Transcript

I had an introduction prepared, but that was much better so you don't want to continue. So I think I'm going to scrap my introduction and begin with part two. In talking about some of the issues related to how we should initially understand for ourselves the issues related to army service, and then in turn be able to mechanech our children. So there are three reasons to focus on this. The first is it's intrinsically a very important topic. Secondly, it's now I think assumed existential proportions in terms of Medinat Yisrael. And thirdly, it's also representative of many other issues, of some other issues as well. So for all of those reasons, let's try to delve into this. On the one hand, it's not a shiur, on the other hand, there's no point in just saying things apodictically, you know, I'll give a klap and make pronouncements. Obviously there's no value to that either, so we'll try to thread the needle. Let's begin as follows. The Ramban in Parshat Shoftim, in the Parsha of Milchamah, the second source you have in front of you, articulates what is a major pillar of halacha. So maybe first we'll just read, we'll excerpt that line or two from the Ramban and then briefly trace how it emerges. On the pasuk of ופקדו שרי צבאות בראש העם, the Torah says that after the Kohen Mashiach Milchamah and after the shotrim speak to the people, so then it's time to appoint a general. So the Ramban writes, כי התורה תצוה בדרך הארץ ותעשה הנסים ביראה ובהסתר. The mitzvot of the Torah are geared and demand that we act, react, be proactive on the natural plane. That's what it means, כי התורה תצוה בדרך הארץ. And now that doesn't intimate that ultimate resolutions happen purely on the natural level, but it does indicate that the natural level and what we do on the natural level is indispensable in terms of what the ultimate resolution is. And the way the Ramban sees this here in this Parsha is that the Torah says twice, first in Pasuk Aleph, the Torah says,

כי תצא למלחמה על אויביך וראית סוס ורכב עם רב ממך לא תירא מהם כי ה' אלוהיך עמך המעלך מארץ מצרים.

So nothing to worry about, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is with you and Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in charge. When the Kohen Mashiach Milchamah speaks again in Pasuk Gimel he says, don't be afraid, you have no reason to be afraid,

כי ה' אלוהיכם ההולך עמכם להילחם לכם עם אויביכם להושיע אתכם.

So clearly the Torah is telling us that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to make the ultimate call. And because of that you don't have to, don't be intimidated by that overwhelming show of force. And yet the Torah then concludes after... And says after hearing this mussar shmooze כי ה' אלקיך עמך, so what what's the takeaway? The takeaway is go find the most capable generals to lead the people into battle. So how how do you put all that together? So that's what the Ramban says that the Torah tetzaveh b'derech eretz. That Hakadosh Baruch Hu created you know reality is multi-tiered. But one of the tiers T-I one of the one of the tiers is the natural world, the natural level. And Halacha says that we have to be active on on that level. The same philosophy, the same affirmation of the reality of the natural level emerges from a psak in Shulchan Aruch that if a person is shoel at a time of pikuach nefesh when there's clearly or possibly a sofek sakana and a person stops to ask a shayla, you know, am I allowed to be mechalel Shabbos in this situation of sofek sakana, so Shulchan Aruch is maatik min haYerushalmi הרי זה שופך דמים. הרי זה שופך דמים, so the simple pshat הרי זה שופך דמים, you can say not simple pshat, but the simple pshat הרי זה שופך דמים is that the time lost in asking the shayla could be the time that makes the difference between life and death. That's the simple pshat in the Yerushalmi and that's a halacha pesuka in Shulchan Aruch. It it brings into sharp focus in in accurately understanding and faithfully representing divrei Torah, we can if we're not very careful and and don't have enough of a of a range, don't have enough breadth, one can inadvertently distort the Torah by quoting divrei Torah. So one can quote Nefesh HaChaim's about ein od milvado and every word is amitta shel Torah and every word is kodesh kodashim. But if one quotes only the Nefesh HaChaim and doesn't juxtapose the Yerushalmi and the Ramban, so one will come away well-meaningly, sincerely, inadvertently, one will come away with a distorted view that ein od milvado somehow or other on a halachic level negates natural reality. But it doesn't. Halacha operates that the natural world, all the belief about how ultimately תעשה נסים עם יראיך וחסידיך doesn't negate the natural world, the natural plane, Halacha affirms it. That's where Halacha that that's the the sphere of of action for for Halacha, you see it in dinei pikuach nefesh, you see it in dinei milchama. I remember once talking with my father zichrono l'vracha and and I'll slightly edit the the conversation. So I commented on he he commented to begin he commented on one of the gedolei hamachshava that that what he said was revolutionary. So I pushed back in my ignorance and said, you know, but all he does is quote Chazal. So what what do you mean that it's revolutionary? So my father answered me and said you know there are a lot of Chazal. So again every word in the Nefesh HaChaim is amitta shel Torah, is kodesh kodashim, but to properly understand not just what Rav Chaim Volozhin himself is saying... It's clear that our understanding and therefore our chinuch needs to be that is it the kochi ve'otzem yadi of Tzahal that saves us? No, it's not the kochi ve'otzem yadi of Tzahal that saves us. Is the mesiras nefesh of Tzahal absolutely indispensable for the hatzala that Hakadosh Baruch Hu brings us? The answer is absolutely yes. It is indispensable. And we need to understand that, we need to express that, and we need to be mechanech our children to understand that, understand that as well. And everything that happens on the spiritual level doesn't negate what happens on the natural level. For Klal Yisrael, for the yeshua to come, it comes when התורה תצווה בדרך הארץ and then there's a sequence here. There's A is necessary to get to B in the Ramban. התורה תצווה בדרך הארץ and then based on that, ותעשה הנסים עם יראיו בהסתר because that's how Hakadosh Baruch Hu operates ואין חפץ לפניו לשנות טבעו של עולם. Okay, so that's one yesod again. Chinuch is, you know, leaving aside the pedagogy shebo and the strategy shebo, so chinuch is just transmitting what we understand for ourselves. So we need to correctly understand and then we can correctly and accurately transmit. Le'aniyus daati, the citation of the Rambam in Hilchos Shemita V'yovel as a basis for the position that there's a categorical ptur for bnei yeshiva, lomdei Torah, or whatever the correct phrase is, from serving in the army is a mistake. It just misreads and misunderstands the Rambam and again, not to give a full-blown shiur here but just to hopefully intelligibly mention the roshei perakim. So on the top of page two, בלא שבט לוי בלבד, Halacha Yud Gimmel:

