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The Laws of War and Peace with Rav Shlomo Katz is a series based on Hilchos Milchamah VeShalom by Rav Shmuel Eliyahu, opening up the Torah of מלחמה ושלום for the times we are living in right now.
In these episodes, Rav Shlomo explores the halachic, biblical, and inner spiritual foundations of war, courage, national responsibility, emunah, and redemption. Through the lens of Tanach, Chazal, and the living reality of Am Yisrael, this series asks: How is a Jew meant to think, feel, pray, and act in a time of מלחמה? What does true gevurah look like? How do we fight evil without losing humility? And how do war, mesirus nefesh, and miracles become part of the unfolding geulah?
Okay heilige brothers, this is chodesh Sivan. Sponsored by the Silver family lezecher nishmas בת שבע בת ישראל. Sponsored anonymously in memory of all the holy chayalim. By the Weisels for refuah shlema of עטל שרה בת חנה, יעקב שלמה בן בילה and for a zivug hagun for Esther bas Rachel.
By the Miller family in memory of their beloved abba and grandfather Rabbi Aby Warhaftig in honor of his twenty-fifth Yahrzeit. By the Finns for a tefilah for nitzachon gadol for Am Yisrael והצלחה רבה בשמירה עליונה לכל החיילים הצדיקים שלנו. For the refuah shlema of all the ptzu'im, lechayei חיים דוד נתנאל בן איילה אהובה, Eliyahu ben Chava, רואי חיים בן מירב, David ben Ziv for refuah shlema and to אברהם יעקב בן דבורה פיגא בתוך כל חולי עם ישראל. The week is sponsored by the Reinertz and Katz families in memory of my aunt חוה יטא בת חיים זליג יצחק הכהן in honor of her second Yahrzeit.
Can you believe it's two years? Two years. That's my Chava is named after my aunt. She was such a precious, precious neshama and she was killed in a car accident right outside of Beit Shemesh two years ago. My mother's sister, Hashem yerachem.
Okay brothers, we have the sefer page 73 and there's pages for those that need. Yes Yosef? It's amazing. You're starting with the question. Brandon, he can't be here but he listens to all the shiurim.
I saw him going with his madim into the car right now. Oh really? Yeah. So he asked me to ask a question. People have been asking what can we do, right? So why isn't there a call to action to whoever can join Shlav Bet and we said from the ground up, right? Join Shlav Bet or do things along those lines to help those that want to be doing that to do that.
Why can't that be one of the calls for action? Why can't it be? I don't know, it hasn't been something that's been promoted so I'm asking the question on behalf of Brandon. Okay, it can. And you got Raziel pumped before but we'll get to that at the end of the shiur. Of course you can.
Rabbi Yosef Bronstein is trying so hard to figure out how to make that happen. I think that would be an amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing thing. All in consideration of Shalom bayis. Always has to go hand in hand with our rebbetzins.
If there's no bracha in it if your wife is against it. And she could be against it for the holiest reasons because at this stage in life you have three, four, five kids at home, little kids at home. That mesirus nefesh versus the mesirus nefesh of הכל יוצאים בשעת מלחמה ממש but we're talking about just Shlav Bet. Betach, it should be mevorach.
That's what he was saying. Hakol yotze, right? So then why isn't that one of the הכל יוצאים בשעת מלחמה ממש 100%. Oh we're still in milchama. Nachon.
So therefore אני מאוד מאוד מעודד את זה 100% betach. Okay, now today we're wrapping up, it seems like we're wrapping up, I mean I always say that and then we always have more shiurim on this, but this very important and unavoidable halacha and mitzva. It's an unavoidable halacha and a mitzva. Needless to say after last week's shiur there were more, there was more feedback than any shiur we've gotten from chevra that learn with us online and with a few of you that were in the shiur when we were learning on Wednesday it was.
Because the call inside of us is really is the, the wondering is really is there a clear call to action? What is the clear call to action? And especially we have, we're immediately thrown at us this pessimistic energy of like what could any of us really really do, right? That's what quite often we get stuck with what could any of us, the pshutei ha'am really really do over here? Okay so we're going to address all of this today through the learning that we're doing. Now, we are Rachamanim b'nei rachamanim. We are the most compassionate people that ever existed. In our DNA, in our atzmus, in just the basic way of who we are, we have a tendency to always go, to always act with rachmanus and for most of the time that's the most beautiful midah in the world.
רחמיו על כל מעשיו that's what we say about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, He has compassion on all of His beings. Therefore it makes one really have to dig deep when they try to understand not only the psukim that speak about the need to wipe out Amalek, but why is it that from all Torah laining all year long the way the one Torah leining where every person has to hear it no matter what, and has to be in a minyan, and we see by some of the mefarshim that it's more chamur than even krias HaTorah, like a regular krias or Mikra Megillah. Why is it so important that each man, woman and child hears Parshas Amalek? And we do extra readings, and we have all these halachos about what happens if you miss that week. We had that when it at when the beginning of COVID took place, because there was right then around there, at least in Eretz Yisrael.
Those that were here, I realize many of the chevra weren't even here yet, but while we were here, way it started here was when we already got messed up with parshas around the time of Parshas Zachor, in terms of going to shul, not going to shul. Rabbi Rimmon, Rabbi Eliyahu put out all these halachos, how do we mashlim the inyan? Why is it we're so fixated with this inyan? Why not us, the Torah itself, halacha itself? All the different types of readings, different havarot, the different pronunciations, we have to be so meduyak with what? Parshas Amalek. Lama zeh? Because the Torah knows that we're rachmanim bnei rachmanim. The Torah knows that in our hearts, most of us, I said most of us, would not be able to go about and do that which the Torah is saying to us when it comes to Amalek.
So because the Torah knows how sensitive we are, and the Torah knows how much we're reluctant to act like this al pi teva according to our nature, of course the Torah's going to go out of its way and put this inyan of Parshas Amalek even more and more in our face. And we have to read it not just once a year, it comes up in the parshas twice. So how many times a year do we read about Amalek in the Torah? Three. We read about it in Parshas Zachor, we read about it in Parshas Beshalach, and we read about it in Parshat Ki Teitzei.
