Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Thinking Talmudist podcast.

Welcome back, everybody. Good Friday morning to everyone. It is so wonderful to be here and to study the continuation of the Talmud that we've been learning for the past few weeks. Very interesting pieces of Talmud here. Today's is phenomenal, like every piece of Talmud, 57b in Tractate Gittin. The Gemara presents another scriptural exposition about the destruction of the temple.
This is the last piece that discusses this part, and then we go into something new in the continuation of the Talmud. Our Rabbi Yehuda Amoravi, who descended in the name of Rav. My dexiv, what is the meaning of that which is written by David? Al-Nariz b'Avel, Sham yashavnu gam bachinu, Bezrochenu rastzion. This is from Psalms. M'lamet sheher'ohu ha'kodesh boruchu l'davet, that God showed David. Chur ben b'Yisrishon chur ben b'Yisheni, the destruction of the first temple
and the destruction of the temple, the second temple. Chur ben b'Yisrishon, God showed David the destruction of the first temple, Sh'nemar al-Nariz b'Avel, Sham yashavnu gam bachinu. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and also wept. This first describes the Babylonian exile, which followed the destruction of the first temple. And by Yisheni, when God showed David the second, destruction of the second temple, Tikhsiv zichor Hashem levnei edom, Eis yom Yerushalayim ha'omrim, orru eru adi yisod ba.
Remember Hashem the day of Jerusalem for the descendants of Edom, which was the next exile. For those who would say, destroy, destroy, to its very foundation. This verse refers to the destruction of the second temple, which was wrought by the Romans, the descendants of Edom. So just an interesting, whenever, you know, we talk so much about this, about this, the principles of the Torah, the principles of the Torah is that everything is sourced. Everything has a verse to back it up.
And there's no randomness in the Torah, no random. It's important for us to reaffirm this every time we study Talmud, to remember that the Talmud is not just some rabbis who are writing things. Everything that is written needs to be sourced by a higher source. So the Mishnah goes to the Talmud, which goes to the Torah, to the written Torah. And this is an important, very essential component of our growth as Jews. Okay, now we're gonna start a completely new topic
in the Talmud here. So we stated a verse because for your sake, we are killed all the time, which means the Jewish people, we are killed for the sake of God. This verse refers to people who give their lives to sanctify God's name. The Gemara now cites five illustrations of this verse. The first two are incidents that occurred during the period of the destruction of the second temple. Omer, Rabbi Huda, Rabbi Huda said in the name of Shmuel,
we tame Rabbi Ami and some say that it was actually Rabbi Ami who stated this. Rabbi Amri, Rabbi Mastisa, Tana. And some say that it was the Tana taught in the Bresa. Now, again, we just mentioned everything is sourced. We don't have anonymous sources in the Torah. We don't have anonymous sources in the Talmud. Everything needs to be, so what do we need to say? Who cares who said it? A quote by one of the sages.
No, no, no, it's very important to know who said what, which is why over here, there's a lot of ink spent on tracking down exactly who quoted what, who said what. What happened? Mayis ha-barba meyos yolodim v'yolodos she nishbul l'kolom. There was an incident in which 400 boys and girls were captured and taken by ship to Rome to engage in shameful activity. It says that the girls, the young girls were being taken as concubines and the boys were being taken for homosexual activity,
but obviously everything was against the boys' and girls' wills. Hirgishu be'atzman lama hei misbakshim. They sensed what they were wanted for, the children. Amru, they asked, im anu tovin bayam, anu bayin l'chayim l'maba. If we drown ourselves in the sea, will we enter into the life of the world to come? Dorosh lahem ha-gadosh b'hem, the oldest one of the group, expounded the following verse to them. And he says, omar ha-shem mi-boshon oshiv oshiv mi-mitzul osyam.