אלא כל איש ואיש מכל באי העולם אשר נדבה רוחו אותו והבינו מדעו להיבדל לעמוד לפני השם לשרתו ולעובדו לדעת את השם והלך ישר כמו שעשהו האלוקים ופרק מעל צווארו עול החשבונות הרבים אשר ביקשו בני האדם הרי זה נתקדש קודש קדשים ויהיה השם חלקו ונחלתו לעולם ולעולמי עולמים ויזכה לו בעולם הזה דבר המספיק לו כמו שזיכה לכהנים ללוויים הרי דוד עליו השלום אומר השם מנת חלקי וכוסי אתה תומיך גורלי.

So the Rambam apparently grants citizenship to within shevet Levi to

כל איש ואיש מכל באי העולם אשר נדבה רוחו אותו וכולו

and earlier in Halacha Yud Beis, you have it here in the top of page two, the Rambam said of shevet Levi that lo orchei milchama. So that's the, I think, the conventional reading that we hear. And when it's expanded, so the presentation is that, again, I didn't put these sources down trying to streamline, that as you all know, the Gemara in ברכות ל"ה עמוד ב', the machlokes of Rabbi Yishmael and רבי שמעון בר יוחאי of הנהג בהן מנהג דרך ארץ, which is what Rabbi Yishmael says, that there needs to be a combination of talmud Torah with in that context. Work and parnassa, and ר' שמעון בר יוחאי says no,

מלאכתן נעשית על ידי אחרים. אפשר אדם חורש בשעת חרישה

etcetera etcetera. So the again, the the way this school of thought continues is that here in Hilchos Shmitta V'Yovel, the Rambam is reflecting ר' שמעון בר יוחאי. So already that is is very difficult to understand. If that were the case, so then the Rambam in Hilchos Talmud Torah should have said, you know look, there are two paths and a person has to self-assess and after the person self-assesses he needs to self-identify. Am I a Reb Yishmael Yid or am I a ר' שמעון בר יוחאי Yid? Which even if that's what the Rambam were saying, it's not so simple to say yes, I'm a ר' שמעון בר יוחאי Yid. You know, that's you know, that's rather ambitious company to ambitious company to keep. But in Hilchos Talmud Torah there is no indication whatsoever. In Hilchos Talmud Torah it's clear that that the Rambam paskens like Reb Yishmael. So that's A. It's it's a strange it's very strange. B, let's go back to halacha yud-beis where the Rambam was talking about the Shevet Levi.