So even though only one time we have this stringent inyan of being making sure we all hear Parshas Amalek, it really it's three times it's in the Torah. And it's not like one of the times it's sweeter and it's not so charif, it's always as charif as it is. Purim morning also? Sorry? Purim morning also. Purim morning, so you could say four? Yeah.
Because the Torah knows, Eibishter knows our mida of rachmanus. Now this is a very serious learning today because it's as if, it's like k'ilu we're really asking ourselves, do we have any idea what we're dealing with? And what are we getting happy over and what is still breaking our heart? Because when I woke up this morning, I saw another beautiful face of a chayal that was killed yesterday in Lebanon during the peace fire. Peace fire, that's what it should be, right? That was a Freudian. During the peace fire.
Ze meshuga legamri. It's a sick reality that we've gotten used to, and when Yidden get used to waking up to hutal l'pirsum, and hutal l'pirsum means it's been permitted to announce the death of someone, ze sof. That's the end. Brent, you want to bring in another chair? Bring in some more chairs from the shul, like maybe two chairs.
Yesh po. We have a whole lot of empty ones. This is a sakana. This is a big sakana.
Sarfati was this boy's last name. First name Eyal maybe? Sarfati. Precious, beautiful, beautiful young chayal who was killed up in Lebanon. Is anyone getting too excited that we've advanced again in Lebanon and conquered another spot without declaring that we have sovereignty over the area that we're conquering? Or is this just another like oh look, we put up a flag somewhere that's going to be taken off in a few weeks.
Adam. Thank you, Adam Sarfati. Ei efshar yoter guys.
אי אפשר לסבול את זה יותר.
אי אפשר לסבול את זה יותר. We can't tolerate this anymore. Who was at the attack yesterday... so many...
yeah. Rachamim al hagag. Compassion in the wrong place.
הסכנה של שכחת עמלק היא גדולה מאוד.
The danger of forgetting who Amalek is is very great.
שאול המלך היה צדיק. What does the navi say about Shaul HaMelech?
בחור וטוב ואין איש מבני ישראל טוב ממנו. The most geshmaq.
This is what it says about Shaul HaMelech.
הוא טעה בדבר זה וריחם על אגג. We know the aftermath of him having compassion on Agag.
שאול לא מעורר את עם ישראל להילחם בעוז בעמלק.
He's not awakening the am to fight with might and strength against Amalek.
הוא לא מסביר ללוחמים שרחמים.
הוא לא מסביר ללוחמים שרחמים על אגג יצמיחו במשך דורות את המן האגגי שירצה להשמיד להרוג ולאבד את כל היהודים מנער ועד זקן טף ונשים ביום אחד. He's not spending any time explaining that having mercy and compassion on Agag will bring about someone that's like someone as evil as his descendant as Haman.
All these leaders that are around us and hundreds of thousands of their people all have this bechinah in them. Yes, we said it. There are hundreds of thousands of people without a shailah that you can easily explain are descendants of Agag today in our face based on all the learning we've done and all the life experiences we've had.
שאול המלך לא מסביר לעם.
He doesn't explain to the people כי רחמים על עמלק יביאו עלינו את שואת אירופה הנוראה. Having compassion on Amalek on Agag will bring upon us the Holocaust שבה יישרפו יטבחו וייחנקו בתאי גזים שישה מיליון יהודים באכזריות שאין לה קץ. Having compassion on this entity brings about six million Jews burnt choked buried alive killed in gas chambers.
עם ישראל הוא עם רחמן.
This is the problem. We are we are a compassionate people.
קשה לו עם הציווי של השמדת עמלק. He's calling it out he says I know you having you have a hard time with this.
Of course you're having a hard time with this it's against your nature.
הוא פועל לפי התכונות הבסיסיות שלו וחומל על הצאן ועל עוד כמה אנשים נחמדים ומוכשרים בתוכם אגג. Am Yisrael has this rachmanus has this chemla. It doesn't wipe out all of the tzon all of the cattle either and it has this rachmanus that ends up leading Agag leaving Agag alive.
התוצאה לא מאחרת לבוא. And the result comes right soon after.
השם מעביר את שאול ממלכותו מיד. Hashem after this says Shaul Hamelech sorry you're out of here.
And the psukim there say ויסוב שמואל ללכת ויחזק בכנף מעילו וייקרע ויאמר אליו שמואל קרע השם את ממלכות ישראל מעליך היום ונתנה לרעך הטוב ממך. Shaul Hamelech he lost it. Just like the cloak was just cut the malchus was cut from you it's done this is not your chelek and Hashem is I feel like Hashem is screaming out today to anyone today anyone at this point in Jewish history that's not willing to call things for what they're at that evil is evil and this is a real clear evil entity in front of us that needs to be wiped out. The malchus is going to be ripped up and given to someone else.
Now I don't know if that means it's going to the land itself is going to be given to another people or I mean obviously we davven not or that whoever thinks that they're in the place of calling shots today the malchus will be ripped away from them and given to a younger generation let's say something that's going to be just as provocative of everything we've said until now. Someone recently reached out to me to try to make a mifgash between Noar Gvaot and a certain Rav. Now I don't I don't have like it's not my inyan to try to make this thing happen but what I was what I was thinking afterwards was that if you really want to hear their cry of these boys that are getting a very bad rep meila let's make the mifgash. If the mifgash is just to tell them how wrong they are then I I won't take part in any type of mifgash like that beshum panim v'ofen because at least there are boys that הנה לא ינום ולא יישן שומר ישראל they can't go to sleep at night with the current matzav.
Iy efshar they can't. So of course a bunch of them act in very unconventional ways that I don't believe in the bigger bigger bigger picture really is going to be the game changer. Maybe it will I don't know. But I know one thing these are boys that are trying very hard to make sure that there won't be leftover venom for our children in our midst.
They can't sleep at night because of this. Their lives are not none of us would choose to live like that. The mesirus nefesh many of these boys have is unbelievable. The rep they're getting is awful and of course like anywhere in the holiest of groups and in the unholiest of groups you always have some guys that make the headlines.
But it used to be back in the day that people spoke about Noar Gvaot like the way that they speak about people that live in Efrat. You know that? Think about that for a second. The way people speak about the kitzoonim of today is the same way they spoke about people that look like you and I that chose to dwell here. And that should speak out volumes.
