ever had from, he kept. He didn't dispose of it. Saved everything. Papers, even rubber bands. He saved. Whatever he used, he saved it. He would put it away and he would collect it. Today we live in a society where it's the exact opposite. Get rid of it. One, two, three, you come into a shvach, chatz, shtayim, shalosh, garbage. Shredder. Next. Shredder. Not only garbage, shredder. You hear? It has to do with this. It's your yachas to the cheftzim. Easy come, easy go, or it's meaningful. There's a meaningful relationship. You know, Yankiv Avinu went back for pachim ketanim. What, is he nuts? Was he crazy? And the answer is, he had feelings. There was a certain regesh for pachim ketanim. And this baalimusasei came from a deeper understanding of appreciation for cheftzim that Hashem gave him. Loyalty comes from a deep-rooted havanah and appreciation of what you have. If a person looks at his spouse as a thing to be mishtamesh him, it's something to serve him and for his benefit, and the minute it's not there, so you go look for something else. A car. You ever see a person mitabel on a car? It depends how much the car was worth to him. If the car was just a means of transportation, so you're not mitabel.

Unless you're crazy, right? What do you do? You go find another set of wheels, right? But if the car meant to you something, so a guy could sit there and cry over his car, My car! Right? It depends on. So the fact that we're not mitabel, it's a sign that it doesn't mean too much. We didn't have the proper haracha for it in the first place. Klal Yisrael, with Hashem, has a proper haracha, so we're not ready to let it go. You're not ready to let go. And this is what HaKadosh Baruch Hu is teaching—what? He's teaching the yesod. Learn to me'areich the relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Appreciate the relationship. You see? Appreciate. I was thinking about this late last night—actually mamash till the morning, because I couldn't sleep last night. Hashem, my children are keeping me up like you've never seen. Phew, gevaldik. And I was thinking to myself, what does it mean, Ashreinu, ma tov chelkeinu, u'ma na'im goralenu, u'ma yafah yerushaseinu? So many—Ashreinu, ashreinu, ma tov chelkeinu, u'ma na'im goralenu. What's na'im? You know what the word na'im means? Sweet, sweet, pleasant, pleasant. Ma yafah yerushaseinu. The person appreciates, ma'areich, then he doesn't let it go for nothing. Oy, hu yitzaluf. There's no letting go. It just ain't worth the price. You know, when certain nisyonot come to me to do certain things which I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't do. I always think to myself, is it worth the price of getting my spouse angry? You know who my spouse is? Hashem. I always think that way. That's what goes through my mind. Is it worth the price? It's worth it. A person makes a cheshbon: if I put my feet on the couch, right, my wife is going to be angry. Is it worth getting her angry for putting the feet on the couch? You say to yourself, no. But if maybe it's something which is more, you know, right, something which is you really want it, right? So you say it's worth it, right? It's worth getting the wife angry for this thing. But if you appreciate the wife very, very much, then you make the cheshbon and say that it's not worth it. מה יפו ירושתינו — appreciate, appreciation. And this is what it means: if a person appreciates, then you know what he does? He doesn't let it go. He doesn't want to forget it. It's not, Oh, I was married to him yesterday and two hours later I'm married to somebody else. Appreciation, appreciation. And this is the kesher, the relationship you're supposed to have with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. One more yesod I want to bring out. I saw Reb Simcha Zissel Brody, some derech of Rav Shimon Shkop, big, big talmid chacham and thinker. He was a tremendous thinker. Beautiful Torah. His Torah is really—he was a real big talmid chacham, real, real, you know, lamdan, very good. So he learns the baal haTurim a little different, and I want to share with you what he says, because it's also yesod which is kedai to learn. He doesn't want to say—he doesn't ask the way we speak, you know, I'm a little bit more marich because I try to bring it out, to teach it to the public. He doesn't talk about tzar baalei chayim. He touches on this nekudah maybe that it's to bring out the importance of the middah, and therefore we should learn from it. But then he says a yesod, and this is his yesod throughout Mussar. You want to know what Rav Simcha Zissel Brody's theme—he had a theme in Mussar. It's very interesting. All his Mussar is based on a pasuk. And as a matter of fact, they even put out a sefer of hashkafah, and they named it this pasuk, because that was his theme: V'asisa hayashar vehatov. All his Mussar is based on this thing. Like everybody has their derech, you know, Slabodka is about gadlus ha'adam, and then Novardok is about shiflus ha'adam, and then Kelm is about emes. Rav Brody, the Rosh Yeshiva of Chevron, all his Mussar and hashkafah is based on this pasuk, V'asisa hayashar vehatov. And it has to fit into yashar and tov. Everything that you do should have the balance of yashar and tov. Yashar means correct, and tov means good. Okay, I don't have time to go through the nuances of his mahalach, his shittah, whatever, but it's a theme which comes up all the time.