ולמה לא זכה לוי בנחלת ארץ ישראל ובביזתה עם אחיו?

It begins on the bottom of page 105.

ולמה לא זכה לוי בנחלת ארץ ישראל ובביזתה עם אחיו מפני שהובדל לעבוד את ה' לשרתו ולהורות דרכיו הישרים ומשפטיו הצדיקים לרבים שנאמר יורו משפטיך ליעקב ותורתך לישראל. לפיכך הובדלו מדרכי העולם לא עורכין מלחמה כשאר ישראל ולא נוחלין ולא זוכין לעצמן בכח גופן אלא הם חיל ה' שנאמר ברך ה' חילו והוא ברוך הוא זוכה להם שנאמר אני חלקך ונחלתך.

Now when the Rambam then again offers the the honorary citizenship in Shevet Levi to even those who are not genetically a part of Shevet Levi, so the Rambam says that

ויזכה לו בעולם הזה דבר המספיק לו כמו שזיכה לכהנים וללויים.

He doesn't, he repeats that, the hu socheh lahem. He doesn't repeat the lo orchin milchama. So ma nafshach, if if the equation is clear, don't repeat that. If the equation isn't clear, so repeat everything. So ella mai, the pshat in the Rambam here is that what the Rambam is saying is not halacha l'maaseh in the following sense. It's, right, in Mishneh Torah, whenever the Rambam allows himself to to engage in divrei agadah, he does it at the end of halachos. He does it at the end of Hilchos Mikvaos, he does it at the end of Hilchos Temurah, he does it at the end of Hilchos Me'ilah, he does it at the end of Hilchos Issurei Mizbe'ach. Overwhelmingly, it's at the conclusion of halachos where where the Rambam will indulge, where he'll allow himself divrei agadah in what is obviously primarily, because that's what it was intended to be, a halachic work. The status of Shevet Levi is not a choice a person makes. It's something Hakadosh Baruch Hu bestows upon the person. הרי זה נתקדש קדש קדשים means Hakadosh Baruch Hu sees how a person lives a certain lifestyle, so then Hakadosh Baruch Hu bestows upon him that status, which is why the only nafkamina is what's biydei shamayim, not what's what's biydei adam. Orchin milchama is a din biydei adam. So this isn't this isn't the choice a person made. It's not it's not it's not on our level. It's מהנהגות הקדוש ברוך הוא בעולמו and therefore it only expresses itself with regard to that ויזכה לו בעולם הזה דבר המספיק לו. All of a sudden this person who halach yosher... inside the birthday card there's going to be a lottery ticket, and he's going to win the lottery. And he's going to win the lottery, and that's now going to support him for what he's been Moser nefesh for because פרק מעל צוארו עול החשבונות הרבים. That's the extent of what the Shevet Levi and it Davka... it isn't... it isn't a judgment that we can make and it isn't B'yedei adam. And that's why the Rambam repeats the one Nafka mina of this again is B'yedei shamayim because he's describing how the workings of Hashgacha. He's not describing Halakha l'ma'aseh. A. B, the other assumption that's made, and very good people, I'm not disparaging those who read the Rambam this way. I do think it's totally mistaken but I don't intend Chas v'shalom to disparage those who say it. B, the other assumption when invoking this in terms of Bnei yeshiva having a categorical P'tur from the army is that what the Rambam is describing is someone who's learning full time and that someone who's learning full time qualifies as Torato umnato. Both of those assumptions are highly questionable. Let's begin with the second one. The Rambam has the phrase Torato umnato. That's part of the Rambam's vocabulary as well, it's not only in Chazal. The Rambam has it as well. If you take a look in פרק ו' הלכות תפילה הלכה ח', it's the one underneath Talmud torah here in page two. So the Rambam quotes the Gemara in Shabbat:

ומי שהוא עוסק בתלמוד תורה והגיע זמן התפילה פוסק ומתפלל. ואם הייתה תורתו אומנותו ואינו עושה מלאכה כלל,

so then Eino posek for Tefillah. So the Rambam knows and uses the phrase Torato umnato. If that's what he means, then what's this whole Arichus in all of Hilkhos Shmita V'Yovel? It's not that very concise tight phrase that the Rambam would obviously naturally be inclined to. The Rambam again and again talks about how he wants to avoid Arichus, he wants to avoid Arichus. The Rambam considers it an Arichus to if in every Halakha he would tell you that this Din in the Gemara is Rabi Yochanan or this Din in the Gemara is Shmuel. Rambam says that's an Arichus. That's why he's just going to mention in the Hakdama to Mishneh Torah, he'll tell you all the names and then he's going to quote everything, he's going to streamline everything because I want to avoid Arichus, I want to avoid Arichus, I want to avoid Arichus. So what's this whole אשר נדבה רוחו אותו והבינו מדעו? What was wrong what's wrong with the Torato umnato phrase that he used in Hilchot tefillah? Ella mai, it seems overwhelmingly clear that the Rambam is talking about something here which is even higher than Torato umnato. He's talking about, you'll take a look in מורה בחלק ג' פרק נ"א, he's talking about שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד person who every almost every waking moment, only the Avos and Moshe Rabbeinu did it literally every waking moment, but is his mind is with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Okay, so I don't know, that's a very very very very very very high bar. And finally before we move on, the Rambam Hilchos Shabbos has the following. Again, this is his paskening a Gemara in Eruvin but again K'darko shel haRambam, it's not as if there's an element of his understanding in his interpretation. גוים שצרו על עיירות ישראל. So does that represent Pikuach nefesh? Again, Perek Bet in Shabbos as you know is the Perek of Pikuach nefesh, right? It begins Halakha Alef with דחויה היא שבת אצל סכנת נפשות כשאר כל המצוות. So Perek Bet in Hilchos Shabbos is the Perek of Pikuach nefesh. If Goyim lay siege to a Jewish city, is that a Sakana? So אם באו על עסקי ממון, they just want to pillage the city,

אין מחללין עליהן את השבת ואין עושין עמהן מלחמה. ובכל מקום,

skipping to line three,

אם באו על עסקי נפשות או שערכו מלחמה או ש...

They didn't indicate what their what their agenda is.

יוצאין עליהן בכלי זיין ומחללין עליהן את השבת. ומצוה על כל ישראל שיכולין לבוא לצאת ולעזור לאחיהם שבמצור ולהצילם מיד הגוים בשבת. ואסור להם להתמהמה למוצאי שבת.

