Mishpatim: Torah Justice, Pesharah, and Yiras Shamayim in Dinei Mamonos

Transcript

Parshas Mishpatim. Ve'eileh hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. These are the laws. Mishpatim referring to dinim, choshen mishpat, choshen mishpat, court law, mishpatim, court law. Ve'eileh, there's an extra vav. It should say, Eileh hamishpatim. These are. What's and these are? You never begin a chapter with and. The, not and. These are, not and these are, unless and is a run-on. And is a mechaber. It puts together the previous with what is being said over here. So the Eileh hamishpatim should have actually began Eileh hamishpatim. This question Rashi addresses. Why does it say Ve'eileh hamishpatim? It should say Eileh hamishpatim. Good, you want to teach the laws. You have another parsha dedicated to the laws. Why does it begin ve-, which implies a continuation of the previous parsha? Also, the placing of this parsha is questionable. Why is it here? The previous parsha talks about Matan Torah, and all of a sudden, the continuing parsha is about the laws of Choshen Mishpat, smichus. What is the fact that this parsha connected to the previous parsha and close to the previous parsha? So these are two separate questions: the vav connecting it and the smichus, putting it one after another, needs to be explained. So Rashi answers both questions. Says Rashi, Makom shene'emar eileh, pasal es harishonim, ve'eileh mosif al harishonim. That eino chanami, ve- is to add, it's to continue, it's to connect. It's connected to the previous parsha, just like in the previous parsha we had Aseres HaDibros miSinai, so too the dinim are what? MiSinai. So that's the vav. Why is it put over here, these dinim? So that should have sufficed to already explain why the dinim are here, right? In other words, if you're trying to connect the previous parsha to teach me that this is also miSinai, so that should have been a good enough answer why it's here after the parsha of Yisro. But Rashi, for some reason, finds it necessary to quote. I'm going to explain a different reason why it's next to the parashah of Yisro, and that is, says Rashi, V'lamah nismachah parashas dinim l'parashas mizbeach? Lomar lecha shetasim Sanhedrin etzel haMikdash. The Sanhedrin belongs in the Beis HaMikdash, because the end of Parashas Yisro talks about a mizbeach, and the beginning of Mishpatim talks about the laws which are given in the hands of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin has to be next to the, let's just say for the time being, next in the Mikdash. The mizbeach is in the Mikdash. We'll soon learn that actually Rashi has a different girsa, that it has to be near the mizbeach. We'll get into that in a few moments. But these are the two parts to the answer of the question, why is Mishpatim after Yisro? It's interesting. It comes out that Rashi found it necessary to give two separate answers to Parashas Mishpatim being here. One is vav, to connect it to Matan Torah, and the smichus, the fact that it's next to not Matan Torah, but the mizbeach, which was the last thing we learned in Parashas Yisro. So actually we're connecting the parashah of Ela Mishpatim to two parts of last week's parashah.

We're connecting it to Matan Torah, that this also is Misinai, and that's the vav. And the mizbeach, which was the last thing we learned in Parshas Yisro, that you have to build a mizbeach, Sanhedrin, the laws of dinim are given to the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin has to be near the Mikdash, and Rashi has a girsa on this, a separate one in brackets, near the mizbeach. L'choira, why doesn't it suffice to say one answer, that it's Misinai, and that's why it begins with these halachos? Or if it's here and it's connected to the previous parsha because of the mizbeach, so then that's the connection. Then that should be the vav hachibur. The reason why it has a vav is because it's connected directly to the previous parsha. Now I could go in and start, you know, nitpicking and saying, well, semichus is just to tell me that it belongs near, but the vav is actually one step more than that. It's trying to say that it's mamash connected, and therefore we have to go find in the last week's parsha how it's exactly connected, to the extent that the Mizrachi learns that the mishpatim are so much connected to Sinai that actually they were given b'Sinai b'kolos uvrakim. That the same way the Aseres HaDibros were given b'maamad Har Sinai, they were given with loud thunders, and not only the Aseres HaDibros, but ve'eila hamishpat... That's the pshat Misinai, that it's not stam connected in theory. It's literally connected. It's part of last week's parsha. The Mizrachi learns like this. The Aruch HaChaim brings it down. He says it can't be. It doesn't make sense. Only the Aseres HaDibros were given with Ma'amad Har Sinai, with the thunders and the lightning. But it's not true that the Mishpatim were given that way. Okay. And I could figure out that that's pshat in Rashi, that Rashi held that it's not just smichus, but there's actually vav chibur, that it's attached to last week's parsha. I don't want to go into it because it's detailed, and it's not necessarily important for the topic that we're going to talk about today. But what is important for me, I would like to say that actually it's not two separate answers. That's how I would like to learn the Rashi. Connecting it to Sinai and connecting it to the Mizbeach is actually all of the same. It's actually one answer. I don't mean literally one answer, but in concept, in yesod, it's actually trying to tell us the same thing about the Mishpatim: that they were connected to Matan Torah, and they were connected to the Mizbeach. And I'll prove it to you. It's very interesting that Mizbeach is brought in last week's parsha. You know why? There was still no Mishkan. What was the point of talking about a Mizbeach? What Mizbeach are you talking about? There's no Mishkan. This wasn't my question, by the way. The Kli Yakar asks this, actually. Doesn't understand what Mizbeach is doing in last week's parsha at all. I mean, why teach me about a Mizbeach if we don't have a Mishkan yet? We'll have a Mishkan, we'll say how to make a Mizbeach. It's a preface. Fine, but why? I mean, why say it here? There's got to be a reason that it's there. It could be it's not only the Mishkan's Mizbeach; maybe it's every Mizbeach. Don't forget, they made a Mizbeach on Har Sinai. I don't know that much at this point to say that it's the same Mizbeach, and all the halachos of Mizbeach, when they get to the Mizbeach, that they built on Har Sinai, and that's why it tells me the halachos of the Mizbeach. The Kli Yakar asks this for a question. It's good enough for me. The Kli Yakar says he doesn't understand; he's perplexed. Why is the story of the Mizbeach even here? I mean, it doesn't belong. It's Matan Torah, and then you want to talk about the Mishpatim. And the answer might be, like I'm telling you, Matan Torah is affiliated and connected to a Mizbeach, which is affiliated and connected to a Sanhedrin. There's some joint understanding here. There's some joint...

Connection between the Mizbeach, Matan Torah, and the Sanhedrin. Let me discuss with you a few other answers that are given in the Rishonim. Why is Parshas Mishpatim here? The most simple and basic is the Ibn Ezra—I'm sorry, not the Ibn Ezra, the Siforno and the Ramban. Siforno and Ramban says it's connected to Matan Torah, not ideologically. See, according to Rashi, it's an ideological connection. Just like this is from Sinai, you got to understand that this is from Sinai, either to give it credence or to give it understanding of its role that it plays. According to the Ramban and the Siforno, it's a technical reason why it's connected to Matan Torah, because the Torah in Matan Torah is teaching us, Lo sachmod, you're not allowed to lust what's not yours; Lo sigzol, you're not allowed to steal, and so on and so forth. So how do I know what's mine? How do I know what's called stealing? So right away the Torah goes into Ela Mishpatim. These are the details of what's called stealing, what's called lusting, what's not yours. Otherwise, if you don't know what's yours and what's called stealing, then how could you teach me, Don't be over these aveiros? That's how the Siforno and the Ramban learn, which means that according to Rashi, it's somewhat ideological, the connection, while according to the Siforno and the Ramban, what is it? Technical. You teach me the halacha, Lo sachmod. How do I know what it is? Eila mishpatim. The Even Ezra says something quite unique, connecting mishpatim to Matan Torah. Matan Torah was a bris. It was a treaty. Va'atem tihyu li mamleches kohanim v'goy kadosh. You know, in the sefarim—excuse me, not sefarim, but the Rishonim, based on Chazal—Matan Torah was a marriage between Klal Yisrael and HaKadosh Baruch Hu. I've once given you a shiur that all the halachos and customs of a wedding is deduced and taken from Matan Torah. We learn it from the story of Matan Torah. Not going to go into it now, but just to bring out the strong connection between bris, treaty, marriage, agreement. So there's a pre-nupcial to the agreement. You know what that is? You got to keep certain mitzvahs. Otherwise the agreement is worthless, right? What is one of those things that is a pre-nupcial to this bris, says the Even Ezra? That is Eila mishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. If you keep the dinim, that's a prenup. Maybe I'm not saying the right word. Maybe it's not prenup. It's a condition. Maybe prenup is when you get divorced. Whatever, it's a tenai ka'iyum l'maaseh. For the bris, that if you want the bris, you have to keep what? Eila mishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. That's what the Even Ezra says. Maybe I'll read you the words; you'll see that it's— Very unique. Even Ezra, very unique. Says the Even Ezra like this. Here. Here. Hashem is telling them that He's ready to make a treaty with them. Tell them, if you accept it, then they'll have a bris. That if they accept it, then they'll have a bris. And one of the things is, He tells them that they have to keep the mitzvahs and the mishpatim. V'ra'u ha-mishpatim v'ha-mitzvos. He tells them which laws and which rules, mishpatim they have to keep, and that's this week's parsha. My question to you is: are the mishpatim the essence of the bris, or are the mishpatim conditions, prenups to the bris? For example, the best example I just gave you: marriage. You ever see it says that he's willing to respect his wife at—

