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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?
Good morning everybody. We're learning l'iluy nishmat Levi ben Yosef בת יפגא בת ישראל ישעיה שלום בן יצחק אייזיק לוי יצחק בן ירוחם חנן זלמן l'refua sheleima דוד נתנאל בן איילה אהובה טוב שמואל בן אביה נאוה אברם יעקב בן דבורה פייגא. The week is sponsored by Nechama ben Nikon in honor of David Jerome's birthday. Today is sponsored by Regina Warshavsky for the refua sheleima of her brother Dr. Warshavsky חיים שלמה בן קיילא; he had a surgery earlier this week and today's Steve's sister's yahrtzeit בתיה רוחמה בת רב יצחק זאב הכהן תהא נשמתה צרורה בצרור החיים.
We can pass these around. I know everyone's a shtikel delirious and these nights are pretty wild, so we're going to give it our best shot. We're just going to give it our best shot and be'ezrat Hashem feel aligned. That's the point of these shiurim to feel aligned with the times that we're in.
I just want to say that if I ever, you know, I never tell anyone to come to a shiur. I've never, I don't think I've ever told anyone to ever come to one of my shiurim for sure. Maybe I've told them to go to other people's shiurim but I've never told anyone to come to one of the shiurim that I am privileged to give over. Here it's mamash anavah pesula to not tell someone to come to this shiur because if we are trying to do anything for real here, if we're attempting to do anything for real here, it boils down to this time in life that we're in right now.
This is where we're at. This is the heart of what's going on right now. So that's why I'm so honored that everyone's here today. Do we have enough copies? Not so much? We do? Okay.
Good. I'm working on trying to get the sefer itself. Brandon, you have one right? Yeah, you got it. I see you got the sefer.
Where did you get it? Do you remember? Pomeranz? Okay, so we'll try to... Does someone want to take achrayut to reach out to Pomeranz today to see if they could order? I'll do it. Okay beseder gamur. Probably like I think so.
There's probably let's get forty let's get forty.
ברוך אתה ה' אלוקינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו. Amen. For today we have a very important, very important shiur because the outline that Rav Shmuel Eliyahu gives us today shows us how every single war that we have been involved with from the moment that we came home, started coming home after the six million were killed, are all biblical.
Every moment here is biblical. That was I think the first word people were saying during this current war saying wow mamash feels biblical, feel something feels biblical. And when you look through the Tanakh and you look at what happened when things went right and when things went wrong there's a clear symmetry to where we're at right now. Like crystal clear.
And therefore we have to go back from the beginning. This is like, it's weird, this is like a historical modern day historical outline of what we've been trying to do since we came home here, together with a pre-state, pre like thousands of years old as well. And this will paint a very, very clear picture and give us hora'ot meforashot very clear instructions as to where we go to from here. So look in the beginning over here.
This whole perek that he starts off speaks about the greatness of the chayalim but at first speaks about how Hashem's the nitzachon of Am Yisrael in all the milchamot all the wars that we had right now can only be described as one thing: Jewish luck. Now you see, I wanted to like... this is very important to call these things out or Jewish brains. No, no.
Chas veshalom. Tzahal. And Agudat Yisrael. No, I'm not joking.
Keep going. We'll see what you're saying Steve. Agudat Yisrael put out this beautiful thank you. Today we're just speaking of good things about Yidden.
Steve, Steve, you said Agudat Yisrael, I know where you're going with it, so stop right now. I love you. One but. Trap BS.
No, no but.
והורשתם את כל ישבי הארץ מפניכם אמן כן יהי רצון.
אמן. מלחמות ישראל מאז הקמת המדינה הסתיימו תמיד בניצחון של מעטים מול רבים.
All the wars we fought until now since the state has been since we have the current modern State of Israel always ended with a victory of few versus many. as many as we say in the lashon of Al HaNissim, right?
בימי מתתיהו בן יוחנן. Mamash כמו שהתורה אומרת לנו, just as the Torah says, ורדפתם את אויביכם ונפלו לפניכם לחרב. That's in Parshas Behar? Behar? My Bar Mitzvah.
Yeah, did you have Behar and Bechukosai? So it's one more, it's Bechukosai. Bechukosai. But it's okay, it's your Bar Mitzvah still, that's why I asked if it was a double parsha. In Bechukosai, in the beginning, in rishon, it says this: ורדפו מכם חמישה מאה ומאה מכם רבבה ירדופו ונפלו אויביכם לפניכם לחרב.
הנס הגדול הראשון היה בשנת תש"ח. The first miracle took place in 1948, and it's described in the pesukim that we just read, how the numbers won't add up at all. As it says over here: five will be able to chase out a hundred, a hundred will be able to chase out a thousand, and it says ונפלו לפניכם אויביכם לחרב, that your enemies will fall on their swords. For years I've been quoting to you a Torah from Rav Moshe Wolfson, from the Emunas Ittecha, that it says that the real avodah in Elul is that when my Elul is on, then the rest of the year my enemies fall on their swords.
How does he base it?
ונפלו לפניכם אויביכם לחרב is roshei teivos Elul. When the job is when you're acting like it should be, then what ends up happening is that your enemies fall on your own swords. Be'otah shanah, 1948, 1947, 1948, מיד אחרי החלטה על הקמת מדינת ישראל. Right after the decision to establish State of Israel came on, צרו עלינו צבאות של עשר מדינות.
We were hunted down by 10 different countries, bematarah mutzheret lehishmidanu, with a clear clear goal to completely finish the job that only three or four years earlier the German tzorer yimach shemo attempted to.
נלחמנו בהם כמעט בלי נשק בלי מטוסים בלי שום ניסיון צבאי. There were no real weapon, no plane, no real military experience.
נלחמנו כנגד צבאות מאומנים שבאו עלינו מכל הכיוונים.