So whenever you have an actual attack rachmana litzlan which is unfolding, when you have an imminent attack, when you have a threat of attack which is all the time in medinat yisrael. So in addition to the mechayev, the potential mechayev of milchama, there's a mechayev of hatzala. Right, perek bet behilchot shabbat has nothing to do with milchama. Milchama is in hilchot melachim. Hilchot melachim is hilchot melachim umilchamoteihem. Perek bet in shabbat is about hatzala. So the tzitz eliezer has in his teshuva he says מצוה על כל ישראל means even those who enjoy a p'tur from milchama have a chiyuv of hatzala. So even if the reading in shemita veyovel were true, which לעניות דעתי אחרי הבקשה והמחילה it isn't. But even even if it were, even if it were true, that would only address the mechayev of milchama. And and he writes explicitly that מצוה על כל ישראל means includes shevet levi. Actual leviyim, not not the leaving aside the question of honorary shevet levi. So for those reasons and and more, I don't think that there's any basis for the the view that there's a categorical p'tur. And again that's something that we need to understand and therefore as part of our chinuch, it's something that we need to transmit to our children as well that they should also that they should also understand that. What what about is it is it correct, is it advisable? Maybe the real issue which which we're also going to talk about bli neder is the culture in in the army. Maybe maybe that's the real issue. And it's not the categorical p'tur for lomdei torah, maybe that's the real issue, but as a matter of hanhagat haklal, if you tell that to people, so then people who you think shouldn't go to the army will go to the army. If you tell them something categorical down the line of shemita veyovel, tell them something categorical, so then people are not going to go. You tell them something nuanced that there's this concern, that there's that concern, not that there's a categorical p'tur, so then it's not going to play out the way you as a leader think it should. So maybe maybe this needs to be said even though the the real kavana is different. So there is a concept of הלכה ואין מורין כן, there is. You do find in chazal הלכה ואין מורין כן. So for instance by machshirei ochel nefesh on yom tov. So we really pasken like rabbi yehuda that מכשירין שאי אפשר לעשותן מערב יום טוב are mutar on yom tov. And nevertheless, so let's say you have a knife that becomes dull on yom tov, so then the hashchazat sakin is mutar. And nevertheless, the gemara tells a story, I think it was Rava I'm not sure, who was doing exactly that and someone asked him oh so you're allowed to do hashchazat sakin and Rava said no I'm just getting the habshashah d'minuta, no I'm not rubbing it to to sharpen it, I'm rubbing it to get the the accumulation. has to foresee what the fallout from his psak will be. And if, even if the psak is correct, but if the fallout from the psak is incorrect, so there certainly is, again, there is such a notion and which, again, there is such a category of הלכה ואין מורין כן. But אלא אלא מאי רבותי, when Chazal say הלכה ואין מורין כן, so they obviously are measuring, on the one hand, you're not accurately representing what the din is in this case, but on the other hand, you know, if the distortion will be greater in terms of what people will do with it, so you have to weigh one against the other. To, to, the whole world outlook which flows from saying there's a categorical p'tur for lomdei Torah just so misrepresents Torah that the fact that there is a concept of הלכה ואין מורין כן in other contexts doesn't mean that that it can be appropriately applied here. I don't know, the notion that that there are two groups in Klal Yisrael, there's one group that should go out and be ready to be killed and maimed, and then there's another segment of of Klal Yisrael that that isn't exposed to to those risks, the intimation, again, of sort of denying the reality of the natural realm, all of these consequences and all of these corollaries are are there's no analog to that in the הלכה ואין מורין כן by machshiri, by machshiri ochel nefesh. The, the problems that result from not stating the way it is are far greater than than again, even if if one thought so, the problems of presenting things the way they are. The, the issue that I'm not able to speak about as well as it needs to be spoken about, only because I'm too removed and and don't have enough of a grasp of of the facts on the ground in the metzius, is that issue of how much of a danger exists due to the culture in the army, how much of a danger does it represent to to a frum lifestyle. But what, even without having, I mean, I, I read the clippings that that people send, but but it's hard to get a sense for how common or uncommon, how frequent or infrequent, you know, people who live outside of New York think that, you know, every other person is getting mugged on the subway in New York and it's not true, it's only every third person is getting mugged on the subway in New York, not every other person. So things get, so it's, you know, when when you read a statistic that, you know, if you have this factor, so then the rates of a certain sickness increase tenfold. So that's frightening, yeah, but they increase from one in ten million to one in a million, maybe. So I don't have the picture But what can be said and what needs to be understood even if one ירא שמים אלוק אדם המסור לאלוקיו, even if one feels that the ba'asher hu sham, that the problems in the army in terms of the culture, in terms of etcetera, and all that that phrase represents that preclude some segments of יראים ושלמים שומרי תורה ומצוות from going into the army, that position can be adopted and presented in either of two very drastically different ways. One is to say we wash our hands of the whole thing. And as someone recently told me, a bunch of atheists and forget the whole thing. The generals are a bunch of atheists, that's more or less an almost verbatim quote from what someone was telling me recently and a sense of you know this is not my problem, this is not an army that I can identify with, it's not an army that I can relate to, it's not an army that I can send my sons or grandsons to. That's one way. The other way is to say you know we recognize that this is our responsibility as much as anyone else's. We recognize that we have an obligation to share the burden equally. But here is what we need and we're ready and willing and want to, but here is what we need to make it possible. And then come up with whatever is realistic and works. Those are two very different messages. The second message is a message where one is nosei be'ol and nichnas b'tzarasam. And the first message, the first message which just sort of where one again and even this is al hatzad and I'm neither agreeing or disagreeing because I don't know enough to do either. This is even al hatzad you know that there's a legitimate ba'asher hu sham, that there's a legitimate reason for some to think to feel that it would undermine the religious commitment and the religious lifestyle. But that creates a type of ones and the way to express that is that you know to say help us, help us reconcile the two. Do on your end what we need. And if that message of willingness and eagerness isn't sent, it lacks in terms of being nosei be'ol, it lacks in terms of being nichnas b'tzarasam. The irony is that the Maharal explains in Pirkei Avos, נושא בעול עם חברו is one of the מ"ח קניני תורה. So the Maharal writes, so what's nosei be'ol have to do with talmud torah? How does it... you're working on a milchamos and you're trying to understand what the milchamos means, so whether or not a person is nosei be'ol is gonna impact whether he can read this Ramban? So v'od line three writes the Maharal,

מורה דבר זה שאינו נבדל מן הכלל כאשר נושא בעול עם חברו וראוי אל התורה שהיא אל הכלל כמו שהתבאר.

