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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?
בוקר טוב אחים קדושים, holy brothers. Chodesh Nissan is sponsored anonymously in honor of all the open miracles we're continuing to see daily. By the Silver family in memory of בתיה פייגא בת ישראל and by the Kram and Miller families in memory of רייזל בת רב דוד דוב, הרב יצחק אריה בן נחום, הרב עזריאל בן הרב יוסף טוביה and נחא בת אפרים זלמן ורכה. The week is sponsored by Paul and Devorah Grust.
Devorah. We got her name on Shabbos. Okay my dear chevra, we are back in this sefer of Rav Shmuel Eliyahu Hilchos Milchama v'Shalom. And even if it wasn't as shayach as it is in our times, I would still want us to continue learning this.
It is clear to us that we are still very, very, very much inside war. Inside war. I feel as though October 7th began a war that will have no end. Some can say about, meaning it'll only have an end when the real end happens.
Some would say the same about 1948, that since 1948 it's more or less been like this, and that's also correct, that's also to a certain extent true. But definitely in the time that we're living in from the moment that shaarei choshech opened up on Simchas Torah Pey Daled, there's no end until the end, until the end. There's no end. We've seen already and we're living right now in this quasi ceasefire which is not a, we all understand where we're at, put it like that, we all understand where we're at.
Therefore, the learning that we're doing right now about the laws, the halachas of war and peace have never been more shayach. The learning that we're doing today should give the koach and the determination for Am Yisrael and for its soldiers to go to the place that the Torah wants us to go. And there's no turning back right now. We're in it and Hashem should bless us with humility to look at this war in the face and go all the way.
All the way b'ezrat Hashem, which is kind of what we're going to be learning today. Just remind me at the end of shiur to make an important announcement regarding next week, not now. So we're on page 37.
לא מצא משה אנשי חיל יראי אלוקים.
Interesting. Moshe Rabbeinu did not find warriors who had fear of God. We're going to look into that, where that shows up.
שילוב אנשי חיל עם יראי אלוקים.
The combination of warriors that fight with the fear of Hashem.
החיילים שנלחמים היום מחזיקים בתכונות של אומץ גדול ויעילות גדולה. As we've seen, as we live amongst, the soldiers that are fighting today have tremendous, tremendous characteristic traits of ometz gadol, bravery, ye'ilut gedola, they do tremendous things.
רבים מאוד מהם מחזיקים גם באמונה ובמידות טובות אפילו אם הם לא תמיד מוגדרים דתיים.
And many of them, even though you may not label them as religious observant people, are holding with tremendous levels of emuna and middos tovos. We all know that, we've all seen that.
כך אומר יתרו למשה רבינו בצאת מצרים. Yitro told Moshe Rabbeinu as we're leaving Egypt that עליו לקחת מנהיגי קהל עם שילוב של תכונות.
Yitro with his eitzah told Moshe Rabbeinu what type of people he needs to take out with him, they need to be at the head of things. And he says to him: Anshei chayil, yirei Elokim, anshei emes, sonei batza. These are the words of Yitro. You have to take anshei chayil, warriors, yirei Elokim that have the fear of God, anshei emes, people of truth, sonei batza.
You know what batza is, right? Bribery. They hate bribery, yeah, they're clean with money, they're clean with finances.
הספורנו מסביר מה התכונות של אנשי חיל. So the Sforno explains what does it mean a warrior, anshei chayil?
בקיאות וחרוצים לברר וללבן אמיתות דבר ולהביאו אל התכלית.
Strong words. They have b'kiyus, they have thorough knowledge, and charutzim, when you say about the greatest compliment a student can get in class, wow, is a talmid charutz. talmid charutz, talmida charutza. Eli, what would you say? Can't hear you.
Diligent. Diligent.
ולברר וללבן אמיתות דבר, that when they look to try to decipher the truth, they know their way of deciphering the truth. This lashon lilaben ul'varer is referring to Tana'im and Amora'im, Rishonim and Achronim in the world of Halacha, libun and birur, to really understand the emes of things ul'havio el hatachlis.
And then once they determine the truth behind what they're looking at, what's in front of them, what needs to be done, ul'havio el hatachlis and to bring it to the purpose. Bring it to its purpose. Here we start to get controversial in our Monday morning shiurim. Chaveirim yekarim, let's go about this list for a second.
Anshei chayil, do we have anshei chayil? Forget Sforno for a second, for one second. Anshei chayil? Oh yeah. Yirei Elokim? 100 percent. Anshei emes? Definitely.