Treat her k'das, guvin Yehudi, like every other Jewish husband. So if a person doesn't keep the actual core, then what's that? That means he's not married. To love, to respect, to whatever the goyim even use the language today, right? That's all part of the marriage. Then you can have conditions to the marriage: I'll buy you a house, I'll make sure I give you this, I'll get you that, we'll go here, we'll... right? These are what tena'im, that if you don't keep them, the marriage will fall apart. My question is, in the Even Ezra, that he explains that these mishpatim are a condition to the bris of Atem tihyu li mamleches kohanim v'goy kadosh. Matan Torah was a treaty, and the mishpatim is what? Conditions, meaning that it's a condition chutz, outer, outside conditions that have to be met, or these are the actual conditions that make up the bris. That is the treaty between Klal Yisrael and HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that they keep the mishpat. That is the question that we're going to address today. So we have here two questions. The first question is the connection, ideologically, that Rashi tells us between Matan Torah, and we're putting into the mix mizbeach, to mishpatim, and we have the Even Ezra that tells us that the bris of Matan Torah... The bris of Matan Torah was about mishpatim. It was a big part of the bris, eila hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem, and that's why it's here. The Ramban in the Siforno learn it simple, that the connection is technical, that once you tell me not to steal and lust someone else's objects, you got to teach me what's called stealing. Okay, so there's not too much that you have to explain according to the Ramban and Siforno. But we have to explain this ideological connection that Rashi is telling us between Matan Torah, the mizbeach. You could learn Rashi that the mizbeach is just technical. Okay, where you're supposed to put the mishpatim, meaning the Sanhedrin, that is technically next to the mizbeach. Or like we're saying is, and it has a lot to do with Sinai. It's connected to Sinai, mizbeach, mishpatim. There's some unique connection. Therefore, I believe that Rashi is actually saying that the smichus and the vav hachibur is actually all one. It's to the entire parsha of Yisro, which starts with Matan Torah and culminates with mizbeach. That's the way I would understand the parsha, that Matan Torah ends with the lesson of mizbeach. There's something about a mizbeach that belonged after Matan Torah, and it continues with this week's parsha of Eila Mishpatim. Does everybody understand what I just did? I just learned for you the pasuk. That's all I did. If you didn't learn the pasuk like this, that means that you're looking for something else than the actual learning of the pasuk. This was the learning of the pasuk: Ve'eila hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. The vav is connecting it to last week's parsha. Why? The Ramban, super technical. It has to do with lo sachma; you're not taught with lo sachma, lo sigzol, taught with lo sigzol. Rashi makes it that it's from Sinai, something a little more ideological, something hegיוני. You have to know that this is from Sinai. What about the smichus? Ah, the smichus is the mizbeach. So maybe one has nothing to do with the other, or maybe it does. Maybe it's all one smichus: Matan Torah, mizbeach, it's all connected. And according to the Ibn Ezra, it has not necessarily to do with the laws of Matan Torah, but it has to do with the bris, the treaty of Matan Torah, the eilah hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. Now let's discuss and explain. What connection does the Sanhedrin have to do with the mizbeach? Just it has to be there. That's the way it has to be. Now I want to tell you an interesting ha'arah. Rashi says that you're supposed to put the Sanhedrin eitzel haMikdash. What does he mean? Does he mean the Beis HaMikdash? Does he mean the kodesh of Mikdash? He means the sanctuary within the Beis HaMikdash.

If you look, there's a girsa. You see the girsa? Mizbeach. Don't translate Mikdash, mizbeach. Now why would it be in the Mikdash? Well, I could come and say very simple. It's the holiest place of Klal Yisrael. Over there there's hashra'as haShechinah. We also know that our Sanhedrin, Elokim nitzav ba'adas Kel. Hashem dwells and rests in the Sanhedrin. So therefore, ultimately, the best place for the Sanhedrin would be the Beis HaMikdash. You know, the lashon of the pasuk by Sanhedrin is, V'kamta v'alisa el hamakom asher yivchar Hashem, right? And then you go over there and you ask, and you're supposed to ask Sanhedrin, and you're supposed to do k'chol asher yorucha. Maybe it has a lot to do with the Sanhedrin, like the Urim v'Tumim, that they're representing Hashem. Hashem is there, Elokim nitzav. Hashem is among the Sanhedrin, and He's there with their psak halacha, and therefore the best place for them would be actually in the Mikdash, in the sanctuary. That's how I would say it. If someone tells you, Why should the Sanhedrin be in the Beis HaMikdash? and the answer is, Shechinah, right? That's what you would say, right? What makes it a little more complicated is if you don't say it means Mikdash, but it means mizbeach. Wait a minute, why would the Sanhedrin be next to the mizbeach? So here the mefarshim... Say different terutzim. And let me begin by telling you what I really think is important when you read this Rashi. It's supposed to be eitzel HaMikdash. This comes from Mechilta. That's where this is coming from. The word of the Mechilta is, Ela mishpatim asher tasim, nimtzeinu l'meidos Sanhedrin bo'im b'tzad hamizbeach. Very interesting lashon. It's not even so much near the mizbeach, but it belongs on the side of the mizbeach. Interesting, huh? Someone tells you you could park next to my house. Okay, so next to is a location. But if you come and you say you could park on the side of my house, you might be implying more than just what next to. You might be implying that there's some connection between my house and where you park. I'll give you another example. Tell me, if you parked in the street near my house, next to my house, what would that be? That's next. But is that anything connected to me? No. The sidewalk, which is next to my house. If I come and tell you you should park on the side of my house, you're saying something more. You're saying that it's connected to my house. My house and the side of that is where you're going to be parking. See the difference? You like it. I do. You know why I like it? Because it's true. And you know why it's true? Because I read it. That's what it says here. Bo'im. It doesn't even say you're supposed to. Bo'im, they come, b'tzad ha-mizbeach. I'll give you another mashal that you should understand it. Oh, higata la-chatunah. Me'eizeh tzad ata? Ani mi-tzad ha-chatan, ani mi-tzad ha-kallah. Right? That's what he would say. Tell me something. When you come mi-tzad ha-chatan, mi-tzad ha-kallah, what does that mean? That because you saw the kallah? Or that implies that you're either very friendly with the kallah or the chassan, or very friendly, or very related to the chassan and the kallah. Mi-tzad something means that there's a connection. It's not just a location connection, you understand? Mi-tzad means there's a connection. You know that? Okay. So the question is, mi-tzad. Ba'im mi-tzad. Like as if I would say, I'm coming mi-tzad... ani ba mi-tzad ha-Chatan. Ani ba mi-tzad ha-mizbeach. I like it. You know what? Because you came, I'm going to give you a gem. Here, איפה שמים הסנהדרין?