We were fighting against armies, trained armies. We still don't really chap the magnitude of the miracle of 1947, 1948. Nitzachnu, we won, והרחבנו את גבולות מדינת ישראל הרבה מעבר לגבולות החלוקה שהציעה לנו האום. Losers lose, winners win.
We won. The borders expanded. Expanded much greater than whatever the chalukah was from the UN. Toch kedei hamilchamah, now this is what people don't know that much.
During that war, ברחו מאות אלפי ערבים מארץ ישראל בפחד נורא שכלל אינו מובן עד היום. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs were fleeing from this country and they were under this fear that no one can understand till today. It hasn't been able to be explained till today.
הם אספו מעט מחפציהם, they gathered a little bit of their belongings, וברחו כל עוד נפשם בם, and they ran away as long as they could.
עליהם אמר יהושע לישראל, as is brought down in Sefer Yehoshua, that Yehoshua tells Am Yisrael as they're going to come to Eretz Yisrael: ויורש ה' מפניכם גויים גדולים ועצומים ואתם לא עמד איש לפניכם עד היום הזה איש אחד מכם ירדוף אלף כי ה' אלקיכם הוא הנלחם לכם כאשר דיבר לכם. Mamash, exactly what happened. What happened? It's Hashem fighting the war through us. And that can explain maybe the only explanation we have for this fear and terror that was struck in the stricken upon our those enemies that started fleeing, because they didn't flee from a few nebach chalutzim.
That's not what scared them. Guys that are still trying to gain weight since Auschwitz are coming on the scene. That's not what scared them. What scared them was something much deeper.
And that is the pasuk for Yehoshua: כי ה' אלקיכם הוא הנלחם לכם כאשר דיבר לכם. That was 1948. Continue.
בשנת תשכ"ז.
What's that? 1967.
חזרו הערבים לתקוף את ישראל. You have to keep this in mind. What's the difference in years between 48 and 67? Klum.
Klum. Nothing. Nothing. It's nothing.
It's like the day after it's like two days later. 1967 the Arabs come back to try to attack Am Yisrael.
עשר מדינות מצוידות בנשק...
רוסי חדש פתחו במלחמה כנגדנו ten trained and very talented and powerful armies together with the newest at the time the most latest weapons coming from Russia waged war against us בשעה שרוב מדינות העולם הגדולות לא הסכימו למכור לנו נשק at a time where most of the big countries refused to sell us weapons matosim or planes.
Even weapons that were already purchased there was an embargo on it as we know.
גם נשק שכבר נקנה מצרפת they really have a good track huh with us the French.
גם נשק שכבר נקנה מצרפת לא הגיע בגלל אמברגו שהצרפתים הטילו לא למכור לנו נשק ממש לפני המלחמה this was weapons that were already purchased but an embargo comes on you know what an embargo is right? And that weapon those weapons that were already purchased with kesef Yehudi doesn't end up making it to Eretz Yisrael.
מול חיל האוויר הישראלי הקטן we had a again I want to mention how many years of a state did we have? 19 bekoshi.
And in those 19 years how much what could we actually put together in terms of military force and an air force? How much could we actually have put together by then? But mul in front of this cheil ha'avir hayisraeli this tiny little Israeli air force התייצבו חילות האוויר של האויבים מצוידים בכשש מאות מטוסים משוכללים there were 600 planes from the armies that were against us developed planes powerful planes planes that could destroy פאר תעשיית הנשק הרוסית the glory of Russian industry. Betoch sheish sha'ot from the beginning of the war מתחילת המערכה השמידו חיילי ישראל בהפתעה גמורה כארבע מאות מהם רובם על הקרקע 6 hours in the war we wiped out 400 out of the 600 planes of the enemies most of them we blew up while they were still on the ground. Major. Well it's that's the thing it's not just Egypt we have to realize there were many other the Egypt is the most well known one as he's going to say right now.
במהלך כל המלחמה השמיד חיל האוויר הישראלי כשלושה רבעים מחילות האוויר של מצרים סוריה וירדן it wasn't just Egypt it was also Syrian Jordan. We wiped out a three-fourths of their air force.
מצרים ריכזה בסיני צבא גדול מצויד בטנקים רוסיים חדישים לא חדירים לפגזים שהיו לצה״ל בעת ההיא ah this front we don't talk about that this much. In Egypt by the border the Egyptians placed their 600 tanks powerful tanks בלתי חדירים מפגזי צה״ל means that they were immune to what? To our artillery.
To anything that we could do. Meaning we could have stood there all day long trying to bomb these tanks nothing it wouldn't have done anything. Kshe'elokim rotzeh but when God wants גם הבעיה הזאת נפתרה this problem is solved too.
לקראת סוף היום השני של הלחימה אחזה בהלת הפיקוד המצרי second day of the war the whole Egyptian command is going through a weird fright you know an understandable un-understandable fright.
הרמטכ״ל המצרי נתן פקודה מוזרה לשבע חטיבות שריון מצריות שהיו במדבר סיני לסגת במהירות למצרים out of nowhere the chief of the Egyptian chief of staff gives out an order to seven different chativot units? Brigade. Brigade battalions more yeah meaning whoever was there to retreat and go back get out of Sinai and go back into Egypt. You can't explain where that came from either. There's no you have to understand we're looking at things that are mamash miracles.
You can't explain these things.
אי אפשר להבין זאת אלא אם כן קוראים את הפסוק שאומר well you could explain it if you look at the psukim in Shmot and Devarim והמותי את כל העם אשר תבוא בהם ונתתי את כל אויביך אליך עורף God is saying when you're when you're with me when you're mamash with me I will the way the pasuk says over here ונתתי את כל אויביך אליך עורף that you know what an oref is? You know the word pikud ha'oref right? What does oref mean even do you know? Is the back no? Yeah. What part of the body is the oref? The back of the neck. The oref, huh? Am keshei oref.