And we have to keep that in mind when we hear concepts today of kitzonim, of what's considered to be radical, fringe, mitnachalim, yeah, nachon. Now, this is interesting and this is a famous Gemara which will explain to us why we read Parshat Amalek the way we do.
שאול הוא לא היחיד שטועה. He's not the only one that gets it wrong.
אגמרא אומרת בבבא בתרא על יואב שר הצבא שהרג רק את הזכרים של עמלק. You know this Gemara? Yoav, the general, only killed the males. As it says over here: כי ששת חודשים ישב שם יואב וכל ישראל עד הכרית כל זכר באדום. He only kills the males.
Shaul comes to Yoav— Shaul— David— sorry, David comes to Yoav: למה לא השמדת את כל עמלק?
אמר לו יואב דכתיב תמחה את זכר עמלק בצירי. Which would mean male. That's why we do the zecher and the zecher, right? And he's saying zachar? He was saying it only means the male, yeah, like he misread it. No, no, no.
The way that he— the way that you can read it even with a tzeirei can mean only the males. Zecher with a segol means the memory, right? Zecher and zecher. Was he like actually righteous in his own thinking as in like you can't marry a Moavite but a Moavia you could? Like was he correct in— did he have a like a good intent? Yoav? Bevadai! He's trying— he was just listening to the way it was written in the Torah, yeah, it was just a misinterpretation of the Torah. Sure.
It just seems so tevadik how they renewed themselves Amalek so quick after Shaul had pretty much wiped them out. He didn't kill Agag, he didn't kill the sheep, but suddenly there's a whole new Am of Amalek that David and Yoav have to take care of. I— I think that there's like about 30,000 people like that currently right now in Gaza. I was just gonna say.
And they seem to just keep renewing themselves miraculously, like they just— if you don't wipe them out, they just come back. Of— of course. And then even in a non-tevadik time, it makes no sense. Mamash! It makes no sense.
And they bank on our rachmanus of how could we do such a thing? They know it and it's the same nonsense. Am Yisrael... HaKadosh Baruch Hu is running this world. He's given us a tzivui and we're not executing the tzivui.
So, of course, it's not gonna be tevadik. It's much worse than not executing. We feed them and support them and give— it's sick. It's sick.
Chillul Hashem. We saved Sinwar's life. Chillul Hashem. Amar lei— so David— אמר ליה דוד והרי אנו קוראים זכר בסגול זכר.
Which means the whole gantze gesheft.
ענה יואב אותי לימד הרב שלי זכר בפתח. He's saying: No, no, no. Actually, the way that my Rebbe taught it to me, Ari, the way you said it, was actually zachar.
הלך יואב ושאל את רבו ובאמת התברר שרבו הטעה אותו. He's like: You taught me the wrong— you taught me the wrong way of pronouncing something, which has tremendous ramifications. Ratza Yoav lehorgo. Yoav wanted to kill— Yoav wanted to kill his Rebbe, you know, for giving him the wrong eitzah.
ביקש רחמים ואמר לו די בכך שאני ארור דכתיב על המלמד בטעות ארור עושה מלאכת השם רמיה. He's like: the Rebbe's saying: You can't kill me. I'm cursed enough. Look what I— people are going to know I gave over the wrong mesorah.
So Rav Shmuel Eliyahu was saying, do you think stam we have this inyan that everyone has to read Mikraei Amalek every year and we're so makpid and it's the one time that if children actually make noise, you have to take them out of shul? It's like we're most makpid on these things to make sure we hear every word, every letter. Why? Why is the halacha so medakdek? Why is it so partani, so detailed about this inyan? It's clear why. It's— it's crystal— based on this, it's crystal clear why. What is the Torah— what is the halacha really telling us about this halacha? Biglal hataut hazot.
So therefore due to these mistakes.
יש חובה לקרוא כל שנה פרשת זכור והחשיבות לכך גדולה מאוד. And it's very important.
כך פסק בשו"ת תרומת הדשן.
Trumas HaDeshen is a 15th-century— some say he was the last of the acharonim, some say he was the first of the rishonim. Rav Yisrael Isserlein. He says this is how he paskens: בשאלה על בני יישובים שאין להם מניין בעיר. Some moshav that doesn't have a— you know— a lot of these devout— last of the acharonim— last of the rishonim— first of the acharonim— last of the acharonim.
Sorry, what did I say, last of the Achronim? Sorry, yeah, last of the Rishonim. Thank you.
על בני ישובים שאין להם מנין בעיר ברצונם ללכת אל הקהילות הסמוכות להם לימי הפורים. And they want to go, these people who don't have a minyan and they want to go to kehillos that are close by for Purim, כדי לשמוע מקרא מגילה בציבור, to hear mikra megilla with a minyan.
האם הם צריכים להתאמץ ולשמוע גם פרשת זכור הסמוך לפורים או לאו? Okay they're thinking we're gonna go to catch a minyan for Purim. So should we try to make a, make sure that we also hear parshas Zachor also in this time period with a minyan.
ענה הרב כי צריך להיזהר בפרשת זכור יותר מקריאת מגילה. It's more important that you're medayek on making sure you hear parshas Zachor than it is to hear mikra megilla.
למרות שכל המצוות נדחות מפני מקרא מגילה, even though we know all the mitzvos are pushed off in order to make sure mikra megilla takes place, מכל מקום לדעת רוב הפוסקים נקראת היא ביחיד. According to most commentators you could still lain the megilla beyachid, the brachos and everything.
אבל קריאת פרשת זכור צריכה להיות בעשרה. But then they came to him and said should we try to make a minyan also for Zachor? He's like, that's not the question.
He says should we try to also make a minyan for megilla is the question because Zachor is vaday. It's vaday, no shaila there.
ויש בגמרא סיפור על רבי אליעזר שפעם אחת שחרר עבדו כדי שיהיה לו מנין לקרוא פרשת זכור בעשרה שקריאתה בעשרה היא מצוות עשה דאורייתא. A famous story in the Gemara about Rabbi Eliezer that one time released his servant so that he'll have a minyan for parshas Zachor because this kriya is a mitzvas asei d'oraisa.
