Shemos: Shovavim, the Courage of Shifrah and Puah, and Yiras Shamayim

Transcript

This week's parsha, Parsha Shemos, begins a tekufa, a period in the Jewish calendar, which I don't know how known it is, or how known it was, but in recent years it became more and more known, more attention was paid to it. That is called the tekufa, the time of shovavim. Shovavim means Shemos, Va'eira, Bo, Beshalach, Yisro, Mishpatim, Shovavim. It's an acronym. It's supposed to resemble the beginning of the parshiyos of the beginning of Shemos. And this tekufa, Shovavim, the sefarim hakedoshim write at great length, is a zman for tikkun, for fixing פגם הברית, a time to fix, a time to do teshuva for all the aveiros that one does, for sod. Sod meaning ... tzaddik, yesod, arayos. It's a special time to fix for hirhurim. For bad thoughts, most of us, Baruch Hashem, don't have big aveiros in maaseh aveiros. But in hirhurim, the Gemara says clearly, Ein adam — there's almost no person that could come and say that he's completely clean from hirhurim, from bad thoughts. Shovavim is the time designated in the year for kaparah, for tikkun of shovavim of Pgam Habris. Why? Why did they choose these weeks? Why didn't they just look at the calendar and say, you know something? Well, we Chanukah, then there's Tu B'Shvat, and then there's Purim, so we need a time which is free, which is open that we could use and take, and therefore these are a few weeks here that we could take these weeks and use them as tikkun, zman teshuvah for shovavim, for inyanei Pgam Habris. מסתמא it has nothing to do with that. מסתמא these weeks inherently have a connection, have a shaychus. מסתמא these weeks are within themselves a zman ra'ui, a time fit for tikkun on these aveiros. Why? What's so special about these weeks that these weeks are the weeks designated for tikkun of Pgam Habris? Why? I'm sure there's a lot of literature on this topic. But I'd like to give my own personal feeling, my own personal understanding of it. Maybe it's brought in other sefarim, maybe it's not. And if it's not, it should be, because it's a good idea, it's a good yesod that we're going to say today. Why are these days mesugal, mesugal for tikun habris? Why? I'd like to begin by taking out a story from the beginning of the parsha and dissecting it, as they say, taking it apart to understand it properly. And I believe if we understand that parsha properly, we'll understand why Shmois and the following consecutive parshiyos are mesugal for pegam habris. I want to point out that usually events have a date, right? Yud Daled Adar is Purim, Chanukah is Chaf Hei Kislev. Not necessarily do they revolve around the parshiyos. For some reason, it's not the time, but the parshiyos. Shoivavim, the parshiyos of Shemos, Va'eira, Bo, Beshalach, Yisro, Mishpatim. It leads me to believe that the significance is not the time.

But it's the lessons of these parshiyos. The lessons of these parshiyos is creating the time for teshuvah on these yamim. What can we find in these parshiyos of Shemos, Va'eira, Bo, Beshalach? It talks about Pegam HaBris. You want to know something? I searched. I couldn't even find one word in all these parshiyos that talks about Pegam HaBris. There is no topic. There is no even code word which alludes to it. So if you come and say that al pi Zohar, al pi Kabbalah, it's the time. Listen now, what do I know in the inyanim of Kabbalah, the time? Why this time was picked? Why this time is mesugal? This time has rich capabilities to be mesaken Pegam HaBris. But if I attach it to the parshiyos, then my job is to what? To search the basis of the parshiyos, the shoresh of the parshiyos. What is in these parshiyos that causes the—how should I say it?—that it's fertile, that it's fertile to be mesaken Pegam HaBris? Arayos, hirhurei arayos. Where? What? What are these parshiyos that lend itself to the tikkun of Pegam HaBris? So I'll tell you what I'm thinking. And as I begin, I'd like to take apart one parshah. One story in the beginning of this parsha, and to show you how actually this thing reoccurs itself, kema'at in every parsha of Shmos vaEira Bo Beshalach, there's an underlying theme in the whole story, the whole story of Shmos vaEira Bo Beshalach. Let's begin with the meyaldos. Understand that the galus is lurking. It's the beginning of the galus in Shmos. It's around the corner. They're starting to make gezeiros on Klal Yisrael. Kol haben hayilod, haye'orah tashlichuhu. They should take all the male children and then throw them into the waters and kill them. The meyaldos don't do that. The meyaldos stand strong, and they withstand the pressure of Paroi to do this, and they keep the children alive. But the pasuk associates this great act of theirs to a certain midah, and that is, if you look at pasuk yud-zayin, Vatirena hameyaldos es haElokim. Perek aleph, pasuk yud-zayin, Vatirena hameyaldos es haElokim. The pasuk doesn't just state simply that they didn't listen to Paroi, they didn't commit murder, which we'll discuss in a few moments if it is murder. Not so simple that killing an unborn child in the mother's stomach is murder. And the issue, of course, will be if it's not murder, maybe they themselves shouldn't have put their lives at risk to save the— Unborn children. We could have discussed that in a few moments, but I just want to show you the emphasis, that G-d said in the pasuk, why they did it. Pasuk doesn't simply state, and they didn't do it. One could understand fathom they didn't do it because they were good people, they were tzaddikim. Why do I need a description of their inner state of mind when they didn't do it? So, you need a chiddush why someone doesn't want to commit murder. You need a chiddush why a person is a person with goals—I'm sorry, with ethics. He has morals. A person doesn't want to commit murder. I have to explain why a person doesn't? There's no need to give interpretation of why. Af al pi ken, we see that the pasuk goes out of its way to emphasize, and that, of course, is l'doros to teach us that this they didn't do it. This that they didn't do it has to do with what? Yiras Elokim, fear of Hashem. I'm going to show you that this diuk that—

Making is so apparent, it's so clear, because the pasuk is chazers it. The pasuk repeats it again when the pasuk discusses their reward. The pasuk says, Vayet... the pasuk chaf, Vayeita Elokim la'myaldos. Vayehi ki yaru... I'm sorry, pasuk chaf aleph, now continuing, Vayehi ki yaru ha'myaldos es ha'Elokim, vayaas lahem batim. Again, the pasuk doesn't even say that they did the act and they got reward, but actually the pasuk talks now only about why they did it. Vayiru es ha'Elokim, they feared God, they got a reward. So you see that the pasuk even takes out from the schar the ma'aseh, and attributes it strictly to what? To the yiras Elokim which caused the ma'aseh. Do you need any more clear pasuk that the pasuk is magdish, it emphasizes, it puts emphasis on the yiras Elokim here? It's clear. Why the emphasis about yiras Elokim? Why is it important to emphasize this thing, that they had yiras Elokim? Another question. We have to understand how the vayaas lahem batim was indirect. Payment, midah k'neged midah, for the vatirena hamyaldos es halekim. Because the pasuk obviously is linking the two together, the pasuk is saying, Vayas lahem batim. You should know, many, many meforshim discuss the link between the act and the reward, midah k'neged midah. What is it? Most classic is the Brisker Rav's vort, which is probably the most pashut as well. Rashi explains, what's the vayas lahem batim? Kehunah, leviyah. If it wasn't for the male boys, could you have kehunah and leviyah? You couldn't have it, because the yichus is always after the boy in Klal Yisrael and not the girl. So there would be no boys, you wouldn't have kehunah and leviyah. So as a reward for them sparing and saving the boys, vayas lahem batim. That's one of the many different pshatim that is said to explain why the batim is midah k'neged midah. For what? For the act of saving the children. But, rabosai, we point out that it's not so much for the act of saving the children, but rather the mashma'us, the implication of the pasuk is what? That it's for? Vatirena hamyaldos es halekim, Vayehi ka'asher yar'u hamyaldos es halekim. It's the fear of Hashem that resulted in the reward, the vayas lahem batim. What's the midah k'neged midah? This, rabosai, is the foundation, the shoresh, the basis of our shiur today. The emphasis on the yiras Elokim. How to explain that the vayas lahem batim, the kehunah leviyah, was a reward for this Yiras Elokim? Let me ask you a question. You know that there's a world of goyim that sacrifice themselves to save the lives of others. There's a whole world like that. If you're going to come and say, Goyim, it's not true. You're fooling yourself. You're being childish. Just recently there was a story in the news of a person that was on the platform. Someone had a seizure or something, fell into the train, and he jumped in to save the person while the train was coming. Hashem probably saw the tremendous act of courage, mesiras nefesh, me'odom l'odom, from one person to another, and they both miraculously were saved. Our people who sacrifice. You know, a lot of the army that fights in Iraq, a lot of them have this lofty goals of ethics, people, they're doing it for the right reasons, and they're happy to give up their life for it. What's so special about the Bialdim? I can imagine many, many midwives. Do you know you have today...

