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So, for such a time as this today. Uh as we are a day before Purim. And um Unprecedented attack. uh on Iran from a Joint Forces of Israel in America. We've never seen.
Anything like this? Um And yeah. You know, the repercussions are grand. Um A lot of people are getting hurt. A lot of things going on.
And so I'm so grateful that we have a chance this morning to talk to Rabbi to get an idea how we can pray and kind of get a sense of prophecies more current than our daily newspapers, because our daily newspapers are full of what's going on right now. Um But certainly Rabbi God bless you. And I'm certainly. Um Hanging on a report to to what is going on there right now. Yes.
Well, of course, with respect to exactly what's taking place. I don't know if anyone really knows for sure. That is. Um we Appreciate that. Allah has been done in dismantling this Access of terror.
And undoubtedly a lot more still needs to be done, so it's not like We're out in the clear and um And yesterday there was a a devastating direct hit. in the city of Beichemesh. in which Nine people were killed. Murdered. and dozens severely wounded.
That just A couple of hours ago, there was a Hit that thank God was not directly on A residential building. It was like in the Yard in front of the building. And It was just, just. The shockwave. of the explosion that hit the surrounding buildings.
And There are at least two dozen severely injured people as a result. We prayed that we'd be in his health. Where was that hit? That was in the city of Beer Sheva. The capital of the Negev, the capital of the desert in the south.
Okay. And of course, look, we also are aware of seven fatalities among American servicemen. And um We pray. For their families. And we pray for all the servicemen both.
the Israelis and the Americans that are in the fray now because It isn't finished yet, and I'm sure I don't have to tell anybody that the most dangerous. Beasts are wounded. Yeah. And of course I I say that with all apologies to the Animal Kingdom because We're not talking about animals. Animals only attack when they feel threatened or when they are hungry and need food.
Only human monsters. Behave. Like These do. And inevitably When we Ask ourselves How do we relate to what's taking place now? I I think There is A critical dimension.
I'd like to share with you. Yes.
An observation in our tradition. Regarding Two Exceptional expressions that we find in completely unrelated contexts. In the Bible. but they have a critical dimension in common. In The Mode of expression.
I am referring. On the one hand, To the expression That We find In The Song of Exaltation. Of Hannah. The mother of Samuel This is in the first book of Samuel. in chapter two.
Verse three. Where she refers to God. As a lord of knowledge, And what is in particular noteworthy here. This doesn't really Get translated. The Hebrew is El de ot Hashem.
The oath is what we're translating as knowledge. It's a kind of plural of knowing. And It is extraordinarily. surrounded by name of God before it and after it. Hence translating it as Um That God is the Lord of knowledge, or the Lord is the God of knowledge, depending on how we translate these divine names.
But again, that knowledge, knowing. Is sandwiched between these two names of God. An extraordinary formulation. That has It's Only parallel. Where we find the same names.
with another key word. In the middle.
Some Yeah. Which begins with the words El ne camot. Hashem. Which we could translate similarly as God is the Lord of vengeance. Significant to know that it really is a precisely parallel formulation, just as the ot is a plural construction, so is the kamot.
Literally, it would be vengeances. And again, that vengeance is surrounded. by a holy name of God before it. And The Holy Name. the tetragrammaton after it.
Precisely the same construction. as we find In Hannah's song.
So what are we going to take to make of this? We have this tradition that on the one hand Lee. Words of Hannah teach us? How great Knowledge. Knowing is.
that gets sandwiched between These two names of God. And the obvious implication And so, too, how great is The Lord's Vengeance Likewise. sandwiched between Two holy names of God. Yeah, I'm looking at the Hebrew of this. Right.
It's easy as the Hebrew is exactly the same construction in both instances. which is a truly Extraordinary formulation. And I have to just say that Um And I always say that. Admire, am excited about the reverence. that you have for the name of God.