ואם כן צריך להיזהר יותר שישמע קריאת פרשת זכור בעשרה ממקרא מגילה אלא שהעולם לא זהירי בהכי. Why don't we act like this? says Terumas HaDeshen.
אלא שהעולם לא זהירי בהכי. So I was looking at this and I mean this means two things.
What does it mean that the olam is lo zehiri behachi? They weren't careful of what? Being makpid on what? Listening to Zachor with a minyan. Now let's say it, and what else aren't they makpid on? Killing Amalek, wiping them all out, not just zachor.
מה שהעולם לא זהירי בהכי. Any chayal that enters into a building that's booby-trapped and it's not leveled from the sky is a chillul Hashem.
Moshe Feiglin's grandson was killed like this. Many chayalim we lost because of this me'uvat, this demented, perverted way of thinking that devarim ka'eileh is like ke'ilu we're showing, this is the absurd, it's as if we're showing we're a Kiddush Hashem by being so humanitarian on the cheshbon of our boys. Me'uvat. And that's a break through walls instead of going through doors because they'd have to go so around, so much.
Me'uvat, me'uvat, me'uvat. Demented. It's a demented. I don't know if it's changed so much.
I don't think it's changed, really changed yet. That's the answer to Brandon's question by the way. Why not just go to the army? If the army, if the army's sending boys into booby-trapped buildings, they're not committed to wiping out the enemy. They're willing to use...
oh, so you're saying no. They're willing to use our boys as, as cannon fodder. So that's not the answer. So you're saying nobody should go to the army? I didn't say that.
That's not the answer to his question. That goes into much deeper issues on the next page actually. Moshe Feiglin, Moshe Feiglin was asked about what you just said right now because of course he brought, he said this in an interview and he was railing on this. He was saying what kind of a musari tzava, what kind of a moral army sends their boys into such situations and then thinks that they're being morally higher than other places on the cheshbon of these boys.
So the person said, yeah, and that's why I can understand people don't send their kids to the army. Very legitimate claim, nachon. Ella mai, what's the problem with that? What do you, what's the problem? How could we change it if we don't. Aleph, how could we change it unless we go bottom up from within the army, which I know has been a very difficult thing to do from its conception.
But Beis, what else is there? Tzibur to go out. The army, the army, without the... miedach gisa it's true you could say about that messed up reality. On the other hand, the army is mekayem the mitzvah of vechai bahem, of keeping us alive.
So saying that the system is so messed up and therefore I won't be part of the system doesn't change anything. Having a flawed system doesn't mean throw out the whole system. It means you repair it. Nachon, it's like I have so many friends from my past from younger that for very little...
Babylon, Bavel, Babylon, right? And it's true, it's true, of course it is within the establishment, of course there is, and we get so sick of seeing the two faced sides of things, yefe. So it led many of them to say, why even try? Just roll over, pass me the bong and get through another day. But what are you actually contributing like that? So it's true, meaning, of course there's a messed up system, but how are you helping the messed up system by just declaring it, bless you, by just declaring it to be messed up? It has to, I think, reinforce, it has to push us even more to want to have like a world of mekhinos like your son's mekhina, Eli. Ke-ilu, and we can do it, we can change these things.
And he just stood there at Netzach Yehuda and he literally just gave such a khizuk derasha to all the whole plugah and they were amazed. Be'ezras Hashem. Their magad is amazing. Yossi Levi? The magad of Netzach Yehuda? Tzaddikim, gedolim.
The magad of Netzach... if this is what the future looks like, then we want to be part of that very, very much so, very much so. Okay.
וכנראה שבגלל זה החמירה התורה בפרשת זכור וחכמים קבעו אותה לקריאה יחידה שהיא מהתורה.
This may be the reason why Hazal said that the Parshas Zachor is the only reading that there is a khiyuv de'oraisa.
והזהירו כל כך על קריאת פרשת זכור בגלל שהנטייה הטבעית שלנו כרחמנים בני רחמנים היא לשכוח את עוצם שנאתו של עמלק. We actually want to believe that they once hated, but they don't hate as much anymore. We actually want to believe that.
Ze lo ye'uman. You think it's a machala. We actually believe, listen, they got potched so badly they just want a better life so now they're going to start they'll remove more of the hate out of their hearts for us.
זה לא היה וזה לא יהיה.
It never will be, it never was. I once said a vort in this shul, I don't know if you remember this, it was in the beginning of the war, it was Parshas probably Vayera, and I said that because we're so compassionate it's time to really use our compassion right now. And it was the parsha of Hagar and Yishmael. And it said, and I said that we don't really we have to mamash hear the kol na'ar bokhe.
We have to mamash hear the voice of the child that's crying. So there's a few, there's one token khaver in the shul got so excited. He got so excited because he thought I was speaking about them. Well I was.
But I was saying and then I said towards the end, and if you have really good ears and you really want to use your compassion, hear the voice of the na'ar bokhe Yishmaeli and what is he really saying? Take me out of my misery. He's saying, do you really want us children to suffer? Of course you don't. Get us all out of here. We have no chance here.
We have no future here. We don't have a chance to make it here. If you really have compassion, you'll really listen to the voice of the young Yishmaelite who is closer to the tzelem Elokim than he is to the sword, right? Closer to there than to there, at least at a very, very, very young age. If you really have rakhamanus, you'll hear that you could say, do any of you think that even with our smiles and everything, we're enjoying any of this? Get us out of here.
Now for people like Simi that's already totally left wing, I know. But it's funny like for you gerush is left. Well it's a contradiction. If we're saying that they're Amalek, then if that's a halakhic inyan, then when you go to the makolet or wherever and you see a Yishmaeli and you don't kill him, are you over de'oraisa on a mitzvah de'oraisa? We're saying first, first take out who is vadai Amalek.
First take out ודאי עמלק לכל הדעות and there's plenty, plenty. I still want to believe we live in a world that because בת הניחרה בבבת האומות that when it comes to the younger generation, with the children there's a chance to save them, not on our kheshbon though, not on our kheshbon. It's not our responsibility. It's not our responsibility.