Ayta mizbeach. That's not actually what Rashi says. What Rashi says is, סמוךם מצד המקדש, אצל המקדש. Oh, in the brackets it says the word mizbeach. So I went to look: is it mikdash? Is it mizbeach? Now, if it's mikdash, I can להבין. השראת השכינה is where? In the Mikdash. And Sanhedrin needs השראת השכינה. אלוקים ניצב בעדת קל; בקרב אלוקים ישפוט. השראת השכינה. The Sanhedrin is a type of Urim v'Tumim. They pasken halachos of Klal Yisrael. מורה דרך צריכים השראת השכינה. Fine. But if you don't say it's mikdash, you say it's mizbeach, what do you mean? What connection does that have with the mizbeach? And what does it mean to be אצל המקדש, אצל המזבח, location-wise? Which still needs to be explained. Why is it in location next to the mizbeach? It's a good question. We have to get to that. But I'm showing that it's even more than location. כתוב, באים בצד המזבח. That's the mechilta that Rashi is quoting. They come. I gave an example: when you come and say, אני בא מצד החתן, what does that mean? You're located next to the chassan? You're connected to the chassan. באים—what's the connection between the Sanhedrin and the mizbeach? So the Maharal, this chacham brings down the Gur Aryeh, says the mizbeach is l'hatil shalom. It's to make peace. What? Between HaKadosh Baruch Hu and Klal Yisrael. Peace. Mishpatim, בין עברי לעברי, בין נגע לנגע, דיני ריבויס. You walk into a beis din, you walk into one of these dayanim, you'll see what machlokes is. You guys have no idea what machlokes is. Kill each other over a quarter, yeah? So what makes shalom, or what should make shalom al kol panim—I don't know if it does it today, but it's supposed to—is the dinim mamonos, mishpat. So that's the connection to the mizbeach. All right. Maharal, Maharal says it. I guess he doesn't mean just that this is next to this, so this is for this and that's for that. Maybe he means to say is that the dayanim should learn from the mizbeach. I would like to add in the Maharal. Otherwise, it's next to this because it has the same reason. It's not—it's watery stuff. I would say what the Maharal means, that the Sanhedrin must learn from the mizbeach. Just like the mizbeach is meitiv shalom, your job is to be meitiv shalom and not the opposite, which unfortunately many dayanim don't know. Many dayanim think that their job is to represent their client. You know what the lawyers are there for? Anybody a lawyer here? I doubt it. Yeah, anybody? You don't look like such a... You look like a... Yeah, I don't think there's any lawyers here. Just kidding, just kidding. Some of my friends, my best friends are lawyers. Maybe. All right. The lawyer's whole thing is to make machlokes, you know. They're supposed to represent you and dig at the other guy and catch him, find him. Push him in there, and, Oh, let me tell him, and therefore I'll... Divrei rivos. And there are many rabbanim who believe that that's their job too, since ze boreir lo echad v'ze boreir lo echad. How did dayanim work? You can either walk into a beis din and say, All three of you are my dayanim, or we could say like this: zabla. What is zabla? Ze boreir lo echad. You choose one dayan, your opponent chooses a dayan, and together they choose a third dayan. So unfortunately, dayanim started to believe that since I'm chosen by this person, I have to represent this person, and I have to fight him out for his rights, and then, hey, there's a machlokes, yotzei hadayanim atzman. It's unbelievable what goes on there. Al ta'aseh atzmcha orchei hadayanim. A Mishnah in Avos. You're not allowed to be a lawyer. You're not allowed to act like a lawyer, to represent the side of your client. You have to come to what? Represent everybody, to bring out the truth, to bring out good. You know, the Eileh Mishpatim, the Tur says, every word: Hamishpatim, nutrikin: hadayan, mitzuveh sheya'aseh peshara, terem ya'aseh mishpat, asher nutrikin im shneihem rotzin. It's all about bringing shalom. Mishpatim, nutrikin.

Daled. Mem, mitzvah. Shin, sheya'aseh. Pei, pishra. Tes, terem. Yud, ya'aseh. Mem, mishpat. First you have to make a pshara. Why? Because you're trying to help the two sides. You're not trying to make them further apart. Okay, that's just a little bit to bring you into the world that I live in, so to speak. You never get a chance to experience it, but that's, unfortunately, that's what it became. Memeila, the Dayan must learn from the Mizbeach, l'hatil shalom, to try to bring peace into the world and not the opposite. And that's the chibur, the connection, the placement of the Sanhedrin to the Mizbeach. Okay, this is a Maharal. The Kli Yakar says a different pshat. The Kli Yakar says a chidush nifla. All the halachos of a Sanhedrin are learned from the Mizbeach. Hafla vafla. I saw this Kli Yakar. It's pages long. It's a very long Kli Yakar, and I went through it line by line because every line is unbelievable, unbelievable chidush. Hilchos Sanhedrin, the needs and tenaim of a kosher Dayan are deduced from the Mizbeach. And I'll tell you where he gets this from, the Kli Yakar: the Medrash in Esther. Perek Aleph, os yud beis, says that there were six steps to Shlomo HaMelech's throne. Sheish ma'alot. Now, everybody knows that there were lions and tigers and who knows what. Everybody, that part, what's exciting for the children, that part everybody knows. Lions and who knows, and zebras and giraffes, whatever, whatever your imagination sends you. It's true, that was on Shlomo HaMelech's throne, and we know by Paro, right, the throne, he had to try to make it like Shlomo HaMelech's throne. We all know these midrashim, fine. What's a little less known is that each step had a pasuk written on it. I'm going to tell you the six pesukim that are written on the six steps of Shlomo HaMelech's throne. On the first step it said, Lo sateh mishpat. You should not make a mistaken judgment. Don't mistake, err in judgment. The second step said, Lo sakir panim. Don't show special, special to somebody. Favoritism. Don't show favoritism to anybody. The third one, Lo sikach shochad. Don't take bribery. The fourth one, you would say has something to do also with mishpat, right? And don't forget Shlomo HaMelech was the ultimate dayan, the chacham, the famous thing that they brought the baby to him and he knew how to pasken. Shlomo HaMelech was wise. The dayan ha... the dayan of all dayanim, hadayan sheva dayanim, right? What would you say the fourth one would be? Also about mishpat. No. Lo sita lecha asheirah. Don't put up a tree of avodah zarah. An asheirah, an avodah zarah tree. What's an avodah zarah tree? An idol. Oh, an idol. Five. Lo yasikim lecha matzeivah. Don't put up an idol—not an idol, but a statue. Matzeivah. Statue. Six. Lo sisbach laShem Elokecha shor veseh asher yihyeh bo mum. Yeah? On the sixth step it said, don't slaughter to Hashem something that has a blemish. Blemish? Where? What? On the throne? What shayches? Says the Kli Yakar, I don't understand. The first three pesukim is about judgment. Fine, it's supposed to be a reminder. Judge fairly. Put up a big poster, it's a reminder. But what about the last two? And the last one? The last one about mum, about an animal. What does that have to do with anything? Says the Kli Yakar, gevaldik, gevaldik. Shlomo HaMelech learned this mechilta that says, ... maasan hedyot.

You're supposed to put this Sanhedrin next to the Mizbeach. There's a reason for it, and the reason is that you're supposed to learn from the Mizbeach how to be a Dayan, how to judge. There's a connection between this week's parsha and the end of last week's parsha, the Mizbeach. And what does it say in last week's parsha? It says like this: Mizbeach adamah ta'aseh li. First it says, Ko somar bnei Yisrael, lo sa'asun iti Elohei chesef v'Elohei zahav lo sa'asu lachem. Avodah zarah. So Shlomo HaMelech put a banner, a poster, avodah zarah on his chair. Next, Mizbeach adamah ta'aseh li, v'zavachta alav es olosecha v'es shlamecha, b'karcha. Mimizbachi v'lo sivneh it gazis. He learned from the Mizbeach, the slaughter, the korbanos on the Mizbeach, many, many halachos l'gabei a Dayan, and he put that on his throne. This is unbelievable. It's unbelievable. You hear? You're listening? Beautiful. He says that Shlomo HaMelech learned from this pasuk, the way the Mechilta learned, that there's a direct connection between the Mizbeach and the Dayanim, sh'tashim es haSanhedrin etzel haMizbeach. And he explains. He says like this. Let me tell you just all the details. He says like this. Oh. Oh. He says like this: V'zavachta alav es olosecha. Mum... is a psul. So you have to put a l'secha, shar v'seir, a kosher korban without a mum. A dayan can't have a mum either. You know that as soon as a dayan gets a mum, they take him off the beis. Why? So he says that a dayan has to know that an external mum represents an internal mum. The outer of a person represents internal problems. You know, a navi had to be healthy, and the mefarshim explain for this reason, because healthy on the outside is a siman for healthy on the inside. A beheima baal mum is not kosher. A dayan a baal mum is not kosher. Lo sakim l'cha matzeivah. What about the matzeivah also? Avodah zarah. He says that the dayan could have the impression that he is the law of the land. He is the final word. He'll walk around thinking, Look who I am. I'm the law. I'm the final say. He has to know, lo sakim l'cha matzeivah, Hashem. And he goes through the halachos. Very interesting. I'm trying to be mekatzer, but it's a long kliyakar. The halachos of a dayan are taken straight out of the mizbeach. I learned the deuce from all the halachos of the mizbeach: no mum, no avodah zarah, anavah. He even says the whole inyan of being makriv a korban is to be an anav. Rambam says, right? It's supposed to humble you. A dayan has to learn from that, that he has to be humble. Just one piece I'd like to take out from the Kli Yakar, which is very interesting. He says that the yetzer hara comes and tells the dayan, No, it's important. It's important that you should act in a certain boastful way because, like this they'll respect you. He says that's the yetzer hara talking, because he knows that once you have that lacking, that chisaron, that you feel that you're the— you know what? You'll pasken, you'll make big mistakes. You'll pasken quickly to show off that you know. You'll make major flaws. And he says even further, he says, What's the mum? Piseach ha'iver. What's iver? What are you blind from? Shochad, from gaiva, from emes. He says it's unbelievable. I'm telling you to be kitzer, because, I mean, we could spend here a half hour just reading the whole Kli Yakar. The concept of korban is supposed to be introduced into the Sanhedrin. That's why the mizbeach precedes mishpatim, and that's why Shlomo HaMelech put the halachos of avodah zarah about being makriv a mum together with lo sacharosh, lo sachar punim. Moreh dik, moreh dik, you hear? I wanted to answer a little different, because the Kli Yakar just learns that it's supposed to be the halachos of the mizbeach learned from the mizbeach to the Sanhedrin, and also the ideology of anavah. That's his big, his big— anavah.