Torah was given to Klal Yisrael. A person has to be a klalishdiker mentsch to... To have to have to have a cheilek in Torah. If if a person is in his if a person is in a reshus hayachid, if a person is not nosei be'ol, so then that the something lacking in terms of the being part of the klal and and that that interferes with his connection, his connection to Torah. The Rambam writes that nichnas betzorosam is is one of the one, it's not the only one, there are many. A person can not be nichnas betzorosam but do other things that show that he's part of the tzibur, but one of the elements of poreish midarkei tzibur, to say it in the positive sense, one of the elements of being part of the tzibur is whether a person is nichnas betzorosam or not. Rav Wolbe in Alei Shor, I'm sorry, I couldn't, I just gave the mareh makom here on the sheet, I I couldn't find it on the what I can do on the computer. Rav Wolbe has in in Alei Shor he has very, very important things to say about the midah of nosei be'ol. He quotes the chazal that that Rashi quotes,

במתן תורה כתיב ויראו את אלוהי ישראל ותחת רגליו כמעשה לבנת הספיר וכעצם השמים לטהר.

So they see this vision and kavyachol, kavyachol obviously, under Hakadosh Baruch Hu's legs, under his feet they see k'masei livnas hasapir. So Rashi says

היא הייתה לפניו בשעת שיעבוד לזכור צרותן של ישראל שהם משועבדים במעשה לבנים.

So of all the midos that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted to show, teach, exhibit b'shas matan Torah, he singles out this midah of nosei be'ol, that kavyachol while we were in Mitzrayim, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu had this kavyachol constant reminder that he for a moment shouldn't be out of touch with with the suffering of Bnei Yisrael. Rav Wolbe goes on to say that that it this midah underlies all of bein adam l'chavero. This capacity of nosei be'ol that another Jew's tzara is our tzara is the basis of all of bein adam l'chavero. Bein adam l'chavero really flows and stems from that. Madua meyuchad, he continues, קבעה לעצמה הנשיאה בעול עם הציבור. There's an inyan to be nosei be'ol with any yachid רחמנא ליצלן שהוא בצרה and there's an inyan to be nosei be'ol, a special inyan, heightened, im hatzibur. Ayen sham. You know chashivus hatorah is unlimited. There's no you don't you don't cap it at any point. But since the Torah itself imposes many and and varied obligations, so mimeila talmud Torah has to be balanced. Not because one is limiting chashivus hatorah, but the Torah itself demands more than talmud Torah. The the the most powerful expression of that, you'll take a look the last source you have here in page. Contrary to the Gemara in the Bavli in Shabbos, the Yerushalmi in Shabbos thinks that רבי שמעון בר יוחאי וחבריו not only are they not mafsik their learning for tefillah, they're not even mafsik their learning for Krias Shema. So says the Yerushalmi,

ולא מודי רבי שמעון בן יוחאי שמפסיקין לעשות סוכה ולעשות לולב?

What? All רבי שמעון בר יוחאי does is learn?

ולית ליה לרבי שמעון בן יוחאי הלומד לעשות לא הלומד שלא לעשות?

That one if one is halomed shelo la'asos, it's נוח לו אילו לא נברא. Amar Rabbi Yochanan:

הלומד שלא לעשות נוח לו אילו נהפכה שלייתו על פניו ולא יצא לעולם.