Hashem said, I will bring back from Boshon. I will bring back from the depths of the sea. Mi-boshon oshiv mi-bein shinei arye. This phrase, mi-boshon oshiv, I will bring back from Boshon, means that God will rescue people from between the teeth of a lion. What is Boshon? It's a combination of two words, bein shinei, between the teeth. The phrase, I will bring back from the depths of the sea, means that God will save those who drown in the sea. Kivon she-shamu yula doskach,
when the girls heard this, koftzu kulon v'noflu l'sohiyam. They immediately jumped and fell into the midst of the sea. Nasu yuladim kava chomer ba'atzman v'amru. The boys raised a kava chomer. They raised an argument in reference to, what's a kava chomer? Anybody remember what a kava chomer is? It's a, it's a, it's a, a fort war, where it's, right? Which is a, a reasoning of, I'll give you just a quick example that we've brought here many times,
is that if you tell me the lighter, I'll tell you the more severe, it's obvious, right? If your doctor says, don't take even one drop of sugar, right, that, don't take a drop of sugar, so then you, you're drinking this, you're eating this big cotton candy, you're drinking this big, big Slurpee, you're like, didn't your doctor say not to take a drop of sugar? He says a drop, he didn't say a whole cup, right? That, well, we know it, that's a fort worry,
where it would be obvious that the greater amount would also be prohibited or not recommended. So the boys heard this and they made a, such a reasoning. What was that? Mahalo lushadarkan lakah kah. Now, if these girls whose fate was to be forced to act in a way that is natural, meaning against their will, but at least it was natural, and there'd be performed, they performed this act of martyrdom, anu she'in darkan lakah, for us, boys,
who are gonna be taken and forced to act in a way that is not natural, al achas kama v'kama, how much more so should we give up our lives? Af heim koftzol otokh hayam, they too jumped into the sea, ve'aleyim akosov omer, in reference to people such as them, who give their lives to sanctify the name of Hashem, the scripture states, ki alecha hayiragnu kol hayam nechashav nechazon tivcha, because for your sake, for your sake, Hashem, we are killed all the time,
we are considered as sheep for slaughter. So this is an amazing, an amazing small little piece of Talmud showing how these children, boys and girls, all were not willing to violate the will of Hashem and be abused by these Roman gangsters against the will of Hashem, and they saw, thank you so much, they saw it to be a benefit, a net benefit for them to jump off the ship rather than be exposed to this horrible behavior.
We spoke about it recently in our prayer podcast, when we talked about the 13 methods of studying Torah, 13 different ways in which the Torah is learned, the first one was Kalva Chomer, and we went into that, I'll pull up the Siddur here, and in the Siddur, we'll pull it up, we'll see what Art Scroll, how Art Scroll translates it, and Kalva Chomer, here he says, Kalva Chomer, logic dictates that if a lenient case has a stringency, the same stringency applies to a stricter case.
Thus, laws can be derived from less obvious situations and apply to more obvious ones. For example, if it is forbidden to pluck an apple from a tree on festivals, when food may be prepared by means that may be prohibited on Shabbos, surely plucking is forbidden on Shabbos when it is forbidden to prepare food on Shabbos. Conversely, if it is permitted to slice vegetables on Shabbat, it is surely permitted on festivals. Okay, so that's how the Kalva Chomer system works.
Okay, now, we are 57B, towards the bottom. So now the Gemara says, v'rav Yehuda Amar, the Gemara applies this verse, because for your sake we are killed to another incident of self-sacrifice for God's name, which occurred during that period. Now, I want you to listen carefully to this following story, which is a testament to the greatness of our people. We sometimes don't appreciate what it means to be committed to the Almighty, because we have a world where people are committed
to so many crazy things that it almost seems like it's not like, there are people who are committed to skydiving and are willing to die that way just for the sport. And people who are willing to do all of these other nonsense just for the sport. And it may take away from the incredible commitment and dedication that some people have shown over the decades and generations, millennia of sacrifice for Hashem. The highest level of a Jewish life is one who dedicates their life to God
and is willing to let go of life for God. That's the highest level. And it doesn't mean, you know, in the early 1990s, a new movement of Muslim theology began, which was this new Shaheed thing. And the Shaheed is, to be a suicide bomber is a holy thing. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was the one who, he was a murderer, a terrorist, a Palestinian, and he came up with this new thing, a new, you know, one of their Sheikh rulings that if you die for the cause,
because you're not allowed to commit suicide in Islam either, but because it's for the cause of killing, the infidels for killing, and in the name of Jihad, you can kill yourself, and that is not considered suicide, but rather it's considered martyrdom. And that's, in their world, considered to be something which is praiseworthy. Obviously, that is a corrupt way of thinking and something which is terrible. Okay, so now the Gemara says, V'rav Yehuda Amar, Yehuda said, Zo isha v'shiva baneo,
this verse is illustrated from the incident of a woman and her seven sons. What was the story? As yu kamo l'kamei de-kesar amru le. They brought the first son before Caesar, and they said to him, Plach l'avodas kochavim. Worship an idol. Now, we know there are three cardinal sins. What are the three cardinal sins in Judaism? Not to serve idolatry, not to perform adultery, and, and not to murder someone. Okay, avodah zarah, gilo arayis, shvihas damim.