Doctors, midwives included, that go all over the world b'mesiras nefesh to save people, that they should be born. Africa, it's tremendous. So what's the big deal? Shifra, Puah, unbelievable. Ethic, ethic. There are ethical, moral people in the world. Why do we give them the status of heroes, so to speak, for what they did? I'm not saying the average guy wouldn't be able to do it. The average guy would quickly run the other way. I once told you a beautiful story. As they say, b'didi hava uvda. It happened with me. Two, maybe three, I believe though it's two years ago, Chol Hamoed Sukkos, I went with my children davening in the Bobover shul in Borough Park. We left, and like anybody that has children, young children, especially has more than one, he knows that you always have to go a second time to every place to recapture, to recollect everything that was left there the first time. You have to know that. It's a hat or a jacket, or it's the esrog, it's the lulav, it's the aravos, it's the siddur, it's the machzor. So you should be prepared that every time you leave for the first time, it's actually just the beginning. You'll have to—it's just a haschalah, a haschalta d'geulah of leaving, because you have to come back one, maybe even more than once. To retrieve. The word is retrieve all the lost and left-behind objects. So, I went into the car and I start driving. Ah! I left my aravos, I left the kveses, whatever they—I think it was aravos or whatever they left. I went around the block and I parked again in front of the shul. Sitting in the car, and I said, Listen, don't spend too much time. Get your aravos and run. I, you know, there's a lot of traffic, Maariv, please. I'm sitting in the car, and all of a sudden I hear screaming, screaming. You hear this unbelievable story, right? No, from the street. A goy took a Jewish child. He wanted to kidnap. A goy wanted to take a Jewish child and kidnap. It happened right in the back of my car. This was—in other words, I didn't see this thing because I was looking forwards, but I hear screaming and I'm looking where it's coming from. All of a sudden I hear a bunch of young chassidishe bachurim, you know, Yungelait, avreichim, screaming, He has a gun! So my first reaction was, Put your foot on the accelerator, right? Get out of here. And I was sure that that's what they meant as well. And then I see that the opposite. They were running to the guy to get the child. They were running to save the child, and they were screaming one to another, He has a gun! And I learned an unbelievable thing from this. There are people who, even without thinking, mesiras nefesh to save someone. It's an unbelievable thing. He has a gun, and they ran towards him instead of running away. I'll never forget it. Yeah, they subdued him. He dropped the gun. The police came within seconds. The bar park, you know, they have it in with the police. The police are the servants of the community there, literally. And within seconds, they had the guy handcuffed and then tried, and then all this mistama, into the background got better, because that's what the Babovich see the more do. Bottom line, they ran towards, towards him with, he has a gun. Are these such heroes? Can we come and say that these guys are the tzaddikim of the world? There are people that have inherent in their moral, moral and ethical, and that they're ready to sacrifice themselves for another person. Why do we single out Shifrah and Puah? They're very special, that they were willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of saving the children. Now the truth, I want to tell you even more. It's not even clear in the pasuk that they were in danger of dying. It's not even clear in the pasuk that they were. It doesn't say that if they didn't listen, they would have got killed. Maybe itself understood that if you don't listen to a king, you'll end up...

I understand that that obviously wouldn't be good for them. Obviously they'd be in some kind of trouble. There would be some kind of inconvenience. So, if they weren't going to be killed for it, so I don't even see what the big deal. I mean, do you tell somebody, kill that person, and the consequence is not even you'll get killed? Such a tzaddik for not killing that person? And the second question, maybe if you do get killed, we know there's halacha called yehareg v'al ya'avor. There's halacha that if someone puts a gun to your head and says, Go kill him or I'll kill you, the halacha dictates, is mechayev, that you shouldn't kill that person. So on this we can answer, there's a very famous Maharsha, that Bnei Noach are nereg al ha'ubrim. They get killed for causing abortion on a fetus. Klal Yisrael is not nereg al ha'ubrim. It's aser, but it's not nereg al ha'ubrim, which means it's not a capital offense that you get killed for. Wait a second. Now, says the Maharsha that this is why Paro didn't do it himself. Paro knew that Bnei Noach, it's a capital offense, so therefore he asked the midwives, because to them it's not hareg, it's aser, not punishable by death. This is how the Maharsha in Mesechta Sanhedrin explains. So I could clear that maybe if it's not nereg al ha'ubrim, there's no din of yehareg v'al ya'avor as well. Maybe if someone is threatening to kill you, if you don't kill the fetus, a yid is mechuyiv to go kill the fetus, maybe. This is all interesting discussion, halachically, for a different time in a different shiur. Point being, I'm trying to minimize, even though, most of the darshanim, most of the people who say speeches on this parsha will try to maximize the great act of Shifra and Puah. I'm sorry, I'm going to have to minimize it somewhat, because, like I said, I know many people that are ready to sacrifice themselves. I know this bobbeh chassid, seems like a simple guy. Seems like he wakes up in the morning, listens to his beeper messages, he goes to shul, davens ... then he goes and eats. Right? Then he goes makes up his business, ... Don't get me wrong, I hold all Yidden are something special. That's not what I'm trying to bring out. What I meant to say was, but on such a status as Shifra and Puah, do you know that Shifra and Puah were zocheh to all leadership roles in their lineage? Kehunah, leviyah, and malchus. The Medrash says, unbelievable, they were zocheh to all the big people came from them because of this act. You know, I know a lot of people who do big acts of chesed, who self-sacrifice themselves, not to take away from it, from the act of Shifra and Puah, but to take away from the prestige and the pedestal. That we put Shifra and Puah on. What's the big—what is so here? And then I'm pointing out, if there's a din of yehareg v'al ya'avor, which is a sugya for itself on an upper, on a fetus, does a Jew have a halacha that he should give up his life to save a fetus? So then it's nothing what they did. They kept the mitzvah. What's special credit? You get extra brownie points, as they say in English, for keeping the mitzvah of yehareg v'al ya'avor? You know, again, I'm not saying you're a kadosh if they kill you, and it's all good, but there were so many kedoshim, six million kedoshim in the Holocaust, the Spanish Inquisition, kedoshim u'tehorim, people that were moser nefesh. And they all, Shifra and Puah, seems like they were special, they were unique. What was so unique about them? Rabosai, let me tell you what I believe is the real pshat in the uniqueness, the greatness of ma'aseh Shifra and Puah. I'm going to read you a Medrash. Where's the Medrash? Here. It says the Medrash like this.

You ready? You ready? You ready for this? You ready for something interesting? Vatchayeno es hayeladim. It's an extra word in the pasuk. If they didn't do what Paro asked, of course they let the children live. If Paro says to kill, they didn't kill, so they let them live. Why does the pasuk have to emphasize, a repetition, to repeat itself, vatchayeno es hayeladim? Says the Medrash, yesh kilus b'soch kilus. This is giving them compliment, praise on top of praise. Lo dayan shelo kiymu es dvarav, it's not only that they didn't keep the words of Paro, ela shehosifu la'asos imhem tovos. They added, and they did big favors to the Jewish children when they were born. Yeshvuhem shehayu aniyos. Some of them were poor. Their mothers were poor. V'holchos hameyaldos u'megbos mayim u'mazon b'vateihem shel ashiros u'baayos v'nosnos la'aniyos. Vatchayeno, they supported. It's not only that they let them live. They went the extra mile. They went out of their way to aid, that in case there was no food in the house, they would do magbit, they would do tzedakah collecting to get money to these people. Says the Medrash further, יש מהם שהיו מלצות סומים, עומדות בתפילה, so they would sit and daven to Hashem, Ribono Shel Olam, save the child, make him that he shouldn't be sick or blind or whatever the case may be, and Hashem listened to their tefillah, v'chulei v'chulei. Extra credit things, not just the actual act of saving them. Then the Medrash says also, Vatchayenes hayaladim. Rashi's pshat, shifchah puah, that they used to make nice with the baby and play with the baby. They did extra. So this is a very famous Medrash. What's a little less famous is the end of that Medrash, which really, really is the basis of understanding this parsha. Let me read you the end of this Medrash. Davar acher, another pshat. What was so special about Shifrah and Puah that they saved the babies? Davar acher, vatirena hamyaldos. Fear. Vatirena hamyaldos. What fear? What? Kashtu atzman l'maaseh zikna. They behaved, they embellished, they beautified their actions like the actions of their grandfather. Which grandfather? Which grandfather did all this? Ze Avraham Avinu, kemo sheHaKadosh Baruch Hu me'id alav, Ki ata yadati ki yerei Elokim ata, yiras Elokim. Ah, the vatirena hamyaldos, says Elokim. is a very vital part of the story here. It's not just that they let the baby live. Many people do that, like I asked you. You think only Shevra Pu wouldn't commit murder to save a baby? Many people. But they went further, and that's the yiras Elokim, and that's the ma'aseh of the father of Avraham Avinu, ki atah yadati ki yerei Elokim atah. Yiras Elokim. No, am I teaching you good? You see that the essential, the fundamental part of the parashah, of understanding it, is not just that they let him live, but rather what? Yiras Elokim, the extra, the extra, what they added to the act of heroism because of yiras Elokim. Amru, says the Medrash, Avraham Avinu olam ha-shalem pasach lo pundak. Avraham Avinu opened up a restaurant, motel, hotel, vayozanes oreves ha-shamayim... He gave to eat goyim. You notice, you ever have—this is something I'd like to just have the gurcha point out—let's say you have a restaurant, right? So you have that whoever comes in, the patrons...

