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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?
Shomer shomer Yisrael, shomer shomer Yisrael, shemor Sherit Yisrael, shemor Sherit Yisrael, ואל יובד ואל יובד ואל יובד ישראל, ha'omrim Shema Yisrael. Shomer shomer Yisrael, shomer shomer Yisrael, shemor Sherit Yisrael, shemor Sherit Yisrael, ואל יובד ואל יובד ואל יובד ישראל, ha'omrim Shema Yisrael. Aneshama lach, vehaguf shelach, chusa chusa amalach. Aneshama lach, vehaguf shelach, chusa chusa amalach.
Aneshama lach, vehaguf shelach, chusa chusa amalach. Aneshama lach, vehaguf shelach, chusa chusa amalach. Aneshama lach, vehaguf shelach, chusa chusa amalach. Aneshama lach, vehaguf shelach, chusa chusa amalach.
Aneshama lach, vehaguf shelach, chusa chusa amalach.
דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי יה, דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי יה, דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי יה, דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי יה, דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי יה, דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי יה, דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי יה, דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי יה, דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי ליי ליי דיי דיי, איי איי איי איי יה.
למענך אלוקינו עשה ולא לנו ראה עמידתנו דלים וריקים למענך אלוקינו עשה ולא לנו ראה עמידתנו דלים וריקים הנשמה לך והגוף פעלך חוסה על עמלך הנשמה לך הנשמה לך והגוף פעלך חוסה על עמלך הנשמה לך. Okay, thank you for coming chevra.
This is as a kohen can't get any closer than this, so thank you for being with me here. Many of the chevra that are here in Kfar Etzion, many of the chevra that when we're walking down here, for some of you it's the first time, for some of you that maybe haven't been here in a while. But for but many of us remember when this chelkat tzeva'it, when this area behind us there was just one kever, or even before, like even before that one first kever, which was probably maybe eight nine years ago, ten years ago. I don't know how many years ago exactly, but since October, since Simchas Torah תשפ"ד, we have the rows here.
Many of us were at the funerals. Boys from our neighborhood were laid to rest right over here. And it's a makom kadosh venora, kadosh ayom venora, kadosh venora literally. I, before we sing inside something, was very got very strengthened by the words this morning after Shacharis by by Aaron Finkel.
There were years that I spent Yom HaZikaron watching the most the most depressing heartbreaking documentaries throughout the day on Israeli TV. As a kid I remember this quite often. One year it was so hor it was it it was so painful that I I couldn't go to shul for Ma'ariv for Yom Ha'atzmaut davening. It was so It was so heavy.
So so heavy. Now look let's face it all of us are running away from pain all the time right? We have all these different tactics to avoid dealing with pain and Yom HaZikaron comes to avoid dealing with pain basically means that you're disconnecting from understanding what you're doing here bichlal in Eretz Yisrael.
ואומר לך בדמייך חיי ואומר לך בדמייך חיי. At a bris, that moment of coming into a covenant with Hashem, there's blood.
When a woman gives birth, there's damim, there's blood. It's always around this inyan. And here we're sitting next to tzaddikim that didn't just give some blood, they gave their whole guf so that you and I could sit here and try to do what we're trying to do every day of our lives. I know you all know all this, it's not, I'm just trying to mechazek myself as I'm talking right now.
Because be-emes ad bias Goel until Moshiach comes, here's where all the questions are still, there's still the question marks over here on us. What are we doing with our lives? What are we doing with our lives? They gave it so that we could do something with our lives. So it's a passionately deep day of introspection of, but like it's not just cheshbon hanefesh, it's also like we were learning this morning, it's also a day of gratitude of coming to these gibborim and mamash saying thank you doesn't come close. It's a deep day of gratitude, deep, deep, deep day of gratitude.
So let's learn for just a few minutes about, because it's, the peleh is that in our learning in this sefer of Hilchos Milchamah VeShalom, we're up to page forty-seven. If you open up page forty-seven, you're not going to believe what we're up to. I can't believe it myself. If you look at the title, מעלת הנופלים על קידוש השם.
This is what we're up to. I didn't jump. This is exactly where we're up to.
מעלת הנופלים על קידוש השם.
The ma'alah, the level of those that fall al Kiddush Hashem. And what Rav Eliyahu's going to teach us, show us here is a famous Gemara in Masechet Ta'anit, in Ta'anis, shows up in other places as well about two Jewish boys. Let's learn.
מעלת המוסר נפש להצלת ישראל.
כדי להבין את מעלת החיילים שמסרו את נפשם בפועל במלחמה על קידוש השם. In order to understand how holy, how high the soldiers, these boys are. Not that we could ever really understand it. But in order for us to try to understand the ma'alah, the level of these tzaddikim, they gave their life bemilchamah for Kiddush Hashem.
נראה מה כותבים חכמינו על כך. What does the Gemara say?
הגמרא מספרת על בת מלך שנהרגה בסביבות העיר לוד ולא נודע מי הרגה. The Gemara says it was a daughter of the Caesar, of the Roman Caesar, who was killed and no one knew, this is the time that the Romans were, you know, conquering Eretz Yisrael and no one knew who killed her. Amru HaNochrim, HaYehudim shebelod harguha.
They said the Yidden in Lod, someone from there killed her.
גזרו גזרה על ישראל, so they said on all Am Yisrael, אם לא ימצא ההורג נהרוג את כל תושבי לוד. If the actual murderer doesn't, isn't found and doesn't admit that they killed the daughter of the Keisar, we're killing everybody, all you Yidden. Amdu Lulianos vePappos.
I know it doesn't sound like Yankel and Mendel, but these are two Yiddishe names. They're two, not names, but two Yiddishe boys. Amdu Lulianos vePappos ואמרו אנחנו הרגנו אותה ויהרג המלך את אלו לבדם. They got up and said "we killed her" and the king got up and killed only those two boys.
Now they didn't, by the way, they took it, they took the brunt, but they didn't kill the bas Keisar. But they said we did and they spared the lives of everyone else.
הם אמרו כך כדי להציל את תושבי לוד למרות שבאמת לא הרגו את בת המלך. They just did it to save the people there like we just said.
Now look what he says here.
לוליאנוס ופפוס לא היו צדיקים גמורים. They, we were, these were not chevre, these were not two boys, two men that you would He says that's not the story here.
בשעה שמוצאים להורג הם אומרים לטורינוס.
As they're being killed, what do they say?
אנחנו נתחייבנו כליה למקום ואם אין אתה הורגנו הרבה הורגים יש ביד המקום הרבה דובים יש הרבה אריות יש הרבה נמרים יש שפוגעים בנו ולא מסרנו הקדוש ברוך הוא בידך אלא שעתיד ליפרע דמינו מידך. What were they saying? Do you understand this chevre? What were they saying to the person that was putting them to kill? What consciousness did they arrive at when they reached this level of Kiddush Hashem? What were they basically, like in a nutshell to translate this, it basically means how the Alter Rebbe also speaks about this in the Tanya about you... it's the one, it's the most wondrous thing. When someone's pushed, sometimes they're able to reach levels of mesirut nefesh gemurah.
You can't understand this. You can't understand how this works. But sometimes people are able... it's like how do you consciously explain that these boys were willing to actually get killed? Humanly speaking, it's a beyond this world experience.
It's not to do with this world. So Julianus and Pappus are saying to the person, he's like, listen, we entered into a whole new world over here. It looks to you like you know, you're killing, there's a lot of things that could kill us. We gave our lives for Hakadosh Baruch Hu and there will be a day that this whole thing that looks like you're on top and we're on bottom is going to be flipped over.
There will be a day.
אע"פ שהם נתחייבו כליה על השם חטאתם בגלל מסירות הנפש להציל את ישראל אמרו עליהם חז"ל הרוגי לוד אין כל בריה יכולה לעמוד במחיצתם בגן עדן. Okay, so we have to understand something. Were they right for what they did halachically? What do you guys think? Because that's the...
that's what the Gemara goes into. Were they right for what they did? Is it muttar to do such a thing? I don't think so. Saved everybody's lives, so... no but how do you...
is that how we... is that how we approach... it's only the three... strictly speaking, if they thought they'd be killed anyway, meaning they were no worse off saying we did it and we're going to get killed versus they were already sentenced to get killed.
Yeah, but you could say maybe there'll be like a last-second, you know, so... maybe there'll be a last-second thing with that also. But no no, this is בשעה שמוציאים להורג. This is while...
I don't know if they were... on... with the sword, that... this is already happening like...
but it was a Kiddush Hashem. Ah, so this is what... this is the point. Meaning like this, if you ask the sha'ala and you try to mevarer it, you'll probably figure out that maybe it's not exactly the most perfect thing to do and it's not the right thing to do, maybe.
But when a Yid's... when a Yid's world in front of him is dependent on this moment of doing this mesirut nefesh, everything else, everything else is moved aside. What, these boys couldn't have said listen, there's probably others that could do this, I mean you know, I'm going to give my mother pain for the rest of her life? My little siblings... remember some of the hespedim that happened here with little siblings that try to say words to their...
their killed brother? They could come up with some kind of... some kind of a da'at that says maybe al pi din it's... I shouldn't be doing this. Maybe it should just be someone that he won't be bringing so much suffering to other people.
You could come to some havana like this, right? But the problem is that when a Yid feels this inyan of מסירות נפש על קידוש השם, what's the maskana? Like we just said in Bava Batra: הרוגי לוד אין כל בריה יכול לעמוד במחיצתם בגן עדן. Who ended up being the Harugei Lod? Just these two. What does the Gemara say about them? No one can come close to them in Gan Eden. How did they reach such a high place of going up there to be in Gan Eden?
איך זה יכול להיות? What did they do? They were tuned into this nekuda of being moser nefesh for saving other Yidden, even though you could...
come with all the different reasons and saying you shouldn't you can't do this, you can't act like this, vechulu. I'm so thankful my back is to them because I wouldn't be able to say anything right now.
אין שום בריה יכולה לעמוד במחיצתם בגן עדן. There's nothing, whatever we imagine to be holy, whatever we imagine to be divine, elated, אין שום בריה יכולה nothing, where they are in Gan Eden, nothing, nothing else in the world can come close to it.
And our country is filled with spots like this all over the country of bechinas harugei Lod. All over the country you have this everywhere, everywhere. So we always hear different stories imagining like what it's like up there in Gan Eden and who reaches the highest place and... This is a different world, this is something else.
We are davening here, we're opening our hearts wide open, Yom HaZikaron, in the presence... Now this is very important, I want to make sure I'm clear with my lashon. We're in the presence of the bodies, but also, this is al pi HaArizal and we say this whenever we do the trips to Ukraine, the neshama has five levels, nefesh, ruach, neshama, chaya, yechida. I'm not going into all that right now.
But the lowest level of the soul, called nefesh, always hovers over the body where it's buried. The aspect of nefesh of the soul, there's the part of their souls that are also here. Nefesh is the closest one to the levush of how we go about in this world. Without going into ruach, neshama, chaya, yechida, but the aspect of nefesh is here.
So the nefashos, the level of nefesh, the soul, that spirit that gave them the koach to do whatever they had to do so you and I could be alive and our children can be raised here is also present here.
אין כל בריה יכולה לעמוד במחיצתם. Zos omeres, bottom paragraph, שהם למעלה מעולם הבריאה. They're higher than the world of Briya.
ומה שנמצא מעל עולם הבריאה, nu chevre, there's four worlds. Which level is Olam HaBriya? Second, from the top? Yeah. lemala me'olam habriya, Atzilus, hu olam ha'atzilus.
לא כל הנהרגים במלחמה היו במדרגת לוליאנוס ופפוס.
יש גם מדרגות אחרות בהם נעסוק בהמשך השיעור. And throughout this shiur that he gives over here, he gives all different levels of people, like what levels that they are, of people that are killed through different types of war. But the highest level is when you save Jewish lives from clear and present and imminent danger, which is what they saw, which was emes l'amito, you travel, you travel to the highest place in the world. There's nowhere higher any Yid can get to in this world.
I'll tell you a great story. Just like how do we understand this on our level, we'll try to tie it together. You know the Bach, right? The Bach, from the Shulchan Aruch, the Bach. So the Bach, one time the Bach wanted to know who is he going to be next to when he gets to Shamayim.
Do you know this story? The Bach wanted to know who is he going to be next to in Shamayim. So they told him, listen, go to certain such and such a Yossi. So the Bach was about to, he goes to a place and he sees there's a big, big, big wedding going on and he sees that there's a very rich man that's about to marry off his son. Very rich man going to marry off his son.
And if I remember correctly, he says the son was, they were very young back then when they would get married like 14, 15 and the rich man's son was crazy about this girl, but at the wedding there was a very, very poor boy that was there, a very poor boy that was sitting there and he was crying his eyes out. And the Bach went up to him and said, why, the father of the chassan went up to this kid that's crying at his son's wedding, said what's going on? He said, I can't tell you. Just doesn't know why you're crying, it's my son's wedding. Why are you crying your eyes out? So he said, I don't know how to tell you this but your son's marrying the love of my life.
I'm crazy in love with this girl. I've been crazy about her since we met each other. So whatever happened? He's like, I come from, you know, rags. There's no way that the family would be mashlim to meshadech, you know, me with their daughter.
But I just had to see her one last time, and I can't hold back the tears. I'm sorry. I'll leave right now. So the rich man calls the girl over.
He says, tell me something. Is this true? You have something? Like you've had something but it was posul because he's not holding whatever that means alt geld? She said, yes. So the rich man at his son's wedding turned to his son and he said, son this is your time right now to be moseir nefesh. And he took off his son's suit for the wedding, he put it on this poor boy, and at his son's wedding he flipped it over and they married off this poor boy with this girl.
The bochur said he was told that that rich man, the father, was the one that he was going to be sitting next to in Gan Eden. So I thought about this story because as we're speaking right now is because we should never ever ever have to be put through a nisayon to be moseir nefesh like this. But what could we take from here? What could we take from here lema'aseh? Many chevreh here have been in the army, all our children, you have children in the army, our children will be in the army, especially even if we didn't grow up here, what could we take from this otzma over here? Because here are Yidden that ein that no one can come close to where they are in Shamayim because of their mesiras nefesh. He says bechinas Harugei Lod.
No one can come close to it. So you can't push someone to try to find ways that they can moseir their nefesh. That's assur. We don't look for those opportunities.
That's not a Yiddishe concept. It's other religions have that zach. We don't look for the opportunity to see how could I die for God? Like the conversation we had on Shabbos. No, our whole thing is v'chai bahem.
That's our whole inyan. They gave their lives so we could figure out how could we be in tune with sensitivity like the rich man with his son. I want to say the star of this story to me isn't so much the father. It's the chosson.
I think it's not the poor kid, I mean, he has pretty holy chutzpah to come to the simcha and start crying, but I think it's the son. He's going to need a lot of therapy. It's the son that's really, really holding it in a very he doesn't need any therapy because he went up in a place of tzidkus. He's he's kadosh venora.
Where I think that even though that was a sarcastic comment, I think that that actually says a lot of emes about what we feel about if I would go and become really, really holy and do like mesiras nefesh'dike kind of things, it'd be hard for me to be in the world and I'd need help. They opened up gates for us to discover our neshamos. These tzaddikim opened up gates for us, and we discover our neshamos when we get uncomfortable and do mesiras nefesh things. That's what it is.
Look, we'll continue, we'll go veiter when we get back into the shiur in shul, all the different levels that he speaks of here. But if you just go to page 51, the end, lemala mehem with all the levels, lemala mehem, lemala mehem, אנשים שהתנדבו למות כדי להציל את ישראל. It's interesting, I've told you this vort, I love this vort, we always read about we always in Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaShoah, the parshiyos of Nadav and Avihu. I once heard this vort that Nadav and Avihu is Yom HaShoah and Yom HaZikaron.
Avihu are all the korbanos, all the sacrifices... that were killed because people wanted to say he's not your father. That's the Shoah. Nadav is lashon lehitnadev to give your life like a hayal, to give your life to be killed.
And what does the Aibishter say, what does Hashem say about these two sons? B'kroivai Akadeish. This is the closest thing through which I sanctify myself. So the highest level here that he says here, lema'ala lema'ala mehem, אנשים שהתנדבו למות כדי להציל ישראל, and then beneath that, למעלה מהם הלוחמים שנלחמו להגן על עם ישראל. Look at the bottom.
למעלה מהם הם האנשים שנלחמו להגן על עם ישראל ולא מוסרים נפשם להריגה.
הגאון רב מנחם זמבא השם יקום דמו היה מגדולי רבני פולין ומנהיגיה לפני השואה. One of the leaders of the Rabbinic world in Poland and a leader before the Shoah.
חבר מועצת גדולי התורה ומחותן עם בנו של השפת אמת.
His family, his children, his child married the grandson or granddaughter of the Sfas Emes.
הרב נדרש לשאלה זו בשעה שהגרמנים דרשו מהיהודים בגטו ורשה למסור את הזקנים ואת הילדים שישלחו למחנות השמדה. He was asked a shaila. In the ghetto, the Germans were asking the normal age folk, the middle-aged folk, to give over all the elders and all the children so that they should be sent right away to the camps.
Vesha'alu oto, and they asked him, האם להילחם בגרמנים כשאין כלל סיכוי. Do you put up a fight when you really don't stand a chance? Who are Jews in the ghetto versus the German army, right?
הרב מנחם זמבא השם יקום דמו למד מהמעשה של הסנדלר המסומר, which we'll learn the whole story, כי חובתנו להילחם גם אם הסיכוי להציל או לנצח לא קיים או שהוא קטן מאוד. He paskened you have to fight until the end even if the chance of you being victorious is either nonexistent or very, very small.
מי אמר שבשעת שמד אדם צריך להיות במערה ולמסור את עצמו לרוצחים.
From this, what Rav Eliyahu is saying over here is that we have to remember that just a few years ago there were shailas like should Jewish people even try fighting when it seems like it's hopeless. Now we're in an era, and this is the koach we have to get from the power of this day. Now we're in an era that that shaila has changed. At times it seems shaky, especially with words that the government officials have been using from the beginning of the last three years of war, almost three years of war.
It's called milchama kiyumit. Milchama kiyumit. How do you say that in English? Existential war. We keep on saying milchama kiyumit.
It's like this could be the end. And I remember that a few weeks after October 7th, I don't know how many of you were already living with this, but remember Hershy, we got together, we closed the, we did, remember we dimmed the lights in the room one night? Does anyone else there? Juda came? No, no, no, of a different night. It wasn't with Juda. It was just chevra.
It was just chevra. We got together after Ma'ariv, we dimmed the lights, and we're basically saying who's tripping out? Who's tripping out? You said something I'll never ever forget that you actually, as many of us felt like, they're just Beit Lechem is about to do the same thing that Aza did to the Otef on us. And you started thinking like, you said something that never left me because you said, if this was the gzeira on our dor but this is how we go, you said the words something like you have shleimus with if that's the gzeira and that's what you have to do while trying to protect your family al admas Eretz Yisrael. So I give us all a strong brocha in the zechus of these tzaddikim over here that have mamesh been, they've saved Am Yisrael.
They have. They've saved Am Yisrael from who knows how much worse it could have been right now. Who cares, we have right now. All we have is this moment of sitting in gratitude, and I would say even mekabeling on ourselves mesirut nefesh, not the mesirut nefesh of chalila giving our lives, we shouldn't be pushed to that, but mesirut nefesh like the story of the Bach, mesirut nefesh for some people mesirut nefesh means actually making shalom with someone that you just haven't been able to talk to.
Mesirut nefesh could mean mamash in their zechut deleting one app from the phone that's been causing you so much tzaras to your neshama. They didn't get killed so that we can just keep on going. They have been killed so that we could la'alot, la'alot, la'alot. Want to bring mesirut nefesh down to a very tangible place where it could be here for us.
And be'ezrat Hashem there should be techiyat hametim and we should see all these tzaddikim together back with their families with Melech HaMashiach leading us to one place, Beit HaMikdash, Bayit HaShlishi with Mashiach Tzidkeinu techef u'miyad mamash. Amen. Ani ma'amin, ani ma'amin be'emuna shelema, be'emuna shelema, bevi'at hamashiach, bevi'at hamashiach, ואף על פי שיתמהמה עם כל זה אחכה לו, ואף על פי שיתמהמה עם כל זה אחכה לו. Hareini mekabel, mekabel alay mitzvat ase של ואהבת לרעך כמוך, kamocha.
Hareini mekabel, mekabel alay mitzvat ase של ואהבת לרעך כמוך, kamocha. Chaverim kol yisrael, chaverim kol yisrael, chaverim kol yisrael, hareini mekabel alay.
רבי חנניא בן עקשיא אומר רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצוות שנאמר ה׳ חפץ למען צדקו יגדיל תורה ויאדיר יתגדל ויתקדש שמיה רבא בעלמא די ברא כרעותיה.