These are the three cardinal sins that one must give up their life for. So if someone comes to you, Ron, with a gun to your head and says, accept another deity, another god, and you say no, and they, God forbid, put a bullet in someone's head for that, that person died on the highest level of commitment and dedication to God. We're not willing to bow down to idolatry, and someone who does that is, now, if someone comes to you and says,
kill so-and-so or I'll kill you, you're willing to give up your life, not to murder someone else. And additionally, if someone says, be an adulterer and be with this married woman, a person needs to be willing to give up their life, not to perform these three cardinal sins. And here, the Caesar says to this boy, lay down and bow down to this idol. Bow down to this idol. Worship this idol. Amar lehu, he said to them, kosuv bat Torah noch yashem elokecha,
it's written in our Torah, I am Hashem, your God. Afku vikatluhu. They took him away and they killed him. Ve'asiyuhu leidokh lekamei dekesar amruleh. And then they brought the next son in front of Caesar. And they said to him, plach lavodus kochavim, worship an idol. Amar lehu, he said to them, it says in the Torah, lo yele cholekim achayim alpanai, you shall not have another God before me. Afku vikatluhu. They took him away and they murdered him. They killed him.
Asiyuhu leidokh amruleh. They took another brother, number three now. Plach lavodus kochavim, worship the idol. Amar lehu, he said to them, kosu batora zoveach lelokim yecharam. It says in the Torah, one who sacrifices to a God shall be utterly destroyed. Afku vikatluhu. They took him away and they killed him. Asiyuhu leidokh amruleh. And this is all in front of the mother. They took the fourth son. And it said, plach lavodus kochavim, worship the idol. Amar lehu, he says, kosu batora.
There's a verse in the Torah that teaches us, lo sishtach aveh le'el acher. Do not bow down to another God. Afku vikatluhu. The fourth son, they took him away and they killed him. Asiyuhu leidokh amruleh. They brought another son and said to him, plach lavodus kochavim, worship the idol. Amar lehu, he says to them, kosu batora. It says in the Torah, shema Yisrael, Hashem Eloheinu, Hashem echad. It says, hero Israel, Hashem is our God. Hashem is one. There's no second God.
There's no part-time God. There's no partnership here. It's one and one only. Afku vikatluhu. They took the fifth son away and they killed him. Asiyuhu leidokh amruleh. They took the sixth son and they said to him, plach lavodus kochavim, worship the idol. Amar lehu, he said to them, kosu batora. It says in the Torah, v'yodah ata hayom v'hashivoh selo v'vechah ki Hashem hu elokim, bashamayim ima oval ha'aretz mitochas einod. It says in our Torah,
you are to know this day and take to your heart that Hashem, He is the only God in heaven, above and on the earth below. There is no other. What did they do? Afku vikatluhu. They took him away and they killed him. Asiyuhu leidokh amruleh. They brought in another son, the final son, the seventh. Asiyuhu. Asiyuhu. So they took him and they said, Amar lehu, they said to him, plach lavodus kochavim, worship the idol. Amar lehu, he said to them,
kosu batora. Es Hashem he emartoh, v'Hashem he emirchah hayom. It says in the Torah, you have singled out Hashem today to be your God and Hashem has singled you out today to be his people. Kfar nishbanu la kodesh boruchu. And he says to them, we have already sworn to Hashem, the Holy One, blessed is He. She'en onu ma'avir enoso be'el ha'acher. That we will not forsake him. We will not exchange him for another God. V'afhu nishbalonu.
And he swore to us as well. She'en ma'avir osonu be'um ha'acheres. That he's not swapping us out for another nation. Amar leh Kesar, Caesar said to him, Ishti loch gushpanko. I will throw my signet ring down to you. U'gikhin v'ushkale. And you'll bend down and you'll pick it up. What was the purpose of doing this? Ki he'chig deleimur kabel alei hermonu demalko. Just so that people will see, and they're gonna say that you accepted the king's authority by fulfilling the king's request.
Because you're gonna have to bow down, so to speak, to pick up that ring. Amar leh, the boy said to him, Chaval alach Kesar, chaval alach Kesar. Says, woe to you, Caesar. Woe to you, Caesar. Al kvod atzmo chokach, al kvod hakodesh boruchu, al achas kama v'kama. He says, if such is the concern for your own honor, how much more so is the concern for the honor of the Holy One. Blessed is he, king of the universe. And afku lemiktale.
And they took him away to kill him. Amar lehu imei, his mother said to him, yahavuhu nihaleh v'inashkeh purto. Give him to me, and let me kiss him a little. Amar lehu, she said to him, bonay lehu v'imru laavroh mavichem. My sons, go and tell Abraham, your father. Ato kadetola mizbeach echod. You bound a sacrifice of one on the altar. V'ani okadeti shivah mizbechos. And I bound sacrifices on seven altars. Af hi also lagag v'nof lovameso.
