Wanted to discuss something very elementary tonight. Elementary in both senses of the word: simple as well as fundamental. Rashi famously in the beginning of V'zos Haberacha quotes the Midrash Chazal on the pasuk of ה' מסיני בא וזרח משעיר למו הופיע מהר פארן. Why was Hakadosh Baruch Hu shining forth from Seir and why was he appearing from Har Paran? So Rashi quotes from the Sifri פתח לבני עשו שיקבלו את התורה ולא רצו and also in Har Paran שהלך שם ופתח לבני ישמעאל שיקבלו אותה ולא רצו. And we're all familiar that Bnei Esav and Bnei Yishmael probed, asked as to what was contained within the Torah and opted out when they heard about Lo Tirzach, when they heard about Issur Gezel, they opted out. There was a recognition, there was an understanding that Torah can't be fused with other and incompatible systems of morality. Torah can't just be grafted onto any lifestyle. And the truth is that the Bnei Seir, both in their refusal and their recognition, were following in the footsteps of their progenitor. Rashi again quotes from Chazal ויאמר עשו הנה אנכי הולך למות ולמה זה לי בכורה.
So Chazal recreate for us a fascinating discussion and exchange between Yaakov and Esav. אמר עשו מה טיבה של עבודה זו? This privilege of performing Avoda as a Bechor, so what does it entail? Amar lo Yaakov Avinu answers him כמה אזהרות ועונשין ומיתות תלויין בה כאותה ששנינו אלו הן שבמיתה שתויי יין ופרועי ראש. אמר אני הולך למות על ידו אם כן מה חפץ לי בו.
Again, both the refusal and the recognition: the refusal to adapt but me'idach gisa the recognition that because of the fundamental incompatibility that one can't simply graft the Torah and its values, its Halacha, its approach to life onto another different secular life and lifestyle. Ramban quotes the Mechilta on the pasuk of Anochi Hashem Elokecha. וכך אמרו במכילתא לא יהיה לך אלהים אחרים על פני למה נאמר לפי שהוא אומר אנכי השם אלהיך. משל למלך שנכנס למדינה. אמרו לו עבדיו גזור עלינו גזרות.
We need, we need laws, we need to know how to function, how to behave. Amar lahem lav. כשתקבלו מלכותי אגזור עליכם גזרות. שאם מלכותי אינכם מקבלים גזירותיי היכן אתם מקיימים.
First there has to be an absolute unswerving allegiance because without that foundation what's the point in having mitzvos? There's no point in having mitzvos for people to trample upon rachmana litzlan. There's no point in my giving you mitzvos, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, just so you should violate them. So there has to be a total unequivocal unconditional קבלת עול מלכות שמים. If that's in place, so then it makes sense that I should be gozer gezeiros. אני הוא שקיבלתם מלכותי עליכם במצרים, אמרו לו הן. כשקיבלתם מלכותי, קבלו גזירותיי. כלומר, אחר שאתם מקבלים עליכם ומודים שאני השם ואני אלוקיכם מארץ מצרים, קבלו כל מצוותיי.
Same same point. Without the underlying קבלת עול מלכות שמים, without that foundation, so mitzvos are always competing. And the Mechilta says and the mitzvos will lose. That's why the Torah depicts a life of Torah and mitzvos as a very clear conscious act of bechirah between different possibilities, different choices, alternatives. ראה נתתי לפניך היום את החיים ואת הטוב ואת המות ואת הרע.
Skipping a few pesukim: העידותי בכם היום את השמים ואת הארץ החיים והמות נתתי לפניך הברכה והקללה ובחרת בחיים למען תחיה אתה וזרעך.
Has to be a bechirah. Has to be a bechirah because Torah can't be combined, can't be grafted. It has to be the first and the final word. Again, what we're talking about is so elementary, again, elementary in both senses, simple and fundamental. And yet much of the confusion and the noise and the shallowness and sadly at times גילוי פנים בתורה שלא כהלכה is rooted in an attempt to have Torah, to insist upon the label and the identification of being Orthodox and at the same time holding tenaciously onto certain tenets and axioms of Western morality or immorality as the case may be of the Western world which are alien and antithetical to Torah. And when these clashes happen, so it's quite clear that the fusion that people hope for is gonna come about by those tenets and axioms of Western morality dictating, רחמנא לצלן אוי לאזניים שכך שמעו, to Torah. The two glaring examples of this are in the areas of feminism and mishkav zachar and homosexuality. It's important what we're reviewing is important, a, that we maintain clarity for ourselves. It's also important to understand whether vocationally rabbonim, mechanchim, or balebatim, either way, all lomdei Torah and halevai always lomdei sorasecha lishma. But whatever one's tafkid vocationally, we all need to understand that concessions and accommodations don't solve the problem. And the truth is on the contrary they exacerbate the problem tremendously because they reinforce the invalid and insidious premise that somehow or other the path is to fuse, that somehow or other one can have Torah without that representing a bechira for chayim v'tov on the one hand and a rejection of moves v'ra. Nothing what we're discussing reflects any lack of sympathy for acheinu bnei Yisrael who for whatever reason in their background or upbringing or life's experience don't have the Torah outlook or mindset on these issues. It doesn't fail to recognize that it requires a major paradigm shift to appreciate the truths of Torah when for so long one has imbibed from the culture in which we live and by which we're surrounded contradictions. So there's no lack of recognition for struggles. that people have if they imbibe again a sense of egalitarianism but understanding that on some of these issues, not all of these issues, on some of these issues people are struggling doesn't change the reality that there's only one true path. And the one true path is what Bnai Yishmael, Bnai Eisav also understood, that Torah can't be grafted on that I have to be able to do this and Torah can't be grafted onto that. It's the first word and it's the final word and genuine concern and genuine compassion means that as cogently and as clearly and as effectively and as lovingly as possible, that's the truth that has to be taught. The Torah's teachings have to be projected, not rachmana litzlan, distorted or modified to accommodate or as forms of concessions. It's interesting that the Ramban quotes the Mechilta, the lashon of the Mechilta is that קיבלתם מלכותי קבלו גזירותיי. Depending upon context, depending upon what else is juxtaposed to it, but gzeira sometimes is used in the sense of a chok. Like when we talk about a gzeiras hakasuv, it means something that the pasuk imposes. Not something that we generate out of our own in svara. Sometimes has that sense of chok. Some chukim are intrinsically such, and some appear to us as chukim because of our historical and sociological conditioning, because of the world in which we live. But קבלת עול מלכות שמים means anochi Hashem elokecha, means that we oved Hakadosh Baruch Hu on His terms and because of that, it involves bechira. It involves bechira. And that's what we need to understand for ourselves and that's what we need to share with others as well.