Serve with such dignity. Serve, give him a plate, with a napkin, with a dalya, a whole kavod, a whole... Who are these people? Areilim, goyim sometimes, right? A patron? He's a patron in your store. You treat him properly. How could you not treat your brother, atzmecha uvsarcha, your own flesh and blood, when he comes to you? So he's not your patron in your store. Can't treat him with derech eretz? You know who's the first to talk this concept? Shifra and Puah. That's their concept. Avraham Avinu had patrons in his hotel. Street people, you hear? Street people. So we're going to take Yidden, and not only we're not going to feed them, but we'll kill them. So it's obviously not enough; we have to also give them to eat. Since Pari saw, he called them. He called them. You like it? It's interesting? You know what I'm thinking also? What's the pshat in the Medrash? This is what it means that he called them. He called them. I mean, it has nothing to do with the previous pshat. It has to do with the... the pasuk. Why does the Medrash attach that Pari calls them? Oh, he saw what they did. It has nothing to do with this Medrash. He saw that they... That he let them live. Kani rei? On the fact that they let them live, that's not such a big thing. Pari couldn't even have a complaint about it. What are you complaining? What, you wanted to commit murder? They can't do it. But that they went extra. V'tirena hamyaldos es haElokim. Ooh, that pari can't take. Ooh, Yiras Elokim? Yiras Elokim? Are you crazy? Avraham Avinu's minhagim here in the Torah. Hadohu d'chsiv. Otherwise, what does it mean? Kivan shera... what, the Medrash is quoting over the pasuk. What's this Medrash? Kivan shelo paru shelo asu gezeirosav, shalach v'kara osan. That's the pasuk, I don't know. And that's what it says in the pasuk. Vayikra melech Mitzrayim lamyaldos haIvrios. You want to tell me what this part of the Medrash is? Do you understand what I'm talking about? That's a simple question. The Medrash says that they went the extra distance. Tremendous. Once Pari saw this, he calls them. You're not listening, and that's what it says in the pasuk, that he called them. I mean, that's what it says in the pasuk, that they didn't listen and he called them. I mean, what's this whole chazak? That's why I believe that when he saw this, not that he saw that they let them live, because they let them live is they didn't want to commit murder. They couldn't do it. You can't have a taina on a person who doesn't want to commit murder. Don't forget, Pari officially is not allowed to even do this, right? Pari officially is not allowed to even do this. So could be if he forces them to do this, he's still on his cheshbon. It could cause someone with the gadol ... avodah zarah. It's like you to ... avodah zarah, but it's like you ... avodah zarah. I don't know if in hilchos avodah zarah, l'gabei chiyuv misa, I understand maybe we could technically say it's his ma'aseh. But avadit, that aveirah, if you're trying to get the aveirah off your shoulders, you can't force the other guy to do it. Imagine a guy wants to be mechalel Shabbos, I won't force the other guy to do it. Or, I'm a Shabbos, I'm a Shabbos. Are you masking to this? Can I come and force you to do an aveirah and say, 'I didn't do it, he did it'? That wasn't what's eating at him. Kivan shelo... and what's gezeirosav? Just saying gezeirosoi, this gezeirah. It's not about this. It's they weren't afraid of Paro. They were afraid of Hashem. It's not this gezeirah. The Medrash does not say, 'Kivan shelo shama l'gezeirosoi.' They didn't listen to this decree of throwing the babies into the water, but since they in general not listening l'gezeirosav, they don't have fear of the king. Who do they have fear of? Vateirena ha'myaldos es haElokim v'lo es Paro.

And where did he see that? That they went the extra mile. They went the distance. They went further to do what Avraham Avinu did, because Atia dati kirei Elokim ata. Oy vey, Pari's thinking, now I'm in trouble. Vatikra lameyaldos, says, Oy ivrios. Now he had a complaint. What are you doing? Bishlai, if you don't kill, man! Okay, listen, how can I force you to kill? But to come and say, yeah, but to come and say that I'll do more because yiras Elokim, this Pari can't handle. Laanias daiti, that's the pshat in the last line, the hosafah, the ending, the ending of the Medrash. Al kol panim, getting back to the yesod of the Medrash, and we see a connection between the parsha of Shifrah and Puah saving the children and the akeidah. That's what we see. Ki atia dati kirei Elokim ata, that whatever Avraham Avinu portrayed in the akeidah, that Hashem says, now I see yerei Elokim, this is what the Shifrah and Puah, the meyaldos, portrayed, and they shined out yiras Elokim in saving the children. Mechayeh, if the Medrash is putting together the yirah of the meyaldos to the v'atia dati kirei Elokim ata. What's the connection? What is the similarity, the dimyon, between Maaseh Akeidah, Maaseh Akeidah, and the story of what? Of Shifrah and Puah saving the children. So let's repeat just one more time, then we'll see clearly the comparison. Let's repeat on the yesod that we said. Ethics. Many people have ethics. Many people have morals. Many people would not kill another person, even if it meant that they have to give up their own life. And many people wouldn't even kill a fetus, an uber, to save their own lives. This was more than that. This was above and beyond just not killing somebody else. And it was based in Yiras Elokim. Then now we could go and understand its similarity to the fact that Avraham did an Akeidah and he was Yirei Elokim. Let me explain to you what I mean. Does everybody hear this? This is not Torah. This is not pilpul. This is not chidushim. This is reading of the Chazal the way the Chazal said it. It's not my vort. Chazal is saying that this Yiras Elokim is the Yiras Elokim of Avraham Avinu, but the Yiras Elokim of Avraham Avinu was by Akeidah. What does that do with this? It's the same thing like the Akeidah? And I explained to you that the reason why the Midrash Chazal are going there, because to say that they saved the babies— So what? That's not something heroic, more than the average human being who has morals and ethics. This has to be more. And what was the more? The more was the hatovah, the fact that they went extra to save and to help and to... And this is connected to Avraham Avinu's attah yadati ki yerei Elokim atah. You know, to me it's a davar shel peleh. Analyze the life and doings of Avraham Avinu, and to realize when he got his recognition and title of yerei Elokim is a chiddush nifla to me. Do you know what Avraham Avinu's life was all about till the Akeidah? For the first hundred years, what was Avraham Avinu doing? So the Rambam in Hilchos Avodah Zarah, you want to find it over there, the Rambam Hilchos Avodah Zarah, ben shalosh shanim hikir Avraham es Borei... Avraham Avinu, Avodah Zarah. Avraham Avinu was a pioneer. He was a navigator about Hashem. Whoever believed in Hashem, who knew of Hashem. Do you know how many tests he had to go through because he believed in Hashem? Unbelievable. It's unbelievable what he went through. He was...

Thrown into a furnace for it. The earlier tests, you have it at the beginning of Avodah Zarah, Ben Shalosh Shanim Hikir Avraham es Borei. Hilchos Avodah Zarah. Yeah, kibush nigmol. Perek beis, halacha gimel. Kibush nigmol, eisin zeh hischil l'shayteh, b'daato v'katan. Kitzur, the Rambam goes through the history of Avraham Avinu. Turbulence, tests, difficulties, because he was a ma'amin baShem. Yet, till the tenth test, till the tenth test, he's not called a yirei Elokim. What's he called? I love you, Avraham, ahuvi, I love you, great, you're the best, you're Avram Avdi, you're my slave. Atah yadati. Only now I know ki yirei Elokim atah. Pilei ployim. That was unbelievable. What was not about yiras Elokim in all the events of Avraham Avinu's life till now? Everything was yiras Elokim. His whole life was yiras Elokim. Why does the pasuk say that Hashem tells him now, only now, I've come to the conclusion that you're yirei Elokim, and I can give you that title that you're yirei Elokim? I'll tell you what I think the pshat is, rabosai. There is belief in Hashem, and there's morals. And there's ethics, and a person could have it all. But there's something called Yiras Hashem, yeah? Yiras Hashem, which doesn't come easy. And just because you have ethics and morals and the love of Hashem and belief in Hashem, it still doesn't mean that you have Yiras Hashem. Yiras Hashem is something unique, above and beyond faith and belief and love of Hashem and morals and ethics. It's above and beyond all that. Tell me, it's not muchach? I mean, that's what it says, right? I'm not making it up. It's mashma, Avraham Avinu, after everything he did, his whole moral life, all the chesed he did and all the emunah he spread and all the hakaras Hashem, it all was what? Not final. Yerei Elokim till now. Why? What's so special about Yerei Elokim? What is unique about Yiras Elokim, which is not also about ahavas Hashem and chesed and hakaras Hashem, ethics and morals? What's more? I'm going to tell you soon a Maharal which is going to blow your mind, as they say in English. Forgive the expression, because it really is. It's a Maharal that blows your mind. If someone said, who is the epitome of Yiras Shamayim, you would say Yosef, yeah. Yosef, he was ready to do an aveira, ready to do an aveira. And he had fear, Hashem, right? Yaakov comes to him, got frightened, and he didn't do the aveira. Tremendous yiras Shamayim, right? You would say that? All right. Chazal tell us a little differently. Chazal tell us, Sheker achai. Gemara Sanhedrin, daf chaf amud aleph: Sheker achai. Who's chein? Who is it? Yosef. Sheker achai. Hevel ha-yofi, Boaz. You know, Boaz was rus, was standing there. It was so easy for him to do the aveira. Hevel ha-yofi zeh Boaz. Wow. So then what's yiras Hashem hi tishalal? It's that palti ben Laish, the whole story there with the sword. He put a sword there. He wasn't allowed to live with her because he was actually married to somebody else. Aganta maisa. Whoever does the aveira, nidakar b'cherev, will get killed with the sword. So for years he lived with a woman that he had no relationship with her because he wasn't allowed. So tell me something: Yosef is not that.