She too went up on a roof and fell down and died. She lost her sanity and committed suicide, says the Midrash. Yotzo basko v'omroh, a heavenly voice emanated and said, eim habonim semecha. So a verse from King David in Psalms where it says the mother of the children rejoices. She rejoices in her sons who gave their lives to sanctify God's name. Now, there's so much that we have to unpack here to discuss. You know, the Gemara is very specific
in how the details that it gave. You think she didn't kiss the other six children goodbye? You don't think that perhaps she would have said to one of the kids, you know what? Just bow down and we'll get out of here. No, she didn't. With great joy, eim habonim semecha. Not that she, once she died, she was happy. That verse from King David, during the entire process, she couldn't be happier. She was the happiest a mother could possibly be,
that they showed 1,000% conviction and commitment to God. What is the number one purpose of our existence in this world? To connect to Hashem. We come to this world filled with distractions. Yeah, we have to get a job. Yeah, we have to earn a living. Yeah, we're married, we have children, we have a life, we have hobbies, we have many things that we need to be doing. But what are they all for? What are we, you know, something we've said here
so many times in the name of Reb Noah Weinberg, zech et tzadik l'roch, of blessed righteous memory. He said, if you don't know what you're ready to die for, you haven't begun living. If you don't know what you're ready to die for, you haven't begun living. Every responsible person needs to ask themselves, what am I ready to die for? And then start living for it. People say, oh, I'm ready to die for my family. I'm ready to die for my children.
I'll take a bullet for my family. So why don't we live for our family? Why don't we come home earlier to play with our children? Why don't we go home and spend more time with our wives, respectively, with our children, with our community, all of the things that, oh, I'm ready to die for my Judaism. So why don't I live for my Judaism? Know what you're ready to die for and then live for it. She knew, this mother knew,
I'm ready to die for the name of Hashem. She lived through seeing seven of her children be slaughtered before her eyes by the Caesar. And by the way, don't please, nobody come tell me how humane other religions are. More Jews were murdered by the Christians than by Hitler. More Jews were murdered by the stake of Christianity than Islam. So all of the religion of peace and the religion of joy and the religion of love, I'll take a pass.
The only religion that doesn't kill people indiscriminately is Judaism. If you look at the history of the Mossad, they had meetings after meetings after meetings of whether or not it was justified or not to kill somebody who was planning a terrorist attack but didn't do it yet. He didn't do it yet. Is it justified? And they had to have discussions with a whole ethics board because they don't just take someone's life. What do you mean? He's a terrorist, he's about to kill us,
but he didn't do it yet. So does he have that label? Just to go indiscriminately kill innocent people? Hasn't happened. In fact, Israel took blame for some of the things that the Syrians did in Lebanon. They took the blame because they didn't stand up against it enough. They didn't do it. Wasn't a single Israeli there. It wasn't the messengers of the Mossad. They did it on their own. But they took blame, they took personal introspection. Maybe we should have stood up stronger
so that they don't do it. To just kill indiscriminately? Look at this, 400 children were kidnapped. Innocent boys and girls. The Talmud that we just learned. And here the seven sons of this incredible mother are murdered for what? Because we're not willing to accept idolatry. We have to live for something. We have to know with conviction what it is that's important to us. What am I willing to die for? And then live for it.
Not to just another day, another day, another day. One day I will be inspired. One day I'll make a change in my life. One day I'll focus on what's important. Yes, sir. So you're saying, why couldn't she trick, the mother trick the Caesar? The Torah doesn't require us to trick. The Torah tells us we say no. Our goal is, our desire to be close to God is more than our desire to just live another day.