Let me make it very clear, not our cheshbon. We have to take care of our kinderlach. But let's start first with who is vaday Amalek. Now, this is where Sammy's question is a very difficult one.
Why? Do you know how friendly thousands of the mechablim that came into the borders on October 7th were with a bunch of Yidden that lived in all the yeshuvim and Kfar Aza? Very nice. They sat over coffee together. Zeh hasippur hazeh. That's why up until October 7th you couldn't say that it's like a shayla whether the elite of Aza was Amalek or not.
Today it's not a shayla. Ein shayla po. You made one comment before but what you're saying in the dvar that I'm, I just can't stop thinking about is that type save me from, get me out of here. It doesn't matter where they are.
It doesn't matter. They're not bothering me. The kids of the next generation are not bothering me in Indonesia. It's not that, nobody wants them.
אבל זה לא הבעיה שלי. Today it is. No, but that's what Yossi was saying. What are you going to do with them? No one's going to take them.
That's not... okay. So that's the reason to keep things status quo because no one else will take them? First of all it's not true. Let me say one thing first.
The rachmanut part on what we're saying is what Sammy was saying. I don't think it's rachmanut to, I don't think kibbush gerush is more... They have no chance. They have no chance.
Because since they're zero years old they're being taught to kill us. They have no chance. But whose achrayut is it on me regarding the children? Is it my achrayut? It's my achrayut to make sure that we're safe and that means future generations as well. So at the end of the day, the same ones that we were rachmanim on in Gush Katif were the ones who carried out the attack on October 7th.
It's not stay wipe out, it means wipe them out also which I really want to understand again, I'm sorry like what that means. My understanding is from a military standpoint that you're bombing as much as possible from the air. You've really destroyed a tremendous amount of houses. You need some sort of place as cover.
You need boots on the ground. You just at the end of the day in order to really get to them one by one like that to get the ones that are Amalek, you have to have boots on the ground. You physically have to go in there. It's not just to protect someone's house that they care about.
It's this is what they need to do. The next level of, that's why you can't open Straits of Hormuz or any of those things. You need boots on the ground. At the end of the day when I hear wipe out, to me it's tachlis metziut, it's nuclear weapons.
It's nuclear weapons. I'm sorry I'm just asking if we could just be clear. Is that what we're, are we prepared to use nuclear weapons? Are we prepared to drop a bomb on Aza? And we could do it in a smart way, it doesn't have to affect some we'll still be able to grow incredible vegetables in some of the other areas there. No, that's why you have to lichbosh ulegeresh.
Right and also that order. Lichbosh, ulegeresh, yeah, uleyashev, and to settle because we're not, therefore kibbush gerush vehityashvut. Which is there, meaning there, physically there in in Gush Katif. I just want to...
the whole Aza. This is like it's strange to me like we have no problem in World Wars, I mean Napalm was used throughout Vietnam and all these things like mah hasheila? There was a war like like the great hero, the unfortunate prophet said you lost, I won. Right. I don't understand...
so we have to just decide did we win? No. Then take it over. How many times do we have to go back and forth and lose chayalim into these places? Kibbush gerush hityashvut because no one wants to nuke anybody. You can't.
No you can. You actually can. Right. If we nuked Gaza, which would be wonderful, but it would have such an effect on us.
Right. You actually can't, right, you can't actually nuke Gaza. It's also not necessary. You don't need to nuke Gaza.
It's the boundary that you just created. Okay so then what am I going to do with two... first of all you have to wipe them out. So if I push them into Sinai...
Who do you have to wipe out? I have to... first of all... and now you're telling me I have to be nice to the kids because they're really crying out. But no, they're Amalek also because they're a seed of evil that's in them.
Everyone has to go. So if you push them into Sinai, what do you think they're not going to continue to come back because now that you're living there they're they're going to keep fighting you from there from the border. It's not a practical matter. Are we learning about gerush or are we learning about Amalek? Because I don't see anywhere in the learning of Amalek about gerush.
I'm learning about wiping them out. It's both. Because people here... asking about the in-between the lines.
In-between the lines is al pi ha'deot that we learned here in the previous shiurim, specifically the Rambam, the Ramban, and the Rav. There is an in-between the lines. There is an in-between the lines. Sorry, it doesn't even sound so in-between lines.
Rav Elyahu shlita brings it very clearly when he defines who is in the category of Amalek based on their shittah of killing because, not killing because they want your oil, not killing because they need your resources, killing you because you're a Yehudi, that's the definition. And he's made that very clear by citing, as Rav Shlomo has said, many sources, but that is the contemporary definition of what is wiping out Amalek. Wiping out Amalek according to the way the Torah says it is talking about a complete nation, which includes parents, siblings, and children. And animals.
And animals. We've already established that because of Sancheriv, you can't say about a whole nation, even though this is not even a- I don't- this is a made-up nation, there's no such thing as the nation that they made up, you can't say that today about a nation, the mitzvah can't be mekuyam the way that we understand it on the pshat of the Torah of kol zakhar unekeiva, everything. You can't say that anymore. Ela mai, who can you say that about? Who can you say Amalek about? The actual leaders, the agitators.
That is their shittah. So how would children fall into that category of Amalek? That's where you're raising another element that some- I'm asking, I'm asking. How do- how do children fall into that category? Because that's what they're being taught to do. No, no.
That's not the- guys, let's- this is good, it's good stuff. We're doing a limmud here, this is not like a hashkafah shiur. We're trying to learn this out. You- I want you- I know it's hard to listen to what I just said because it seems like it's a stira minei u'bei.
It's not. We're saying like this, based on the way we learn Amalek in the time of Shaul HaMelech, it is referring to a whole nation of people. In that definition of a nation is everyone in that nation. Babies.
In that definition from the Torah on Amalek, right? Now what have we established based on the gemara that talks about Sancheriv? What makes it impossible regarding the mitzvah of Amalek today? You can't define- to take a whole people and say they fall under the category of Amalek. You can't say that. Which makes the situation that much more complex. But am I going to then say since we can't declare that any nation is Amalek today then the whole din of Amalek doesn't apply? No, comes Rav Soloveitchik and says no, you can't say that either.