And he applies it here as well. He applies it here as well. He says, it's not so much about the animal; it's more about you. You have to behave in a way which is yashar v'tov. For you to choose a tor, knowing that the tor is going to be metabel on its spouse, when you could take a yona, that's not yashar v'tov. What are you doing? If you could, that's what the Torah is saying. The Torah is telling you, weigh your actions. See the outcome of a person. It's beautiful. I mean, he doesn't say it the way I'm explaining, because again, I'm elaborating to make it palatable, palatable. You should be able to be to'em it by yadayim, you know what I mean? You should taste it. But this is what he's saying. It's about you making the right choices in life. Every action, weigh your actions. See if it's yashar and tov. If you could take a yona, which won't suffer, and you could take a tor, you're right, it's for a korban. Yeah, but you have a choice. Then the choice becomes better take the yona than to take— If you can't find the yona, then take the tor. All your choices should be weighed in the mishkal ha-yashar v'ha-tov. Is this yashar and tov? And he brings one proof, and I'm going to bring another proof, and then I'm going to end. You know, it's interesting, they moved the clock. Maybe that's the— they thought to move the clock, they didn't understand it meant to move the actual time on the clock. No, because they heard on the radio you're supposed to move the clocks. They took the clock from this side of this mechitzah and put it on that side of the mechitzah. They didn't— it means to move the etzem clock. Okay, so let me tell you over his proof. And then I'll tell you over my proof. Okay, you ready? Here we go. What's wrong with arayot? What's wrong? So the truth is, we could talk from today till tomorrow, what's wrong with arayot. But all the pshatim lead to one thing. There's something inherently wrong with living with a she'er basar, with living with a relative. There's something wrong with it. Why exactly? That's for a different time. But everybody understands that. The Ramban teaches us that one of the arayot has nothing to do with that. One of the arayot is not about it's inherently wrong to live with this ervah. You know which one it is? V'ishah el achosah lo sikach, litzror legalot ervasah. To take a sister and then to marry another sister. To be married to two sisters at the same time. To be married to two sisters at the same time. Ramban says, you know what's wrong with that? I'll tell you what's wrong. Not arayot. The word is litzror, legalot ervasah. When the pasuk uses the lashon litzror, it's very difficult to even know what the word litzror means, but the whole Masechet Yevamot is based on it. It's a lashon of tzarah, which means when one woman has a second woman in the house that she has to contend with, they become tzarah zu lazu. They become enemies. There's fighting, friction. What are you talking about? There's tension in the house. Litzror, there's tension in the house. Says the Ramban, achayot, sisters, should be getting along well with each other. Sisters were meant to be close. You went and married two of them and made them the biggest of enemies. Torah says you're not allowed to do that. Litzror, legales ervasah. Yeah? Ramban. Says Reb Simcha Zissel, what do we see from over here? It's in the same dargah as the other ervah. If a person marries an ervah, he's chayav kares. This is not really ervah. What is wrong with this? Only because litzror, you're going to make enemies from two sisters. And still, what does the Torah call it? Arayos, and you're chayav kares. And he proves it, the Ramban. He says, the Ramban, if you take a look, after one dies, you're allowed to marry the sister. But what do you mean? It's an ervah. The answer is, it's only an ervah when they're together in the same house. But how can it be an ervah? Okay, it's a bad thing. You're doing a terrible, terrible act. It's not an ervah. And the answer is what? Yes, it is an ervah. It's on the same level as marrying a sister. It's the same level as marrying a mother. Why? Because they're meant to be shalom. Then he brings, very interesting, he says, when I see brothers fight, I think...