Am keshei oref, stiff-necked. It's as if they won't even, it's not even something face to face that's happening to you. Like behind you, there's behind the scenes things that's going on that you won't even have to do anything.
יתן ה׳ את אויביך הקמים עליך נגפים לפניך בדרך אחד יצאו אליך ובשבעה דרכים ינוסו לפניך.
And in seven ways they will run away from you. How many brigades were? Seven. Just keep this in mind. Now most, most of the people in this room were not alive, including you.
No, I was. I was. I was in a very Agudah oriented Litvish Yeshiva. Oh, see, no, no, no, I feel, I want to tell you good, good, I'm saying something good.
Any sentence that starts with you saying a good Litvish Yeshiva is open for cynicism. Listen, there was such a, I want people to realize, there was such a certainty that this would be an enormous disaster all across Am Yisrael. The Yeshiva stopped its regular learning, we were listening on transistor radios and saying Tehillim, and the Rabbeim were behalem each day that went by. Klal Yisrael was behalem, mamash, yeah.
My mother, my mother, I think she told me that she drove down from and buses from New Jersey, they went down to Washington and were mavgining over there, gathering there. My Aba was here, my father was in Eretz Yisrael already by then. He got drafted a year later in '68, but he was here. He was here already.
He came for the war. My uncle Michael was here for the war. So the parks were not made into potential burial grounds because there was a sense of confidence that we would survive. What happened is completely inexplicable.
Nachon, nachon, not just '67, every moment since before that until now is completely meal hateva. Now let's continue. What happens during that war?
חוסיין מלך ירדן התעלם באורח פלא מהקריסה של צבא מצרים. The previous King of Jordan, King Hussein, he couldn't believe when he was looking at Egypt what happened.
והאמין לשקר שסיפר לו עבד אל נאצר נשי מצרים. The Egyptian President Nasser told him a lie that what?
עוד מעט צבא מצרים נמצא בתל אביב. This is all documented. He told him no, no, keep on going because the Egyptian army is about to reach Tel Aviv, like it's just a matter of time, right?
למרות שחוסיין הוזהר שוב ושוב על ידי האמריקאים כי נאצר משקר לו.
United States, by the way, who's running the show in the United States back then in '67? Huh? Johnson, but who's really the Sar Habitachon of that time? A Yid. No, Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Who was the Secretary of State? He was the Secretary during the Six-Day War? Henry Kissinger, no? No, Kissinger wasn't Secretary of State. Well, we'll find out in a second.
It's actually, huh? Was it Walt? Was it Caspar Weinberger? You know, it could be. Either way you look at it, there was a Yid sitting in there, it doesn't matter who it was, right? Kissinger was head of the CIA. Let's go back inside everybody. These things are not as important to what I'm trying to get, what he's trying to take us to.
So even though he was, huh? It says the American Secretary of State during the Six-Day War was Dean Rusk. What's Sar Habitachon? No, I said American Secretary of State. Mazkir hamedina. Okay, again, let's stick to what's in front of us.
Even though he was warned over and over, Hussein, the King of Jordan was warned over and over again by the Americans that Nasser is lying to him, פתח חוסיין במלחמה עם ישראל. He opens up with war.
ובתוך יומיים צבאו מתרסק לחלוטין. Two days it took for the Jordanian army to completely be demolished.
הצבא הישראלי משחרר את ירושלים חברון יהודה ושומרון, where we're sitting right now, after about 2,000 years that Yerushalayim, Chevron, Yehuda and Shomron are in the hands of foreigners.
על זה התנבא ישעיהו, but Yeshayahu Navi already spoke about this.
מקים דבר עבדו ועצת מלאכיו ישלים האומר לירושלים תושב ולערי יהודה תבננה וחרבותיה אקומם. This pasuk is basically saying that he makes the word and to the cities of Judah will all be rebuilt and its churbos we will resurrect, we will bring into existence again.
כן אומר הנביא ירמיהו על הרי שומרון and regarding the Shomron, the prophet Yirmiyahu, who had a lot of very disturbing prophecies as well, but there were prophecies that are showing us also what was.
עוד תטעי כרמים בהרי שומרון you will plant vineyards in the Shomron mountains. Netu notim vechilulu, you will plant and plant and plant, and it will come for you, it will happen. All these things will eventually happen.
נבואות הנחמה שהחלו להתקיים בעליית היהודים ובשחרור משיעבוד מלכויות ממשיכות להתקיים בשחרור ירושלים ובהתיישבות ברחבי יהודה ושומרון. Basically, it's hard for us to understand this. We are a living, breathing prophecy. Every second that we're here is nothing short of a living, breathing prophecy.
And it's very hard to live in that state of being all the time. But you know what happens to you when you forget that? We're going to see in a second what happens to you when you forget that, or when you don't strive to figure out how do I live a life that's conscious of prophecy? Conscious of prophecy. I'm telling you a lot of darts of emes are going to be coming out now because ein kvar zman, right? Do you really think that this shul and this kehila and this chevra was established so that we could have fun times and good davening? I know I'm hard on a lot of the chevra here. That's because I believe so much that we were brought here for one reason: to develop the keilim, the infrastructure, to live a life what conscious prophecy feels like.
And it's demanding. It's demanding. Kiddush clubs may not have place in that kind of a world, you understand? Yachol lihyot. Could be.
No, no, no, we still want those things. Great, but it's lo kashur. It has nothing to do with why we're here. Nothing.
Nothing. We're living in it, it's hard to experience, we have to work on experiencing that nes. Every child born in the midbar as we have learned and lived for 39 years took it for granted that bread falls from shamayim. What? Doesn't grow? It's very hard.
