Berishus Ha'Rabbanim, thank you all for coming. To begin on a personal note, it's both a zechus as well as a source of chizuk to come to join you tonight. The title and subtitles of the two talks made no secret of the fact that we look to raise some difficult questions and broach sensitive issues, and one derives chizuk from the openness, the willingness, and the desire to do so as we prepare for the yamim nora'im. Just one disclaimer before proceeding to the body of the drasha. For those who may have seen the flyer, there was an ambitious list of topics and issues on the flyer. I'm not sure whether we'll successfully reach and touch upon each of them, so no, there's no implications, no inferences to be drawn about any topics that are not discussed. It's not a vote of approval, it's not just maybe time constraints or forgetfulness on my part or a combination thereof. In Melachim, we read an account, ויאמר חלקיהו הכהן הגדול על שפן הסופר ספר התורה מצאתי בבית השם ויתן חלקיה את הספר על שפן ויקראהו.
Chilkiyahu the Kohen Gadol said, I made a rare find. I found a Sefer Torah. And he gives it to Shafan to read. Shafan, in turn, brings it to Yoshiyahu, the reigning monarch. ויגד שפן הסופר למלך לאמר ספר נתן לי חלקיהו הכהן ויקראהו שפן לפני המלך.
The reaction, kavyachol, as if, Rachmana litzlan, someone found some rare old sefer which was out of print and that no one had had access to for generations. ויהי כשמע המלך את דברי ספר התורה ויקרע את בגדיו.
When Yoshiyahu heard what it said in the Chumash, and the pshuto shel mikra is the mitzvos ha'Torah. He heard the mitzvos ha'Torah and he realized how many aveiros, Rachmana litzlan, Klal Yisrael was violating, so he tore kriya. The first time I became aware of this perek, I wasn't sure how to process it. It's staggering. When we think of assimilation, so we think of something, Rachmana litzlan, or even worse, if we're thinking of shichchas ha'Torah, Torah being forgotten, so in our minds, Rachmana litzlan, that's something, if it happens, it happens on the periphery of the Jewish community, of the Torah community, and maybe even beyond that. Maybe it happens michutz l'machaneh, it happens beyond the Torah community. And here we have an account of Klal Yisrael, very much within the daled amos, within the four cubits of Klal Yisrael, of the Jewish society, of the Jewish community, and this account of shichchas ha'Torah. So there are different, the Radak has one approach, other meforshim with a cue from Chazal explain it alternately. The Radak attributes it to the reign of Menashe. Not sure how to process it, what to make of it. Then one day a light bulb went on, probably more precisely, the light bulb had been on, one day I opened my eyes. You know, the... There are two types of questions. Some questions warrant answers, and some questions it's a matter of removing the question mark and replacing it with a period or an exclamation point and realizing that the question is an insight and just something, it's a corrective to an assumption, an erroneous assumption that one had been making until that point. It's not that it needs an answer, just drop the question mark and put a period, put an exclamation point. What the Navi here is telling us is that assimilation Rachmana Litzlan doesn't only happen on the periphery. It doesn't only happen outside of our shuln, outside of our Batei Midrashos, outside of our Torah communities. What the Navi is telling us is that Rachmana Litzlan assimilation can and does happen in very, very dramatic ways within, within the inner sanctum of our Jewish communities. And then one begins thinking and making associations, so one thinks of to give another example within Nach of the end of the Sfarim of Ezra and Nechemia, the descriptions of intermarriage Rachmana Litzlan. Within the literature of the Rishonim, Rabbeinu Yonah writes towards the beginning of Shaarei Teshuva. He says ראו ראינו כי רבו עוונות הדור. He says, we've seen by painful observation the many sins of the generation. He's talking about his generation, 13th century. yesh anashim rabim, skipping a few words, כל ימי חייהם אינם נזהרים בהם. There's a whole list of mitzvos, a whole list of aveiros that throughout, throughout people's lives, there's widespread disregard and they're trampled upon. אבל הם אצלם כהיתר. It's as if the mitzvos HaTorah don't exist. ואילו לא היו נוהגים כן רק על עבירה אחת, were this phenomenon to exist with regard to a single mitzvah in the Torah, חולי הוא בנפשם כאשר ביארנו. It would be insidious enough, it would be devastating enough. אף כי נוהגים על אזהרות רבות וכהנה מן החמורות. But the phenomenon is not limited to a single mitzvah. It's one which encompasses many, many mitzvos. And he proceeds to give a list of the mitzvos which were widely Rachmana Litzlan disregarded and violated in his day. Shvuas Chinam, taking oaths in vain. המקלל חברו או את עצמו בשם. Cursing. הזכרת שם שמים לבטלה, not being careful with Shem Hashem. או במקום שאינו טהור, or in a place which is not fit for reciting Shem Hashem. העלמת עין מן העני, not responding when a poor person asks for tzedakah. Lashon Hara, sinas chinam, Gavas halev, arrogance, ga'avah, Nesinas chitasa, when communal leaders shelo l'shem shamayim intimidate, look to inspire fear. Histakal be'arayos, not being careful with what we see. וביטול תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם. Just to give one other example from the times of the Rishonim, the Smag, one of the great Baalei Tosfos, also in the 13th century. So he took it upon himself during one tekufa in his life to be an itinerant preacher. And he describes, I wrote down the lines here, how there was widespread והארכתי בדרשות כאלו לגלות ירושלים אשר בספרד והוציאו. another sore point. היתה סיבה מן השמים להוכיח. HaKadosh Baruch Hu orchestrated that I the Smag should give words of rebuke. Ve'asu teshuvos gedolos and Baruch Hashem there was a tremendous teshuva movement that kiblu alafim u'revavos and tens of thousands of people accepted upon themselves mitzvos tefillin, mezuza ve'tzitzis. People weren't observant, people in in the heart of the Jewish community, not not on its periphery, not not michutz l'machaneh, not beyond the Jewish community, but assimilation in our midst. Closer to contemporary times, we're all familiar with the Chofetz Chaim bemoaning and lamenting the fact that issur lashon hara was something that people were not sensitive to. He did so much to to reverse that. So it it behooves us as we as we approach the Yamim Noraim to see whether or not this phenomenon, which has recurred time and time again, Rachmana Litzlan, throughout our history, whether or not there's assimilation not just on the periphery, not just beyond the core community, but within, within our communities, within our Torah communities. So let's perhaps begin with a few specific mitzvos and then perhaps branch out and and talk a little bit about basic attitudes and and values. In terms of specific mitzvos, very often ke'midumeh in our minds, we define—this example is is addressed to to the gentlemen in the audience—in our minds, we define the mitzvah of Talmud Torah as a person needs to learn Torah. That's the mitzvah of Talmud Torah. And acting on that definition, implementing that definition, so I think to myself, okay, so if I go to the shiur before or after davening, so I learned I learned Torah today, and I've I've attended to that mitzvah, I've fulfilled that mitzvah. In fact, the definition of the mitzvah of Talmud Torah is for a man to learn as much as he possibly can. How much that is obviously depends upon the individual and life's circumstances and and who he is and what his kochos are, etc., etc., but that all those variables notwithstanding, the the common underlying definition and and scope of of obligation is that the mitzvah is not just to learn, but the mitzvah is to learn as much as as much as we possibly can. Which is why there is there is an aveira of bittul Torah. The the last on on Rabbeinu Yona's list. When the Rambam gives an example of of a person's seder hayom, so he describes that a person needs to needs to work three hours a day to support himself, and he says and he spends nine hours a day learning. So the the point that we need to extract from the Rambam is is not necessarily how many hours a day earning a livelihood takes, but the point is that beyond that, as much as possible, as much as possible, again balanced with other religious obligations, other other obligations that the Torah wants us to attend to, but to be learning as much as we can. When the Rambam describes in perek beis what the seder hayom for how you mechanech children to learn, so the Rambam says you learn with them all day and part of the night, because that's the chinuch to give children when it comes to Talmud Torah. The mitzvah of Talmud Torah is to learn, but not only to learn, but to learn as much as as much as we we possibly can. Boruch Hashem, we all daven three times a day. But one can't help but wonder if here too there isn't an example of assimilation in our midst, both in terms of quantity of tefillah as well as quality of tefillah. It's very, very widespread. It's hard to find, in my limited experience, it's hard to find a minyan where this doesn't happen, where after Mikadesh Shimcha Berabim, Mikadesh Shemo Berabim, where one doesn't hear the rustling of pages and where one fast forwards to Rabbi Yishmael. Everyone said Korbanos and Eizehu Mekoman at home? I don't know if everyone has time to say it at home. Mistama we also have time to say it in shul. It's mentioned in Shulchan Aruch, it's mentioned in the Rishonim: Eizehu Mekoman, Korbanos. So just in terms of quantity, tefillah is truncated. It's I don't know, it's as if it's a middas chasidus to say Korbanos, as if it's I don't know, if you aspire to joining a kollel kodshim, so then you get ready by saying Perek Eizehu Mekoman in the morning. It's part of the seder hatefillah. Part of the seder hatefillah ad kedei kach that the Ramban says that on Tisha B'Av when there's an issur talmud Torah, so the Ramban says you can say it because it's sidra d'yoma. It's something that a person says every day, it's sidra d'yoma. So sidra d'yoma is not included in the prohibition of talmud Torah on Tisha B'Av. And we have a modified siddur. Presumably the quantitative issue of tefillah is related to the qualitative issue of tefillah as well. Tefillah is defined, the Gemara tells us as omed lifnei hamelech. It's inconceivable if a person were granted a royal audience with a melech, and the real melech, a melech behalacha presumably is defined as beyado lehamis ulehachayos. An autocrat, someone who has absolute power, an absolute monarch. If someone were given an audience with a melech, it's unthinkable that one would arrive late and or leave early. You know, excuse me, I appreciate the time, but I gotta run and do me a favor, you lock up, but I have a busy schedule to attend to. And since we need to tefillah sort of needs to fit into our schedule and to how much time we can afford to budget for it, okay, so then you have to triage, and when we triage, so that's where Korbanos and Eizehu Mekoman get the short end of the stick. It's nothing new. Chazal already bemoaned and bewailed this. Chazal say כרום זלות לבני אדם that there are things which are עומדים ברומו של עולם and ובני אדם מזלזלים בהם. And one of the examples of that is tefillah. Besides being intrinsically obviously inappropriate and wrong, it's so foolishly counterproductive. What are we running to? We're running because we have something to do. Maybe the something to do is maybe I have an early meeting, or maybe the something to do is I have to drive carpool, or I've got something to do, I'm running for something. Anything and everything a person tries to do in life requires siyata d'shmaya. So the shortsightedness when one steps back to think about it is, so I'm running to do, but whether or not I can do, whether or not I'll be successful in anything I try to do depends upon my tefillah, depends upon asking for siyata d'shmaya, depends upon receiving siyata d'shmaya. I'm not sure what our communal definition is for the appropriate boundaries of social interaction between men and women, but kemedumeh that it doesn't correspond to that of Chazal. When Chazal say אל תרבה שיחה עם האשה ובאשתו אמרו קל וחומר באשת חבירו,
so clearly in unmistakable terms, Chazal are telling us that routine socializing, so men socialize with men and women socialize with women. And there's no such thing from Chazal's vantage point in terms of routine socializing between the genders. It's something, and kal v'chomer that any kind of flirtation obviously has no place. It's little wonder given the mores of the society in which we live, little wonder that we've lost sight of it. And maybe here we can segue instead of just focusing on specific mitzvos to talk about basic core Torah values and attitudes and to check ourselves, to monitor ourselves for the assimilation in our midst with regard to these. Moving to a degree מן הקל אל החמור, although the kal is also very weighty. Cell phones, the internet, they're all by-products of technical revolution, but they've also been instigators of a cultural revolution. Once upon a time when there were no cell phones, so conversations happened in private. You were either sitting at home in your kitchen or you were in the privacy of a phone booth. If you wanted to communicate something, so you either communicated something in person to someone or you wrote a personal letter. Now with cell phones, so a person can be on the phone anytime, any place. So one hears without looking to overhear the most intimate of conversations and just being discussed in a very public forum and a very public venue. Once upon a time, again, you wanted to communicate, you wrote someone a letter. Now a person blogs, a person posts, a person tweets, and the most private of emotions, of feelings is put on public display for anyone and everyone to see. There is a halacha, I think the Rav used to highlight this in such a context. The Rambam writes in Hilchos Chovel u'Mazik based on his understanding of a Gemara that hamivayesh es ha'arumim is patur, even though one of the chamisha devarim, even though one of the five payments that a person has to make in terms of if he assaults someone else, there's nezek, there's tza'ar, there's sheves, there's ripuy, and boshes is for causing shame, humiliating a person. So the Rambam says if the person walks around unclothed, so then there is no chiyuv, whatever you do to that person, so you're not chayav for boshes. You're not chayav for shaming the person, you're not chayav for humiliating the person. So why is that? Because a person who has no sense of privacy has no sense of dignity. And if a person has no sense of dignity, what happens when you shame a person? When you shame a person rachmana l'tzlan, so you strip that person of his human dignity. A person who can expose everything, whether everything means physical or whether everything means emotional, psychological, whether it means again not being dressed or whether it means wearing one's heart on one's sleeve, so if there's no sense of privacy, so the Torah tells us there's an equation between that and no human dignity. The Rambam writes famously in פרק ו הלכות דעות דרך בריאתו של אדם. Human nature is such, this is the way Hakadosh Baruch Hu created us, human nature is such להיות נמשך בדעותיו ובמעשיו אחר ריעיו וחביריו ונוהג כמנהג אנשי מדינתו,
that a person is influenced, a person is drawn after he's influenced by the behavior, the world view, the mindset of the people he associates with, of the society in which he lives. And the Rambam says and that's why the Torah tells us that a person has to associate and has to attach himself as much as possible to tzadikim, to chachamim so that they should be the source of influence. But we're sponges. Naturally, we're very very susceptible to the influence of the surrounding culture. The Rambam writes in one place that one of the reasons we lost so much of our tradition in terms of theology, in terms of Maaseh Merkavah is because we lived when we went into Galus in boorish cultures. And that surrounding of being in non-intellectual cultures, in being in such boorish settings exerted an influence upon us. So we're very very susceptible to such influences. Influences which begin in terms of attitudes, in terms of values, ultimately they translate and manifest themselves practically as well. But the core and the root are the values, the moral axioms, the religious axioms. The widespread confusion in certain segments of communities about homosexuality is a very very painful example and illustration of again, how values and attitudes are unknowingly adopted and absorbed from the culture around us. The inability to make peace with the Torah differentiating between the two genders, between men and women, the desire to artificially impose some kind of egalitarianism upon Halacha is another very painful example and reminder of that. We could go on and on, but maybe just to give one other example, one of the items listed on the flyer was sports. Unquestionably, there is an aesthetic quality to athleticism. It can be a something very impressive and very, very remarkable. But it's equally unquestionable that there's also a very, very pronounced subculture that surrounds sports in our society. It's not just a gathering of people who appreciate that aesthetic quality which a hockey player displays in his masterful skating and the like. Arguably, the fact that sports is ensconced within a certain cultural context goes back to the beginning of Western civilization, goes back to ancient Greece. That's the way it was there also. It was set in a very, very clear and pronounced religious and cultural context. Specifically, the seriousness, which by definition is disproportionate, with which people relate to sports is something which is so antithetical to the mindset of a maamin. The Rambam writes that the Rambam was asked about listening to Arabic music. So the Rambam wasn't too fond of music; from his interactions with them, he wasn't too fond of Arabs. So when you asked him about Arabic music, it was pretty clear where the winds were blowing. And he catalogs the various issurim that he thinks are involved, mitzad the music, mitzad the lyrics, and then he says, but as if to say, forget the technical issur for a minute. He says, המכוון בנו שנהיה גוי קדוש. He says, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us the Torah, Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, you know why I'm giving you the Torah? You know what the intention is? You know what I'm trying to achieve? ואתם תהיו ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש. So what does it mean to be a goy kadosh? So the Rambam doesn't elaborate it, but he's assuming the next step, that the word kadosh means to be consecrated, consecrated to a specific goal, to a specific mission. That's what the word kadosh means. Hekdesh belashon Chazal means something which is consecrated. That's why Chazal speak about hekdesh la'avodah zarah. It doesn't necessarily have a positive connotation; it can be used in a negative context as well, because it means to be consecrated to something. Rachmana litzlan, a person can consecrate something to avodah zarah. So a goy kadosh means that we're a consecrated people. The Rambam says, what does that mean? It means that whatever we do should either be something which yields shleimus or something which is a preliminary to achieving that goal of shleimus. As if to say, so what are you asking me about this for? If you're asking me, even, the Rambam is saying, even if one is unaware of the different technical issues that the Rambam feels are involved, just says, it's just off track. It's missing the point. The seriousness, as though there's mamashus, as though there's meaning and significance to a game, to a game. And then the vulgar context which surrounds sports is also something which should distance us greatly from it. It's not coincidental that the full sports experience, it's felt, requires going to a sports bar. It's not coincidental that because this is the subculture which surrounds sports, that tailgating, the moshav leitzim that it is, the drinking, the intoxication, because ultimately sports celebrates the physical. Celebrates the physical, the raw brute force. And because of that, the culture that surrounds it celebrates the physical urges and instincts that a person has. We began by mentioning the examples in Tanakh, the examples in the Rishonim where this phenomenon of assimilation in our midst is identified and highlighted. In each of those examples, Rabbeinu Yonah doesn't tell us what—what was accomplished through Sha'arei Teshuvah. So he doesn't—he doesn't give us a written record of that, but we know from the Navi, we know that Yoshiyahu changed things. Yoshiyahu was successful in implementing change. Ezra, Nehemiah, so the Navi tells us they got up and they divorced their wives, and the zilzul in Shabbos which we read about at the end of Sefer Nehemiah, that too was reversed. And the Smag describes the extraordinary success he enjoyed in broaching the issues. So bizchus that we identify the issues, bizchus that we raise these difficult and sensitive questions, so maybe we have the Siyata DiShmaya and maybe we apply ourselves to be-ezrat Hashem see a similar outcome in terms of the issues that we grapple with and in that zechus may we all be inscribed for ketiva vachasima tova.