Torah is Torah nitzchit. You can't say it's- it's not relevant anymore. Ela mai, how- so how do I look at the mitzvah when it comes to the wiping out of Amalek? Ideology? Well, let me finish it. But it's of an individual, of the individual.
But it's a very easy thing to say based on ideology, these kids are being brainwashed with the ideology of so and so. Therefore, they should be killed when they're born or before they even have a chance to be born, right? I'm- I've never said that. And I'm- it's not because I'm trying to still remain a little bit politically correct because I lost that a long time ago. It's just because the way that I'm learning it out al pi the way we're learning.
So therefore, again, having established that today it's impossible to say about a nation, a group of people, that they are Amalek, but the Torah is nitzchi, but the Torah is eternal, and the Torah is still madgish that I have to hear this voice all the time, I have to read this in the parsha, I have to be very clear that there's a mitzvah here to be taken care of, then what- how do I apply it today? And I think that's really your question. It is. But you hear the distinction that we made. That's a very important- I- I thought Amalek is like this supernatural DNA gene that one has where it just has- this cancer that has to be completely removed or else even one little cell like Agag, who's left around, is going to continue to grow and to be able to come back.
So unless you get to the root, which means complete eradication, i.e. like killing, nuclear weapons, then they- they're just going to continue to be able to grow. And that means the children. And we have a precedent for this because the Torah tells us, I know it sounds cruel, I know it seems evil, to get the wives and the and the children and even the animals, give me a break. Yeah, that's right.
They all have to go. It's not pretty, it's not pleasant, they all have to go if you want to do it right. Well, let Eli talk and no one throw a chair, okay? So I'm- I'm really, really relieved to hear this. Now the inyan is we committed a category error, right? That's where something is ascribed to a thing to which it cannot be ascribed, right? It's like what I was saying, the initial inyan is a middah that's ascribed to genetics, right? It's not a software problem, it's a hardware problem, okay? And then you can't, there's no exceptions to this, you got to like it, right? That's the end.
And the Rambam says also, I believe it's in Hilchos Avodah Zarah, that if you see somebody cruel, it's ground to check their genealogy. Am I right? Betach, check the genetics, because they can't be Jewish. So we've got this inyan that there's something in the genes, something in the mechanics, right? That existed. But then we said that it's not the case we can't do a genetic inyan anymore, right? With all that difficulty, because you just can't, it's mechanically impossible once they mixed.
And in fact, philosophically, you can't ascribe an emotion or a quality of murderousness to a genetics, right? In other words, it's a problem, okay? And here we say it's a practical problem because the nations are all mixed up and so on and so forth. So then to go and say given that, then go back and still apply a racial or genetic definition to it, can't be. Right? But that's what we've been talking about, and that's what it seemed we were doing up until now, because and then you're stuck with this real problem again of, well what do I do with the babies? Right? I'll give you the second part too when I had that conversation with the Rov, and he talked about pulling people out of a pit. Okay, just imagine, I'm not saying it's like this, he said, I'm not saying it's like this, but imagine that Goebbels or Himmler wake up with your entire family.
Wouldn't you look for any excuse? And then he said, but he went on, and he said, and here's what I'm going to tell you about what I say today. He said if you come to, and he gave a different example, he said if you come to a collapsed building, who do you take care of first? I said, I don't know. He said, I'll tell you what you don't do. Okay? It's not pikuach nefesh, you don't decide if it's a Kohen or a Levi or a man or a woman or a Jew or a non-Jew.
That's what you don't do, okay? You take care of whoever you come to first. And I was like shocked because in my head I'm thinking of the hierarchies of the Rambam. I said, it's pretty clear who you take care of. And he said, none of that.
And I said, wait a second, is this about darkei shalom? And he said to me, no. He said it's because the Torah, the entire aim of the Torah is life, and this is life. And he slammed his hand on the Gemara, and that was the end of that portion of the discussion. And on one hand I felt vindicated because I'd had something in my gut that was bothering me, and he'd vindicated that.
On the other hand, I was still left with all these problems of, well what do I do with all the halachos and so on and so forth. So when I say that this is a complicated problem, it's not a dodge, right? It's the desire not to divide the world into Amalek and Hitler because guess who was saying the other day, you want to live in that world? You want to live in that world? It's not a galus mentality to the galus that the real galus mentality to make these huge differences. And at the same time, and at the same time what we wrestle with is, boys are boys, our family, and some of them are being killed, and you put your family first, and if you don't, there's something wrong with you, right? And at the same time, you don't want to, you have real complicated issues inhere, irredeemable evil and so on. And then how does it inhere? Does it inhere in ideology? Does it inhere in genetics? All those things have to really be, and we're talking about this really seriously, and I've dogged that no end, because it's really important to have these discussions.
What do you do granular, not in some theoretical national sense, when you come across those kids? On one hand if you're a soldier and you come across a 14-year-old and he doesn't happen to be holding a gun at that minute, that doesn't mean he won't be the next, and you've got to make some serious choices. I don't know, my son had many times he wanted to kill them and his mefaked said no, and moved them away from the situation. And so these are, these are humans, right? It's important to talk about this, but I think it's important to keep in mind the philosophics of category errors. And you can't, you've got to, what do you do with the kids? That's a question.
And you can't, I don't want to say it's simple because it's never simple, but you can't just say, well he was born and that's his parents and so on. Expel him. You have to expel him. Just like Amalek? No, no, not maybe.
Not when we're talking about Amalek. But we also have places like Syria, Lebanon... But then we're not talking about Amalek. But we said from the...
but that's what I was saying. 100%. I respect that value, that point. I but I think this is great.
Do you hear what's happening? It's... Let's say we go with Ellie's shitta that he's saying aliba d'me, which is very funny, but let's say, right? So that you have to do something. There is a call to action, right? So what would be the call to action if you say they don't fall into the geder of Amalek, but they do fall into the geder of a potential evil, right? Expel them. Sell the land.
That's, that's it. 100%. 100 million zillion percent. I don't even see the complication.
It's easier now than it's ever been. We have so many places to do it right next door in Syria. Who's gonna stop you? The complication is we have the IDF. But we can still talk about the ideal.
The ideal... The IDF won't do that. I wish you would be the leader that would make them do that. No, no, but Shmuel, Shmuel, our job is to, is to take over.