So answers the Gemara, of course רבי שמעון בר יוחאי agrees with all that. He just thinks that טעמיה דרבי שמעון בר יוחאי זה שינון וזה שינון. What רבי שמעון בר יוחאי is doing is he's learning parshas haTorah. What's mitzvas Krias Shema? Ataleina parshas haTorah, אין מבטלין שינון מפני שינון. So Chashivus HaTorah of course it's unlimited. We all live by that. Chashivus HaTorah is unlimited. But the Torah itself says that we're supposed to balance different obligations. The Torah itself imposes varied and multiple obligations and the Torah says that we need to balance that. Just to come back and amplify the point we discussed before about why הלכה ואין מורין כן can't be applied here. To effectively say that others should be willing to die while we study... I mean, it's wrong. The sinah that it unleashes, I think we're all aware of, we all understand it, and it distorts Torah. In that context, one can't invoke הלכה ואין מורין כן when that's the fallout of that ein morin kein. There's no such fallout from saying from people thinking that machshirei ochel nefesh are assur on Yom Tov. You're not dealing with that kind of fallout. On earlier in this trip, so one of the assigned topics was learning from those with whom we disagree. It's a beautiful topic. Beautiful topic. So it pushed me to think more about it. One of the reasons that there is so much opportunity to learn from those whom we disagree is even when we disagree not on an eilu v'eilu, when we're pretty clear that the position we espouse is correct and the other position is wrong. Sometimes wrong positions come from a midah tovah which is exaggerated, which is overextended, which is overapplied and therefore misapplied. It's a very noble impulse. It's a very, very noble impulse to be concerned with outside pernicious influences. It's a very correct and necessary and noble impulse. I won't talk about anyone else. I have a lot to learn from those who have such a deep sensitivity to that. But even a middah tovah, even a noble impulse, when it's taken to an extreme, yields results which are not good. But the impulse of being mindful, and very mindful of outside negative influences is a correct one and it's one that we should respect. And I don't know, everyone can decide for himself for whichever community they live in, if the community could benefit from that. One final thought, sort of anticipating, hopefully this is not a question which is omedes al haperek yet, though I hope it will be. Every army sort of has a target goal for recruitment. Every army assesses what its needs are and how many, how large of a standing army, how large of a reserve force it needs to be able to encounter, to counter, rachmana litzlan, potential threats. If that recruitment goal were to be met, so then what standard would be used for sort of deciding who doesn't need to draft? If whatever, if the goal is X thousand, so halevai that that goal is met. And if of drafting age you have X plus, so how do you decide whom you don't draft? Unlike the rest of the presentation, these thoughts are more tentative because unfortunately we're not really holding by that shaila. We're nowhere near holding by that shaila. But just bevechinas, as Rabbi Rabinowitz said, an introduction. So the Rambam writes, you're all familiar with the halacha here, it's on page four.

מי הוא איש הירא ורך הלבב כמשמעו שאין בלבו כוח לעמוד בקשרי המלחמה ומאחר שיכנס בקשרי המלחמה ישען על מקוה ישראל ומושיעו בעת צרה וידע שעל ייחוד השם הוא עושה מלחמה וישים נפשו בכפו ולא יירא ולא יפחד ולא יחשוב לא באשתו ולא בבניו אלא ימחה זכרונם מלבו ויפנה מכל דבר למלחמה. וכל הנלחם בכל לבו,

skipping to the end of the excerpt here, בלא פחד ותהיה כוונתו לקדש השם בלבד, the Rambam goes on to give a havtachah. Rambam says that every milchamah is al yichud Hashem, al kiddush Hashem. Every milchamah is al yichud Hashem, al kiddush Hashem. This flows from an understanding of history that he presents more elaborately in Iggeret Teiman, where the Rambam says from the time of bechiras Yisrael, so really all our enemies, what they're rejecting is Hakadosh Baruch Hu's bechirah and really they're trying to wage war against Hakadosh. Every every every every empire. That's what that's what they've tried to do, but they're not really fighting against us. They're really fighting against Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And it's that historical understanding that's reflected here. So I don't know, if you have two potential chayalim. One of them understands this and will go out with that mindset. And the other one because unfortunately he's religiously, spiritually disadvantaged because of not having received any chinuch. So he'll be motivated by—incredible, it's incredible and the hakaras hatov we owe is is endless—by national feelings. But it's not—he's not going to be thinking about kiddush Hashem and yichud Hashem. I don't know. So so who's—who's supposed to—you know, a rather remote mashal. משל למה הדבר דומה: Rav Shlomo Zalman and other poskim say that that if a doctor has to be on on Shabbos, he's not allowed to switch with someone who's not a shomer Shabbos to take that shift because he understands what Shabbos is and he'll do only what he's supposed to do. He'll do it the right way. He'll be a doctor on Shabbos the right way. The one who's not a shomer Shabbos, so unfortunately he doesn't know what to do on Shabbos. He's not going to do do do it the right way. So I don't know, I don't know. It's it's something to think about. A. B. The Rambam in in Sefer Hamitzvos, Mitzvas Aseh Tes. And and I realize it's getting late and and with this rabosai I'm going to stop.

והמצוה התשעית היא שצונו לקדש השם, והוא אמרו ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל. וענין זאת המצוה אשר אנחנו מצווים לפרסם האמונה הזאת האמתית בעולם. ושלא נפחד בהזק שמזיק, ואף על פי שבא עלינו מכריח גובה יבקש ממנו לכפור בו יתעלה, לא נשמע ממנו אבל נמסור עצמנו למיתה, ולא נסאהו לחשוב שכפרנו, ואף על פי שלבנו מאמין בו יתעלה. וזאת היא מצות קידוש השם המצווים בה בני ישראל בכללם.