Being humble, that's what's supposed to be deduced from Mizbeach and introduced into the Sanhedrin. I would like to say it a little bit different. I would like to say it like this. I believe that the inyan of korban is extremely connected to mishpat. Not even the dayan, but the whole idea of mishpat. And I'll explain to you what I mean. If you notice in this previous week's parsha, when Moshe Rabbeinu tells Yisro, They come to me. Yisro complains, Why are you making them stand all day? Says Moshe Rabbeinu, They come to me. Why do they come to me? Lidrosh es HaElokim, to be doresh HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to seek out, to search HaKadosh Baruch Hu. What does that mean? What are they coming? So the Seforno learns that they come to be doresh mamash the word of Elokim, when they should travel, when they shouldn't travel. Al pi Hashem yachanu, v'al pi Hashem yisa'u. They're traveling, and Hashem is dictating to them how to travel. How would they know this? So the truth is, we know that has to do with the clouds, right? That whenever the anan moved, then they had to move. But we see from this that even so, they still needed daas Torah to come to ask Moshe. That's what Seforno said. I mean, he doesn't say this last cheshbon, but I'm saying, you see from the Seforno that even after the clouds moving, it wasn't like Kiddush HaChodesh, Oh, we see the moon. No, you still had to go where... And speak to Moshe Rabbeinu to be doresh from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, like the Urim V'Tumim, right? You had to get a final psak straight from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Vatelech lidrosh es Hashem. You know who says the same lashon? Who says, Vatelech lidrosh es Hashem? Come on. Rivka. Vatelech lidrosh, ki bo'u elai lidrosh es Hashem. When you don't know, that's called to be doresh Hashem. Does everybody remember last week's parsha's Rashi's? I'm not asking you to remember Rivka. Last week's parsha, you just read it yesterday. How does Rashi explain Vatelech lidrosh, ki bo'u elai lidrosh es Hashem? Who? Says Rashi, they come to ask Talmud, learning from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Tell me, the next pasuk explains what they come for, right? Nisa, what does the next pasuk say? They come because they have questions, being din l'din, divrei rivos, fightings. Read the pasuk, no? You know something? I'm not going to move till everybody understands what I'm talking about, because it's called reading. It bothers me that people know Torah, they know pshat, but they can't read a pasuk Chumash. It makes me crazy, what should I tell you? Read it. What am I—this is a big chiddush? I'm saying big Torah? I'm saying pashut pshat, pashut, read it. Yeah, what does it say in the pasuk? They come to be doresh es Hashem. What's the next pasuk? ... problems, ... halachic she'eilos. They have these problems. Now tell me, is— They come to be doresh Elikim. Is it this pasuk? Is it the next pasuk? Pasuk has to connect it, right? According to the sevara or not? According to the sevara, it's two different things, right? It's interesting. Now let's clarify Rashi. Rashi says they come to ask questions. What are their questions? Read the Rashi. Huh? Yeah, nu? Oh, talmud mipi ha... What does it mean? They come to ask Torah? I don't know. If you learn that this pasuk is not connected to the next pasuk, so maybe they come to hear Torah from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. They want to hear good shiurim, so they come to Moshe Rabbeinu for a shiur. Vatelech lidrosh Elokim would be a shiur from Rabbeinu or Reb Shimon Shkop. That's what it means. Shiurei haktzois, that מה שהם רוצים לשמוע מהקדוש ברוך הוא. Oh, dilma that this Rashi is connected to the next thing. What talmud are we talking about? Lidrosh...

Borrowing to another guy, he's ... bicycle. What do you do then? I don't know. I'm learning with you. Let's say that's true. Why is that called vatelech lidrosh Elokim? Why is it called that? Bishloma according to Seforno, it means they're coming to ask Hashem. Hashem, yes or no? Should I go or I shouldn't go? But if it means ba'bakam, ba'metzia, why is it called lidrosh Elokim? Lidrosh, to search Hashem? They're coming to know, dvar Hashem. I don't need to lidrosh. They're coming to be doresh. Now the truth is, I was thinking about it. Maybe this story with Yisroel is before the eilah mishpatim, when it was given. So they don't even know what it says in the mishpatim, so they have to ask, to be doresh Hashem: Should I say it? Should I stand? Am I allowed to ram my car into the guy's bicycle or I'm not allowed? If I didn't pay my rent, do I have to pay it? Do you know what I'm talking about? I can't take it. The people don't read. What am I supposed to do? I can't. People are sitting and reading, learning Chumash and not reading the pasuk. What am I supposed to tell you? You got to learn what it says, otherwise don't waste your time. It's very nice to say this is gematria, that is gematria, but you don't know what you're reading. You don't know the pasuk. I want to know, what is lidrosh? I'm coming to search. What am I searching? What are you searching? And the answer is, if I did, there's no way to get the answer, so I have to search it, maybe. You know, on the computer they have something called a search. Why? Because since the information is not in front of you, so you have to search it. So the word lidrosh maybe means to search. That's all it means. There's a word search and there's a God search. I don't know the answer to the question, so I gotta put it into the computer. The computer is my ... They have to search. What are you searching Hashem? You're learning Choshen Mishpat, you learn. You're learning to know what do you do if you didn't pay your rent. And the answer could be, because till Mishpatim were given, it had to come from Hashem. There was no other way to get it. They were asking Hashem for a yes-no answer. Can I go? Can I stand? Should I sit? Should I pay? Shouldn't I pay? I'll show you how I don't like this and why I don't like this. In Parshas Mishpatim now, by shlishi, there's a whole story of a person denying that someone gave him, didn't give him. Shvuas Hashem tihyeh bein shneihem, the din of shvua. Let's learn it. It's by shlishi, okay? Why don't I open up the Chumash? Go ahead. Does everybody have it? Shlishi! Shlishi! Okay, go ahead. Who's reading? Quickly, read! Go ahead, shlishi. Nu? Needs to read enough today. Somebody, you, read, nu? Shlishi, go ahead, nu. No, no, shlishi. You have it? Shlishi. Right away in the beginning. Wow, wow, wow. Pasuk vav, here. Yeah, here it is, this is what I'm looking for. Pasuk vav, here. Sorry, pasuk vav. Ki tinishareyayu. ... he's denying it. Okay. So, v'nikrav baal habayis el ha'Elokim. You're supposed to come to who? To Elokim. That's the first time it says the word Elokim. Then it says, Al kol devar pesha, al shor, al chamor, al seh, al salma, al kol aveidah asher yomar ki hu zeh, ad ha'Elokim yavo divrei shneihem. Asher yarshi'un Elokim. Three. Chazal learn out that how many dayanim you need for choshen mishpat? Three. Because Elokim means a dayan. Wow, very interesting. Could you imagine? You complain about the dayanim, that they think they're so great, and you want them to be humble. You call them Elokim. What do you want? Gods, you're calling them. God, Elohim, yeah? You come to the beis din, it says Elohim, yeah, but the beis din means Elohim. What does it mean? And the answer, of course, is Elohim needs to be daas, that they only represent HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