Yosef in English, they call it small change. Yosef was small change to you? And the answer is, yeah, that's what Chazal tell us. And we're still going to learn from the Maharal, yes, yes, yes! Yosef was still not, still not. I'll tell you the words of the Maharal, and we'll get to it a little bit later in greater detail. There's Yiras Hashem and there's Yiras Hashem. You know the famous expression. There's different— no, not even degrees, whole different type of Yiras Hashem. There's this, there's Yiras Hashem, but then there's Yiras Hashem! Yosef had Yiras Hashem! Al telayesh, Yiras Hashem! We're going to get to this Maharal a little bit later. Ethics and morals and everything is still not, ad dati kirei Elokim at. What's lacking in Avram's history that's still not Yiras Elokim? Let me tell you over a moyridike, moyridige shtickel from Likutei Moharan. The Likutei Moharan asks, in Chelek Gimel— and for those that want to really look it up and not just listen to me and shake with their heads, yeah, yeah, yeah, they'll look up and they'll do the homework— page 46, Chelek Gimel, page 46. Atu yadata ki Yirei Elokim yirei Elokim, andat oyev Hashem? Why are you taking away from Avraham Avinu's greatness? Could you imagine you tell a guy, Well, by the way... You have a good, you speak well. I speak well? Yeah, but what I said was wisdom. There's so much more praise that's alluded, that belongs to Avraham Avinu for the ma'aseh akeidah. Why is it that you only speak about yiras Elokim? What about ahavah? Yorei v'lo ohev? Fear and not love? Answers the Michtav Eliyahu, yes, fear and not love. To be omeid b'nisayon, to withstand difficulties, tests, can only come from one thing: yiras Hashem. You can have ahavas Hashem, but when it gets difficult, that's no guarantee you're going to stay with it. Yiras Hashem, when you have fear, fear keeps you in line no matter what comes your way. I'll read it to you. If it was a test, im kein, borur shemadreigas Avraham Avinu b'ahavah adayin lo higi'a l'madreigah ha'elyonah binyan hahu, ki lo higi'a lo hayah shayaches b'chinas nisayon ba'akeidah k'mevuar l'eil, sheb'ahavah lo shayachin nisayon u'milchemes hayetzer. Nisayon, test, isn't combated with ahavah. U'meikivan shehayah zeh nisayon, hanitzrachin al yitzro ba'idei ha'yirah davka. It had to come through fear. On a daily basis, rabosai, we're talking great length about this today. On a daily basis, you could love Hashem and you could learn Torah and you could have morals and ethics. When it's difficult and the yetzer hara is burning, only remedy, the only trufa medicine against the yetzer hara in the burning of desire, all your ahavah of Hashem and all your ethics and morals, it ain't gonna help you. We're gonna get to this where in Michtav MeEliyahu, in a different volume, explains it so beautifully, so eloquently, that the moment the yetzer hara is burning with desire, ahavah and ethics and morals go out the window. Yirah is the only thing that could hold you together, that could keep you from swaying. So the akeidah, which was a nisayon, and there was the greatest, it was the tenth nisayon, it was the greatest of the nisyonos, it needed a big dosage of yirah to overcome it. We're gonna get back to this a little bit later to explain why it's that way. But let's go back at least to the parsha to understand what we have from our information. What do we gain from all this literature that we just quoted? And I'll tell you the following.

It's one thing to have morals and ethics, and that you don't want to kill, and you don't want to hurt, and you want to do good things for people. The miyaldos did all that, but they did it in the face of a tremendous nisayon, tremendous pressure, a tremendous test. So the Torah went to the depth, to the core of where does this come from? What was the koach shehayah בהם לעמוד בניסיון הזה? And the answer is, Avraham Avinu, Ati yadati ki yerei Elokim at, yiras Elokim. At yir'ena hamiyaldos es haElokim. Shoresh, hashoresh shel hamaaseh. It wasn't ethics. It wasn't good nature. Some women have a very good nature. They're very devoted babysitters. You see a good Jewish babysitter, a woman, man, she gives her whole heart and her feelings. It's all true, ahavah and morals and ethics. But to withstand pressure of nisayon, that takes something me'al, above and beyond morals and ethics and love and so on and so forth, the middos tovos. You need something strong, heavy duty, as they say in English. Heavy duty. What's a heavy duty? Yiras Elokim. That's heavy duty. And the pasuk explains, Vatirena hamiyaldos es haElokim. And that's how they were able to do this. Now I understand middah keneged middah. Why are they zocheh to bati kehuna uleviyah? You ready? Ready for something novel, a novel approach. You ready? Something interesting which you never heard before. The Rambam writes to me. I'll soon read it to you, but first let me tell it to you about Peh. All positions in Klal Yisrael, appointees to those positions needed two things, two attributes: chochmah v'yirah, wisdom and fear. And I'm going to explain to you soon that actually it's the same thing. Hei chochmah, yiras Elokim. We're going to get to that a little bit later on in the shiur. Wisdom, which is formulated together with yirah, we'll get to explain this a little bit later. These are the criteria. This is the tenai, the condition that it must be met for an appointee in Klal Yisrael. We'll soon explain why. Just to give you a little bit of an understanding right now, this juncture of the shiur, a leader must withstand tremendous pressure. He must be moser nefesh. He must be עומד בניסיון. It's not easy. The thing that keeps him on guard, keeps him on the right track, to withstand all the pressures of his position, is chochmah v'yiras Elokim. Politicians, believe me, a lot of them start off with the right heart. They know what they want to do, they want to help people. It doesn't take long. In a short while, they become corrupt. The pressures of the office, the nisyonos of the office are so strong, and they're not prepared to deal with that. Because the only way you can be prepared to deal with nisyonos hachayim hakoshim is fear of Hashem, yirah, the fear of Hashem. We're going to talk about this in great length further on. But let me first read you the Rambam. Then we understand why, b'schus the yirah, what were they zocheh to? Batei kehunah, leviyah, malchus. All the leadership of Klal Yisrael came through them. Yes, Midrash, malchus. It says mefurash in the Midrash, Midrash, malchus. ... Ran v'Levi. Chad amar, batei kehunah, batei leviyah. V'chad amar, batei malchus. Batei kehunah, l'Leviim miMoshe v'Aharon. Batei malchus, miMiriam, l'fi sheDavid ba miMiriam. Tell me, which king had to withstand nisyonos, this pressure that he had?

The moment he became— the moment he was born, the moment he was born, his whole life was one big nisayon. Who? Dovid HaMelech. Dovid HaMelech, you hear? Medrash says that this act, hape'ulah hazu shehem asu, haya shoresh shel Dovid HaMelech. This was the foundations, the shoreshim, the roots of the Dovid HaMelech. Dovid HaMelech, you hear? You listening? Sha'alta, aniti lecha, Medrash mefurash. I make it up? No, no. Ma she'ata mevin ze l'achar shiur, b'chavod, that you can come after shiur, daber iti kama she'ata rotzeh. Lama tislach? He explains. Kemo she'ata talmid chacham, יש הרבה תלמידי חכמים פה, וכולם חושבים דעות, לא יהיה שיעור אחר כך. אני מאוד רוצה שאחרי השיעור תבוא אליי ואני אשמע כל מילה בכבוד ובהערכה. בסדר? Okay, now listen carefully. I'm going to read you the Rambam. Perek aleph, Hilchos Melachim, halacha zayin. שמע מה שהרמבם כותב. Halacha zayin. הרמבם כותב, הלכה ז'. כשמעמידים המלך... It says like this. הבן הגדול is קודם לקטן כל הסדר של הירושה, אומר הרמבם. אומר הרמבם, ולא המלכות בלבד, next time I need the big one, I can't even see. ... yeah. ולא המלכות בלבד, אלא כל השררות, וכל המינויים שבישראל, ירושה לבנו ולבן בנו עד עולם. Which is a very big sugya, because Rabbanus, that a rav, his son takes over, officially comes from this Rambam. The Chasam Sofer, there's a whole Chasam Sofer about it, because some said it's not called a minui, it's not called an appointment. It's a sugya shleimah, בכל מקום, whenever there's a position, minui, שררה, עד לבן. But, והוא שיהיה הבן ממלא מקום אבותיו בחכמה וביראה. The two conditions that's needed. היה ממלא ביראה, אף על פי שאינו ממלא בחכמה, אם יש לו יראה, אפילו שאינו בחכמה, מעמידין אותו במקום אביו, ומלמדין אותו. כי נראה, שאפילו החכמה לא מעכב, העיקר זה מה? היראה. נו, Rambam, huh? So what happens if he says, I don't know anything? He'll know. היסוד של הכל, היסוד is יראה. If he has יראה, יש לו הכל. He'll get the Torah, but you need יראה וחכמה. Okay. Lachen, achar shehem heru, they showed yirah, they showed fear, vatirena hameyaldos es haElokim, therefore they were zocheh to what? To Tikunim Elokim. We explained, to be עומד בניסיון, עומד בניסיון, tzrichim yirah. You need fear. You need fear, because if not, when it's difficult, you don't do it. Yirah keeps you on guard that you should do it even if it's difficult. Now let's explain how. How does that work? Lama? Lama ze kacha? Mah hahigayon bazeh? Mah hayesod bazeh? Why is it that way? Now listen carefully. לכל יש חשבונות. There's always a cheshbon, you know that? Every time a person wants to do something, automatically the thing that he wants to do becomes, Lo, actually, הוא רוצה את זה. Ani chayav la'asot? Did you ever see a person that says, I need a nice house because I'm a baal taavah? You ever hear a person say—