And get stuck like Ophir Winter and a whole bunch of others that it happened to? No, no, no. Listen, with this pessimistic view, anarchy's the only solution. Shaul took over from, David took over from Shaul. But can I just ask one question that's going to be crazy sounding but it's just the one that's burning in my heart.
We're talking about fighting darkness with more darkness with nukes and this and that. What is actually preventing us from proactively saying well what is the root of this? To hack at the root. I used to think it was Iran. Let's, let's nuke Iran.
But really the root is Har HaBayit. The root is the Beit HaMikdash. Isn't that really what we should be focusing on? Building the Beit HaMikdash right now, they would be helping us build it. It just seems like that, I know that sounds like just crazy to bring up in as we're getting into like what to do with them but...
No, not Ari, not. You've been away, my friend. You've been away. Welcome back to the home.
It sounds crazy if you would say anything else. Mah pitom. He's also one of the guys who would actually walk to the town next door to hear Megilla and Parshat Zachor. It's true.
Because he has to. Nachon. The the point is that when Trump said the embassy, it would go up in flames if they moved it, there's nothing, our enemies are maxed out against us. Literally zero would change if we went up there to actually do it.
And that's the root of the whole issue. So we can either be like, you know, fighting over the scraps in, in Gaza, or like going for the root. That's, that's like really the calling now. Just remember, we didn't do it in '67 not because we were afraid that the Arabs would rise up against us.
It was Moshe Dayan. And we didn't do it because we as the am were unwilling to do it. We're unready. We were unwilling.
No, no, don't give me this unready. We were unwilling. And Moshe Dayan was very happy. Not my problem.
Invite the Waqf, make them the balabus later. But it's a different am now. It's on its way to becoming a different am. It's not there yet.
It's on its way to becoming a different am. But I'm saying, the obstacle has always been ourselves. The obstacle... David HaMelech was denied permission to build the first Beit HaMikdash.
He accepted because blood on my hands, a makom of peace, it can't be me. Okay. And then the mefarshim say, he said vis-a-vis the navi, what about the am? Why can't they? Why can't we do it for them? And what was the answer? If they only wanted to. They should have.
I want to, I want to, I want to go back to... Am I, am I quoting correctly? Yeah, yeah. I want to go back to to to something important because I still I don't want it to sound like we're trying to look for a way to patter ourselves from the inyan of mechiyat Amalek. There's still Amalek to be wiped out over here.
There's still very clear Amalek to to wipe out. And according to what we're learning, Amalek isn't only the mefakdim of Hamas. It's not just the, the sergeants and the commanders. Amalek is this whole it's an army.
It's an army of people. It's all of them. And not just Amalek, not just Hamas. But what they call the PA that live here.
They are in the same exact category. Zot omeret, you have to wipe out a whole a whole maamad within this fake made-up people that are שונאי ישראל שונאי עולם. 100%. Listen, I I would love to fly only with like, let's learn Baal Shem Tov and Likutey Moharan and and and that'll solve our issues.
This is the time that we're living in. Every day a chayal gets killed. Every day I don't enjoy learning this necessarily. It kills me.
But every single day chayalim are getting killed. That means there's still a chiyuv, there's still an Amalek. Forget about the question of babies or not babies. There's still an Amalek in the air that's here that needs to be wiped out.
And they're getting and we haven't done that. Our brain the way we're acting it's still not really there. It's still אנחנו עוד לא שמה. And we're going to end with Meir, your hand was up.
Yeah, I had a question on the point the Rav was making right now that if there is a line somewhere, that there's a line and that line goes from mechiah to girush. How does one draw how do you draw the line especially boots on the ground? Not specifically boots on the ground like you're fighting in Aza or you're in I can't give military tactics. I don't know military tactics. I'm not talking about military tactics.
So what do you mean? I'm talking about on a day-to-day life. We live in Gush Etzion, we live in a place in which we're surrounded by the other side. How does one make a differentiation between that this person is Amalek or this person is just someone that has fell and should be migaresh, but not as a yachid, you can't make that. Let's say you came to the conclusion someone's Amalek.
So based on your conclusion, what should you do? Kill? Go home and just go home and get a knife and kill them? We can't we're not we can't act like that. Not because we're not like that, because that doesn't do it that's not making a statement. We have to do this as an am. It has to be a national, it has to be the value for which we live in as the chayal called me from the basis after learning this Torah last week.
He said what should I do on my basis if I act like this, they'll throw me into jail. So what should I do? So I said to him listen, if you think that by you're actually going to make a difference by what you're doing, do what you have to do. But clearly you're not going to. As yechidim we can't act like it's got to be the way that we shape the whole as Rav Ginsburg always calls it, a critical mass of consciousness.
There needs to be a critical mass of consciousness. Not yechidim. Do you believe that's possible? The Israel that you know, the fellow citizens that you know that live here, that this critical consciousness change is possible in our lifetime to do the Amalek-like, forget about nuclear warfare, maybe that's a little radical, maybe not, but even the expulsion, I'm talking consciousness-wise, we go there, we say we actually are going to physically now go in and remove you. Do you believe we have that in us in our lifetime, the next 30 years, based on what your understanding of our people are? The US president's already brought up three times.
Yeah, it's already a metzius. We can do it, we can do it, people talk about it. That's fair. I get behind that.
When I say yes, that yes comes with a responsibility. I'm not saying yes and oh yeah, it's going to happen. When I say to you yes, it puts hundreds of thousands more pounds of weight on my shoulders and on anyone that says yes. But anyone that sits back and says no, then I wouldn't want to be in their feet, in their shoes when they get up to shamayim and they say הנה לא ינום ולא יישן שומר ישראל.
So when I say yes, it means yes. But it doesn't mean that we're there already now. But it means that we have no right to not give it our best shot to wake up the am, wake up the lion for real. Imagine if all the how many people marched yesterday in New York, sixty thousand? Fifty, sixty thousand Yidden, it was sweet, shkoach.