They are the representatives of Elokim. So you can't go straight to Hashem, so you go to the dayan who represents Hashem, yeah? Isn't it interesting that the lashon is v'nikrav, v'nikrav baal habayis el haElokim. Hmm. I like it. I like it. This is something you'll only hear from me here. Didn't we say that it has something to do with the mizbeach? That I hear something to do with a korban or something? Mum, that I hear the word korban, and all of a sudden when it comes to beis din I hear which word? V'nikrav. Light bulbs go off in my mind. V'nikrav baal habayis el haElokim. Very interesting. You like it? V'nikrav. What do you mean, v'nikrav? You should come to beis din. What are you talking about? I know the words. Could you translate v'nikrav, you should come close to the beis din? What, you should get close to? Oh, maybe that's what it means. You know, a lot of people, when they read this, they have the wrong assumption. It means you should get friendly with the beis din. V'nikrav, you slip them a few dollars. V'nikrav baal habayis. It's very, very, very, very. V'nikrav just to get close. Tell me, did you get close to court today? No, I went there. What does it get close? I mean, I almost got there. V'nikrav means I got close, but no cigar. You know, in English they say you got close but no cigar. What happened? I couldn't find the parking. Maybe that's what it means. V'nikrav, you should get close. That's good enough. Of course I'm joking. It means you have to come to the beis din. What does v'nikrav—what does it mean? What words mean? I read it and I go, I don't know what it means. V'nikrav baal habayis el haElokim. What does it mean? You know what I think it means? I'll tell you what I think it means. I think it means karbon. It has a lot to do with the word karbon. You know, a person in this world could live his entire life disconnected from the Ribono Shel Olam. Completely. He goes to business and he works and he does. His whole life is in the realm of this world, and he is the driver of his own destiny. Then a person could live his life and say, you know, I'm governed by laws. There's a—I'm governed by laws. ונקרב בעל הבית אל האלוקים, there are laws. And you get close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu by going through the process of dinei mamonos, like a karbon. The idea of a karbon is to humble a person, to remember that there's a Ribono Shel Olam. Connect to the Ribono Shel Olam. You know how you connect to the Ribono Shel Olam on a day-to-day basis? By following the laws, Elah mishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. ונקרב בעל הבית אל האלוקים, and I'll show you another beautiful diyuk. What's the word בעל הבית? Interesting lashon. ונקרב, the one who you complain against. Why is he called a בעל הבית? You like it. You know who makes this diyuk? The great Reb Shamshon Raphael Hirsch. The great—it's classic. He says a little differently than me. I'm telling you right now, he says a whole different pshat with ונקרב פועל. You look over there, he works with the root word of פעיל. ונקרב, not ויקרב, ונקרב. Okay, it's irrelevant for right now. Says Reb Shamshon Raphael Hirsch, Balabayis. Who's the owner? Who's the boss? Hashem is the... Nikra balabayis. You balabayis, you got to answer to a higher authority, Elokeim. I'll tell you even further. Why is it only by this case? I mean, all Choshen Mishpat is here, and this is the only place that it says, Nikra balabayis Elokeim. It should say it by the beginning of Mishpatim. You know what this is talking about? This is talking about a shevuah. A person denies, and he's able to get away with it. He's able to get away with it. V'gunah mi'beis eish. I claim that I don't have it. So the shevuah comes and says, Proof, proof that you didn't take the thing, the object, and claim that it got stolen. That's the story. It's talking about a shevuah. How do you get a person to admit through a shevuah? Does anybody know Masechta Shevuos a little bit? A shevuah was a threat process. The Ribono Shel Olam is going to get you. You're going to suffer from tremendous punishments of HaKadosh Baruch Hu if you don't admit, and you swear falsely in His name. You notice that a shevuah, you take b'shvuas Shem Hashem. The idea of a shevuah is that even what...

Man could get away with, and there's no way to detect physically. The beis din can't catch it. There's no way for beis din to know. It's already beyond what? It's beyond the realm of society to catch you. But then you have to answer to a higher authority, then the Ribono Shel Olam. I answer, V'nikra baal habayis el haElokim, and I make a shvua b'shem Hashem. This is karban. This is the idea of a karban. In this world, when a person brings a karban, you know what it is? It's a stop, and tell him, listen! Your daily activities, it's subordinate to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. V'nikra. You want to get close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to bring Him into your daily dinei mamonos. You're fighting over money. Wait a minute. The Ribono Shel Olam, it's a realization check. If you're close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, then you won't do what you could get away with. He can get away with this. You know what the story here is? There's no way to prove it. There is no way to prove it. There's no way to find it. V'nikra baal habayis el haElokim. Im lo shalach yado... You didn't tell. How does anyone ever know? You'll never know. That's where kirvas Elokim comes in. Are you God-fearing or you're not? Are you connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu? If you're connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you'll give back the money. If you're not, there's nothing you can do. There's a certain, what do I call it, a certain situation where man can't stop you. That's it. We checked, we looked, we investigated. It's out of our hands. Are you close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu? Are you connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu? Then, asher lo shalach yad, you'll pay it up. That's called korban, nikrav al habayis Elokim. This, rabosai, answers to me the question: Why does Sanhedrin have to do with the Mizbeach? What does Sanhedrin have to do with Ma eilu miSinai? And the answer is, in the epitome of this world, one has to know that he's connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu through his Torah. You know what, matan... it's very interesting. I once thought about it. Why is it that HaKadosh Baruch Hu made it that He should come down on Har Sinai? Vayeired Hashem. Hashem came down. Why do You come down for? What bothered Me? What's wrong if HaKadosh Baruch Hu would elevate us? He took Moshe Rabbeinu up. Tell me, was there any chisaron on our part that Hashem came to us and we didn't come to Hashem? I would say the opposite. Who should go to who? It should have had that the people should come to Hashem. Why would Hashem come to the people? What's the answer? Nu? Matan Torah was bringing Hashem to the world. That's what Matan Torah was. Vayeired Hashem. How do you bring Hashem down into this world? It's through the Torah. L'maalah... how did HaKadosh Baruch Hu come l'maatah ma'asar? How did it happen? Okay, so we have to know the Rishonim, mitzvah... He brought the mountain up, it was under, over, I don't even want to go into it, the symbolic issue. Vayered Hashem al Har Sinai. And the answer is, Har Sinai was humble, humble, and Hashem was able to come down to it. What's your question? What do you want to know? What do you want to know? What's he asking? Yeah. Huh? Oh, okay, I thought you were asking me. It reminds me of a very cute story, this story. There was once a rav that was giving a shiur, and there was one guy sitting in front of him, paying attention, supposedly. Everybody else was out cold. And then the rav would say this, the guy would go... And then when the rav would say this, he would, like, make with his face, you know, yeah. And then when the rav said a third thing, he would go, make faces, laugh. But the rav addressed this whole shiur to this guy, because at least this guy's paying attention, yeah? After the shiur, he comes over, he says, I saw you paid attention to the whole shiur. You were so, you know, attentive, but there were parts that you liked and parts you didn't like, and sometimes you went like yes, and sometimes you went no, and sometimes...

You weren't sure, so tell me which parts did you like. She said, Rabbi, I don't understand one word that you said. Not one word. I had no idea what you're talking about. She says, So why'd you make, you know, motions with your face? I'll tell you the truth. I was looking at you, and there's a picture in my house of my grandfather. You look so much like my grandfather. So every time you stood straight with your face straight, you looked like my grandfather, and I shook my head, yes, yes. Then when you turned a little bit, I wasn't sure. And then when you turned to your left, eh, it didn't look at all like my grandfather. The whole shiur, I'm trying to figure out, do you look like my grandfather? I'm saying a whole shiur, I'm directing it to you, and then I was asking, I figured, a big shayla he has. He wants some conditioning of faith. Tell me, I look like your grandfather? Okay. Now listen carefully. Maybe he says he's a big fan of what we're saying. That's what. Or cold means it's cold. He doesn't understand it. It's cold in the tracks. Some deeper meaning. You should be baruch, you should be benched, you're a good person. I know you're listening. I know you're listening. Come. No, no, better, see, you listen. You should know, for years he comes to learn. He's really like... You hear the charifei nachas? Do you hear what I'm telling you? You should have so much nachas, you don't know where to put it. Okay, now. Okay, listen carefully. Hashem came down. Mayin Har Sinai, that's af elu miSinai. You want to know what Matan Torah is? Matan Torah is Hashem coming to the people. You know, we even have an expression, a chatan yotzei likrat. Where does it come from? Matan Torah. Matan Torah. Matan Torah. Hashem came down, and then Klal Yisrael came. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the chassan, Klal Yisrael is the kallah. Hashem came to the people. In order to bring Hashem into this world, there's something called Matan Torah. And then comes Mizbeach, as we soon will explain to you a little bit further as we move along in the shiur. And the way to do it in this world is, eilah hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. Now I want to explain to you that I believe that that's pshat in this Rashi. When Rashi says, Ve'eileh, what's ve'eileh? Kol makom shene'emar eilah, that what? Ma harishonim miSinai. Af eilu miSinai. When you learn Choshen Mishpat, you're connecting lidrosh es Hashem. Ki bo elai lidrosh Elokim. You search Hashem. You know how you search Hashem? By learning Choshen Mishpat, by learning ve'eilah hamishpatim. The pasuk is saying, telling us, what is the derech of Hashem. They have a riv bein ish le'ish, and they come to me to be poishet the question. That's called lidrosh es Hashem. You know, there was a big discussion many years ago. The ikar is to be close to Hashem. You don't have it by learning Bava Kama, Bava Metzia, Bava Basra. Many chugim held that, ah, I can't be close to Hashem by learning Bava Metzia, Bava Basra. I have to learn, you know. Musar and hashkafah and Chassidus, it's not true, rabbosai. And even the great Chassidic masters who lived and learned Chassidus, right, and I have many proofs to this, that the ikar deveikus baShem is by learning Bava Kama, Bava Metzia, Bava Basra. And it says it in the pasuk. You want to be doresh Hashem? You want to be v'nikra Baal Habayis El HaElokim? You want to get close to Hashem? It's this: Eilu hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. And I'll repeat it over again. We had big controversial discussions when we started Binas Chaim. Many held that we should teach them, since they're beginners, we should teach them hashkafah and mussar. And I, together with my father, we stood strong and we fought and we kicked and we yelled, teach them Bava Metzia, teach them Bava Basra, teach them the Gemara. That's going to keep them. That's going to make them religious. Ten years, fifteen years later, who was right and who was wrong? I was right. My father was right. They were wrong. Their classes and the people they were mekarev, nothing was left, nothing. Here we have a yeshiva based on that we learn Bava Metzia, Bava Basra. Is this true? Is this the truth? Do you know who I'm—