I must have a nice car because of my... You know what they'll say? I need a nice car because my wife needs it, and I'm driving to yeshiva, and my people... You have... I have people, they go on vacations. They never say, I'm going on vacation. You know I'm going on vacation? Because I have taivos. I lost good times. I never heard a person say that. You know what he says? I need a vacation. I work so hard, and I'm learning, and I'm davening, and I have to take a break, and all the stress. Yeah. You see, my friend? You see, my friend? Morals and ethics is a very gray area, because then it becomes moral to do it. Then the ethics talk, Should I kill the baby? Of course I have to kill the baby. What do you mean? Should I make the hered? Of course. What do you mean? Otherwise he'll kill me, and my mother. Imagine if he kill me, my father will be hurt, my grandmother... Then it becomes not רק שזה אסור להרוג אותו, שיש מצווה להרוג אותו. How many times do we find that somebody is mevazeh the other person, gives him, you know, gives him sharp words, right? איסו גמור בתורה. What is he going to say? אני רשע, אני... לא, מה פתאום. חייבים לעשות... What stops a person living in these dimyonot, shekarot, the false, the false dimyonot that he builds up in his mind, shehaיסורים והם מצוות. There's a very famous joke that they say over. Pshat in the Gemara. The Gemara says, Im ra'ita talmid chacham she'asa aveirah balaylah, al taharhar acharav bayom. Shema asa teshuvah. Because maybe, the fact says the Gemara, shema lo, vadai asa teshuvah. The Kotzker Rebbe used to say, Vadai asa teshuvah, vadai hu katav teshuvah she'seh mutar. Ad haboker, till the morning, he already found a... sniffed out something he did that is bemet mutar. You know why you're laughing, rabosai? Because you're laughing at yourself. It's true. We all do this to one extent or another. Maybe we're not going to come and say, Yisurim, Rashaim, mutar. We make everything... I hurt the other guy. He deserves it. He deserves it. This is maaseh yetzer hara. What stops a person from all these dimyonot, these cheshbonot shel sheker v'dofi? Yiras Shamayim. Yiras Shamayim. Let me show you a little further. You ready? I'm going to read you a Michtav Eliyahu from chelek daled, page 308. He tells his son, Nachum Zev. It's interesting, Nachum Zev is still alive, by the way. Nachum Zev is a... He has the day school in Cleveland. The one who runs the day school in Cleveland is Nachum Zev. So he's writing to him, tof reish tzaddik daled, from London, a letter to Nachum Zev, and Nachum Zev put on his tefillin, bar mitzvah boy. So he writes him a letter and he says, I'm happy you put on tefillin, and you're becoming chiyuv of mitzvahs, but I want you to know that it's a lot more than just putting on tefillin. Bar mitzvah bachur, you hear? It's a lot more. אתה צריך לדעת הרבה יותר ממה סתם להניח תפילין. He says, ha'ikar זה יראת שמים. Like it says in the Torah, מה ה' אלוקיך שואל מעמך כי אם ליראה. The ikar, the main thing Hashem is asking what? Yiras Shamayim. It says it clearly. Tell me, did you think about yiras Shamayim? You're putting on tefillin. Tefillin is just a prat b'toch ha'yiras Shamayim, aval ikar... I'm sorry, הנחת את העיקר, לקחת, תפסת את העיקר. What's the ikar? The ikar is yiras Shamayim. Listen to what he says: הלא מי שיש בו יראת שמים, כבר מוכן הוא לשמירת כל התורה כולה על ידי זה.

Through this, he will keep the entire Torah. Yiras Shamayim is the key, the pitchach, shmiras kol haTorah kula. U'mi sheze yechsar lo, and if he lacks yiras Shamayim, he's not prepared for nothing. He's completely unprepared. Im gam yachshov b'da'ato, because even if he thinks, Yeah, I'm gonna learn, I'm gonna daven, for him, gam yachshov b'da'ato lishmor Torah u'mitzvos. Aval, harei yodea hu sheyagia l'ma'aseh. When it comes l'maaseh, ya'amod lefanav, you know how much difficulty comes in your way. People are not prepared. I think about it a lot. People are just not prepared properly for what it means to sit and learn. You know, when a guy goes into a business, he fathoms all these circumstances that could arise. In case the guy says this, I'll say that. In case this happens and the market crashes, I'll do this. In case this and that. When it comes to learning, you know, a guy says, Mitzvah, I'll come to... Mitzvah. Yeah, but what happens when the yetzer hara comes to bother you? I mean, are you prepared for that? It's a great question. A person has no tochnit. What happens in case? That's what he's saying over here. What happens? Good, let's say you make up your mind that יש לך לב טוב, ויש לך חברים טובים, ויש לך אהבת השם, it's all good. But then the yetzer hara comes. What do you do then? You know what it reminds me? It reminds me of a great story of Rav Moshe Zech Tzadik, the kadosh, ha'gaon, ha'gadol, meireinu posek hador, Rav Moshe Feinstein. Moshe put out a teshuva that the mechitza doesn't have to be the same size as what was used through all the years. He minimized the height, the requirement that's needed for b'di'eved. Okay. Chassidic factions were very angry at that. Ooh, what are you talking about? So Satmar dayanim wanted to go down to speak to Rav Moshe to convince him. Maybe they could convince him, to show him from this sefer, from that sefer, from here, from there, you know, to throw at him a load of bekius. But first they went to get the blessing of the Satmar Rebbe. They went to get the blessing of the Satmar Rebbe. Come to the Satmar Rebbe, and they tell him, Rebbe, we're going to Rav Moshe to speak to him about this topic, about the mechitza, this and that, and we'd like to get your bracha. He said, It's a very good idea, but what are you going to do when he starts talking to you in learning? He said, It's a good idea to go there, but what are you going to do when he starts talking to you in learning? Because he's telling his dayanim from Satmar, his own dayanim. It's very good to want to learn, but what are you going to do when the yetzer hara starts? He meant to tell him, You're completely out of your league. You're completely unprepared. The minute he opens his mouth, you're finished. Here too, the yetzer hara—the first time the yetzer hara comes to you, you're dead in the water. What are you going to do? You're prepared? Good, you want to learn. ... What's l'maaseh when the first problem arises? What are you going to do? Listen carefully. Kitzur. What happens with the yetzer hara comes with machshavos, v'yatlenu mikiyum hamitzvos, im mipnei sheyis'atzel, you'll be lazy, or mipnei sheyachpis la'asos davar acher, you'll want to do something else. You're not going to learn. So how are you prepared? U'vameh echsheh sheyachin es atzmo? So what prepares a person that he should learn no matter what? He should be prepared to withstand no matter what yetzer hara, no matter what nisayon comes his way? Al yedei yiras Shamayim. Fear. Yiras Shamayim. Shektamer al hamishnah, V'lo tanichenu lasur miderech haTorah vhamitzvos yemin usmol. This is the pshat. A person can have ahavah. A person can have morals. A person can be mamish beautiful. Fenomen. Ben adam, fenomen. Aval b'rega shezeh kasheh, b'rega sheyesh nisyonos, b'rega sheyesh pressure, no? Only yiras Shamayim, ein pachad. We're going to talk about that. How do you know we're going to get into that? That's exactly what we're going to get into. Listen to what we're talking about. Let me ask you a question.

You ready? This is exactly what I want to talk about. You listening? Avraham Avinu, when he comes to Avimelech, he lies to him. He tells him, Achosi hi. Kitzur, Avimelech finds out it's not true, and he's furious. Why'd you lie to me? What did I say? Avraham—sorry, Yitzchok. Yitzchok says to him, Rak ein yiras Elokim bamakom hazeh? So why are you making me crazy? You should be embarrassed of yourself. So Avraham says, Ein yiras Elokim bamakom hazeh, l'harguni al dvar ishti. Okay. Now, it's all right. Nissan, listen. Nissan is the baki sheb'kiyus. All right? Can you imagine he should be מתכוון על פסוק אחר, ולא חושש שהוא טועה. Kitzur, listen here. Rak ein yiras Shamayim bamakom, v'harguni al dvar ishti. Don't kill me. Same reason. Don't kill me. Don't kill me. You need yiras Shamayim. I have to להגיד, rak hamakom hazeh makom retzichah. Could you imagine you walk into Iran and Iraq, and you tell them, you know why they're hanging people left and right and chopping heads off? Because they don't have yiras Elokim. What? They love retzichah, retzichah. They love it. This is their daily breakfast. This is what they eat for lunch and supper, theדם of the other guy. That's their enjoyment in life. Says the Malbim, no, no, no. That's not what was Avimelech in Mitzrayim. Avi Melech in Mitzrayim was culture. It was sophistication. Avi Melech in Mitzrayim was ethics, morals. Yeah, don't think Avi Melech was such a lowlife. And the biggest raya is, you see, he gave her back right away, and he told them, Leave, and he did. Morals. אבל כשאין יראת אלוקים, when there's no yiras Elokim, you know what happens to all the morals? When push comes to shove, when you're in a tight bind, then you're in trouble. Tell me, they sent her over there, didn't kill this girl. She had—what was her name over there, that girl that disappeared? What was her name over there? She was a Chayna Levracha. What was her name? Leah, Shalom, Levi, Mivi, whatever. Sent her. Sent her. And what's the answer? Quickly, get rid of her. You can have culture, you can have ethics, you can have morals, you can have rules and regulations. It's all very good, says the Malbim. Malbim doesn't bring the example of Levi, but it's a good example. Avi Melech wasn't Esav, chas v'shalom. He wasn't Yishmael. You think he was a madjani guy, whatever the guy, the retzeach over there was. He was a real melech. He was the real deal. Why? Ein yiras Elokim, ... cheshbonot amitiyim. It becomes rules, it becomes moral to do it. The opposite. The morals make cheshbonos. Okay, so then you have to do it. The Malbim, I think, writes, if I remember the lashon correctly, he says, I saw many cultured people, but if they had no yiras Shamayim, they were reitzim. You know, the biggest cultured people was the German. The German was the most cultured creature on the face of the earth. He made cheshbonos that he has to kill the Jews. He was like a kelev ra. He behaved like a dog. Rak ein yiras Elokim bamakom hazeh. Now I want to tell you further. Why does it say rak? He should say, Ein yiras Elokim bamakom hazeh. Why does it say the word rak? You know who asked this question? The Yalkut Shimoni. Yalkut Shimoni says in perek nun zayin, rak. Rak is a mi'ut, and the teretz is, haya להם אפילו יראת שמים, אבל רק חסר קצת יראת שמים, וכבר ויתרו על דבר אשתו. You listening? People think Avimelech had no yirat Shamayim. No! It was a big monastery. There was a big church. What do they call it? The Vatican. Vatican. Avimelech went every Sunday with the Bible, like...

Also, what happens? Bible every Sunday. What happened when he got caught, when the eisav got caught? Oh, say, hoo, ha, hey, right? Got caught with this arayos and retzichah and who knows what. Rak, afilu im chaser b'yiras Elokim, omer ha-medrash, yaalkut Shimoni, kvar variguni al dvar ishte. Miriam! Shifra, Puah, they could have had cheshbonos from here till who knows where. Shemutar lahem. Lo rak shemutar lahem, chayavim laharog es ha-ubrim. Chayecha kodmin! But tirena miyaldos es ha-Elokim. Fear, fear. And because of that, they were zocheh le-batei kehunah uleviyah. Now, rabosai, let me explain to you the whole inyan of yiras Shamayim. Yiras Shamayim hein chochmah, yiras Elokim. Hein, one. It's the one and only chochmah, the one and only chochmah. Sefarim explain, I just read you the Mikhtav Eliyahu, but they all write this: Ha-yesod vha-shoresh shel hakol zeh b'emunah, zeh b'yiras Shamayim. And I'll prove it to you. What was the tachlit? What was the tachlit of the makot? V'yoru Mitzrayim, fear. Do you know that the mefarshim tell me— But it wasn't for the Mitzriim. You think the Mitzriim need Yiras Shamayim? We were anyway going l'tima. Who was it, the Yehudim? It was for the— all the mefarshim say this was lessons in yirah, dosages of lessons of fear of Hashem, makkah after makkah. The only thing is, Klal Yisrael is the son, so Hashem gave it to the Mitzriim to teach the son. In Yiddish you have an expression: mizogt a shnur— I'm sorry, mizogt a tokhter, un me meint a shnur. What does that mean? When a mother-in-law wants to rebuke the daughter-in-law, she knows it's going to turn into a big war, so she rebukes the daughter, and she really means the daughter-in-law. She knows something: you don't keep a good house, and you don't behave, and the daughter's thinking, Me? I do all this. I do listen. I do. Mizogt dem tokhter. We say about the daughter, and we mean the shnur. The same thing was in Mitzrayim. The Ribbono Shel Olam meant Klal Yisrael. You're not going to hit Klal Yisrael, so He hit the Mitzriim, and He meant Klal Yisrael. Vayaru Mitzrayim ki ani Hashem, say the meforshim. Yiro. Tell me, at the end of Yetzias Mitzrayim, what was the culmination, the yesod? Vayira ha'am es Hashem, vaya'aminu baHashem uv'Moshe avdo. Vayira ha'am es Hashem. Tell me, what was the yesod of Matan Torah? You do the pasuk again. The pasuk— everybody can look it up himself. The pasuk, Shemos chaf, perek yud-zayin— sorry, perek chaf, pasuk yud-zayin. No, Klal Yisroel came to complain. Why is Hashem talking to me directly? We're terrified. Shechlach. We can't handle it. What does Moshe Rabbeinu tell them it's good for you? Why is it good for you? What's the problem? The English doesn't have over there those pesukim, so why can't you find it? Go ahead, read the pasuk. No, don't be afraid of this situation. It's good. The whole matan Torah, it's good. Why is it good? The whole maamad Har Sinai. Yeah, kolos u'vrakim. Tremendous fear. Why? What's good about it? Hashem is testing. Remember we spoke about tests, and what's the medicine for tests? And the answer is, no. U'va'avur tihyeh yir'aso al paneichem, l'vilti techeta'u. The only thing that stops from sin is what? Yirah. Yirah. Nisayon. Nisayon, yirah, tests. No, do I say good stuff? Do I make it up from the top of my head like most speakers? It says in the pasuk.

No, but it's a mefurash. Kol hamamad shel Matan Torah, kolot uvrakim, mehaShamayim dibru. They opened up the skies and Hashem spoke directly to the people. What was the tachlit? What was the point of it? Says clearly: l'maan teira, yirah, and what? L'vilti techeta. You shouldn't sin. Nisayon, chet, the anecdote. That's what I'm looking for, the anecdote. Harefuah. Anecdote. Neged, neged. Sin b'matzav shel nisayon is yirah, yirah of Hashem. With this, rabosai, I want to show you how a person can have it all, but if he doesn't have yiras Shamayim, he has nothing. That's what we're saying here, that a person can have love of Hashem and ethics and morals, and in one second it all goes out the window without yiras Shamayim. I want to show this to you, to give it to you in a way that you should understand it, and explain to you even further how it should apply to you in your personal lives. Listen here. I saw here the Michtav Eliyahu, this beautiful stuff. Listen to what he says. He discusses that a person that doesn't have yiras Shamayim is no guarantee that the storms of life that come his way are not going to drown him. They're gonna push him over. Big, big, big nisyonos. Who's gonna withstand all that? Why? Because his heart is open for anything to come its way. He's not well protected. Listen to his mashal. He says, therefore, I would like to compare this. Oh, he says like this: Ha'im ra'ita? Have you ever seen mi sheyivneh bayis gadol v'yafeh? Build a beautiful palace home, beautiful, bar park, where Queens on the other side, Kew Gardens Hills on the other side, not on our side, okay? Bayis gadol v'yafeh, v'yikanes lador b'socho, and he'll want to go in and live there. Just one thing he didn't do: he didn't build a door. V'lo yedalsa. He forgot to build a door. Tell me, how long is all this beautiful house gonna last? Within minutes, it's all finished, right? People are gonna come in and steal. Any guy comes in and it's finished, right? Yiras Shamayim is the door. It protects all the chachmah and ahavah. It shouldn't escape in moments notice. It shouldn't escape in moments notice. This is what he's trying to say: Yesh matzav shel nisayon, it all goes out the window. What protects him? Ma hamanul? What's the lock that protects everything in? Yiras Shamayim. Beautiful mashal. Now I understand why in the pasuk in Iyov, perek chaf-ches, pasuk chaf-ches, Hen yiras Hashem hi chochmah. It's wisdom. Yirah is wisdom? Yirah, fear of Hashem, is wise? I understand it's wise, you know? The smartest people—I thought about this for a very long time—the smartest people do the most foolish things because of taivas. So what protects the chachma? Yiras Shamayim. Hein chachma. You know when a person is wise? Yiras Hashem, when he has yiras Hashem, because he can act like a fool. A person can be wise in the mind, but when it comes to a taiva—I told this to you many times—just lamchis את הדבר. You know, the last president, he's still alive, Clinton, ... yeah? I mean, ... בקיצור, yeah? He was brilliant. You don't understand how smart he was. He's one of the smartest ... you'll ever find. Shrewd, wily. People loved him. He hardly worked. He wasn't supposed to be working. He knew how to... He was great. He was great because of a stupid taiva, which doesn't...

Befit a man of his stature. Like a fool, like an imbecile, walked around like an imbecile, egg all over his face. What was he thinking? I don't know. You go down in history as the melech haolam, the king of the world. Imagine you walk into a king's palace and you see him sitting on the floor playing with blocks. But he's brilliant. He's brilliant, chacham. This is a chacham. You're right, the mind works. Smart, but not intelligent. You see the difference? Smart, but not intelligent. Ein chochmah. All the wisdom, it can go away in one second over a kayitz. The only thing that protects it is what? Yiras Hashem. You like? Yiras Hashem. Let's go further. I'm going to tell you over a beautiful Chasam Sofer. And this Chasam Sofer, rabosai, brings out so beautifully what we just said. Chasam Sofer says, V'lo asu — they didn't do, right? — ka'asher dibra aleihem melech Mitzrayim. It's a very funny lashon. If it says, Vatechayena es hayeladim, so you don't have to say v'lo hargu; they didn't kill. Why does it have to say lo asu? They didn't do what the melech Mitzrayim said. So Chazal hadoresh that they actually were told something else. They weren't told to kill the babies. You know what they were told? Lavoi aleihem. He told them to go do znus with them. He wanted them for znus. He wanted shifchah and pru urvu for znus. So Gemara cites it, Daf Yud Aleph amud beis. Yeah. He didn't kill. But lo asu is not referring to kill the babies. Lo asu, kashedibra aleihem Melech Mitzrayim la'aveirah, liznus. It would be keshmeihem znus. The king of Egypt had a crush. What don't you understand? Okay. Amru Chazal, so Chazal said, lavoi aleihem shetavon liznus. Says the Chasam Sofer. I'm sorry, that's what you meant. You meant Chasam Sofer's kashya. Znus, killing babies, ma koreh po? In different years he gave different teirutzim. Let me tell you, in the year Taf Kuf Samech Aleph, he gave a very short teretz, very nice teretz. He understood, what, are you going to go tell someone to kill somebody? Yecholim levakesh mi'em b'Yisrael sheyeharog yeled? You're going to kill a baby? What, are you crazy? Kavan liznus. Ha'aveirah goreres aveirah. He knew that. How was he going to get them to kill the babies? Aveirah... רצה להכשילם בעריות כדי שיביאו לידי שפיכות דמים. Da ha b'ha talya nulsa. It's very connected. Ha b'ha talya nulsa. Yeah? He brings a raya from the Gemara in Nedarim. B'kitzur, they were nizhar meha'arayos, and therefore lo asu k'dvar Melech Mitzrayim. Wanted. And therefore what happened? Tell me something. Isn't it interesting? Avimelech, arayos, vahargu osi al dvar ishti, yakreini na elokim bamakom hazeh. Ooh, same thing. What? Znus. Who says they'll murder? Avraham Avinu, Avraham Avinu was very secure, was very convinced that they took his wife al dvar ishti. So that's going to lead to hereg. It's the same sugya. You should know, I learned. You should appreciate that you have someone that's learning before he gives you a shiur. It's the same story. The connection, ha-beha talya milsa, yeah? Arayos leads to hereg. And that has to do with what? Ein yiras Elokim bamakom hazeh. Why? Rabosai, let me tell you. Yiras Shamayim is the anecdote for arayos. You know why? Because moral people don't see what's wrong with it. Only yiras Shamayim tells a person not to do arayos. I'll explain to you what I mean. Are you hurting anybody?

Consenting adults, that's the big thing in America today. Tell me, is America an ethical place? Sure. No, it is. It really is, compared to the rest of the world. They have rules and regulations and ethics and left and right and human rights. If you cough the wrong way at an ashachar, you're violating human rights. If you look the wrong way at the guy, ooh, you violated civil rights, you violated his civil rights. Don't ask, right? Do you know what the rate of arayos, of gilui arayos, is in the United States? It's amazing. It's just amazing. It's not even illegal. There's no law against—what do they call it? No law against adultery. Adultery. There's no law against adultery. How do you talk? How do you explain it? The most moral country in the world, and you know what the answer is? Their morals and ethics is not based on Yiras Shamayim, because they separated government from state, state from religion. It's about morals of what? Of bein adam l'chaveiro. It's ethics of bein adam l'chaveiro. There's nothing wrong bein adam l'chaveiro with adultery, two consenting adults. That's why you hear the nusach of two consenting adults. That's where it comes from. You're not hurting anybody. They can do what they want. It's their business, right? You want to live with the chayes, with the chamor, it's your consenting adults. Chaylus, who's the consenting adult? I don't know. If it was shayach mistama to get a consent from a chamor, they would say that that's mutar too. Vishiality is probably only a problem because there's no two consenting adults, tzar baalei chayim, which I hold is every time by them, every bi'ah by them is tzar baalei chayim. All right, anyways, that's not your ... Bottom line is, the nekudah, originally called untishter shurah tachtoinah. In order to be poresh from arayos and hirhurei arayos, what am I hurting? I'm hurting anybody? Anybody? A lot. The only thing that could stop you is yiras Shamayim. All the morals and all the ethics and all the rules, and this is what Avimelech—Avimelech took to Sarah, consenting adults, you hear? V'harguni al dvar ishti. Avraham Avinu understood that the next step is not ethics and not morals, because the moment you get caught in arayos, the trick is yiras Shamayim. When there's yiras Shamayim, this eludes the issues of arayos. This takes away arayos and all the cover-up of arayos through retzichah and murder and stealing. It's all the cover-up. You should know, they always say that about American politics: it's not the crime, it's the cover-up. The cover-up of Esav to the aveirah is retzichah and gezel and so on and so forth. It's unbelievable. It's an unbelievable thing. But the shoresh of it, it's only if you have yiras Elokim. This is what Paroh understood: Vatirena ha-myaldos es ha-Elokim, v'lo asu kidvar... and they didn't do like what's-his-name wanted. Now, I want to show you a little further. You know, Bilam... Bilam, when he wanted Klal Yisroel to fall, he said a very interesting mishpat, very interesting statement. Bilam said, Go make arvos, bnos Moav, they should go out and entice the Jews, Eloheihem shel eileh, sonei zimah. What do you mean? Eloheihem shel eileh? The world, in the world it's not sonei zimah? It's only Eloheihem shel eileh? And you know what the answer is? No. In the world, zimah is not such a bad thing. It has to do with Elohim, yiras Elokim. That's the yiras Elokim. Eloheihem shel eileh sonei zimah. Do you know that avodah zarah and znus is the same language in the Torah? It's the same language. No, like issur, it's a zimah. It's the same loshon. Lo sishchaveh l'hem v'lo sa'avdeim, ki hares תהרוס, one is minus and one is arayos, asher zonim achareihem, znus. Liznos, the word znus is found by adultery, and it's also found by avodah zarah. Asher atem zonim achareihem. Very interesting. Adultery, arayos, and...

Of course, is tied to avodah. I once thought to myself, Yom Kippur, right before Neilah, what do we say? We read Arayos. To me, it's something so strange. I mean, Yom Kippur is a time that we have to start reading about ervah, eisho, bita, right? The Kriyas HaTorah of Mincha. It's about adultery. What's the pshat? So many say, I saw many bring down, that they had problems that already by towards the end of the day, the boys and the girls would stay outside. There was a problem, so we give them mussar. That's brought down. It's brought down in the sefarim. I don't know. I don't know what shuls you daven in. The shuls that I daven in, that doesn't happen. Sorry, the shuls that I daven in, that doesn't happen. Forgive me. I'm thinking more. I'm thinking a little bit more. Arayos is yirah. It's all about fear. Yom Kippur is yirah. It's about fear. The yesod of Yom Kippur is fear. It's yiras Shamayim. Teshuvah, chet, kaparah, it's all about yirah. We spoke about this, that Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah is ahavah, and Yom Kippur is yirah. It's about yirah, so onesh, yiras romemus, Hashem, Elokim yechafezun. It's about fear. Arayos is a direct result of the fear, and we try to instill in Yom Kippur, perishus me'arayos, yirah, the fear of Yom Kippur. There's a connection between yirah and arayos. Now let's go a little bit further. Eloheihem shel eilu, soinei zimah. Let me show you now what the Maharal says. I told you I have the Maharal. Yosef, sheker hachen vhevel hayofi. Boaz, sheker hachen vhevel hayofi. Palti ben Laish, ooh, ish asher yira es Hashem yit'halal. Says the Maharal, why? What's wrong with what Yosef? And he says a moiridike zach. He says like this: Yosef was dressed, so there was protection to the aveirah. So he had to do a ma'aseh, right, to get undressed, right? So there was boundaries. There was gedarim already set up. So when he ran, he ran from that matzav, which is from already where there was gedarim. And he explains that's called chen. Chen is more external. The person has nothing. You don't have any... but people view you and have chen. They find in you something. It's a charm that you have, but you only have it in the eyes of somebody else. It's not physically there. That's Yosef. Boaz was more. Why? Because Boaz was already laying there. He says a lashon that the arumim... I don't know where he gets it, but that's what the Maharal says. I can only quote the Maharal. The Maharal, rabosai, is in the Nesivos Olam, chelek beis, Nesiv Yiras Hashem, perek gimmel, amud chav, vav through chav-zayin. And he says that they were sitting together, laying together. So that takes already... Yeah, they were sleeping, but who says they were not dressed? He says that they were arumim. I'll give you the lashon. I'll give you the lashon. Listen. Sir, if you have a problem, you write to the Maharal in Prague. They have his kever over there. You'll write to him. Listen what he writes to him. He says— זה באויס, דא אפל גאב שבודאי דומה זהו יוסף יוסף, שהיה אימו במיטה והיה ערום. He says, which I tell you, he says that Yosef was dressed. Mashenkein Boaz was one step closer to the aveirah, and he still was poresh, so that took from him something. That's called hevel hayofi. Yofi a person does have. It is obtained by the person, not just outwardly perceived. So Boaz was one step more. But yofi disappears with time. No one stays pretty forever, right? Except for maybe some of you, but most people don't stay yofi forever, right? Boaz also wasn't forever. After that situation, okay, the yetzer hara was gone, finished. It was just a one-time thing. Palti ben Laish was constant, day in and day out for years. He sheyiras Hashem, he, he tishala. Why? וזהו, Palti ben Laish, שהיתה תמיד עמו, ועם כל זה היה גובר על יצרו. וזהו אמיתת היראה. That's the yesod of yirah, constant hisgabrus, constant overpowering the yetzer hara. Yirah hazos הוא שורש ועיקר הכל. That's the whole thing. The whole Torah is about yiras Shamayim. That's it. That's the bottom.

Because he can love Hashem. Okay, I don't love today, I'm in a bad mood. You know, that's just the way it works. Kach amar, sheker hachein vhevel hayofi. Heklomar, ki raui la'adam sheyihyeh lo ikar yiras Shamayim, aval lo yiras Shamayim bama, he calls it. You know, bama means bama is chutz. Bama is the mizbeach they use on the outside. He calls Yosef's yiras Shamayim bama, the mizbeach on the outside. It's not the inner. These things are clear-cut, says the Maharal. Yeah, the Maharal. Vatirena hamyaldos es halekin. The geulah, the redemption, was about yiras Shamayim. The makos was about yiras Shamayim. Kriyas Yam Suf, yir'u baHashem. Matan Torah was about yiras Shamayim. The parshiyos of Shemos are lessons, are dosages of anecdote, medicine for yiras Shamayim. You read the parshios b'shalach. That's why these weeks are Shovavim. Shovavim is a time to work on the private, on this gabrus hayetzer. You're not hurting anybody, nobody knows, nobody. Who cares? Who are you bothering? The guy can be the most moral, ethical person, but this inyanim, what does that have to do with these inyanim? You're a very nice guy. He loves Hashem, he loves to learn, it's all beautiful. This gabrus hayetzer comes only, only from yiras Shamayim. Shovavim is yiras Shamayim. Atah yadati ki yare Elokim atah. The act of yirah of the akeidah was found also in the act of Puah and Shifrah, when they mitchayenes hayeladim. It wasn't morals. It wasn't ethics. It wasn't love of Hashem. It was something more. Aboysai, if you had—give me five more minutes, I'm going to show you something so beautiful now. You have five more minutes? You don't have? You have to go. We have? Okay. Give me five more minutes. I'll show you something so beautiful, okay? The yirah of the meyaldos, and I explained to you that's chochmah, because the wisdom is protected, protected with the yiras Shamayim. Let me show you something so beautiful, okay? Ready? Okay. The Medrash says that not only was Miriam zocheh to Moshe and Aharon, right, Miriam, but they were also zocheh to Betzalel. Why? Because by Betzalel it says, Va'atemalei oso ruach Elokim, ruach Elokim, va'tir'ena hameyaldos es haElokim. So because of this, they got Betzalel. I read you the Medrash. This is the lashon of the Medrash here. Ma hu sachar? What was their reward? Lefi sheyirah yecheved mipnei HaKadosh Baruch Hu, heimid mimenu Moshe. She got Moshe. What about Miriam? Miriam yatza mimenu Betzalel, shehaya malei chochmah. See? Chochmah. Yirah, chochmah. ותמלא אותו רוח אלוקים, חכמה. But here, ... is the same thing; she had b'Tzalel. Let me ask you a question. You don't mind me asking. Chochmah, ... connection, Betzalel. Tell me, how old was Betzalel? He was 13 years old. That's how old Betzalel was. There was not one other person in Klal Yisroel that was roi, that was fit to do the job, only Betzalel. Could you imagine a guy's looking for—he goes to look in the kindergarten. Let me see, ooh, this guy eating the donuts there, the one that's eating, the one that's playing the blocks. Him, him, I want him to build the Mishkan. So you know what you're gonna say? Thirteen? Betzalel was mamash gadol hador. I'll tell you what you remind me of. But God gave him the smarts to build it and everything. So why did He choose a 13-year-old boy? I can tell you that this question is not mine. The Chasam Sofer asks this question. But before we get to the Chasam Sofer, let me tell you what this reminds me of. My great-grandfather, beis Aharon, gadol, the great genius, the Torah giant of Europe, in his writings, in earlier years, he wrote a very sharp sentence against the Rama. The Rama, in a certain sugya, contradicts the Gemara.

Rav Sarim goes to battle, diber becharifut against the Rambam. He speaks very sharply against Rambam. Years later, when he has that same topic in the Shulchan Aruch, when he wrote his books on Shulchan Aruch, on the bottom he writes that here's the place that he'd like to ask forgiveness from the Rambam. In his younger years, he was a little bit, you know, I guess he mellowed out over the years, and here he wants to ask forgiveness from the Rambam for speaking sharply against the Rambam. This I saw years and years. I know of it. Recently, maybe four or five years ago, a book came out by a very famous author in Israel that authors many books. A lot of his books are used today in halacha, and he has the picture books on Shabbos. It's all Rabbi Stern, very famous Rabbi Stern. So there he put out a volume, Gedolei Hadoros, topics about, you know, literature about gedolim. And one chapter he has is on the Beis Aaron, my great-grandfather. There he writes something very interesting. He writes that in the early years he wrote something very sharp against the Rambam. Years later he asked mechilah, he asked forgiveness from the Rambam, which I knew, but he adds, V'zeh haya al pi hatza'at Reb Shlomo Zalman Orbach, that Reb Shlomo Zalman Orbach lived at the time in Israel, wrote a letter to the Beis Aaron, yeah, and told him that's what he writes. Now, where did he get this story from? Where did he get this story from? There's only one source that he could have gotten this story. Reb Shlomo Zalman Orbach was the uncle of this Rabbi Stern. He was the uncle. Only Rabbi Orbach would have known this, because how would you know why somebody retracted something? So obviously he knew that the letter was sent. Reb Shlomo Zalman sent such a letter. How old was Reb Shlomo Zalman? Who? Yeled ben shlosh esrei shanah. He was 13 years old. What happened was, years later, somebody put out a book called Chaim SheYesh Bahem. It's a book on Chumash. It's a very famous book that they use on the parshiyos. It's nice, nice stories. So he brings this story over there, and he tries to bring out the anavah, the humbleness of the Beis Aharon, that he accepted rebuke, so to speak, from a 13-year-old boy. Today, even someone who is greater than you sends you a letter, you throw it, rip it up. You say, You don't know what you're talking about, and that's all, right? A 13-year-old boy should send the Torah giant, one of the big rabbis of Europe, a contradiction, a tochachah, a rebuke, that he should accept it is an unbelievable thing. That's what this book writes. I wanted very much to write this guy a letter and say, I know my grandfather was a humble person, and I agree with you, but this story doesn't prove it. You know why? How is the Beis Aharon supposed to know how old this Reb Shlomo Zalman was? When he wrote a letter, you think he sounded like a 13-year-old boy that we have today? He might have sounded like a gadol hador. I remember seeing a teshuvah that Reb Shlomo Zalman Auerbach wrote on electricity, on the Ramkol, on the microphone. He was 30-something years old. It's phenomenal, the amount of knowledge that he... It's just, it's something unique. It's just unbelievable. I mean, a 30-year-old man should write so much and to have such innovation in electricity and to know all the exact way how electricity works and that he studied it. I mean, it's just, it's not. So it's no chiddush to me that the 13-year-old boy sounded like the gadol hador. So maybe we could come and say, Betzalel was 13. Yeah, if Reb Shlomo Zalman at 13 looked like this, can you imagine what Betzalel looked like at 13? But, pamachti es sedaisai, I hang my hat up on the Chasam Sofer that asks this very question. He asks a great question. Nobody in Klal Yisrael was fit to build a Mishkan besides a 13-year-old boy. It's a great question. You listen to the lashon: This is a davar nifla me'od, she'adam echad memula b'chochmah uvina uvdaas, v'hu ben yud-gimmel. He should be 13 years old, right? V'yesh b'Yisrael chachmei lev, zekeinim v'ro'im, and there were tremendous talmidei chachamim there. V'lo nimtza echad kemohu? There's not one of the people that looked just, that was able to be like Betzalel? You had to pick Betzalel? I'm going to tell you a medrash, rabosai, that when you put—something culminates, culminates the entire conversation we had today. It puts everything in perspective. It was a present, like you said. You know why he got this present, Betzalel? Who was Betzalel's father? Chur. What did Chur do? Chur went and fought the eigel.

And he got killed for it. שהיה בנו של חור, שנאסר נפשו, מסירת נפש for the eigel. Tell me, who was Miriam's son? Chur. Who was moser nefesh because of Yiras Shamayim? Miriam. Who was moser nefesh for Yiras Shamayim? Chur. Who was betzalel chochmah, which is Yiras Shamayim? Nu? Nu? It's all the same thing. It's Miriam, Chur. It comes from the same shoresh, right? ותיראן המילדות את האלוקים. That's what the medrash, I believe, means — לדעת דעתי. בזכות, בזכות ותיראן המילדות את האלוקים, she was zocheh to what? Betzalel. Now you'll ask me, why do I need Yiras Shamayim in the building of the Mishkan? I'm going to answer you that the same thing. Ready? Which wisdom was needed to build a Mishkan? So you can come and say it was the wisdom of, what do you call, a banoi, of an architect, engineering. He was a big engineer. Do you know that HaKadosh Baruch Hu detailed the plan, the blueprint of the Mishkan? He wasn't the blue— he didn't make the blueprint. Hashem made the blueprint. So someone could come and say, Yeah, but to understand the blueprint, to make it from that, that also takes tremendous wisdom. Really? Really? I don't know. Who's the chacham, the guy that did the Schwartz that knocks the nails in, or the guy who makes the blueprint? Don't talk, don't— listen, you'll enjoy this. Listen. Who's the chacham? No, I make the blueprint. The Eibishter made the blueprint, yeah? Tell me, how many times does it say in the Binyan HaMishkan, Vayaas ka'asher tzivah Hashem oso? How many times does it say? Eighteen times it says. In the building of the Mishkan, it says eighteen times that it was done exactly the way Hashem said. Tell me, to do exactly what Hashem says, and for a person to take himself out of it completely—not what I think and what I want and what I do, all my wisdom is nothing—I follow because Hashem said. Which midah does that come from? Does anybody know? No? You know, the whole brisker mahalach—does anybody know what the Brisker mahalach is all about? It's about yirah. It's about fear. Therefore, it's about dikduk hamitzvos. Dikduk hamitzvos is to listen to the word of God, the word of Hashem, to its precise intent, precision, exact. And what is that? Which midah is it? Yirah. It's fear. When you fear Hashem—Brisker Rav had such yiras Hashem, he said Kriat Shema, he would say it over again and over again, Ulay hamilah zu lo hitbate'ah me'ah achuz kemo shetzarich. Betzalel needed this to make an exact Mishkan, Vayaas ka'asher tzivah Hashem, make exactly the way Hashem wanted it. He needed chochmah. Which chochmah? Chochmah is gabrut hayetzer on every pe'ulah, on every action, exactly the way Hashem wanted it. A person can be very intellectual, but he still doesn't do exactly what Hashem wants of him. This, rabosai, is Miriam, Yocheved, and this is the theme of Shmois, Va'eira, Bo, Beshalach, Yisro, Mishpatim, Matan Torah. It's all the same thing. Mishpatim is the end of Matan Torah. Matan Torah is in the end of Parshas Mishpatim also. Shovavim. That's what Shovavim is all about. I wish you all to take the lessons of Shovavim and apply them, and grow from them. You know, I'm going to tell you one more nekudah, and then I'll say goodbye. I can't help it. I must tell it to you. Why do we keep mitzvos milah today? Does anybody know why we keep mitzvos milah today? So if you're going to come and say because Avraham Avinu made milah, you're wrong. The Rambam in פירוש המשניות on daf kuf amud aleph, the Rambam says we do not do brit milah because Avraham did brit milah. You know why we do brit milah? Because Hashem recommanded it in the Torah, פריעת מצות מסיני נאמר. That Hashem gave it to us from Sinai. Before Matan Torah, we did it because Avraham, Gidanash, Yaakov. But after Matan Torah, we do it because—what's wrong if we do it because of Avraham? What's wrong if we do it because of Avraham? And the answer is, אשר ציווה ה'.

Hasher, sivah Hashem. Torah means yirah l'dvar Hashem, precision in the kiyum of the dvar Hashem, because Hashem said so. We keep Torah mitzvahs only because Hashem said so. Yirah is yesod kol haTorah. Kul, like the mefarshim, the Rishonim, Acharonim teach us. This is shovevim, the lessons of Shemos, Vaera, Bo, Beshalach. Let's tap into zocheh l'kayem dvar Hashem b'galui uv'seter, kemo shebegalui, yitgabru ta yetzer hara, rak yavo. ונהיה לנו יראת שמים טהורה, ויהיה לנו יראת שמים. Rabosai, have a...