But if we actually took that energy and gave it a kli for it to manifest in a way that really meant the removal of evil from the world, who knows, the world's wait... like Reb Shlomo said that so many people would love to be turned on to Shabbos, but they need the Baal Shem Tov to talk to them about Shabbos, not some cute kiruv Rav. They need the Baal Shem Tov to talk to them about Shabbos. They don't need Noach, they need Avraham Avinu.
So the world needs a new voice emanating from and it could only happen from here and you'd be shocked but if that voice listens to these classes and all they hear is skepticism, they'll be like you guys have to really figure things out again because I'm not really sure that you guys understand what you're doing there and you're willing to send your children to an army that's not even clear what they're doing there. So all these things could lead me to excuses and to exempt me. There's plenty of other mitzvos I could work much harder on being mekayem. The only inyan is that there's another mitzvah that we always...
bring up and that mitzvah is v'chai bahem. You have to stay alive in order to keep Torah mitzvos and that's why it's become the most essential one. You actually have to be alive to toivel in a mikvah. You have to be alive to give tzedakah.
You have to be alive to build the Beis Hamikdash. So Ari, to get back to your point, you have to actually be alive to be able to do the mitzvah you're speaking about.
סור מרע ועשה טוב. That's why it's great that listen, the tenuah to go and build the Beis Hamikdash did not draw any critical mass in Am Yisrael in the last 78 years.
Why? Because even the way we speak about rebuilding the Beis Hamikdash is cute. It's still not the way it needs to be. And the way we speak about Eretz Yisrael is not the way yet that it has the worst PR in the world. I'm not talking about hasbarah, I'm talking about the way we even speak about these things.
We have to beg Hashem that He has compassion on us that through our voices there's a besorah of light and of emes that's attractive enough to those that aren't willing to compromise anymore in life. Don't you want to be part of that voice? Or do you want to be part of the voice that keeps on challenging it and wondering if it's possible? It's a rhetorical question I'm asking, obviously I know what side you're on. I don't think. Yeah.
Sometimes you just have to give a little attention to what things are called. Yishmael, like we learned over here with tefillos, right? It's a calling. L'daven. So October 7th was the same calling, right? What they did to us is just a mirror of what we did to them.
Just like the baby that was in the... baby that was in the tzapat giving Yishmael that was thirsty for water, look what happens when you give them water. Yeah. Now you're now you're messing Yosef up again.
And Ellie's about to faint. Lamma? Nachon. Nachon. Nachon.
Nachon. There's five hands up and I want to finish, I'm sorry. I'm just going to finish this last piece, sorry. Steve, Steve.
כנראה שבגלל זה החמירה התורה בפרשת זכור וחכמים קבעו אותה לקריאה יחידה שהיא מהתורה.
והזהירו כל כך על פרשת זכור בגלל שהנטייה הטבעית שלנו כרחמנים בני רחמנים, our nature to be rachmanim bnei rachmanim, היא לשכוח את עוצם שנאתו של עמלק, it's to forget how much Amalek hates you.
והשכחה הזאת כבר גרמה לנו אסונות רבים בהיסטוריה ואחד מהם הוא השואה. No, no, they like us, they like us.
אילו היו מקשיבים היטב לקריאת זכור, if we went to shul to read Parshas Zachor k'takanah, היינו יכולים להינצל מהם ולא עשינו.
לכן החמירו מאוד בקריאתה ובקריאת המגילה שגם היא בכלל מצוות מחיית עמלק. Therefore there's such a dagesh that we have to read Parshas Zachor over and over again, again, not to be able to determine the impossible, which is who is a whole nation that's Amalek, because we're not dealing with that, but rather what? That evil is real and it exists.
מכוח ההלכה הזאת היה מורי ורבי הרב מרדכי אליהו זצ"ל אומר, his father would say, כמפקד שמעודד את חייליו להילחם בשונאי ישראל שרוצים להשמידו, commander that encourages his soldiers to fight Sonei Yisrael that want him wiped out, כמו חיזבאללה וחמאס, האיראנים או כל שונאים אחרים, מקיים מצווה, you're doing a mitzvah, כמו שעשה שמואל הרמתי שעורר את החיילים להילחם בעמלק.
אלה ההולכים בדרך עמלק, המציבים מארבים לחיילי ישראל, those that put up maarav is ambushes to Am Yisrael, הם הם עמלק של הדור.
אלה שבאים מאיראן להילחם בנו רק מתוך שנאה לה' ולעמו, באים להתאבד ולקפוץ למים הרותחים להתיס את הלבנונים נגדנו, הם כמו עמלק. So Hezbollah obviously that whole entity falls under Amalek. Hamas of course does. Palestinian Authority also does.
המפקדים המעודדים את חיילי צה"ל לקראת המלחמה, but the sergeants that encourage Israeli soldiers towards war, הולכים בדרכו של שמואל הנביא, they are following the footsteps of Shmuel HaNavi, שהסביר לשאול ולעם את הנימוקים למלחמה בעמלק, because they explain to the am: your rachmanus placed in the wrong way will come and bury your own children. That's the ruach. It's a ruach that can't ignore the fact that we're rachmanim bnei rachmanim. Be attuned to it, understand it, nachon, zeh amiti, it's real, it's true, but if you can't tell people why it's important to wipe out Amalek today, which still exists.
And I'm gonna add here, and in the same breath explain that kibush, gerush, v'hityashvut is the only, only possibility of a peaceful future in the land of Israel. You can't represent Am Yisrael and you can't represent Eretz Yisrael. You can't. You cannot, assur.
And we have to be very careful because some people that are out there in the world that are so to speak representing Am Yisrael, I saw them with a necklace recently at some dinner, I could not believe my eyes. These are like the October eighth Jews. Some of them, they're still walking around with a necklace that has carved out from the land of Israel Yehuda, Shomron, and Azza. The enemy sees there's a Yid representing—exactly—oh, and they're thinking, oh, everything's going to be okay, let's just be quiet, so to speak, for a little bit.
And these who were honoring at our dinners? If these—yeah—these people that are being honored, that type of thing? That type of thing that encourages an attack? One hundred million percent. But what doesn't encourage attacking again? Getting back the land and dwelling on it. And we have not done that since October seventh. Yet.
Yet. Yet. B'ezrat Hashem.
רבי חנניה בן עקשיא אומר רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצוות.