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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 chevra, let's learn. Chodesh Adar is sponsored by the Oren family le'ilui nishmas Levi ben Yosef, by the Silvers le'ilui nishmas בתיה פיגא בת ישראל, by the Hershkowitz's le'ilui nishmas ישעיה שלום בן יצחק אייזיק, and by the Fenns le'ilui nishmas לוי יצחק בן ירוחם חנן זלמן, and for the shmira of all of our chayalim hatzadikim, bifrat for the refuah sheleima of the chayalim petzuim דוד נתנאל בן איילה אהובה, טוב שמואל בן אביה נאוה, and אברהם בן יעקב בן דבורה פיגא, בתוך שאר חולי ישראל. Amen. Let's do like this.
Yesterday there wasn't a women's shiur and it was sponsored for yesterday, so I'm going to do it for today, sponsored by Zahava Englar in memory of her אבא מנחם בן אפרים יוסף on his first yahrtzeit. And the week is sponsored by Nechama Binnie Kohn in honor of her holy brother David Jerome's birthday, whose dedication to Torah and love of Torah and love of learning inspires us all. Okay, so we're going to be starting today something that I've been wanting to do for a long time. I kind of hoped that it wouldn't be as relevant, but it is, if we're being honest with each other.
And that's this sefer from Rav Shmuel Eliyahu called Hilchos Milchamah VeShalom. And this will be, I'm going to try to see if, I'm sure there's ways to get to make an order from Pomeranz or something we could try to get it, everyone should have it. I have some copies for today, so you could pass these around. And you'll see right as we start in the beginning what this sefer is all about.
I don't need big hakdamos because this is basically the actual world that we're in right now. But there's a few yesodos that I think have to be reminded to us and relearned again from the beginning, devarim chazakim me'od, very, very strong things. This is from Rav Shmuel Eliyahu, the son of Rav Mordechai Eliyahu, Rav Shmuel Eliyahu is רב העיר של צפת, Adam gadol me'od. Baruch Hashem we have a steady kesher with him and it would always be good to enhance the kesher with such an Adam gadol and a huge, huge Ohev Yisroel, pashut me'od, a huge Ohev Yisroel.
So, what is needed in the time of war, which is what we're in right now? This is a very strange, it's not a strange war, it's a strange era that we're living in because there actually is a war right now as we're speaking. Because we got used to these, the yirutim, the, how do you say that, the reception, the missile interceptors, so it's like okay, we hear the warning sign, doesn't move any of us anymore. We hear the siren, half of us don't even move. We hear all these different things and it's like whatever, okay, but you realize that in a normal society where meshuganehs, when sick people like the Iranians are chucking these missiles, ballistic missiles with the cluster bombs that can reach 10 kilometer radius once they've even landed, zeh mitoraf.
The only danger that I'm very nervous right now about Am Yisroel is that we've got used to living in a state of miracles without the hakara that these are miracles from Hakadosh Baruch Hu because we got used to them and it's scary. And it's a pachad ayom venora. That scares me much more than what any Iranian could shoot at us. It scares the daylights out of me.
And I'm not sure how to deal with it myself because I feel like I'm nogeia badavar too, but I justify it by saying listen, there's no inyan in trying to freak yourself out, adjust yourself to the way that the times are right now and this is for the betterment of your family's mental health to see a calm father. All those toros and all those vorts are also true and yet that shouldn't have any negiah at all regarding the hakara that we are living in a complete state of miracles, like insane miracles, insane miracles. When I was a kid, we were here for the Gulf War. Who here was here for the Gulf War? Anyone here? You were here already? We were living in Raanana then and back then the hora'ah was do not, don't go to the miklat, go as high as you can in the building and have a safe room where you have to tape the door because then the fear was the biological gas, right? And obviously the gas masks and everything like that.
I forget if it was 39 missiles or 40, forget what it was, were shot here, these Scuds, the Patriot, the... The Patriot missiles would intercept or try to. It was the beginning of what the future of the next 30, 40 years was going to look like and Baruch Hashem lemaet one person who died from a heart attack in Ramat Gan during the tzfira, there were no real injuries, if I remember correctly. During that time, one Scud missile hit a building in Saudi Arabia that was housing American troops.
Do you remember this? And it killed instantly over 200... no, maybe that was a different one. This one was in... this was something else.
Not that number, but there were plenty of casualties, unfortunately. Sheyirachem. Another American soldier succumbed to his wounds just yesterday. That brings the total of seven American soldiers that were killed during this war.
This soldier was also injured in Saudi Arabia. Sorry? He, this one was also in Saudi... that's why, so I forgot to say that's why I thought... it triggered me.
That's why I started thinking about it again. So we're living in, we're living in a very, very strange place to be in and we're going to speak more about this, that there's a big need right now to wake up and realize it should scare us that we've gotten used to living in a state of miracles happening all the time without the hakara, without the real understanding of how big this story really is and how much it's נוגע לכל אחד ואחד מאיתנו in a very, very real and personal way. Maybe we should be saying in addition to Shir Hamalot, Mizmor Letoda every morning when we get up and we see, wow, look what was sent our way. That's a good idea.
We should say Mizmor Letoda after davening also. We should. Okay, now what we're going to see over here is a very important thing. This is the hakdama for a sefer that will bring down to us through halacha and really looking at through Tanach, looking through the Tanach, what's the way, how do we engage in this zman that we're in? And the more that we put things in the not just the biblical context but in the emuna uvitachon context and the halachic context, I believe this will bring forth the hakara of what's actually taking place right in front of our eyes in the times that we're living in because it'd be a shame to go through all this and then meet the Melech Hamashiach and then we're like, oh that's what this whole thing was about or or whatever chalila, don't send this bite to Yimach Shemo or Aneidei Yitzchak, but that's what it would be like, wait a second, there's much bigger things happening here than just the things that we're seeing on a very small, small level.
With mochin dekatnut, it's time for mochin degadlut. So we have to go back to basics. This is what this sefer is going back to basics and learning it through the Tanach and learning it through halacha. We have a lot of different halachot that we're going to be seeing over here.
Obviously, it's not just the inyan of milchemet mitzva, which is a very deep sugya. We had an amazing shiur yesterday from Rabbi Bronstein. I wonder, did he record them? Yes, in YU Torah. So Eliot, if you could find the link, I'm sure you'll do it in about five seconds and send it to everyone.
I think that, don't send it yet, you can send it after shiur. It's a very, very important shiur that he gave over yesterday that I'm still thinking about a lot and there's a lot of things in here that I saw that correlate, that relate to what was being learned yesterday. But the first thing that we have to look back inside right now... Whose sefer is this? Have you mentioned it? Yeah, Rav Shmuel Eliyahu, the Chief Rabbi of Safed.
Milchama Atchalta degeula. Now those words are already becoming annoying to us, Atchalta degeula. This geula has had a lot of atchaltas. It seems like there's a lot of beginnings going on over here.
But let's try to learn it from the beginning, okay? Let's try to learn it from scratch.
הפעולה הראשונה של משה הייתה הצלת יהודי מיד מכהו. So the first, when we're introduced to Moshe Rabbeinu as a grown, well, not a grown man, but not a baby, okay? But without getting too involved in what state he was in in life, he wasn't a baby anymore, he was already older, we see that he hits, he saves someone from being killed. There's hatzala.
That's our introduction to Moshe Rabbeinu.
הרמב"ם כותב כי בזכות ההצלה הזאת התעלה משה להיות נביא. It's the Rambam says, we think Moshe Rabbeinu's nevuah, what mida would you attribute it to? Anava. 100 percent, being humble.
The Rambam says, no, no, no, there was an inyan of being a matzil nefesh is what brought him, being a person that became a savior, a person that saves people, that's what brought him to the state of nevuah. Which is an important... we're going to see how big of a chiddush that really is. Because in our minds, we're trained to think his hitallut ruchanit was a complete...
completely due to tikun hamiddot, to being anav vechulei. But the Rambam says that's not the story over here, the story is the way that the Torah chooses to introduce us to Moshe Rabbeinu... of the adult. And based on that, this is the beginning of the story of Moshe Rabbeinu the prophet.
רוח השם נתלבשה לו את האומץ והמסירות להציל את אחיו, it was the ruach of Hashem, the spirit of God that gave him the courage and the dedication to save one of his brothers.
והיא כהלשון של הרמב"ם, תחלת מדרגת הנבואה. This is the beginning of the level of prophecy. Very big, big game changer which will play a role in the way that we're going to be learning this sefer.
Big game changer. Technically every single one of the chayalim is a navi? Sorry? Possibly. Technically speaking. I I can't hear you achshav.
Technically speaking every single one of the chayalim is a navi? Or hatchalat madregat nevuah? Some of the words. They're much more than a soldier, put it like that. They're much much more than just a chayal. You can have Ukrainian soldiers, להבדיל אלף אלפי הבדלות, Indonesian soldiers, Peruvian soldiers, but a soldier in Tzva Hagannah LeYisrael is nothing to do, it's so infinitely deeper than the status of a chayal, a soldier in another another army.
מכוח אותה מסירות למען העם שלו, from the same source, who else shows up? David HaMelech.
הכה דוד את גלית וזכה למדרגה רוחנית עליונה שמכוחה נכתב ספר התהלים. Another example of a tremendously powerful spiritual inyan that's in our face, which is called Tehillim, the book of Tehillim, was written according to this in the merit of what? Of David HaMelech doing hisbodedus? No, no. Of war.
Again, a completely physical, what seems to be a complete physical act, which to us we wouldn't attribute the great spiritual ma'alos that come afterwards, he's saying, no, no, no, no, ha behai talya. They're dependent on each other. The spiritual aftermath of these heroic heroic stories that we know is is the mitveh. Mitveh means it's like the...
how do you say mitveh? You hear it a lot in in politics. Proposal? In the common denominator? No, it's like the the the... precursor? No. Eli, are you with me? Yeah, I'm with you.
Platform? Oh, but it's... it's their platform. Platform. It's basically the the the setup.
This is what it is. Mesirus nefesh like this, we go, gevuradik mesirus nefesh is the platform, let's say, for a Tehillim, for Moshe Rabbeinu going up to get the Torah. And now for the next one he's saying over here: ובזכות אותה מסירת הנפש זכו אסתר המלכה ומרדכי היהודי לרוח הקודש שמכוחה נכתבה מגילת אסתר. Tell me, the story of Purim, was it Mordechai and Esther doing Tikkunei Zohar in a closet that brought about the miraculous nature of of what ended up happening? No.
It's actually the opposite because the Sanhedrin was upset at Mordechai for not sitting and learning and going out. Exactly, exactly. It felt like it was like eit latzo. And Mordechai goes out, ומרדכי לא יכרע ולא ישתחוה, and Esther HaMalka could have easily said, is it matim for me to endanger my life, or chalilah even have to become...
even though Chazal have a whole inyan, Esther karka olam, but but that Esther HaMalka is saying about herself she could she could have said about herself, listen, I'm a holy כל כבודה בת מלך פנימה. P'nimah. It's not la'chutzah. No, there's ma'asim, there's actions of gevurah which then lead, which manifest into a spiritual revelation.
כך כן כתב החתם סופר, כי המלחמה בהמן הייתה התחלת דגאולה. Chasam Sofer writes, פורים תקצ"ו, ובכך יעלו כל ישראל כחומה ותהיה גאולה שלמה ולא שום עבדות אחר כך. Am Yisrael as an as a whole will be oleh, ke-chomah, like a strong wall, and there'll be a complete redemption and there won't be any avdus afterwards. Which is what we're still chalashing for, we're still hoping for, we're still davening for.
כן כתב גם השפת אמת, כי המלחמה של עם ישראל בשונאיהם הגביה את ליבם של ישראל שיוכלו להקים את בית המקדש. And this is what I wanted to really stress today. What does the Sfas Emes say? He says that the war that Am Yisrael have with their haters, higbi'ah es libam. This is a very interesting phrase.
What does it mean to be magbia the lev? That your heart gets elevated. Higbia es libam. Well, we're not sure yet, but we know that the aftermath of hagbaas lev from the story of Purim was that Yidden had koach to go and build the second Beis HaMikdash. Opposite of yeush.
Okay, let's see how he develops this first and we'll discuss that later if we have time. Hagbaas lev is a very interesting thing. It could be, it could sound sometimes when it's not mefurash right, it could sound like something that's so gaavahdik. What does this mean to be gaavus lev? What do you think that means? What does it sound like to be gaavus lev? Raising spirits? No, I'm saying on a negative way.
What does gaavus lev mean? Haughtiness. You know who I am? We could go and build the Beis HaMikdash. You know who we are? Look what we could do. Look what we could do.
Look what we could do now. Gaavus lev has nothing to do with this because the term gaavus lev is a term from Divrei HaYamim actually.
ויגבה לבו בדרכי השם. Who's that referred to? It's referred to Yehoshafat.
King Yehoshafat. Now what was happening in his time? What's that? Omri? Omri, is that what you're saying? Yeah. Omri's Hebrew name. Vayigba libo when I met him, I remember, I remember I used to say, I was like, hi, my name is Shlomo and he says Yehoshafat.
I'm like, sure, you know. Sure, whatever you want, right? But it actually is, Yiddishe name after gerus. It actually is his name. King Yehoshafat.
This is a very fascinating thing. King Yehoshafat lived in a time where Eretz Yisrael and Malchus Yehuda, it's filled here with tons of Avodah Zarah. It's filled with horrible things. He had barely anything.
He was ani, he didn't have a lot of access to a lot of different things. But the Torah says, but it says over there in the Kesuvim, ויגבה לבו בדרכי השם that he chose to do amazing things, tactics to get people to switch, to get people to open their heart. He removed all the bamos and the Asherim, he removed all the mizbechos that were put up all over the place. He set the Leviim to start singing again.
He did all these different things to get Am Yisrael back on track. And the Torah describes that as ויגבה לבו בדרכי השם. It doesn't say Vayigba libo, it says ויגבה לבו בדרכי השם. That's the diyuk we have to make sure over here.
And this continues to remain our deep-rooted issue that we have here in this country with the modern state. The whole tikkun is bittul. The whole tikkun is tikkun of gaavah to go into a place of anavah. But anavah doesn't mean I sit back and say I'm not worthy.
Anavah means Moshe Rabbeinu, anavah means Dovid HaMelech, anavah means Mordechai and Esther. But anavah does not, should never lead a person to say I'm not on the level to go and do gevurahdik things. But I have to remember how I go and do gevurahdik things. I have to remember with what consciousness I'm doing gevurahdik things.
And this continues to be like, and I urge you if you hear any haughtiness in the dibbur that people have today about look what we did to them, you gotta bring the Ribbono Shel Olam into the picture fast. Fast. Bring Hakadosh Baruch Hu into the conversation immediately, immediately, immediately. Yeah Yosef? Yosef just, okay, literally the pasuk.
Nachon, nachon. One of the things that the chayalim say is Kol Hakavod LTzahal, okay Kol Hakavod to the Borei Olam. Kol Hakavod to Hashem and to chayolav. Two nights ago, Bibi was addressing the nation and he was going on about what we've accomplished and what we can accomplish and I'm cringing.
He threw in a bezras Hashem thirteen minutes in. Yeah, and then the last sentence, he finally threw in bezras Hashem. No, of course he did. Of course he did.
No, I was cringing until that time. He threw in bezras Hashem. Finally. Okay, acknowledge a little bit.
So now let's go back to the second paragraph, the end of the second paragraph, the quote from the Sfas Emes of פורים תרל"ד, Purim 1834, 1874.
נראה כי נס דפורים היה הכנה לבית שני. So the whole story, like we had learned through Rav Kluger's Torahs on Mishloach Manos and Matanos Laevyonim, he's saying the same thing, that Purim was all a preparation for Bayis Sheini.
כי היה צריך להיות כח ועוז לבני ישראל because we needed strength, we needed to gather strength, a lot of koach vaoz and al yedei haneis, nagba libam.
Through the miracle, they went through a vayigba libam. They also went through a place of their heart was elated, the heart went to a higher place in order to act even more.
ויכלו לחזור לבית המקדש and they could have come back to the Beis HaMikdash. Listen, there were two chayalim that were killed two nights ago in Lebanon.
One we know the name of, it's a Druze soldier. The other, they haven't released the name yet. Unless they released it this morning, I didn't see.
עוד לא ראינו הרי? Do you know where they were killed? They were killed in a place that we had already reconquered when we were up there how long ago? A year and a half ago.
Same exact area that we completely nikinu hakol. We were there and we left. Why? Because this ceasefire that we had back then, a groisse ceasefire, which the Lebanese government signed on making sure that they would be achray, responsible for the dismantling and removal of weapons from Hezbollah. They signed on it, and therefore there was a peace, there was a ceasefire, and then we went back from there.
And now we go back and we lose precious lives. Nitzachon lo muchlat. Where is the tikun over here? What's the tikun going on? Like if we speak, have we been fighting yet with ויגבה לבם בדרכי ה'? Well, the chayalim, yes, but the chain of command still is still, still, still stuck in a very, very warped galus mentality. Very warped because they haven't even said yet that we're going and we're conquering that whole area till the Litani.
They haven't mentioned it yet. They haven't said it. What's, what does it, it's still the same lashon, we're there to lehasir es ha'iyum. We're there to remove the threat.
We already learned from these animals that the only way you remove threat is by land. There is no other removal of threat. It's by going and conquering the land again, especially when so much Jewish blood has been spilled over these over this land, which is also and bikhlal, that area specifically falls under lechol hade'os Eretz Yisrael. So all from all corners, from all ways, we're seeing all we're waiting for is ויגבה לבם בדרכי ה' for the machine to work in that manner.
But if the aftermath of these things isn't ויגבה לבנו בדרכי ה', we have to be very, that should scare us more. Much more. Much more than these than getting used to all these miracles for what? It's got to be hakara like we keep on speaking about, that kvod shamayim is what comes out of all this. Now he explains this term a little bit more in in a lashon that that we could understand.
V'af al pi, third paragraph, ואף על פי שגבהות לב בדרך כלל היא דבר שלילי and even though when we talk about gavus lev, it's usually a very negative thing, right? Audacity like chatzpa.
הרי כשגבה לבם של ישראל בניצחון על אויביהם הרי זו הכנה לגאולה. When it happens, when gavus lev comes out the way we're speaking about as a result of us wiping out our enemy, this is a preparation for geula. Isn't there a Tehillim lo gavah libi? That's not referring to wiping out enemies.
ה' לא גבה לבי ולא רמו עיני, Dovid Hamelech says. Right. But that's, yeah, but that's in the context of of ga'ava, meaning of gaiva. Right.
Here we're not speaking about that over here. We're speaking about a completely different ויגבה לבם בדרכי ה', the tikun for that. Spiritual uplift.
כך הם מתאחדים ומתגברים ואין השכינה שורה אלא על חכם גיבור ועשיר.
Mamshich the Sfas Emes and says וכן אפשר שיהיה לעתיד נס כזה קודם הגאולה. It could be that in the future there'll be such a miracle right before the geula, כמו שאמרו חז"ל מעמיד עליהם מלך כהמן שנס זה הכנה לגאולה. What are we waiting for, chevra? A better example of what Chazal said? What are we waiting for? Are we waiting for a more exact example, a more exact dimayon of what Chazal said over here? What more? They in his name was the name Haman. They're in Paras.
He's מאיים להשמיד את כולם. He's wiped out on Shabbos Zachor. It's it's crazy. And they continue because it's...
still machsheves Haman is still, like we learned before Purim, machsheves Haman is still sending out their missiles, right? But we're still in Adar. And in the story of the Megilla it didn't end with just Haman being being talui and his sons. It was ra'as machsheves Haman. His sons took over.
You saw who was nominated, who was voted in, the, huh? Mojtaba? It's unbelievable. He's Persian d'assa. And he's saying over here, ma'amid aleihem melech, it could be that in the future there'll be such a miracle before geula takes place, like Chazal say, מעמיד עליהם מלך כהמן. She'nes zeh, what nes? The nes is that how many ballistic missiles have been shot towards here? We don't even have count, maybe we could, you could check it, but but hundreds of ballistic missiles in the last few years, especially the last the last week, huh? Thousands? Everything in the last, what, is thousands? Let's say since October, well, since October seventh it's thousands? Thousand.
It's almost two thousand from this month. No, but that's overall to the Middle East, right? Eleven hundred in the first five days, that's it. The numbers are irrelevant. Honestly, because twenty of these ballistic missiles could shut down chas v'shalom the whole country.
Twenty, I would even say ten, if they were in the right place, ten of these ballistic missiles with the warheads that they have could easily shut down the whole country. And we, okay, we get a message, oh, you got it, all right, maybe I'll find the miklat. Zeh hazui. It's absolutely hazui.
כי דבריהם כותב השם שמואל, the Sochotchover Rebbe says in the bottom over here, כי חובה לבער את הרע מהעולם לפני הגאולה השלמה. Don't wait for Moshiach to come to come and wipe out all the evil from the world. It needs to be us. We learned that in the sefer from Rav Ginsburgh, in Tikun HaMedina.
Yeah, it was one of the shlavim, nachon. We're not waiting for Moshiach to come and do that, that's our avoda right now. Yeah, yeah Eli. Doesn't Hashem Shmuel meod mechaven, just based on being around Chasidim for years, there he's more in the derech pnimiyus, he's talking about be'ur halev or middos, like they don't...
Who you speaking about right now? Hashem Shmuel. Oh the Shem MiShmuel? Could be, Shem MiShmuel's not alive now. So we take those words and we say, well, what does this mean for today when Haman's over our heads? I'm all for it, I'm just... You send your sons to the front line, what's your shaila? Your sons are meginnei Eretz Yisrael.
What's the shaila? You, I don't know, do you have a shaila? Or you have a shtoch on the eida charedis? No, just just... they don't always go to that nekuda bepoal. It's always that, I always used to like sit at the tish and I'm like hearing all these gevaldig Torahs, say from Rav Moshe Wolfson zt"l, all these tzadikim, and they talk about machazik the nishmas Yisrael and achdus and ahavas Yisrael, and the Rebbe, the Pupa Rebbe shlita now, and I'd be like, some... I'd want to grab all the Chasidim and say did you hear what he's saying? Like, you know, that means actually go mekarev a Yid.
It actually means learn Torah. Not to think about it. Yeah. And now we're saying to get rid of evil means actually killing evil, like it's that next shlav that that's...
So let's... you don't have to convince me. You don't have to convince most people in this room. Again, כי דבריהם כותב השם שמואל, כי חובה לבער את הרע מהעולם לפני הגאולה השלמה, and he quotes from here, וכנראה שזה יהיה גם לעתיד במהרה בימינו אם חס ושלום לא תגיע זכותם כל כך, אמרו ז"ל שהקדוש ברוך הוא יעמיד להם מלך שגזרותיו קשות כהמן.
Let's not wait for that chevre. Like, let's let's call it like, do you understand what this level is? This level means being tachas ol of of someone like the person that we the the menuval we took out in Iraq right now. That we, Yiddelach, are under his ol. Sounds insane? Like impossible? He has some there.
There're a few there like even our dear friend Matisyahu Saraf-Zadeh's cousins who he hasn't been in touch with in God knows how long, they're they're there in Iran. You know this? Matisyahu. Yeah, but the rov I'm saying, imagine if that was happening here or wherever there'd be like a large, you know, it seems to us that could never happen. We can't use that terminology anymore because so many things that we thought about, that could never happen, has happened and continues to happen.
You don't think it could hap... How many Jews live in New York? Two million. More. Million hundred thousand? A million? Two million.
Plus two million. Two million out of eight million, right? There's eight million there are about eight million residents in New York? Not New York City, the state. The state, yeah. Closer to 20.
Sorry? Closer to 20. 20? In the state of New York. I don't know, I saw yemach shemo say that he's in charge of 8.2 million people, mashehu kaze. He said that in the press conference yesterday or two days ago when they were asked why did your wife praise October 7th, he refused to speak about that.
Now listen, how many people are underneath, how many Yidden are underneath, not that he's a melech or anything like that, but how many people are underneath that hashpa'ah right now including... That's right, 20 million. So why'd he say eight? Maybe New York City. New York State is like 19 point something.
He's only five-fives isn't a... Hevanti. How many... how many Jews be'erech, more than 100,000 Yidden? Oh, for sure.
Yafe. Even if we say 10 Yidden, it should have been enough. These things are not so far from happening, chevre. The shul I went to for years to do scholar-in-residence, brought my family to two years ago in Toronto, was shot at Friday night.
And the other one that I had the zechus of being scholar-in-residence also was shot at where the rav of that shul is making aliyah now, Baruch Hashem, Rabbi Korobkin. The rav there who's formerly from Los Angeles. These things are... all these things that are like, 'Nah, it could never...' Slicha, everything that you say could never be, could be.
Because it is. It is happening. So when we see over here he's quoting a gemara in Sanhedrin that says: הקדוש ברוך הוא יעמיד להן מלך שגזרותיו קשות כהמן עד שישראל ישובו בכל לבם ועל ידי זה יתאחדו ויתגברו על עמלק ויבנה הבית השלישי ומה שהיה הוא שיהיה. As Shlomo hamelech says in Koheles: אין חדש תחת השמש.
These are not things of like, 'Yesh, like oh this could never happen.' So, rav Shlomo. The difference, one second, I just want to very much make sure that I add something right away. The difference is, the main, main difference that we have to מה שהיה ומה שיהיה is that there's something that hasn't been here in a very, very long time and there's an opportunity to metaken something that hasn't been here in a long time. We look at the current modern state of Eretz Yisrael and it already looks old but in the historical context it's still very, very, very young.
It's only 70, what is it, 78 years? Mashehu kaze. Ze klum. Ze klum. And it's not like we had like spot treatment for the first 30 years, 'Ah, we messed up' and then it didn't work out so now we're trying to figure it out.
We haven't had more than a few minutes to think and act with mochin d'gadlus, you know, or with quiet or calmness or real strategy and we haven't had any yishuv hadaas in all these years. But what... what do we have in front of us that just lights up the second we look at it? We have chayalim gibborim, gibborim. Our soldiers, our rebbeim.
They are gibborim. They're so, you know, real holiness, a real holy person is someone that really doesn't think that he's holy. A real gibbor is someone that really doesn't think that they're gibborim. We all know gibborim.
We all know chayalim and we all know that they don't think that they're gibborim. What do they look at the... how do they view themselves? As people that what? Have the zechus to do their job at this time. Anyone that's come out of the Israeli army that has looked at himself as a gibbor, the country, the land, and politics has spat them out.
And my father has been talking about this since I'm a kid because every time a Ramatkal, Chief of Staff, left the army he went immediately into politics, most of the time they've been churbans. Churban. Because they take the gevurah, the gevuras Hashem and put it on a gevuras atzmi and it's dangerous. Dangerous.
We are witnessing a tikun of all that with gevurah me'ein kamoha. Such heroism as he says over here. Next page: בדורנו מתגלה הגבורה האחדות המסירות וההקרבה הזו במאות אלפי לוחמים שנלחמו במלחמות השונות. So many different wars produced so many thousands and thousands of gibborim.
המסירות של הלוחמים של הנשים שלהם של ההורים ומשפחות שלהם מעלה אותם ואת העם כולו למדרגה רוחנית גבוהה. The mesirus nefesh of each chayal and the wife and everyone else that's part of that mishpacha has elevated the whole people to a very high elated spiritual state. Why did he... where's he basing this on? That everyone became spiritually elated from it? Give examples earlier, Moshe Rabbeinu.
Moshe Rabbeinu, David HaMelech, Mordechai, exactly! That's why he said what he said in the beginning. That's why he said in the beginning.
על פי דברי ארי הקדוש זו המדרגה שמביאה גאולה לעולם which we'll be learning inside be'ezras Hashem. It is this madrega of gvura that leads to ruchnius is what brings geulah to the world.
And then he says, בפרקים הבאים נלמד על כל הדברים האלה בהרחבה. The painful thing, chaverim, is that this is a very strange thing. We're witnessing and feeling such gvura and it's on us to have this hakara that we're living through such miracles. The only thing is, how are we going to be able to relate to our brothers and sisters in chutz la'aretz once this is over? How are we going to be able to relate to them? You understand my question? It's the same thing as a soldier coming out of war, coming out of home.
וזוכר אחי כשאתה באת לבית שלי. The first time you came out of Gaza and you're freaking out over the fact that I had a light in my house. Now anyone that doesn't understand you is like oh, this guy is messed up. That's because you didn't see light in a very long time, actual like menoros, you know? The first Friday night he was out he came to our home and I'll never forget it for the rest of my life and I've spoken about it in front of thousands of people already.
Your hitpaalus from light. Same thing when a soldier comes out, how do you relate to that? So if that's true about a soldier coming out from the ma'aracha, what about a massive amount of people that are experiencing running in and out of bomb shelters? We're all nagua. We're already, we've all become, we don't realize it but we've all become, how do you say nagua? Infected. Infected in a, I don't want to say this in a happy way, it's not a simchadike way.
We've become infected already with something that we're completely unaware of. Our emotional system, our nervous system is already functioning in a very, very different way. All of us that are here. So it's true, some of our chevre put on the pikud ha'oref app in chutz la'aretz so at least they get a notification when there's a bomb but the thing is, we're going through something here that is supposed to be forming the tzura of the future of yiddishkeit.
And the future of yiddishkeit only has one place: here. There's no future outside the country for yiden. And if we forget that, our enemies are very, very makpid to make sure that we know that. In the past, we've always spoken about how don't judge and don't say you have to come back home.
It's true, you should, we shouldn't judge anyone. Why do we have the zchus to be here now and they don't? I have no idea. None of us could say that. But now, I really feel an achrayus more than ever that if we really do become the giborim that we're supposed to become through this right now, the matzav in chutz la'aretz is going to get infinitely worse much faster than we've ever seen.
Because look how much they're hating and threatening and mentally terrorizing us there while we're trying to protect ourselves. The more we try to protect ourselves, the more we try להעביר רע מהעולם the worse it's going to get and I, you know me, my blood is there, my rebbe is there, all of us are filled with family and friends there. Now's the time be'emes to daven l'Hashem that the hazmana to come to eretz Yisrael that comes through us is done in the right kovodik way but that it's done, but that it's said. It's said without busha, it's said without embarrassment and it's said without freaking people out and terrorizing them, but it's said in a way of ויגבה לבו בדרכי השם and not gava libi like David HaMelech speaks about.
It's said through a gavhus lev. It's said through gvura, through pride and through clarity with zero, zero judgment on anyone that hasn't been privileged to make that move and make that decision, but I do believe that our tzibur has the most achrayus than any other tzibur right now in the am. Why? Because our tzibur, we could go to a tish and feel a shtikel at home there. We could also go to a kosher restaurant in Tel Aviv and feel at home there also.
That means the achrayus on people that could relate to most parts of the am has never been bigger. We could be here, feel all Israeli, eat falafel and all that shtuyot and also have a geshmaak going to Target when we go to the States. We have, no no, we're made of there's so many different parts of us now, but the achrayus is on us to really extend that invitation מתוך גבהות לב בדרכי השם and we should merit to have enough koach and gvura to do it like Moshe Rabbeinu, to feel like when we're doing this, when we're putting out the invitation, that it's literally being a talmid of Moshe Rabbeinu saving וירא כי אין איש וירא, you're looking around and no one else is saying anything. I saw thousands, a huge asifa of thousands of Yidden yesterday in Lakewood and I got so excited.
Do you know what the asifa was about? The danger of AI. Thousands, I saw it, I was like wow, I never saw bishas milchama that thousands of Chassidim are getting together. Iranians. What do you mean? AI.
Isn't that crazy? This is what happens, this is what, this is the inyan havaya. But chevre, I'm being serious, with all the jokes aside right now, there's a pachad that I feel that has nothing to do with Iranians. None of us are, let's face it, none of us are scared of the Iranians. There's a pachad that we're not going through this with the outcome that needs to happen, which is gavus lev shamayim.
Without that, chalila, chas v'shalom, Hashem yerachem aleinu, Hashem yerachem aleinu. So we have to learn these inyanim inside, we have to continue to bask in the light of the mesirus nefesh of the chayalim and live with that consciousness, even more than we do, even more. Hakaras hatov we have for our soldiers and halevai all that hakaras hatov will matzmiach yeshua till the top of the chain of command that these gibborim are willing to sacrifice their lives for, so that this time we do it with consciousness and awareness like the world has never seen before. And maybe that's what, even though it's hard to say these words, but maybe the neshamos of hundreds of thousands of Yidden are waiting for a consciousness here to be raised to a place that makes their neshamos feel much more invited and safe and right to make the decision to move back home.
Yachol lihyos because we see, you think that the things that are happening right now in chutz la'aretz would be enough, and insanely, they're not. This is a big, so it's a big, it's like crazy, you would think that if I gave you the last two and a half years of antisemitism in chutz la'aretz you'd be like, well, if before it happened and I would say, listen, this could happen, so each of us would say, well, that would be, I mean, that would be obviously enough for at least a mass, mass aliya. People are getting excited because through tzaddikim, three rabbis that we know of are moving here as heads of communities. We need chevre much more than three rabbonim.
We need hundreds of thousands of Yidden, big consciousness, mesirus nefesh'dike Yidden to come here now so that we take this, what we're going through, and we live it. We live it be'ezras Hashem, we live it in a way that's מקדש שם שמים ברבים in ways like we never did before. So the achrayus is on us and we should have a lot of siyata d'shmaya in this manner. We'll continue this on Wednesday, chevre, okay?