It's very, very, very hard, but there is no other way of living here and staying alive. There is no other way of living here and actually long term for it to actually be something that's a bar kayama. It doesn't work like that here. It works like that in Toms River.
It works like that in Boca Raton. It works like that. It works like that in Los Angeles and in Toronto, meaning I could keep it going and it'll be fine. Here it doesn't work like this, because here anything short of going for the max and raising and learning to develop a home with consciousness of prophecy and geulah, anything short of that makes you feel like it brings you at the end to a taina against Hashem.
You say, what do you look what I left in order to be here? Hashem says, you should have just stayed there, it's all good. To be here is demanding. To be here is demanding. You have to lift it up.
There's no other way. You have to lift it up, because otherwise you're just not aligned with what's going on over here. Doesn't work. Hasn't worked.
It hasn't worked. And we have to go veiter, chevra. Whatever we did until now was a joke in comparison to what's demanded of us now. This we're living in prophecies, we're living in it.
And without asking Hashem every single day, show me how to live like this more, asking Hashem in these words: show me, Ribono Shel Olam, give me today a bit more of a taste of what does this mean to be conscious of living through a prophecy? Just to be conscious of living through a prophecy. No one ever taught me this. I went to I had Jewish education my whole life. My parents spent hundreds of thousands of dollars that I should have a connection to masora, but none of them spoke to me about what it's like to live consciously through prophecy.
So I'm not going to go back to school now, but at least Hashem sent me the right people. and give me the koach to keep on asking you for what does it mean to understand how to live consciously through prophecy. Vayter. Next one.
הניצחון שמלחמת ששת הימים עשה אותנו זכוכים. You know what zechoch means? Zechochim? How do you say that in English? Someone check it really fast? Ali's not here. Zechoch, it's a very important word. Shiny? Shiny? No, in a negative way.
ז ח ו ח. Smug? Huh? Smug. So say that now in English. Being arrogant like you're overconfident.
Overconfidence.
חשבנו שניצחנו בכוחנו ועוצם ידינו. After '67, strong kochi veotzem yadi energy was in the air. Wow, look at us.
Look at us.
התורה מזהירה אותנו לא לשכוח את השם שנותן לנו כוח לעשות חיל. But the Torah warns us all the time do not forget Hashem who gives you the strength and the ability to be a gibbor.
גם קיבוץ הגלויות ממאה ושתיים מדינות.
The ingathering of exiles from 102 countries.
גם הארץ השוממה שהחלה לתת פריה בעין יפה. And the desolate land which we always go to Mark Twain, but we don't need Mark Twain to believe and understand that what was going on here before the Yidden came back to the country was basically complete shmama. Desolate.
Natush. We come back here if you really want to get a taste of it, there are amazing aerial shots of Jerusalem from 1902 I saw last year, 1902 or 1905, and then it goes to 1975, so the 70 year tkufa and it just doesn't add, it doesn't make any sense. It's one of the wildest miracles in the world.
גם הארץ השוממה שהחלה לתת פריה בעין יפה.
הניצחונות החוזרים ונשנים על אומות העולם. We keep on having these miraculous victories over our enemies.
החוכמה הגדולה שמתגלה בעם ישראל. The great wisdom which begins to be revealed through Am Yisrael.
Hapiryon, that means the now the pirya ve'rivya. Chozei eluda. Pirya ve'rivya meaning the birth, the outcome, the numbers of Yidden being born. The bricha of the Arabs that the Arabs ran away and more and more הכל הוא עצת השם המתגלה דרכנו.
This is all the atzat Hashem that's revealed through us. Just the positive note of what happened then. Oh, a positive note. I just want you to know not all negative, the chozer betshuva movement took an enormous leap, the people who were inspired.
Meaning the Aish Hatorah Yeshiva is a classic example of what sprung out of post '67. So there was also Reb Shlomo would always say everyone's trying, everyone tries to credit who was responsible for the baal tshuva movement. So people like to say certain figures or certain yeshivas or certain hashkafas. Reb Shlomo said the Holy Wall, the Kotel.
The Kotel was the baal tshuva, was the founding of the baal tshuva movement.
התורה מזהירה אותנו לא לשכוח מי פועל מאחורי הקלעים. But the Torah warns us not to forget who's working behind the scenes, behind the curtain.
השמר לך פן תשכח את השם אלוקיך.
Now it's amazing that the Torah even says this, you know, because you'd think that if the Torah's describing a complete state of miraculous nature of or beyond nature, you would think that if a person's going to go through that they don't have to be told to remember where it comes from because they're experiencing miracles. And yet the Torah keeps on saying השמר לך פן תשכח את השם אלוקיך. Why does it have to say that? You forgot what happened in Mitzrayim. Because the Torah knows human nature.
Right. It's not a chiddush. Yeah. We searched for a rational explanation.
השיכחה זאת אורבת לפתחינו כשאנחנו מצליחים. When we are matzliach, this forgetfulness is standing there like an like an orev maarav. You know what a maarav is? Ambush. Yeah, but there's a word for it in like a lynch.
It's there to lynch us. Right at the door. And he quotes the psukim here פן תאכל ושבעת ובתים טובים תבנה וישבת ובקרך וצאנך ירביון וכסף וזהב ירבה לך וכל אשר לך ירבה.
ורם לבבך ושכחת את ה' אלהיך.
אתה חושב שכל ההצלחה היא שלך בלבד. IDF, Israeli Intelligence Service.
ואמרת בלבבך כחי ועצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה. It is my might and my strength that did this.
ובאמת זה הכוח שלך. It's true, it is your strength. But you think you created your strength? Did you create your wisdom?
אבל אתה חייב לזכור שהשם נתן לך אותו. You must remember that Hashem gave you the strength and the wisdom and the smarts and the audacity and even the emuna.