Okay. This was big machloikes, and I want to learn hashkafah, and I told you, leave the hashkafah alone. It's not going to do anything for you. The nikra bal habayis Elokim, the eila mishpatim. Ma eilu miSinai, af eilu miSinai. Mizbeach avodah. Avodah is ve'eila hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. And I'm going to show you that this is actually echoed in the words of none other than the Beis Yosef himself. I'm going to show you where the Beis Yosef says this. But you got to give me a few more minutes to fix up and patch up all the ha'aros that I asked. I asked you a question, Rashi: is it connected to Sinai or is it connected to mizbeach? And the answer is, it's both. It's the same thing. It's avodah. It's being korei pa Kadosh Baruch Hu, vnikra. Ve'eila hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. And I'll explain to you why this is. It's impossible to be connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, because HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not physical, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu is eish ochlah. The pasuk says, Ledavkah bo. You're supposed to connect to Hashem. Deveikus, says the Medrash, Vechi efshar ledavek bShechinah? Harei Hu eish ochlah. It's not physical; it's fire. How do you—ella what? Hisdabek b... bidrachav. Go in His ways. The only way to connect to Hashem is to do His derech Hashem, His way, and through that you connect to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Midos. Does it say anywhere in the Torah you're supposed to have midos? Nowhere. It doesn't say. We learn from the Avos what's called midos tovos, but it doesn't say anywhere. You know where it says it? It says, Vehalachta bidrachav. Mah Hu chanun, af atah... Mah Hu rachum... The yesod haTorah is to go b'darkei Hashem. And you know what you have from that? You'll be connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You go in His ways, v'halachta bidrachav. V'davka bo is also misdavek bidrachav u'mishpatav hatovim. What's the lashon? Hisdabek bo bidrachav u'mishpatav hatovim. Eileh hamishpatim is v'nikra baal habayis el haElokim. And let me show you further, again in this week's parsha. Asher tasim lifneihem, yeah? What does lifneihem mean? Does anybody know what lifnei means? So there's two pshatim Rashi says. Either it has to be kishulchan aruch, you got to break it up for them good, or lifneihem v'lo lifnei akum. You're not allowed to go to goyishe courts, right? You're not allowed to go to goyish—what's wrong going to gentile courts? You're saying that the goyishe court is a higher authority. It's a higher authority. Okay, so this is a very big issue, and I'll show you where the issue is involved. One Chazal says, she'ata miyaker shem avodah zarah. You're making them more special than you. Is it the court? Is it the authority, or is it the laws that they pasken? So the lashon is mashma it's the authority. You're going to them, you're giving them the respect that you're following. The Medrash Tanchuma in this week's parsha says, lifneihem v'lo lifnei akum, chukav u'mishpatav l'Yisrael. Lo asachein l'chol goy. Mishpatim baal yeduim, baal yeduim. They don't know this. They can't say good mishpat. They don't have good mishpat. We say it in dvarim, u'mi goy gadol asher lo Elokim karov eilav. Hashem אומר, what it says, Ki lo chukim u'mishpatim yesharim, that you have good laws. Remember the pasuk? You want to read it for them? You want to read it? It's too hard to find. It's in Devarim. You have chukim u'mishpatim yesharim, k'chol haTorah hazeh. You have good stuff. They have not good things. Rashi even says, b'kubalim v'hagunim. That's how Rashi explains chukim u'mishpatim yesharim. So then it's what? Not necessarily who they are, but it's even the laws that they have, right? I'll tell you a kasha that bothered me all my life. I asked it to all the big guns, all the big rebbes and rabbanim yesterday I met. I met a whole bunch of rebbes and rabbanim. Nobody had an answer for me. Bnei Noach are metzuvin al hadinim. You know that? The Bnei Noach must have a legal system. Tell me, their legal system is a good one or a bad one? So you would come and say, It's corrupt. Good for them. Okay, so let me show you first of all a few things. In Parshas Vayishlach, the Ramban says that one of the problems...

Which chet, and why he had to be annihilated and killed? Because he did not do laws. He did not follow a legal system, because he raped Dinah and no one ever judged him for it. Let me show you how the Ramban brings this halacha. V'al daati, hadinim shemanu b'livnei Noach b'sheva mitzvos shelahem, einam l'hoshiv dayanim. They don't have to have judges. Eino l'hoshiv dayanim chol plach u'plach levad. It's not only to have judges. Aval tzivah osam b'dinei gneivah, v'onaah, v'oshek, u'schar sachir, v'dinei ha-shomrim, ones u'mefateh, v'ones nizakin, v'chovel b'chaveiro, v'dinei malveh v'loveh, v'dinei mekah u'memkar, kayotzeh bahem. Tell me, did he miss anything that says in this parsha, Parshas Mishpatim? No, he went through the entire Parshas Mishpatim. Bnei Noach are mitzuvah to have dayanim that do everything that it says in Parshas Mishpatim. I didn't make this up. This is a Ramban. It's an unbelievable Ramban. U'k'inyan hadinim shenitztavu Yisrael, to have the same legal system like the goy, like the Jew. I asked this to the Rabbanim. I asked them this. Tell me something. If they came and made a din me'uves, they made a foolish rule. For example, they made a rule that if you peg a parking ticket, you sit 20 years in jail. Are they yotzei the mitzvah Bnei Noach mitzuvin al hadinim? Or are they going to be over an aveirah of mitzvah Bnei Noach? That's dinim. It's corruption. You know, sometimes we come and say, Stupid! What'd they do wrong? They had a legal system, and that's where they decide: democracy. Tell me something, you ever hear of a democracy? Good, right? What's a democracy? Democracy is that the people of the country get together and they decide on a constitution. Stupid decide on the constitution of communism. Just kidding. Anybody communist here? Okay. So what's wrong with Stupid? And you know what the answer is? How could you have din merumeh? It's got to make sense. So you tell me that it makes sense, and on the other hand, they have the same rules as us, and that's no good. Chukim u'mishpatim, my kind. So what's toiv me'li toiv? I don't know the difference. I don't understand the difference. I don't understand the difference. Anybody has a teretz, I'll give you a million dollars. Why don't I tell you? Give me a teretz. By the way, you almost won a million dollars. If you had a little bit different, you said a tiny drop different, you would have won a million. And even if you say it good, I'll figure out a way how to say that you didn't say it good, so therefore I shouldn't have to pay the million dollars. Besides, I don't have it anyway, so you can go collect the million dollars from me any day of the week you want. I don't have it. What's the difference? You hear my question? Simple question. ... doesn't have our laws. That's what it says. So he said good, it's not the law. Of course they have a legal system, but to go to the legal system of theirs is a bizayon for Klal Yisrael. Many say like this. Many say you're showing that they're more authority than you. A mashal. The Medrash doesn't say that. The Medrash is mashma that we're—what do we call—we wage war against their whole legal system, that it's wrong and it's corrupt and it's no good, and we have chukim u'mishpatim yesharim. You found the pasuk. So what, they have a corrupt law, so you have ... I understand. What are you telling me? They're mitzuvah al ha-dinim. What kind of dinim? False dinim? Which dinim? The Ramban says clearly they're mitzuvah on everything, k'dinei Yisrael, the same laws. So what's the variation? Instead of a fifty-dollar fine, they give you a forty-dollar fine, and that's called chukim u'mishpatim lo tovim? The judge is there, don't have to be God-fearing. I said, but the rules are the same, though. But they can use their own ego. They can—look. So you're telling me that they'll say false so that it's not—I'm asking you, halacha l'maaseh, if a good judge gets there and says, You know something? I'm going to pasken that this guy's right because I fit—would he be going against Bnei Noach mitzuvin al ha-dinim? And the answer is yes. Yes! So what's wrong? What's the big deal? Again, you're not answering the question. The laws are the same, let's say. And you want to know something? If you look clearly, Rashi even speaks out, afilu b'davar she'ata yodea... even when you know it's the same. We're not talking about a—