That means if we're able to get 10 out of 10 closeness with God, then we go for it. And there's only three reasons that one can do that. Idolatry, murder, adultery. Those are the three things that a person should let. Now, if someone says, steal or I'll kill you, then that's something that obviously it's never permitted to steal. But that's something that you can reason. That's something that you can do your pinky, whatever thing, but you can't do that
when it comes to these three fundamental sins. These are three things the Torah tells us be willing to die for. And the whole concept of values is something that I think is missing out in our generation. Where we don't see a world where there is value. Because everything is disposable. Everything is, you know what? Why fix it? Just throw it out, buy a new one. That's the world. It used to be people had in their garages,
they had workshops and they would do this to fix their furniture and to fix. Today, just throw it out, buy a new one. Amazon will deliver it by tomorrow morning. So it's a different world. And it's a world that sadly, other things that are important don't either have value. Like human life. When we see what goes on with gangs and you see what goes on in, I mean, you watch the news. It's tragic. It's because we're living in a world
that doesn't have values. They don't have what to live for. So there's all the reason, if my life doesn't have value, probably your life doesn't have value. And that's their way of thinking. So it's a little bit of a tough piece of Talmud here. But I think it's one that can open up our eyes into hopefully taking our own lives and our own focus and our own value system and hopefully put, infuse it with good things so that we can, it doesn't mean
that everything is gonna change in our lives because we learned the Talmud here together. But hopefully it adds some inspiration for us to say, you know what? I wanna spend more time with my children, with my grandchildren, with my friends, with my neighbors. I need to spend more quality time. Spend less time on my phone, less time on my technology, less time on my hobbies, just doing things myself, running away from the world. Spend time with the things
that you're willing to die for. Live for them. All right, now let's continue the Talmud. Any questions? What do you think, Marilyn? I see your face is saying you got a question there. It is? It's a very changing, we're a very rapidly changing world of values. Yeah, we don't know. Look, the Torah gives us the prescription. The Torah is timeless. And it's something that is giving us guidance since the day it was given 3,300 years ago.
The Torah hasn't changed once, not once. The Torah shouldn't be changed. The Torah is eternal. And the Torah is relevant today as the day it was given. Every single mitzvah in it. Albeit, we don't have a temple today. So a large portion of the Torah is not fulfilled in that way because we don't have offerings. We don't do the service in the temple. But that's what we pray for every day so that we could return the service of the temple.
We pray for this every single day. In the end of our Amidah, every single day, we say a little prayer. It's so beautiful. Every single day. Soon as you say, Hashem, let me take three steps back after Shachar, Mincha, and Marev, morning, afternoon, and evening, we say the following. Yehi ratzom nefanecha Hashem Elokeinu v'leke haveseinu. May it be your will, Hashem, our God, and God of our forefathers. Sheh yebona beis hamikdash b'meher v'meinu.
That the holy temple be rebuilt speedily in our days. Ve'seinu chalkeinu besor hasecha. And grant us a sheer in your Torah. V'sham na'avodcha b'yira kimei olam ukshanim kadmonios. And may we serve you there with reverence in days of, as in the days of old and in former years. Ve'ar v'la Hashem menachas yidav Yerushalayim kimei olam ukshanim kadmonios. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Hashem, as in days of old and in former years.
So that's what we pray for this every single day. Hashem. V'secha zeinu eineinu b'shuv chalatzion b'rach hamim. Hashem, our eyes should see your return to Jerusalem speedily in our days. We pray for this. This is in our amida, in our prayer that we recite three times a day during the weekday. On Shabbos, we add a fourth because this is what we pray for. We want everything to be restored to the way it should be. All right, let's continue now.
The Gemara now presents a third illustration of the verses because for your sake, we are killed all the time. Rabbi Yoshua Ben Levi Amor, Rabbi Yoshua Ben Levi said, zo milo shinit nam b'shmini. You know what that verse is referring to? It's referring to the incredible mitzvah. This is in reference to the mitzvah of circumcision, which is given to be performed on the eighth day of the child's life. Circumcision on an eight day old baby is life threatening.
The only reason why infants do not die through circumcision is that the merit of the mitzvah affords them protection, says the Chassam Sofer. It's an incredible thing. Why would you give a circumcision to an eight day old? It's the craziest thing. Why would you do that? Because Hashem commanded us. That command itself is a protection, says the Talmud. That command itself. But there's something else I want to share with you. Do you know the coagulant in your body is vitamin K?
That's if God forbid someone gets a cut, they don't necessarily continue to bleed because there's a coagulant that closes it up to protect the body from losing more blood. It coagulates. Do you know that there is one day in a child's life that has 120% of the coagulant that the body will ever produce in its lifetime? And that is on the eighth day of a baby boy's life. It's not a coincidence. Oh, Abraham knew. No, no, no, God commanded it.
That's the way God created the world. God created the world in a way that is perfect. It's not a coincidence that on the eighth day, the vitamin K is at that rate. It's that we, in modern medicine, I can open up the book, I can show you the journals, the medicine journals that prove this. We don't need science to prove the Torah correct. But sometimes people trust medical documents from some doctor more than they trust Hashem in his Torah.