וזכרת את ה' אלהיך כי הוא הנתן לך כח לעשות חיל. You have to remember Hashem but what does it mean that I remember Hashem? When I say it's all from Hashem? What does that mean? That when I have hatzlachas that I remember it's all from Hashem. When we have failures, oh gam zu letova, we work on our emuna. That's not nearly as important as remembering when you have hatzlachas.
Not nearly as important.
וזכרת את ה' אלהיך כי הוא הנתן לך כח לעשות חיל למען הקים את בריתו אשר נשבע לאבתיך כיום הזה. In order to be part of the bris that Hashem did with you אשר נשבע לאבתיך כיום הזה that Hashem promised Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. But, the most depressing, in my opinion, the most depressing period in the modern state of Israel is actually the day after the Yom Kippur War, the Six-Day War.
The day after the Six-Day War is the beginning of what we're stuck in till today. And we've spoken about this a lot in the tikun hamedina classes because we grew up, especially us that grew up in more Bnei Akiva environments, we grew up as 1967 being the greatest time that we've ever experienced since Bayis Sheni, right? There's a big problem with that. The second the war stopped, or maybe even right before it stopped, it became one of the greatest Chillul Hashems that have taken place in modern Jewish history. Is that hard for some of the chevra to hear? Not here anymore, but I mean, the little kid in you gets bothered by such words? I mean, I still have a problem with it, but it's okay if it's coming from you.
From me? Aval anachnu shachachnu. But we forgot.
ניצחון מלחמת ששת הימים. And by the way, if you read the Rebbe's sichas in those years, the Rebbe was warning about that this exact inyan.
The Rebbe was talking about this all the time. The Lubavitcher Rebbe's sichas in those years, the letters he was writing whenever they would, they were always in council with the Rebbe, not always but quite often. Every response to everything that was going on with the Rebbe and anyone in the pikud hamedina here, he was warning about reaching this place. Aval anachnu shachachnu, but we forgot, yeah.
How specifically did this manifest? Is it referring to, of course, like giving back Har Habayis, but is it also like, oh, we don't need to do another Nakba, like they can stay? Like how did this manifest, forget the political echelon, but throughout the people? Let him, let him explain that first and then we'll go back to it because I want to go off his mahalach. It's a very important question. Let's see how he says it first.
ניצחון מלחמת ששת הימים והאושר שבא בעקבותיה.
And the wealth that came from its aftermath. Hevi otanu lega'ava. It brought us to pride, unholy pride.
חשבנו שאנחנו הם המנצחים.
Veshachachnu et Hashem. We thought we're the winners and we forgot Hashem. And you know who smelled that? Klipas Yishmael smelled that from day one. Klipas Yishmael smelled that from day one.
Oyeveinu hirgishu bechulshatenu. They sensed that weakness. Nitzlu et hazchichut. They took advantage of the smugness.
ותקפו אותנו ביום כיפור כשאנחנו לא מוכנים ימח שמם. They waged war on us on Yom Kippur. How long, tell me something, how long after the after Six-Day War was the Yom Kippur War? Six years. Six.
Isn't that blasphemous? Isn't that crazy? Isn't that absolutely crazy? If the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War was what we think it was, that we put pachad ve'eima into our oyeveim, Sixty-Seven War, that we put such fear and awe into our enemies, you don't come back six years later and wage war on Yom Kippur. Something doesn't, that's what I'm trying to say, this was not them. It couldn't have been their chochma. It's just that Klipas Yishmael smells a weakness.
Yes, Steven. Betach, oto davar, oto davar, oto davar. they attacked us on Yom Kippur when we're not ready.
כל האזהרות הרבות שהגיעו לפני המלחמה and there were warnings that reached the Israeli desks, but they were all hushlechu lapach.
Take this report, stuff it. Mitoch gaava veshichichut, from gaiva, are you kidding me? You think these guys would ever try to do anything against this empire called the modern state of Israel? Please.
לא האמנו שמישהו יעז להתעסק איתנו, we couldn't even imagine anyone would have the chutzpah to deal with us, שניצחנו את כל אויבינו בשישה ימים after we defeated all those enemies we spoke about before in six days with open and revealed miracles happening dropping down left and right. Who in their right mind would wage war against the people that apparently have an Anan Hashem, have a cloud of glory, a cloud of Hashem protecting them? Who would do such a thing? What kind of insane person would do such a thing? So all the warnings that were reaching Israeli intel, right, anything that was coming to the desks of people in command, kidding me? Mamash the headquarters of Conceptzia, headquarters of it, from June 5th 1967.
No, not June 5th because that was the first day, so June 12th 1967 or whatever it was.
בימים הראשונים של המלחמה נסוגנו אחור באבדות כבדות, you know, it's interesting, when we look back at the 1973 war, we look at it as a miracle, it's only a miracle that we weren't completely demolished. But the war itself had horrific, severe casualties. Horrific.
Acharei hakishalon harishon, after it came down on us and we got mamash smitten in the beginning.
אזרנו אומץ ובגבורה גדולה הפכו חיילי ישראל את המערכה with tremendous amount of ometz, of courage, we flipped it over.
פרצו את שורות הצבא המצרי והסורי, we got through the Egyptian and the Syrian lines.
ובסוף המלחמה עמדו חיילי צהל במרחק נגיעה מערי הבירה של מצרים וסוריה, we were just a foot away from both Damascus and Cairo.
What did the Rebbe say? Do you remember what the Rebbe said about these? Huh? Keep going until Damascus. If someone wages war, there's a chiyuv until Damascus. He was very opposed to the land for peace discussions. Very opposed.
Now 73, that's what happens in 73. What was the avirah here after 1973 in the country? Was the gaiva taken away? Not really. The seeds were already planted there, 1967. We skipped over, you didn't say it here, but we skipped over one of the most painful moments in modern Jewish history, which is someone that of course has a lot of zchuyot, but he also has something that he already had to give through בית דין של מעלה.
What do we need this Vatican, was the reference that was said after the war, after the victory of 1967, referring to Har HaBayis. What do we need this Vatican here, and he gives the keys to Har HaBayis to the Wakf, to the Jordanians. And we're paying for it until today. Yeah, Josh.
What's the name of the rav who set up Machon HaMikdash? Yisrael Ariel? Yeah, yeah. I believe so. I interviewed him about maybe 7 to 10 years ago in his apartment in the old city. He was a tzanchan in 67.
His job was to collect the bodies of, you know, alenu the chayalim who were killed going into the old city during, what was it, the third day, the fourth day? Mashehu kazeh, yeah. And he said that right then and there he knew we were in trouble because his commanders, he was gathering the bodies and putting them in trucks to take them to Har HaZeitim. They said, 'No, you're not going to Har HaZeitim, you're going to Har HaMenuchot.' Right then and there in the middle of the war, he knew we were in trouble. Even before the victory, before the end of the six days, in the middle of the war, they redirected him, don't go to Har HaZeitim.
They already knew at that point, day 3, day 4. Crazy, that's so depressing. I wrote about it maybe 10 years ago in Jewish Post. Oh my god, that's so painful.
Sorry to rain on the parade. No, it's the whole concept of nachon, what happened after was already in the middle, nachon, even before the full victory there, already had the mentality that this is not ours. Well Brandon, this kind of answers your question. This kind of answers your question.
Because if we're, if we're fighting, right, and the objective of the war isn't clear, that opens up the gates for all mass confusion to continue to be the, the flagship of the war. If it starts, if it, if it came about from gaiva, if gaiva's already mixed in, and there's no clear objective as to what are we doing in this war, then what are you left with? You're left with fifty, sixty years of Yiddin being here in Eretz Yisrael, unclear what exactly it is we're doing here. Trimming the hedges kind of thing and bidyuk, or not being involved whatsoever. What's the objective of this current war? Poh kavur hakelev? Poh kavur hakelev.
I don't hear.
פה קבור הכלב פה אף אחד לא יודע. No one knows. What's the objective of this war? What's been the objective of every...
what was the objective of post-October 7th, can anyone tell me? Survival. Tamp down the enemy, but... But right now, we're in this thing right now. We're getting bombed on ballistic missiles every day.
Nissim veniflaos. None of us sleep at night. Our children have no seder. No one knows what's going on besides the fact that there's some yad Hashem happening.
What's the objective of this war right now? On the first day of the war they said it was regime change and now it's down to degrading their capability. Neutralizing the threat. Bidyuk. And that says everything.
Defensive and it's not with a kivun positive. Can you imagine if the Israeli army came out with the statement: the objective of this war is wiping out Amalek from this world and מקדש שם שמים ברבים? We're all laughing. Selicha. Guys, chevra, we're all laughing.
But you have some of these way out guys in the American government, they're going up and they're quoting... did you see him? What's his name? I except... I was hoping you'd forget. Of course.
ברוך השם צורי המלמד ידי לקרב אצבעותיי למלחמה. Un-Jewish allies see it clearly. But if we get up and say... Pete...
what did he say? I'll send it on the... what did he say? I'll send it on the... just translate that line in English. It says 'Blessed be the Lord my rock who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.' But he's...
he's acknowledging in public, Secretary of, right? Secretary of... they changed it from defense to war. Secretary of, right. He's saying it's all with Hashem.
Hashem is bringing the successes that we're having. Forget about his deeper kavanos because obviously he's not learning שניים מקרא ואחד תרגום. But Hashem put it in his head. But what about us? What about us? What about us? Okay? Now, since then until now, nothing's changed.
The mindset, it's only gotten seeped deeper and deeper into this place of: do we have any idea what we're doing here? What are we even trying to do here? What are we trying to establish here? Which leads us in a direct line from the day... well, now Josh you changed my whole machshavah, I always said the day after 1967, you're saying mamash third or fourth day, I think it was the fourth day, right? In Yerushalayim, this is how they're thinking. So look at the bottom.
כך לצערנו היה גם במלחמה שפרצה בשמחת תורה.
October 7th. Ka'asher kol hamodi'in, all intelligence warned the heads of the army.
הזהיר את ראשי הצבא שהמחבלים עומדים לפרוץ לתוך יישובי ישראל. Everyone warned.
Do you guys remember... I mean everything's a blur, but do you remember the Fridays leading up to October 7th on the fence over there? Protests and everything. They were protesting. They were testing.
Every Friday they would go there, get really close, they're filled with intelligence people there on the ground from their side, taking pictures, they're getting all the information there and we saw it. But we said to ourselves, look what we've built there. Look at who we are, who's Hamas? They would never do such a thing.
וגם כבר היה לצבא כל התוכניות של המחבלים, the army had all the plans of the terrorists, vehitalmu, but they ignored it מתוך שכרות של כוחי ועוצם ידי, the same thing.
Veulai, and it could be also... Rav Eliyahu says, כל המחלוקת שהיתה באותם ימים הביאה אותנו לכישלון כזה גדול. And it could be as well that all the... we could keep on going down this route and saying it's because they didn't believe in Hashem and that's why things got bad.
But the only problem is is that the people that so to speak represent God have been... doing the most horrific PR for God for the last sixty years. Hashem has the worst PR. The Torah has the worst PR.
The worst. The worst. People that are speaking beshem Hashem are making God seem so small, so irrelevant, and making other Yidden feel so treif, which also can't be the right story. One second, Eli.
And therefore he's has to bring this in here and say, well look, when there's complete uncertainty about what we're actually trying to establish, machloket will then surface.
וכך אומרת הגמרא בירושלמי and he quotes here the Gemara from Pe'ah, על התקופה שבה רדף שאול את דוד the period where Shaul Hamelech was running after David Hamelech.
והיו נכשלים במלחמות עם הפלשתים and as it was happening, Plishtim were taking advantage. And there's all these stories over there in Shmuel Bet describing, is it Shmuel Alef? Is it Shmuel Alef or Bet? Shmuel Alef.
Alef, I think, right? Shmuel Alef. And the Gemara says like this, the Gemara in Yerushalmi in Pe'ah says like this: אמר רבי אבא בר כהנא דורו של דוד כולם צדיקים היו they were all tzadikim, all of David Hamelech's chevre were all tzadikim.
ועל ידי שהיה להם דלטורין that means they were ba'alei lashon hara, but because they're ba'alei lashon hara, which I always wondered then how could they be tzadikim, but whatever, for now we'll put it on the side.
היו יוצאים למלחמה והיו נופלים they would wage war, but then they would fall.
אבל דורו של אחאב but we always come back to Ach'av all the time, עובדי עבודה זרה היו ועל ידי שלא היה להם דלטורין היו יורדים למלחמה ונוצחים. So he has to throw this in over here at the end, but it's got to be very clear. The result how do you get to such a place of such machloket within the am? Well, when the am as representation has no idea, they can't even spell out what they're trying to do here. This is something Feiglin points out every single time there's another going out to a krav.
Moshe Feiglin's on spice can someone please tell us what it is, what are the objectives? What exactly is going on? What's the purpose of this? What is it? So then people always say to Feiglin, says, so what should we do? Should we not send our children to an army that's not clear about what they're doing? It's like, no. You still have to because we're we're stuck still in a galut mentality of survival mode, this is the best that we have, but you gotta go to the top of the chain of command and change it from the top to actually explain to people what is it that we're doing here. Stam, can you imagine if word got out to the rest of the Jewish army in 19- on the fourth day that that happened, that they're actually not going to Har Hazeitim, which just to explain to chevre that don't understand this. The old city, to Har- like where the chayalim fell in the old city, distance from there to Har Hazeitim, ten dakot.
Much further. Maybe an hour, an hour and a half, I don't know. At least. Who knows? We don't even know exactly the roads that they- Imagine that went through the spirit of the people that were fighting so hard for this miraculous state.
Imagine that. But there's no way he's- I can't imagine he's only talking about the like this political leadership. Right, right, when you say- No, no, no, not just. I think he's talking religious leadership.
Betach. For sure. For sure. This was clear.
For sure. I think it goes much deeper to like what is a person, you, me, I, why are we even here on this earth to begin with? When a Jew is born, like what is their sense of purpose?
על אחת כמה וכמה when he goes through living through biblical prophecies, those questions have to be right in front of our face. And it goes to that keyword that I've been saying the whole time about focus. We lost- we keep losing focus.
And therefore it's not just the historical, it's not just the biblical, it's even technologically the way the technology and the whole infrastructure is pulling us away from focus. So everything is attacking our focus. I'm guilty of it. Everyone's guilty of it.
We all lose focus. And whereas the other side are very focused, and that's where when we lose, because they're they're more focused than us on their objectives and we're not focused on ours. Much more. Much more.
They're much more- they don't lose- they never- they also never change the narrative. Right, exactly. They've never changed their narrative, like whatever they've said, Rav Kahane used to always say this. He says, I respect- he would always be on these panels with like people that didn't exactly hold from him.
I respect them because I believe them. I listen to what they're saying and I respect- how do you respect someone if you believe what they say? They've never changed the narrative. And a person like that is muchram min hatzibbur. Wild.
Yeah, no fences, busy, we were like having a Simchas Torah, busy enjoying life, like that's we're too busy enjoying life and they're too busy trying to kill us. Yeah. I, more of the first half of what you brought up, like help me work through this. I was talking with Aryeh Halstien about it, I guess the Bnei Yissaschar was shared which is really pretty wild, actually we want to see inside, did he really say there's a connection between Purim and Pesach and there's 30 days and 720 hours and Amalek times three, if we change our machshava, dibbur, and ma'aseh like it can actually go ahead and bring Moshiach and I'm like oh my gosh this really might be like happening this really this chibbur and this connection.
And I often will bring up like Polymarket again. I think it's the truest sense of like what you really believe. Would you really bet on Moshiach coming? You know they have something you can bet on, is Moshiach gonna come in '27, is Rav Shlomo gonna drop another sefer, you know the sefer, is Tully gonna come with an album this year? You can bet on it and that's the really truest sense of like what I think what you really believe. And as far as like well what am I doing and we're trying to bring Geula and Moshiach's really close and you not realize that we're living in miracles like right now in front of us and that we're living in prophecy and in a consciousness? Sure, that's right.
But then like well where do you really stand on this Yoss? So they say well Yoss, you're very pessimistic in general so like you know you don't really ever like think and you're not really willing to put money down. And that's what I say that's the point because this bit of Bnei Yissaschar I gotta tell you I don't think I'm really willing to put down money, I'm sorry, that Moshiach is gonna come or this is happening let's say by Pesach. I don't know that I feel that yet. I'm ready, we're ready, this isn't it yet, I don't know that I really buy it.
Now hold on you said but Yoss hold on, that's you, that's you. But wait a second during COVID, during COVID I remember there was a strong nekuda in me certainly my wife and in really and in all of us it's happening, it's happening. I was ready to put down cash. Not all of it but I was ready to put down cash more than now.
And so it touches on what we learned before also regarding living in miracles so like here they are saying the same thing do you not realize and then before that they were also living in miracles so it's like I guess yeah you do get tired of it. And so the fear is or maybe the pessimism is you don't want to get burnt out. It was a little bit of a letdown so to speak what happened on COVID. Maybe I came into it wrong.
Understand Yoss this is a marathon. This isn't something that's gonna happen and so the fear of going all in and coming in with optimism and passion and I'm living in miracles constantly is that I'll burn out, is that I'm just not gonna and I buy into it still, I'm not arguing, I'm here, I understand the storyline, you just can't expect me to be all in with passion day in day out because yeah I'm gonna get burnt out. And that's the pessimistic Yossi struggle. Before you respond Rav Shlomo cause I just- No no no, I have to respond or I have to end the shiur and I have to speak directly to Yossi but it's something that everyone has so I'm sorry, mechila you can share it afterwards.
I will. Shema. I wouldn't put my money on anything regarding Moshiach. I wouldn't put my money on any of the shtuyot that you just mentioned because that has nothing to that's not Jewish what you just said.
Nothing you just said here is Jewish. There's nothing that you said. That's a very Tarbus Maaravit, that's a Western way of approaching spirituality that's not our chelek at all. Nothing to do with Yiddishkeit.
I didn't want to see that Bnei Yissaschar. I saw it apparently people chevra think I I'm the only ones that send me I got it about like 35,000 times, right? And I love that Bnei Yissaschar, but that should shouldn't have anything to do with putting my money on on something. That's nothing to do with anything. Being pessimistic about if it happens or not I don't I don't live like that, none of us live like that.
I will give you though COVID that because that was so like nothing to do with kiveyachol enemies. We had that Zoom I never forget this Erev Pesach and all of us are like chevra what what's gonna be if this happens tonight? Like the first Pesach and it was 19 or 20? 20. What's gonna be right? We were all that when we opened the it's like what happens when we open the door tonight Eliyahu HaNavi's there because that was so it was so out of like what is- Ma Ze? What's going on over here? It must be something, I'll give you that. That got a lot of us there.
But when it comes to, will Moshiach, is it gonna happen now? In what, it can only be in the merit of a Matnas Chinam, but it can't be in the merit of like look how much we're conscious of why we're back in Eretz Yisrael. So if that's the case, Moshiach could come today or yesterday or tomorrow on the same level of Matnas Chinam. But if I'm trying to operate on a place of trying to bring Moshiach consciousness and Moshiach to the world, it has to be much more about who am I becoming right now as opposed to what are the odds? Right. It's all inward work and pessimism, optimism.
Pessimism comes from disappointments. That's where that's the root of pessimism. It's rooted in disappointments in myself and in others.
תורת הבעל שם טוב בפרט התורה of who I know you hold in highest esteem of רבנו הקדוש רב נחמן בן פייגא has nothing to do with what do you think- what does it look like? It's דיבור בינו לבין קונו.
It's a speech between me and Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Who am I becoming? What does my home look like through this experience? And that's why the bettings, especially that guy that now they- he's being investigated, who put all that money how much before the strike? He changed it, huh? He made a few million shekel. Was it you? I would have changed my number by now. Right.
You hear what I'm saying? All these things, they're not good. All these Vorts that they're pulling out of Sefarim, they're not good for this Dor, in my opinion. They're not- how many times have we had these Bnei Yissaschars before? Now do I think Chas V'chalila that it's not true? I think it's a million percent true. But it has nothing to do with what I put my Kochos into.
What am I putting my Kochos into? As much as them, can I really say that this war is really pushing me to be a different person? To jump spiritually to places I didn't jump to before? Not at all. Don't say that. Speak about yourself but not- I hope you don't say it about yourself. But I'm saying this is what it- this is what it is because Bitul is the only way to actually be victorious in a manner that lasts.
Bitul to Hashem keeps an enemy from ever having the Chutzpah to mess with Hashem. That's it. So all the bets and all these things and all, זה פשוט לא העניין שלנו. It's not our- I don't bank on could this be now, could it not be now.
You know what? I'll tell you why. Because to me, based on those calculations, I have a problem with God from the moment World War II ended. Because nothing, based on this way of thinking, nothing adds up since the second World War II ended. Yidden and the world aren't deserving of Moshiach to be in the world after gas chambers and mountains of ashes? So Shlomo mentioned, Parshat Vayechi we learned, the idea of like you actually want to know the future and Yaakov loses the Ruach Hakodesh the second he actually starts because it's not about that.
It's not about that. It's this right now is about real deep consciousness and Avodah and understanding how do you learn, how do you Daven, what are you trying to build, what things can't go anymore? There's certain things that just can't go anymore. They just can't. That whole the whole thing that our Tzibbur takes a lot of pride in of mixing Kodesh and Chol and everything, certain things Pashut can't go, they just don't work anymore.
And that's very demanding, but with enough love of a Chevre and a Chaburah that's willing to speak about things things openly, we can't speak on behalf of all of Klal Yisrael but at least we have Achrayus for each other that Hashem decided you guys should live here together now. To be together, to grow together, to learn together, and to push each other together. You have to, Ein Mah La'asot, there's no other way. And Chas V'chalila, Chas V'chalila there should be an ounce of what we're going through that makes us forget about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and that's why the first day of the war scared the daylights out of me because again that sound of, "Wow! Did you see what the Israeli Air Force did in the first six...
what did they say? In the first minute of the war we..." We were able to take out like a large percentage of the head of the regime. Look, but it didn't go with, it didn't sound like, "Did you see what Hashem allowed us to do?" Right. That's the beginning of the shiur where it's like he put in their mind to keep gathering together. It's like, don't you get? Don't you have Zoom? Like, what's going on? Why do you keep gathering? Like, Ay, we're on our way chevre, we'll continue beezrat Hashem.
Yishkoach.