To myself, you're going against the grain of what the Torah wants. The Torah holds that certain people should be together. Two people should get along, and you're saying that they shouldn't get along, which means it's not just, nebach, two brothers are fighting. It's deeper than two brothers are fighting. What you're doing is you're undermining the spirit of Torah, because Torah holds that two brothers, two sisters, family members, should not be fighting, and you're fighting. This is all in the pasuk of litzror, that you can't make a tzarah zu lazu. Why? says Rav Simcha Zissel of Kelm, Torah has in it the command, the goal, that everything you do should be yashar v'tov. So if this is not yashar v'tov, to marry two sisters, it's ervah. It becomes arayos, on the same level as marrying your mother. I would like to add another proof. There's a sugya in the beginning of Yevamos which is perplexing. Spend a lot of time in the yeshivas learning it, and the sugya is called nesra. What is nesra? A yevamah falls to a yavam. It has to be that at that moment that she fell, the yavam was allowed to take her. If the yavam had a delay, that he couldn't take her because she was asurah, it was asurah, therefore there's no yibum. It's called nesra. Nesra olav sha'achas, if she was aser one moment, which means there was a delay. He just couldn't marry her. Nesra olav olamis. This is the sugya of nesra. Unbelievable. It's many, many marehos in sugyos. It's dependent on this yesod called nesra, from the time of the yibum, from the moment she fell to yibum. If at any given moment he wasn't allowed to marry her, for example, she was a karov, and then the relative died, now she's not a karov anymore. Again, the Gemara in Yevamos spends many, many cases. It's long. I'm trying to make it simple and short, rabosai. It's called nesra. Nesra olav olamis. Comes along Tosafos and asks a question. So in case she's an niddah, in case the woman's a niddah, so then she should never be yibum, because at that moment you weren't allowed to live with her. She's asurah. So every woman who's a yevamah who's a niddah should be no more yibum. We don't find that. Answers Tosafos, no. Why? Because the whole reason for nesra is because of darkei noam. It's not nice that she should be hanging, hanging, waiting for the yevamah to take her. So for one moment she's aser, aser olamis. But the niddah is aser to everybody, so it's not so much that the yavam, it's anybody. Therefore there's no problem of nesra. This is Tosafos chiddush. What comes out from Tosafos? An entire new concept to understand nesra. That what? That the yesod of nesra is darkei noam. That the ways of the Torah have to be ways of pleasantry. Not ways of difficult. Okay. Where did Tosafos get this from? Nobody knows. Nobody. Nobody knows where Tosafos got this from. People question this Tosafos. Tosafos, you have a Gemara. Who said it? And don't forget, it's based on a pasuk. The pasuk says, Kol yevamah she'ein ani korei lah b'shaas nefilah yevamah yavo aleha. Any yevamah, which I can't read the pasuk of yevamah yavo aleha when she fell, shuv eina, keivan shebanah shuv lo yivneh. It's finished. Okay? How did Tosafos know that it has to do with darkei noam, and that therefore by niddah doesn't apply? Where do you know it from? Tosafos has a Gemara like that? And you know what the answer is? Tosafos was so sure that the yesod of the halacha is about darkei noam that he was matir niddah to be meyabem her later. Do you understand what you're being— If you're not allowed to be meyabem her, it's an issur kares! You're marrying the sister. You're marrying the wife of your brother. So how could Tosafos— Tosafos has a raya, Tosafos has a proof, Tosafos has a question: niddah should be aser. And the answer is no, because it's about darkei noam. Tosafos, where'd you get that from? It's a sevara. So you see.

A tremendous lesson that the svara of Darkei Noam is so strong that we could pasken halachos issur ervah according to it. Lo nayin. This is not the right thing. It doesn't make sense that the Torah should make. And what are we talking about? Nesarah lafshachah. For one moment, when she fell, she can't go right away and marry the brother? Okay, it's finished. Too late. And this is because it's not Darkei Noam. It's not nice. You hear the Torah? What is the lesson from over here? The lesson from over here is Darkei Noam. You have to look at the Torah as sweet, as beautiful. And when you look at it as beautiful, then you look and appreciate. And when you don't have it, you wait for it. You long it. When you understand that Torah is not the reichayim al tzavara, it's another learning, another Gemara, and a Chanami. So when it's over, Baruch Hashem, you know, it's okay, forget it, it's gone. No, no. We long for it because we understand that it's Darkei Noam. And I'll end with a beautiful pshat that I heard from Rav Gifter. Maybe you heard it from me before. If you did, good, and if not, good, I'd hear again. I heard it from Rav Gifter many times, and every time he said it, I wish I could have heard it one more time, one more time. Rav Gifter is a tzaddik livrachah, used to go to Camp Agudah, and I used to go to Camp Agudah, and as a little boy I used to listen to him, and it was fascinating, fascinating, fascinating. I just want to point out before I finish, I just want to point out, if you look at the Rashi in Tehillim. There's a pasuk over here which has to be explained. Just before I end, I wanted—this had to do with the shiur I said. It says, Al titein lechaya nefesh torecha. Don't give to the chaya, to the animals, which is the goyim, those demon wild animals, nefesh, the souls of your little doves, torecha. Chayas aniyah al tishkach lanetzach. So Rashi and the meforshim explain—oh, it means like this: be careful with your children, that they shouldn't get lost to the goyim. You got to protect your children. So on the bottom, Rashi and the Radak argue, what does it mean, nefesh torecha? So the Radak learns, Yunah, give to the oyvim shehu hator shelcha, ki nimshu Yisrael l'yonah v'tor. Yeah, because Klal Yisrael is nimshal l'yonah v'tor, lefi shehem chalushei hakoach. They're weak. The analogy from Klal Yisrael to a yonah and a tor is that they're weak. Which one is weak? They're both. A pigeon and dove is a weak animal; it's not a strong animal. So therefore they're called a dove. When you want to talk about a small, weak animal, what do we call it? A dove. Okay. Rashi learns a little differently. Rashi learns torim bnei yonah, because hator hazeh is this baal haturim. The ma'alah of the tor is what? That it doesn't go away, and so too Klal Yisrael doesn't leave Hashem. The only problem is he speaks about the yonah also, lashon torim uvnei yonah. And we just learned that the bnei yonah doesn't have this ma'alah. Bishlema according to the Radak, it doesn't mean they have the ma'alah of not leaving Hashem. It means they're just weak, which is also a chiddush, because it's mashma that the Ramban is saying that they're strong, they're chutzpanim, but I guess chutzpanim and weak is not a contradiction. They could be weak, but they're chutzpan, but they're not weak. I'm sorry, they could be weak, but they're not— but they're chutzpan. Right, I'm saying it's not a stira, it's not a contradiction. The only thing is, but Rashi, it's clear that the yona doesn't leave like the tor doesn't leave. Rashi says, in Nefesh Torecha, tor shelcha, targum lashon torimu bnei yonah. He translates torecha. Why? Because mishka tor hazeh, mishemeis hazachar, ben zugeina mizdabek la'acher. But he says the word torecha here means torim bnei yonah. It's a little bit, unless he means, yes, so then he's going back on the word tor, so why put in the word bnei yonah? All right, bottom line also the question is, we say yonati bechagvei hasela. Klal Yisrael is more like the yona. So according to Ramban, it's about the yona that it doesn't leave its nest, maybe. So I guess it has to be a baby yona. Yonasi bechagvei hasela is the baby yona, not the big yona, because the big yona, Klal Yisrael... Okay, this is all neither here nor there. Let me just end off with the following yesod, following yesod. Rav Gifter said over, and when he would say it, he would cry. He said it over from Rav Bloch, tells the rav.

who was killed by the Nazis. And before he would say over this pshat, he would first introduce by saying, I first want to tell you who Rav Bloch was. That's how he would say. I want to tell you a pshat, beautiful, from Rav Bloch, but I want to first tell you who he was. And he would cry, and he would say it over, who was Rav Bloch. Rav Bloch was the rav in Telz during World War II, in Poland. The Nazis used to come into the cities looking for the rabbiner. They always first wanted to kill the rav. And they came in, they looked for the rabbiner. They told him that he's in the beis medrash, in the synagogue. They went to the synagogue, and they saw Rav Bloch sitting and learning in front of the yeshiva, in front of the learning over there. So they walked over to him, two Nazi German soldiers, with their big rifles. They used to have these big, with the big, the heavy part, you know, like the metal at the end of the rifle. And they said to him, Yidn, Juden, are you scared? So he said, No. So he says, Tell me, where is your God? You pray all day to God. Is God going to help you over here? Is God going to protect you? Where is your God? So Rav Bloch was, amitzus, tells, you know, every yeshiva and every, you know, different part of Klal Yisrael has a different midah that it excels in. Telz is about gevurah, amitzut. Soldiers, it tells you, are soldiers. You know, you have to stand tall and tough. So he turns to them and he says, I misunderstood you. You said your God like it's mine. It's not mine. It's your God too. And there'll come a day that the whole world will know that it's not just my God, it's everyone's God, yours included. The Nazis saw such brazenness, such chutzpah, got so angry, because the idea is they want to, you know, I'm the soldier and you're the garbage, the Jew. When he saw the chutzpah, the O Yehudi otzalu, he went crazy from it. The gevurah, he didn't even shoot. He got so angry, he took the end of the gun and he just broke his neck with it in front of the whole yeshiva. That's how Reb Bloch was niftar. That's how Reb Bloch was niftar. So Rav Gifter would say, you see what type of person we're talking about, with such gevurah, commitment to the truth. Now when he says Rav Gifter, you know who the person is. Now let me tell you what he said, and then you'll understand how he could say a thing like this. Meaning this brings out the personality of the person who said it. He said it like this. When we talk about middah, everybody knows there's an expression. Most of the sefarim on middah bring it even as a title: Suga Bashoshanim. A lot of the titles, they use it. It's based on a medrash. Suga means a fence of flowers, of roses, shoshanim are roses. Chazal say, what is this referring to? You know, middah is something which nobody knows about. It's private in someone's bedroom. What gives a person the courage to be able to withstand the nisyonot in Hilchot Niddah? You know, Hilchot Shabbos, people see you being mechalel Shabbos, that protects us. A person doesn't want to—people should look at him, you know. Kashrut. You see, the guy went into a treif store, so you see that there's something wrong. But neither, who would ever know the difference? Say Chazal, there is a tremendous protection system, and that is suga ba-shoshanim. There's an alarm system made from a fence, which is of flowers, beautiful roses. And that suga, that fence, nobody breaks through. They keep it, and it stays guarded from that fence. Asra Bloch, I don't understand. If you wanted to guard something, let's say you have a beautiful home, would you guard it with flowers or you would get an alarm system with metal? Who makes an alarm? Who makes a fence to protect intruders with roses? What does it mean? What does Chazal mean, suga ba-shoshanim? Answers Rav Bloch, gevald, but it's really pashut pshat, but it's beautiful. He says like this: you know, a fence, as strong as the fence is, there's always physical capability to break through it. There's always, again, it might be so difficult, but physically it's possible. There's always, and that's what intruders do. They learn how to, you know, dig from underneath. What happens when you look at a—

Something beautiful, and you're astonished by its beauty. You don't want to destroy. The force of withholding you from is much stronger than any physical force. The force of conceptual—what's the word I'm looking for?—conceptual protection is much stronger than a physical. Poretz geder, any geder you could be poretz. But when it comes to seeing something which is gorgeous, it's very difficult, unless you're sick, unless you're completely not normal. What happens is, Klal Yisrael looks at the mitzvot haTorah, and they compare it to, you know what? To shoshanim, to beautiful roses. No Jew is going to destroy those roses to be over the aveirah. So, eino chanami, it's a protection, it's a gate that protects. But shoshanim, beautiful, beautiful roses. So said Rav Bloch, and so said Rav Gifter. I remember the way he would cry when he would say it over. Cry, cry. What's the lesson? We have to learn to look at the Yiddishkeit, to look at the mitzvot, to look at Hashem, that it's something beautiful. Unfortunately, unfortunately, we live in a harsh world, very harsh. And this harsh world makes us think, you know, everything's nasty and everything's bad, and people are bad, and evil, and the street is evil. But you have to realize, Etz chayim hi lamachazikim bah, v'tomcheha me'ushar. Yeah, the Torah is beautiful, beautiful. Racheha, rachenoa, v'chol nesivoseha shalom. And when we appreciate that, then we want, and we wait for the Torah, and we wait for our time to daven and to be with Hashem. If you look at kol ha'oseh tefilato, whoever makes his prayer as an oil, as a shibud, I have to go pray, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. You have to look forward to that. It's my time with Hashem. I appreciate Hashem, my relationship with You, and if I appreciate my time with You, I appreciate my learning. You'll see the darkei noam. It takes a while. It doesn't happen overnight. Work in this direction to see the darkei noam. What's going to happen? It'll be sugah bashoshanim. You'll never want to leave. You'll never want to give it up. This is the limud. Klal Yisrael is like the yonah and the tor, that they protect the kan, and they don't give up their ben zug no matter what comes. They're mitabel, mitabel, aveilut. Take a look how we're mitabel v'iru shalayim, thousands of years. Forget it. Come on, move on. You know, in English we say, move on, right? You know, the counselors come and they tell you that you have to have closure, closure. How can we don't say, you know what, let's have closure, okay, the Beit Hamikdash, have a nice day, that's all. And the answer is, when something is very, very, very, very chashuv, you know of a person that when he himself dies, they tell him, you know what, don't worry about it, have closure. It's not the end of the world. You're gonna die in that closure, and that's all. Right now, let's work on closure. I'm asking, you ever see a guy, walk into the hospital, guy's dying. Tell him, you know, listen, the stake's are in, it's over. Come, let's work on closure now. And the Torah says because a person is so important to himself, it's not shayach closure. It's shayach to teach a guy closure when he dies, when the other guy died, that closure. And the Torah says when we lose Hashem and we lose our Beis Hamikdash, it's not the other person, it's us. It's a part of our neshama. A part of ourselves dies. Not possible closure. Not possible. Tziyas is not shayach. That's mitabel. There's no closure. Let us be zocheh to see that... We'll see you Wednesday. What time is it? Right, what time is it now? That's it, that's what I... Wednesday morning I'm here.