And again, it would be pretty easy to just. Throw these out. Um But to see them written there in the original form. It's somewhere spectacular and And the idea that as you said That um These are plural you know that idea of vengeance and and the idea of Knowledge is which in and of itself is like, wow, wait a minute, knowledges. Um revenge is I see that knowledge is Um That makes me want to go back and...
And look at that passage again in In Hannah's song, which Hannah's song is so prophetic in so many ways. Absolutely. Um Indeed, in our tradition, she is one of the Providences. Oh, absolutely. And if I'm not mistaken, And again, I couldn't easily.
But one of the first uses of the word Messiah It it is is there in her song? It is one of the first. It's not the first. But um But what is extraordinary in the reference to Messiah. in her words.
And this is indeed an extraordinary expression. we encounter Mashiach. which of course literally means anointed one. The five books of Moses. Exclusively in one particular context, and that is.
The high priest. Hakohen Hamashriach. The anointed high priest. It is never used. An expression referring to the king.
Which, of course, is what we mean when we say. Mashiach, Messiah. Right, right, right, right. Never used before Hannah does. And that's the reference I was.
I knew there was something. Right, no, and what makes it.
So clear. You might say, well, how do we know she isn't using it in the conventional sense that would have applied with respect to the high priest?
Well, of course, inevitably, we appreciate that. This is a song. A song That follows the conventional style of biblical poetry and is structured in terms of couplets. And The formulation that she uses at the very end of the song, it's the second half. of verse 10.
He shall give strength. to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed, his. Mashuiach.
So, of course, the context makes it clear that we're speaking not about a priest, but rather a king, because The parallel, king anointed. It's not referring to a priest here. Yeah, and I did go back and look at the Hannah expression of knowledges. And To me, that's just beyond cool. And I know I.
You and I don't have the same feeling about the Hebrew letters, perhaps, or however you want to put it. Um I I But both those words, vengeances and knowledges, ends with the letter Tov. Sure, because they're plural. Right. Sure.
And so You know, that being the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet. It's like, just, you know, Robbie's impression of it is like. You want to know who has the last word? Yeah. In both these instances, both in knowledges.
And in vengeances Um Here it is, so clearly delineated. And so beautiful. And And also reassuring to all of us. That Yeah. We know who's in charge and however that it works out.
Because we trust him with all our hearts. He's got this.
So of course, I'm not going to argue with you over it, but I'll just note an additional dimension which really I think converges on the same bottom line, and that is the fact that these two words are in the plural. Maybe we could better render them as Every possible permutation of knowledge and every possible permutation of vengeance. And at some level that that I think it converges on the same idea. In other words, that we aren't speaking of one particular modality. We're talking about all modalities.
Right. Every form of knowledge is subsumed within this expression. every form of vengeance is some subnutant expression. the realization that God is in charge. And that's reassuring.
Under times like this, you started out the whole conversation. With We don't really know what's going on. That's for sure. And the truth is that in the The the verse with which we began That is, again, in Hannah's song in chapter two, verse three. You get a very clear sense of that.
that is the the content of the verse generally. is Talk no more.
So very proudly and very loftily. Let not arrogance come out of your mouth. For the Lord is the Lord of knowledge, again, of every manner of knowledge. And By him. Actions are weighed.
Okay. That already implies something with respect to what the significance of knowledge is. God is evaluating. Assessing, judging. By him all actions are weighed.
And you know, there's a A critical message. By him all actions are weighed. I think we may have touched upon this Uh some earlier stage in hour conversation, but it certainly is definitely germane. for us to stress it here. It goes back to in my mind.
The Definition atheism as opposed to theism. of which I personally am most fond. Because I'm able to define these two terms without referring to God, which I think has advantages because a lot of people have very, very Deep misconceptions about what we mean by God. But most Succinct formulation of what the difference is. Is so far as the atheist is concerned.
Necessarily. life is intrinsically meaningless. He can choose to dedicate his life to any number of noble, worthy causes. But life will still remain intrinsically meaningless because there's no basis. to which to appeal.
in defining meaning. Since life emerged by chance.