That's dine? We're not talking about the Constitution of dine. What are we talking about? That's what he says. I asked you a question. So the Bnei Noach are mitzuvah al dinim, and they judge falsely. Would they get punished for that? According to the Rambam, should you take out every judge, take a shotgun and shoot him? Like it's one of the—there was a doctor they shot recently, or a judge or something, I don't know, whatever. They shot a judge somewhere. What about it? He judged falsely. What do you want? I'm asking halacha l'maaseh. If a judge is a baal gaavah, a baal taavah, he likes cheizek, he's a bad guy and he paskened for bad middos, bad things. Look what happened to that one judge, I think it was in Alabama. He had the Ten Commandments in his courthouse, right? They threw him out. Who cares? What do you have to do with God? We're just talking about laws, laws. The law is good or it's not good, and if it's good, so how can they be wrong? What's bad about it? So if you come and tell me that it's more, what do you call it, hypothetical, you're coming and you're saying Hashem is not—the courts are better, I agree with you. But if you're attacking their laws, which laws are you attacking? Are you attacking their good laws or their bad laws? And it's not that much different. What does that mean? So let me tell you what I think it means. You ready? Sechel could dictate that if you hit him, you owe him money. That's sechel. That's common sense. We're talking about dayanim that have common sense. We're not talking about thieves. We're not talking about—there's nothing about... And still it's not good. And still it's not right. You know, bankruptcy. Is there such a thing in the Torah to claim bankruptcy? Why not? The answer is because it's not about what's right or wrong, but what's right and wrong for each of the two bali din. It's wrong for you to claim bankruptcy. Someone lent you money. How could you go and not pay him back? You owe him the money. You see, there's something called societal justice. Then there's something called individual justice. The nikra balabayis, elul kid. When the individual comes to Beis Din, he's not coming for societal rule. He's coming for eved Hashem, avodas Hashem. How does a Yid behave in dinei mamonos? I want you to listen to it one more time because it's gevaldik. I thought about it and thought about it and thought about it. It's gevaldik. The goy has a constitution. The constitution is based sometimes on the good of the society, which is communism. The whole communism is the good of the society. Then you have the democratic, which is the yachid, but also klapei the what? The rabbis. You know where I got this from? You're probably thinking to yourself, what is he talking about? I'll show you something which struck a chord in my heart this week, and because of this, this opened up for me to understand this whole sugya. They want to make a stadium somewhere in Manhattan. They're trying to build this for the Knicks or for the Nets or for one of these football, baseball, I don't know, one of these basketball something, I don't know, something. They want to make a— Oh, they want to do it in Brooklyn. Okay. Now, they're taking people's houses and they're ripping it down. Those people are screaming, Chai v'kayam, yeah, but it's my house. Too bad. Eminent domain. Eminent domain. Okay. Good for the state. What's good for the state. What's good for the— You should know that the Eibishter gave this to me as a gem. I'm so happy. I listen a little bit here, I listen a little bit there, the news. Sometimes it doesn't even— for some reason it stuck me into the heart. This expression, Michael Bloomberg, no less a Yid, you hear? He says people have to understand that sometimes the Yid has to give up what's good for the state. That's the way it works. All of a sudden it hit me like a lightning bolt. What are you saying? I thought you were—

Democratic country. I thought you're about the rights of the individual. And the teretz is, from what angle are you looking? Are you looking from the state trying to give the rights of the individual, which is still for the sake of the state? The taeles of the state in the sheetah of democracy is that the yachid should have rights, but it never runs away from the state. It's still not the yachid l'toeles hayachid. I'm going to show you another thing. I'll tell you a story that happened with my grandfather, and also, and then I'll show you where a Yid, even his individual state, his himself—it's not the himself, but it's all about v'nikra baal habayis l'olam, his connecting to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Listen carefully. My father told me a story that years past, he was once driving my grandfather, and there was a policeman who was directing traffic. My father didn't hear the policeman. My father doesn't hear so well. My father, he is a little bit hard of hearing. He didn't hear the policeman. The policeman said, Go right, and he went left. The policeman started knocking on him with a stick, and he started yelling, You this and this, and you, and you, you went, and I told you not to go, and he's screaming, and he's yelling, and he's this and he's that. To my grandfather, this was a shocking sight. I mean, let's say he violated the law. Let's say, because the law is that he has to listen to the police. But the policeman had no right to insult him. The policeman had no right to rebuke him. The policeman had no right to, what's the word, to be mashpil him, to degrade him. What do I mean? Even if it's not the words that he said, what are you screaming at him for? He did something illegal. So you take him to a court. So my grandfather asked him this. He couldn't swallow it, and he asked him, he said, But why are you screaming at him? But why are you screaming at him? And you know what his answer was? Yeah, because he violated the law. Didn't answer the question. He didn't answer the question. Yeah, but my question to you is not what he did. The question is, why are you a no mensch? Why are you a beheima? Why are you acting like a beheima? And the answer is because it's nothing more than the law. It is nothing about the person. There's nothing about how I, as a person, behave. It's all about how you fulfill the laws and the obligations. There is no law. And I know there's a law that a policeman has to have courtesy. I don't know if it's a law. It's not a law. It's a police procedure. You know, if a cop degrades, if it's not racist, if it's racism, he's finished. But even if it's not racism, I don't know if he violates a law. If he yells at you, there's no law about that. The compliance. But that's only within the police, the bureaucracy of the police. Said my grandfather, Chukim u'mishpatim lo ta'aseh. That's called chukim u'mishpatim, the law. You could degrade a guy, you could yell at him, you could scream at him. Tell me, I want to challenge you. Does it say anywhere in Hilchos Sanhedrin that a Dayan raised his voice? To scream at a defendant. I challenge. I don't know. I'm thinking about it. You could talk to me. What do you say? Kofim oto. Huh? Find it. Find me where it says vigoarim bo. Again, not where it's nogea l'maaseh. In other words, l'achar hamaaseh. What do you want to say? Either you're saying, you know, you're sitting in front of me talking to him, so let me hear, no? You're disgusted. You hear my point? I'm trying to get to a yesod. Laws, laws are societal in nature. By Klal Yisrael, laws are individual as much as societal. The yachid has to behave in a certain way because he is the nikra banim אתם לה' אלוקיכם. And the courts are there to bring about the nikra banim אתם לה' אלוקיכם. That's what they're there for. Now I'm going to show you where the Beis Yosef says this, and then we'll go back and learn from this a lesson.

You know, Choshe Mishpat, the Tur gives an introduction to the following: Reb Shimon gamliel omer, al shlosha devarim ha'olam kayam. There are three things that make this world stand: al hadin, al ha'emes, v'al hashalom. Peirush Rabbeinu Yonah says, the Tur that Rabbeinu Yonah explained, ein פירושו that it doesn't mean shebishvil shlosha devarim eilu nivra olam, that that's why the world was created. That's not why the world was created. Because the beginning of perek Avos says, Al shlosha devarim ha'olam omeid, and it's not the same thing as ha'olam kayam, al hadin v'al ha'emes v'al hashalom. You know what the olam is omeid? Does anybody know what the world stands on? Al haTorah, al avodah, v'al gemilus chasadim. So how can there be a Mishnah that says, Al shlosha devarim ha'olam kayam, al hadin v'al ha'emes v'al hashalom? Is it a contradiction? Are they arguing? No, says Rabbeinu Yonah, says the Tur, no, it's two different things. We're talking about two different topics. What's the difference? Ela, mitchilah amar, originally the world was created for what? Torah, avodah, gemilus chasadim. On what does the world have kiyum, olam kayam, פירוש, שנברא מתקיים? How does it stay in effect? And the answer is, al yedei eilu, dayanim, emes, shalom, and so on and so forth. Explains the Beis Yosef as follows: What does this mean? V'im tomar, v'halo b'shlosha שנברא עולם יספיקו לקיימו. I don't understand what you're talking about. It was created for this, which means that the world is capable to exist. So why does an ongoing, the ongoing existence need three different things? That's the Beis Yosef's question. If you can create a world here, I'll give you an example. You're able to make a car and it could run. If it didn't have oil, it wouldn't run. But the minute it has oil, it's able to run. So you don't need new things. The minute it runs, that means whatever is there in the first place is there is enough to make it run. The Yesh Loimar answers the Beis Yosef an interesting teretz. Sheshimon HaTzadik diber kefi zmano, shehaya Beis HaMikdash kayam. When the Beis HaMikdash was kayam, al haTorah v'al haAvodah v'al gemilus chasadim, the world was able to stand. Reb Shimon Gamliel was talking about b'zman hachurban. Once we lost the Beis HaMikdash, pay close attention, rabosai. What did we lose in the Beis HaMikdash? We lost the mizbeach. I say good, you're not going to hear this from anywhere else. I find things that nobody else finds. The mizbeach, we lost. He says it clearly, we lost the mizbeach. And therefore what complemented that? Al hadin v'al haemes v'al hashalom. And he explains why. Listen to what he says. He says because Torah. Who's going to learn Torah if there's no judgment, if there's no din? Emes, there's no avodah if there's no emes. You know why? Because we can't do korbanos, so how do we have korban today? We have it through emes, truth. Shechosamo shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu emes. It's truth. So the avodah gets complemented through din, emes, and mimeila shalom. That's what he says, because the whole din, din brings shalom, like the Maharal. Avodah, the mizbeach. Tosafos, mizbeach Sanhedrin. Emes. The laws, judgment, chukim, emes. Toras emes nasan lachem. The laws are about truth. That's chosamo shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Hashem put a stamp. He gave us laws. And you know what He gave us with those laws? A stamp, a stamp of kosher. What do those kosher stamp? Hashem's truth. Avodah, korban. So the world is existing today al hadin v'al ha'emes. I'll read you inside. He says like this: Shimu gam li'el shehadin sibas kiyum haTorah. Din is very important for kiyum haTorah. Sheha'over haTorah yanishehu b'din. Otherwise we wouldn't learn. There's no Beis HaMikdash. We're galus. It's rough. We know that there's a din v'cheshbon. Emes, says the Beis Yosef, tikun la'avodah, she'al yadei ha'avodah hoysa hashchinah shorah beineinu. Korban, karov la... How would we get close to Hashem in the old days? We had the avodah. V'hainu mushgachim uvishmiras ha'emes, shehi chosamo shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu, nakir. Through emes we'll notice and realize, v'nispalel, shehi b'makom avodas hakorbanos. Unbelievable. Rav Moshe hit it on the button.

I saw this b'siyata, I said, you know, the Eibishter gave me a present to be able to say a pshat in a pasuk. It's true. This is what I'm telling you. The idea of Matan Torah and the Mizbeach, Mishpatim, is all connected. It's all the same thing. In order to have v'nikra baal habayis el haElokim, in a world of commerce, in a world where everything is based on doing and coming and sinning and standing, only emes in din, in mishpat, will a person find v'nikra baal habayis el haElokim. Ki bo elai, lidrosh Elokim. What represents Elokim? Nitzav ba'adas Keil. Today. How? What? And the answer is the mishpatim, chukim u'mishpatim yesharim. This is where it comes from. The guy, of course, has laws, but it's not based on his connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, but rather on society, societal justice. You're right, and America's a just country, no question about it. But at the same time, it's not based on the yachid; it's based on the society. And the biggest raya is, here you go: you have an astronaut, astronaut. The most craziest things that they do. You know, there was a murder in the Bronx last week. You know who killed him? Who? No, you heard the news this morning? Another policeman. One policeman killed another policeman. You didn't hear the news yet. The guy who killed was together with his wife, who was a policeman who killed this guy. And who was the guy? A policeman. So one policeman killed another policeman. Motza mitz minai. That's it. Policeman. And he's the same police that's gonna scream at you, The law! Give me a parking ticket and he'll scream at you, The law! The law! The law and the gavra has nothing to do with each other. The human being and his societal laws have nothing to do with each other. He could be a piece of junk at home, and he walks around, the law is the law, the chukim u'mishpatim yesharim, they're not evil, but they're based on societal justice. It's not based on the nikra Baalapayis Elokim growth, to be close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. This is v'eilah hamishpatim tasim. Understand mishpatim is korban, and understand that by learning Bava Kamma, when Moshiach, you'll have deveikus, you'll be close to Hashem, because that's vatelech lidrosh, that's ki boa elai lidrosh Elokim. The dayanim, their laws, that's shvuas Hashem bein shneihem. You know, I was just thinking, you know, they say over, the mefarshim ask, why do we learn Elu Metzios with children? That's the first thing we learn. And the answer is, it's more to teach them hashkafah: what's yours is yours, what's mine is mine. You hear? That's Elu Metzios. What's mine is mine, what's yours is yours, and therefore when you lose it, I have to return it. So it's an introduction to the understanding of a child of dinei mamonos. That's why we learn with children Elu Metzios. Simple reason why we learn with them Elu Metzios, because it's easy Gemara. That's the simple reason. But then you can come, let's learn with them Megillah, let's—okay, that's neither here nor there. But the reason that the mefarshim, the Rishonim, always say over, to teach you— Conceptually, what's yours is yours, what's mine is mine. Does anybody know, when I say what's mine is mine and what's yours is yours, right, what is that based on? That could be based on justice, societal justice, right? Otherwise, we're all savages, we're all animals that are eating up the other guy, right? Do you know that last week's parsha, that Evan Ezra teaches me, that what's mine is mine and what's yours is yours, lo sachmod, is based on—does anybody know? V'yareisa meElokecha. You know that pasuk, right? Evan Ezra says, how can you say lo sachmod? I lost. That's what I feel. And the answer is, he brings a mashal with the bas melech, right? You're never going to lust the daughter of the king because it has nothing to do with you. So if you know what Hashem gives him is for him and what Hashem gives you is for you, and that's why it says, Evan Ezra, v'yareisa meElokecha. That's the justice system, which is based on what? V'yareisa meElokecha. It's a whole different mine is mine, yours is yours. Eilu metzius. If you boil it down to the core of what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours, is about yiras Shamayim. It's based on a nikar baal habayis... Even in mamonos, what's mine...

What's mine, what's yours? We said, we learned this so many times that Yaakov Avinu went back for pachim ketanim. Why did he go back for pachim ketanim? And the answer is, dinei mamonos. What's mine is mine, and that's because I understand it's based on what? Hashem, Yiras Hashem, v'nikrav baal habayis el Elokim. If I'm medakdek, if I'm medakdek, haroitzeh, nu, lischased, the Gemara. You want to be a chassid? Yekayem, milah d'nezikin. People say, a chassid, a chassid davens all day. Yeah, it's the same chassid, the same exact chassid. Yekayem milah d'nezikin, v'nikrav baal habayis el Elokim. You want to know how you get close to Hashem? What's mine is mine. Lo sachmod, the connection between lo sachmod and Aseres HaDibros. You hear? What's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. Let's bring it down l'maaseh. What's the lesson that should be learned from this? A person could live his whole life talking about being connected to Hashem, whole life talks about... and he could daven. Pesiachei tells me we lost that art of being close to Hashem through tefillah. Otherwise, let him just say. Right? We always know that we don't have the korban, and bimakom the korban we have tefillah. What does the Beis Yosef tell me? That's not enough. It's not going to work. He says it. You're all Sefardim, Beit Yosef, Maran. Everybody's running around, Maran, Beit Yosef, Maran. So here, come, let's learn Maran, Beit Yosef. You ready? Here. Va'emes tikun la'avod. שעל ידי העבודה הויתה השכינה שורה בינינו, והיינו מושגחים. ובשמירת האמת שהיא חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, נכיר ונספעל אליו, שהיא במקום עבודת הקרבנות. I would paste this on every shul. I would take this, blow it up, and put it on every shul. If your daily life and the mamdus is not 100%, your davening is not there. It's just not. He says it. I didn't make it up. Everybody thinks the korban is finished, and now we have tefillah instead. Tefillah b'makom... k'neged תמידין תקנום. It's opposite the korbanos. He says it's not going to work. He says it. You still need what? The emes. You still need the mishpat. You still need middah... That's how one connects to HaKadosh Baruch Hu: truthfulness in business, and learning Elam Mishpat, learning halachos, learning Choshen Mishpat, learning... Elam metzius brings out yiras Hashem, that you know mine is mine and yours is yours. That's how you connect to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. This is the truth that I told you today. You should be zoche to hear and learn this truth. It's a whole different world. Different world. All the mussar and all the chassidus, it's all good, but you're not going to the heart of korban. You're not going to the heart of Torah. Al shlosha dvarim ha'olam עומד: al Torah, ועל עבודה, ועל גמילות חסדים, is based on... What we have here, mishpat, din, emes, din, emes, mishpat, shalom. It's all based on these. Let's internalize these lessons.