Hashem says on the eighth day, circumcise your child. Now, when a child is older and stronger, then it has its strength to recuperate. But an eight-day-old baby is not even yet considered a viable living creature till after 30 days. So after 30, till 30 days, the baby's in a state of danger. And at eight days, you give the baby a bris? What in the world is going on here? Because we have a commandment in the Torah,
and the Torah says, circumcise your boys on the eighth day. That itself is the protection. That is the protection that protects each and every one of us. And that's the commitment that that verse relates to. Now, the fourth illustration of this verse, Rabbi Shimon Ben-Lakish Omar, Rabbi Shimon Ben-Lakish said, Eilu talmidei chachamim she'marim hilchashchita ba'atzman. This is a reference to the Torah scholars who demonstrate the laws of ritual slaughter on themselves. They pass the blade over their throats
to show how the procedure should be performed. Okay, generally speaking, you know, there's a lot of, a lot of, I would say superstitious behavior that many people observe, particularly in Judaism. So for example, you know, one of the things you would never, ever do in my home growing up is if you were trying to say, well, they shot themselves in the head, then you did that image. No, no, no, no, don't do that. Why? Don't put that image on yourself.
Where they slice this throat and you put your hand, don't show it on yourself. That's always what we grew up. You don't want to open up a doorway for the evil forces to say, yeah, do that to him. So as to stay away, it's a special thing. Don't show it on yourself. You talk in third person about an example like that, you don't say, so someone does something to you. No, no, no, someone does something to someone. You keep yourself clean from this.
What happened here? The Talmud says that in order to teach the Torah in the greatest way possible, the rabbis would show with the blade of the knife that they would use for slaughter, like an example, like this is how you would slaughter the animal. They would show it on themselves. The Amarava, this is a life-threatening practice, as borne out from that which Rava taught. Call melee lechzeh inish benavsheh. One may demonstrate anything on himself except ritual slaughter and something else, which is tzaraas.
Tzaraas we know is a skin condition we talk about in Leviticus. One who demonstrates the symptoms of tzaraas on himself is in danger of contracting the condition. And this is what we mentioned. The Marashah explains this with the principle, lo olam al yiftach adam piv la satan. A person should never open his mouth to Satan. That is, one should not say or do anything that implies that one is liable to misfortune because the Satan is thereby given an opening to incite divine wrath
and cause that very misfortune to occur. So we don't want, no, no. Oh, I saw him, he had his hand cut off. No, no, no, no, don't show it on yourself. Don't show it on yourself, right? This is an important thing, which is why another thing, if you'll ask people in the religious community about someone who needs treatment for a specific illness, the one which is crossed out in MD Anderson, you know, they have the crossed out word.
So you won't find a lot of Jewish, a lot of religious people say that word. They'll call it that illness. They'll call it that illness. You don't even wanna, you don't even wanna name it. You don't wanna give it existence. What does the person have? He has that illness. You don't even wanna utter the word. Not to, this is, this is an extra sensitivity to what we just learned that you don't even wanna, you don't even wanna associate with what it is.
Yenamachla, Yenamachla is in Yiddish. It's that, that illness, that illness. What's that? The Gemara now presents a fifth interpretation of the verse, because for your sake, we are killed all the time. What is that? Rabbi Nachman Bar Yitzchak says, And this is reference to the Torah scholars who kill themselves for the words of Torah in order to acquire Torah knowledge. What does it mean, kill themselves? They spend hour after hour, after hour, after hour, grueling hours to study Torah.
Kidder Rabbi Shimon Ben Lakish, this accords with Rabbi Shimon Ben Lakish's teaching. The Omer Rabbi Shimon Ben Lakish, Rabbi Shimon Ben Lakish said, Ayn divrei torah miskayim, elo mivmi shemei misatsmoy aleihim. That the words of Torah are not retained except by one who kills himself over them. Shenem arzos ha-Torah odom ki yomus be'ovel. This is the Torah, the verse states in numbers. This is the Torah. This is the law. When a man dies in a tent,
Rabbi Shimon Ben Lakish interprets this verse homiletically to teach. This is the way to retain the Torah, when a man dies in a tent of study. What does that mean, dies? He's just completely committed and dedicated to the studies without interruption. The commentaries here say, in context, the verse teaches that a human corpse transmits tomah to people, animals, and utensils that are in the same tent, under the same roof as it. But our sages tell us that it's referring also,
ohalah shel Torah, the tent of Torah, the tent of Torah study. It's a very, the greatest dedication that a person can have in their life is the dedication to study of Torah, to lose sleep over Torah, to go to sleep with Torah, to wake up with Torah, to never stop studying. And now, the Gemara cites a finding that depicts the extent of the massacre of Beitar that we mentioned last week. Okay, to what extent was it? Amar Abba Babbachan or Rabbi Yohan,
Rabbi Babbachan said in the name of Rabbi Yohan, Arba imsa, 40 sa'ah kitzutzei tefillin nimtzu berashe harugei besar. 40 sa'ah of tefillin casings were found on the heads of those slain in Beitar. Meaning, you know, there's a commandment to wear tefillin every day. I went to shul this morning. We have a beautiful prayer, but everyone is wearing their tefillin. It's appropriate for a man to wear their tefillin every single day. Now, Torah tells us, except for Shabbos and holidays,
a man should be wearing his tefillin every single day of the year. Actually, very interesting that it says that someone who wears tefillin is protected from the fire of Gehennam. The Ben Ishchai says something really remarkable. He says the word from the eish of Gehennam, from the fire of Gehennam. What is eish? Eish is an aleph and a shin. That's 301 in numerology, 301. He says, how many days a year does a person put on tefillin? 301 days.