So of course there isn't any definitive threshold that would constitute Again, intrinsic meaning, meaning that is defined in terms of itself.
So far as the thesis is concerned, We are here because someone put us here. That means that life is intrinsically meaningful. As a reflection of the purpose Of the purposeful creator who put us here. Whether we even know what that purpose is is only a secondary question. But it completely shifts the attitude that we have.
with respect to life. And By him actions are weighed. Is enunciating that essential verity, meaning. That Once You are cognizant. That there is a God.
who subsumes within himself. All knowledge, all forms of knowledge. You have a basis for defining Absolute meaning. Absolute meaning. is defined in reference to God.
As a result, by him, actions are weighed. If you don't have that. You know what I mean? You can choose again. Any sort of extrinsic meaning that you will impose on an essentially meaningless life, but that's it.
And once we appreciate that. Once we appreciate The implications then. That God The god of every form of knowledge. every permutation of knowledge. We appreciate that.
This formulation Yeah, just incidentally identical. with the structure and formulation. Of the opening verse. of Psalm 94. It really is resonating with it.
Because what do we mean when we speak of vengeance? What we mean is God. has his letters. And he balances his books. Vengeance, of course, doesn't mean some obsession with.
getting my way. It means Ultimately. Justice. must be and will be Served. And ventures is the means to They Imbalances.
I mean, right, RIDHD, not. It'll be alright if you Well, that is incredibly beautiful. I've never heard it explained that way. Um But it's exactly what You know, as we enter into Perm, it's exactly what happened to Haman, but it's as sure as gravity. As sure as gravity.
You set a trap. You will fall into it. Um Yeah. We don't know how God makes all that happen. But it's sure in the world.
Um There there would be Obviously, you study the book of Esther, you can't miss it. Um And actually When I really, really, really studied that book. It made me incredible sad, incredibly sad. Um And I know this may sound crazy, but for Haman. And the complete humiliation especially with his daughter.
You know, I guess it's just whatever is in me. That's me, Drosh. We're not going to. Say it's literally in the text. Right.
It's an additional layer of meaning. The additional layer that I got was made aware of, that nonetheless, that Good. You know, stuff was dumped on him by his daughter, and all this that happens. It's just No matter what happened, it's just incredibly sad. that a human being can go that far off course.
to bring such horror to his own household. to his own family. you know that everybody gets got caught up And and again, but You know, even according to scripture. The people on Heyman's side are caught up in Heyman's plan, and unfortunately. brought into Like you said, God's ledgers, like you were involved in this.
And so. You know, just like you can defy gravity if you want to, but man, the ground is hard and it is coming. Um Yeah, I completely resonate with what you're saying. Um It is Tragic. Simultaneously in it's inexorable.
If the greatest gift that God gives us. is responsibility. To function as responsible adults. not to be cuddled like infants. Then on the one hand that means That When They Assassin pulls on the trigger.
In most instances. except really extraordinary. Divine intervention. The gun will fire. With whatever horrific consequences will come.
of that bullet. careening out of the barrel. And By precisely the same token. When someone chooses to corrupt himself. He will become corrupt.
God isn't going to prevent him from doing that to himself. And worse yet. He can even corrupt his children. Yeah. They'll still have free will.
But but they're going to start at life. Handicapped. Because That innate Gauge of right and wrong. Has been skewed. has been crippled.
the way They were reared. By a wicked parent.
So of course We will stress And this is something that both Jeremiah and Ezekiel Emphasize. That um Everyone is Held accountable for his wrongdoings and not for anyone else's. The son will not get any extra credit because of having a righteous father if he chooses the path of wickedness. The grandson. Oh.
Is raised in the house of the wicked father. It is not going to be indicted because of his father's wickedness. As expressed, after all, in Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse 16. Fathers are not the death of the sons, nor f of are the sons for the death of the fathers. Everyone dies by his own step.