That's a very unique line. I mean there are a lot of mitzvos. If the Rambam just means that both men and women are chayavin, there's an awful lot of such such mitzvos in the Torah that that that men and women are uniformly chayavin. And and as my brother Hashem yikom damo pointed out that this is clearly the same idea, which whatever that idea is, it needs to be deciphered, that the Rambam is expressing in Perek Hey of Yesodei Hatorah, כל בית ישראל מצווים על קידוש השם. Again that same lashon Kol Beis Yisrael.

וזאת היא מצות קידוש השם המצווים בה בני ישראל בכללם.

Let's continue.

רוצה לומר מסירות נפשנו למות ביד האונס על אהבתו יתברך ואמונת יחודו. כמו שעשו חנניה מישאל ועזריה בזמן נבוכדנצר הרשע, כשגזר להשתחוות לצלם והשתחוו כל העמים וישראל בכלל. ולא היה שם מקדש שם שמים והייתה בזה חרפה גדולה על ישראל שנעדרה המצוה הזאת מכולם.

Let's say the Smag. Smag was an itinerant preacher. Used to go around to different communities give drashas. So in some of the mitzvos he tells us that you know there was a lot of hisrashlus in his day in that mitzvah. So why don't I think he mentions mitzvos tefillin. So so what would—would the Rambam write such a line if there was a generation in which almost no one was putting on tefillin? Would would he say the same thing that there was a חרפה גדולה על ישראל? Maybe, but on the other hand you don't find this line about any other mitzvah. You don't find this line in the Rambam about any other mitzvah. And then the Rambam says that the last line:

ולשון ספרי על מנת כך הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים על מנת שתקדשו שמי ברבים.

So what would all of this mean? adds up to and this is all what I'm repeating now is from my brother Hashem yikam damo. Mitzvas Kiddush Hashem is not just another mitzvah in the minyan Taryag. It's not even a mitzvah chamura in the minyan Taryag. Mitzvas Kiddush Hashem is the raison d'être of Klal Yisrael. That's what we exist for. That's what it means כל בית ישראל מצווים על קידוש השם. This is an existential mitzvah. That's why we exist. We exist for Kiddush Hashem. וזאת מצות קידוש השם המצווים בה בני ישראל בכללם, this is what Jewish peoplehood is about. This is the purpose of Kiddush Hashem. Kiddush Hashem is the purpose of Jewish peoplehood. That's what the Rambam is proving, that's why he's quoting this Toras Kohanim, על מנת כך הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים. It was תבנית אלקים על הארץ. It's for all of Torah, yeah, it's for all of Torah, but within mitzvos haTorah, the mitzvah that defines Jewish peoplehood, that's the raison d'être for why there's an Am Yisrael, is to be mekadesh Shem Shamayim. And that's why when

לא היה מקדש שם שמיים היתה בזה חרפה גדולה על ישראל,

so what do you exist for? This is your telos in life. So if you're not doing it, so what do you exist for? So I don't know, so the question is you run away from this mitzvah, you run to this mitzvah? There's an ayom ve-nora quote from my brother Hashem yikam damo that he said that some asked a shayla, so sometimes the chiyuv of yeihareig v'al ya'avor is only be-asara mi-Yisrael. So let's say the anas is coming and he's coercing the Jew le-ha'avir al daso. The reason he wants the Jew to do it is not le-hana'as atzmo, not because he has a vested interest in it, because he wants the Jew to go against Torah, le-ha'avir al daso, and if it's in the presence of asara mi-Yisrael, so then it's yeihareig v'al ya'avor. So the question is, so let one person run away? If you have a minyan metzumtzam, let one person run away and then does that undercut the chiyuv? So my brother's reaction for that was, he says adaraba, if there's nine, call for a tenth. ראויים הדברים למי שאמרם. So I don't know what the, I don't know how the decision would be made if we, halevai, reached that point where the recruitment goal has been met and the decision needs to be made who yes, who no, there are other factors also, but presumably these factors should be part of the diyun as well. Thank you, Amos. Levi Sacks again and of course Rebbe for the beautiful words. I'm sure there are many who do have questions for Rebbe in respect for Rebbe's time.