You take the 365 days and deduct the Shabbos. You deduct the holidays. You're left with 301 days that you wear tefillin. The tefillin protect from the, the 301 days of tefillin protect from the 301 of fire. So Ben Ishchai, really beautiful. The 301 days that the tefillin are worn protect the person from the 301 of the fire that potentially one would have gotten in purgatory. It's interesting, interesting Ben Ishchai. Really, really beautiful. The eish, yeah. So they were wearing tefillin.
So now we mentioned that we're supposed to wear tefillin every day, but you know what else? It used to be that they would wear tefillin all day, not at night. You're not supposed to wear tefillin at night. During the day, they would wear tefillin all day. Today, we know we only limit it to the time of prayer. We wear it in the morning by our prayer. But the correct way, and if you go to the old city of Jerusalem,
you'll see people walking around the entire old city wearing tefillin all day. The reason why we don't do it is because it came a point where people weren't able, people going to business, people getting jobs, people were doing things, and they weren't able to maintain a clean frame of mind. They weren't able to keep themselves clean, their body clean. So the rabbis limited it just to the time of prayer. But if someone is able to keep a clean mind,
then it's the appropriate thing by the Torah to wear tefillin all day. Now, to those who, no, so tzitzis is a limited mitzvah. Tzitzis is only when someone has a four-cornered garment. If someone doesn't have a four-cornered garment, they're not obligated to wear tzitzis at all. Now, because we're God-fearing and we love the opportunity to do a mitzvah, we wear a special four-cornered garment so that we can wear tzitzis all day. The Arizal says that the mitzvah of tzitzis
is like a body armor, protecting a person, protecting a person from sin, but also protecting a person from all kind of harm, harm, spiritual and physical harm, body armor. So we have special four-cornered garments so that we can wear our fringes on our four corners. But now, the mitzvah of tefillin, I just want to make it clear that there are some people who think that tefillin is cumbersome. I remember I had a student, we were talking about tefillin,
and he says, you know, Rabbi, I could never put on tefillin. He says, I'm a bodybuilder, I'm a trainer, and I have to get into my office at four or five o'clock in the morning before sunrise, and then I'm there till late in the day. He says, I just don't have time to put on tefillin. So I said, you mean you don't have any time during the day that you can put on tefillin? Like, no time? He says, no time.
I said, I can't imagine that you don't have three minutes a day to take a break. He says, three minutes? It doesn't take three minutes. I said, of course it takes three minutes. He says, but I have to do the whole prayer. I said, no. He said, no, if someone is limited, put on your tefillin, say the Shema, and take it off. Pray when you pray the rest of your prayers. But at the very minimum, you know, prayer is a biblical obligation,
but not all the words that the rabbis prescribed are biblical. Praying means having a conversation with God. So if I put on tefillin, recite the Shema, and take it off, if you fulfill the biblical commandment in the most beautiful way, that takes not more than five minutes. Not more than five minutes. And someone once came to the rabbi, he says, yeah, but it's too big of a commitment. So he says, let me ask you a question.
If I were to give you a bar of chocolate, you know, a bar of chocolate, very interestingly, has how many pieces in it? Anybody know? 24 pieces of chocolate. It has three rows, three times eight. 24. Interesting, right? Has 24 pieces. See, he says, imagine you like chocolate, I'm gonna buy you your favorite chocolate, I buy you the chocolate, I give you, you have, you open it up, you're like, wow, I have 24 pieces of chocolate.
So then I see it really looks delicious, it's like M&M, Oreo, whatever, I don't know, whatever else you have in there, the chocolate, white chocolate. I say, you know what? I don't wanna be an Indian giver, but would you give me one piece of chocolate? Would you? Would you give me one piece? Okay. I make a blessing. I say, thank you, Hashem. I thank you for giving me that piece of chocolate, that one little piece.
I taste it, I'm like, oh, this is so delicious, this is incredible. Do you think you can spear one more? Would you give it to me? Yeah, okay. At what point would you say, okay, that's enough? I know you gave it to me as a gift, but it's getting out of hand. How many pieces would you stop at? The next, you give me three and that's it? Three and that's it, okay. So you keep 21. So the rabbi says to this individual,
he says, I don't understand, in that case, he says, God gives you 24 hours a day, you can't give him five minutes? Not asking for an hour, two hours, three hours, five minutes, give him five minutes of connection. It's so powerful. We all have five minutes a day to just put on our tefillin, recite the Shema, take it off, and that's it. Yes, sir. Okay, you're talking about the requirement to put on tefillin. Correct.
Where does it say that women don't have to do this? So we'll get into the women thing shortly. It's because women are only obligated to mitzvahs that are not time-bound. Time-bound mitzvahs, women are not obligated to. So a mitzvah like Tzitzis, which is a time-bound mitzvah, it's only during the daytime. Women are not obligated to it. That doesn't mean that women are forbidden from the mitzvah, but they're not obligated to it. The tefillin, the tefillin are a time-bound mitzvah,
it's only during the day as well. So therefore, a woman is not obligated to it. The obligation is very different. Men and women are uniquely different. I know that's not politically correct to say today, but men and women are uniquely different in many, many ways, much more than just physical. Okay, they're different emotionally, they're different mentally, they're different in many, many different ways. In fact, just so that you know, one of the things that Israel has been uniquely revolutionary
is having intelligence officers who are women. That in most countries, it was like not even had women because they were in many areas much more skilled than the men. There's actually in one of the books, they write that they were trying a very, very specific training, none of the guys could figure it out. Very specific training, the women were able to do it perfectly. So they had women fulfill a certain mission that only they could do.
The men just couldn't figure out the right timing or whatever it was, the women had it down. Everyone's got different skills, different talents. I don't like, I think it's unfair to men and or to women, obviously to women even more so, for them to talk about equality. We're not equal, we're not the same at all. Equals when you have two identical things. Men and women are not, it's like apples and oranges, are they the same? Are they equal? No, they're not equal.
They each have different, totally different compositions. They have different nutrients. They have different flavors. They have different textures. They're different, they'll never be equal because you can take two apples and say, are they equal of the same kind of apple? And that could be a discussion. But an apple and orange will never be the same. They'll never be equal. They're different. Is a car and a house equal? No, they're different. They may have equal monetary value, but they're different.
They will never be equal. Putting equality to men and women only does damage and it limits. And it's not something which is beneficial. And I know that people may watch this and say that's offensive, I'm sorry. Not sorry. Okay. You know that thing? Sorry, not sorry. Okay, okay, good. You agree? Yeah, the women here agree. So I'm sorry if. So Rabi Yonai, the son of Rabi Yishmael says, sholosh kupos shel arboim arboim so. Three boxes of tefillin casings.
Each box measuring 40 sa'ah were recovered from the victims of Betar. But Masnis and Tana, the Tana taught in the Bridesau, arboim kupos shel sholosh sholosh so'im. 40 boxes of tefillin casings, each box measuring three sa'ahs, were recovered from the victims of Betar. According to the first opinion, 40 sa'ahs of tefillin casings were found, whereas the last two opinions maintain that 120 sa'ahs of tefillin casings were found. That's a volume or like they consider like a,
like a, if you had a, you know, just a big, big box, containers, right? Right? So the Gemara resolves this discrepancy of the amounts. Voloplik, he says, there's not a disagreement here. Ha-dureisha ha-de-dara. He says this opinion, the volume of casings with 120 sa'ahs was stated in reference to casings worn on the head, whereas this opinion, the volume of casings was 40 sa'ah was stated in reference to casings worn on the arm. And the casings worn on the head are considerably larger
than the casings worn on the arm. Why is it larger? Anybody know why it's larger? Extra credit question. Why is the box larger? Should be the same size. They both have four portions. What is the tefillin? Tefillin is a square box that has a base beneath it. We should do an exhibit. So it has a base and then it goes on the arm and then it has a strap that goes through it
and then you tie it on your arm and on your head. Inside that box, what's in that box? A parchment with four different sections of the Torah. On the arm, it's one box with one parchment. On the head, it is four boxes with four separate parchments, which is why it would be larger than the size of the hand. The head tefillin would be larger in size than the hand tefillin. It's not an obligation for it to be larger. It just was technically larger
because of what was inside it. All right, my dear friends, this was an incredible study today. Thank you very much. I was enlightened. I enjoyed it very much and I hope that you enjoyed. My dear friends, I look forward to seeing you next week. Have a magnificent Shabbos. To those of you who are online, please like and share these videos. We appreciate you doing so and we look forward to seeing you in our next class. Shabbat Shalom, everybody. Yes, sir.

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