Everyone is individually responsible. And yeah, of course. I always like to note in this regard that One of the Advantages. of living in the information age. When everyone has access to information.
Without limit. And also. Access to laws. Without limit, is that it's empowering because you choose. Whether you Believe the truth, or you believe lies.
And we have the wherewithal. to make that choice. I I'm I'm I'm fairly certain we've noted this in the past about Delilah. Where is the truth recognizable? If one chooses the path of falsity, It's because one wanted to live a life of falsity.
But again, that means True. Hayman made his choices. He made his choices. And the consequence. He destroyed not only himself, but also his children.
Let me see this. We see this. Veritably down the block. In the Gaza Strip. Where An educational system.
Has created from start to finish. in order to produce one product only Which is Homosaro mene. What does it take? Straighten out a stick that has been made so crooked. George.
No, it is. And then but we see the same thing. Um in America. We're, you know, I grew up out west.
However, I came to the South. And Um Flabbergasted. At times By people's Opinion of black people, or the way that they were treated, and things. And this is in my lifetime, this isn't 100 years ago. But by the same token, I can assure you that I have experienced being treated absolutely horrible because I'm white.
um in in the same context uh just to be Because And again, we know that it came from... The culture that they were in, you know, and if you could imagine living in the Gaza Strip, or you could imagine living in Iran, especially if you lived. in and around the Ayatollah. Um, that you were going to hear this hate, you were going to hear these lies, and you were going to hear from the time that you were a little kid. And they would be impregnated in you.
And You know, I guess um You know, we see, and for those who may not be familiar in the book of Esther, No matter how you look at it, all his sons were hung. Yeah. Yeah, um And You know, it it's it's So hurtful, but by the same token, you know, I think if I'm recalling the last kings in Israel. Um Their children didn't fare real well either. Yeah.
As the wall came down and Jeremiah would Um Be put through the things he was put through. It, like you said, it started things into motion that you will reap what you will sow, you will reap what you sow. And Uh Yeah. You started and it is coming back your way. And uh this is uh Uh Really, in a way, again, I get back to your statement that vengeance is a matter of God setting his ledgers straight and and bringing this into line again.
Um There's an imbalance in the world that needs to be righted. I had a boss years ago. Those who know me well know I was in the car business for 40 years. And I worked for a very, what a lot of people would have considered a very hard man. Because if you didn't do your job, you were going to get fired.
and what he would say. He said that I never fired anybody. I just essentially fired themselves. I just made the call. You're out.
And to some extent, because I knew him to be a fair and honest man. He was hard. But he was fair and honest. And and Okay. And if you didn't Perform if you didn't do the things that were expected of you in a reasonable manner, in any way, shape, or form, or if you failed morally in any way, shape, or form.
And from his perspective, which I always was honored to work for him from that regard, was He just, from his standpoint, he made the call. And to some extent, you know, God put the laws in order and You know? Um, it really is. I, I, you know, I gotta tell you, I'm so excited about Psalm 94, I can hardly wait to go read the rest of it. You know, what you describe about your old boss.
resonates very deeply. Yeah. An idea that we have in our tradition, deeply ingrained in our tradition. with respect to the day of final judgment.
So they have final judgment. Who judges us? Of course the simple answer would be God, of course. And that's true, but On some level, the answer to that question is. We judge ourselves.
We are what we have become. The verdict is signed. Who signed that verdict? Oh my goodness, it's my signature. Yeah, basically sure.
Yeah, that's that's exactly like you made the call you did it right yeah You did it, and it only makes sense to some extent. When you finally get a look at absolute righteousness. when you finally get a look at what the truth really is. I mean, there it is. It's straight.
And Um I've always heard and I'm sure that that it When you get a good look at God. There's this reflection that comes back on you that Man, uh We found were found wanting. But I see I'm still gonna stress here. When you say we get a good look at the truth. We always got a good look at the truth.
We just closed our eyes shut tight. We want to see it. We wanted To delude ourselves, we wanted to take the easy route of. Rationalization and self-righteousness and oh, it's not so bad and And so on and so forth. But we knew it was a lie.
We just lulled ourselves into accepting what we knew it was a lie. As if it were the truth. And that charade comes to an end. Yeah. It absolutely will.
Well? Um As always, we've run out of time before we ran out of show. Oh, we love it.
Okay, we guys have to talk about this further, but. Maybe if I can if I can just share yes, please. That's why I was just One short vignette that I'll never forget. And that was The night They Nobel Peace Prize Award ceremony. in which Yasser Arafat Arch Terrorist.
was given the Nobel Peace Prize. And I had the privilege To be with my wife here in Jerusalem. And A Huge reception in honor of A gentleman The name might not be a household name, but it should be. By the name of Carrie Christensen. Who was The only member of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.
who resigned in protest. Over the decision. to grant an arch terrorist the Nobel Peace Prize. And of course the deception was taking place here in Jerusalem in his honour. Thanking him for what he did.
And I so vividly remember What he said. In response to all of the speakers who extolled his courage. He said It's nothing to do with courage. I just knew that The next morning I was going to have to Go over to the wash basin and look at yourself in the mirror. And I was going to look at myself in the mirror.
if I would be complicit with this act. And My response to that was, and I think if I recall, I went over and set this to. You're right. It takes a lifestyle of preparation. I think I won't be able to look at myself in the mirror.
If I fail here. That's exactly what it's all about. To be able to have the gumption to say, Right and wrong. Don't mix. And that clear understanding.
Of what Right. dictates. And that Final moment. of choosing Makes the choice evaporate because it's just so obvious. I remember in a similar vein.
The story And One of the death marches during the Holocaust. Two sisters.
Somehow, we're able to break away from the group before they. Nazi soldiers saw them and shot them. and they run off into the forest. They have no idea where they are. Where they're going.
Until we see A light in the distance. It's night. They have no bearings. They run towards the light. And it's a little Polish farmhouse.
They bang on the door. And Polish farmer comes to the door, he sees them, he sees them in their striped prison uniforms. And he freezes. And his wife runs up behind him, grabs the girls, takes them into the cellar, and they kept those girls alive. Until the liberation.
And the person was reporting this story. was present. At Yadvashem. Haldwest Memorial. When That Polish Farm Wife As an octogenarian was being honoured.
as one of the righteous of the nations for having saved those girls' lives. And He wrote He approached this very stiffly. elderly woman. with the wisened look of someone who has lived a full life. He said there.
How could you have done what you did? Didn't you realize you were putting your entire family in mortal danger? If the Nazis would have found you, if we found those girls, they would have killed you all. And there are stories. It happened.
Oh, yeah. And Right. She looked at me. With The wisened look of someone who has just been asked the non question. And she simply said, How could I not?
And just as Carrie Christensen's lying in the bath having to look at himself in the mirror. Takes a life. time of preparation. that in that Split second. How could I not?
The answer is clear. And maybe that's the reason that I know there have been all sorts of research projects to try to determine what the profile is of the people who put their lives in jeopardy in order to save lives. And what's the profile? There is no profile. Because What it takes is All these little microscopic Many decisions that seem completely inconsequential.
mold you into the person. Who in the moment of truth? sees only truth. Others She only lies. You develop a taste for the truth.
You don't want to spit it out. Get addicted to the truth. Oh. Oh, I do love it. I can talk for another hour easily, Rabbi.
Um, just with what you just said, but that is so. That is something to bless our souls. As we pray for Jerusalem, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, we pray for... our service people. Um and and certainly even the certainly pray for the people of Iran is um they're facing horrific times and hopefully really good times ahead.
Oh. It is um this rescue will actually rescue them as well. As we see the travails, so may we see the salvations. Amen. Amen.
Shalom, my friend. Shalom from the city of Shalom. It doesn't feel like it all the time nowadays, especially when the air raid sounds, but it is the city of Shalom. Shalom to everyone. And happy for Mm-hmm.