Sonei batza? For the most part. For the most part. Now let's go to Sforno. Now let's go to Sforno.
What's anshei chayil? What's the bekius? Do they have bekius? Do they have diligent... what'd you say, diligence? Diligence in deciphering, in getting clear as to what the objective of this war should be? The chayalim, the soldiers. The chayalim do, the hanhaga does. Very good.
Yossi's son does, yes, yes, Eli's son did when he was in Nachal. Okay. ul'havio el hatachlis and then to bring it to purpose. Zos omeres, halla, what do I do with this understanding of truth, of understanding what the real issue is, and then bring it to the tachlis? I know, but listen, we could always go to the chayalim because by them we have no shailos.
No shailos. But you know, the people that are standing in the top of command, not so much. That is something is still bichlal not there. And there was a famous statement made by one of the former Prime Ministers, Ariel Sharon, famously, דברים שרואים משם לא רואים מכאן.
Things you see from there you don't see from here, things you see from here you don't see from there. Which always led people to be under the impression of: listen, we just don't know, of course we don't know everything, bevadei. But we have enough to look at in the last 77 years to be like, well, we have 77 years of being outside and not being those of us we're not inside the war room, we're not inside the situation room. However, 77 years can kind of show us that ul'havio el hatachlis is something that we're still, we're still, there's something going on over here.
According to Sforno, this is a key component of defining what an anshei chayil is, right? He said about anshei chayil. Now Rav Shmuel Eliyahu explains to us really what the Sforno is saying with his own taste.
אנשי חיל הם אנשים שיודעים לקרוא מפה, plenty of those people we have. Map readers.
L'havin es hametzius, to understand the reality, that's already a little bit subjective.
ולא לשגות בתמונות מצב מדומות, and not to err when they're looking at hadmayot. You know what hadmaya is? Rendering.
הם גם יודעים להתחיל פעולה ולסיים אותה בהצלחה.
They know how to begin something and end it with hatzlacha. Since October 7th, let's look at Azza. Let's look at Azza for a second. We started off, all of us were certain, this is the end of anything that's happening over there forever.
L'sayem osa b'hatzlacha, to finish it with success. Do you know how many armed Hamasnikim are in Azza right now? 30,000. 30,000 minimum. Minimum.
Can you believe that? Can you believe that we still give them food and water? And trucks are going inside. L'sayem osa b'hatzlacha... no.
יתרו הציע למשה שילוב של אנשי חיל עם בעלי מידות רוחניות גדולות.
What was Yitro basically telling Moshe Rabbeinu? Your people in the top of command must be tremendously spiritually developed people as well. I will never forget the following thing. You know, I have this weird syndrome that takes place. It's called my: I'm not my father syndrome.
Anybody you ever have that? Yeah. I'm not... I'm not my father's syndrome, but but in my situation, it's a weird one because I want to be like my father's syndrome. What's my father's syndrome? Whenever we were walking down the street anywhere in life, especially in Eretz Yisrael, and we saw someone of public power, anyone big, right? Naftali, you're like my father.
You'll go up to the person and start striking a conversation and whatever, and even tell them what you think should be done, as my Abba always did my whole life. I'm cringing there. Oh my god! My Abba's telling everyone. I remember being in Chevron with Ariel Sharon in 1996 or mashehu kazei, whatever.
I remember being with him. I told you, like on the phone with Ehud Barak and Shimon Peres's secretaries and always, right? One time it happened that I was playing a chuppah and there was a very top person at this chuppah who you and I met in an airport lounge once. A politician, former army person. Stern.
Wasn't gonna say his name, but anyway. And yashar koach. And after the chuppah, I went up to him and I have a lot of, you know, beef with him for the hitnatkut, all these different things. And this was I'm like, okay, I'm my Abba's son, I have to go up and talk to him.
But so this time I did. This time I did. Quite often I don't. I've caught myself, like I told you, one time I was walking down the street in Rechov Ben Maimon and Keren Kayemet, Rechavia.
There's a cafe over there close to where they have a katzefet in that street, if you know where that is in Rechavia. They used to have, I don't know if they still have it there. And I see Yossi Sarid sitting down. Yossi Sarid was a, he was actually a very authentic person.
He wasn't a liar. He wasn't a cheater. He said what he believed. He was a very honest person.
But I don't know if he believed in Hashem or in Toras Yisrael and he led Am Yisrael in with leading the left, the left-wing political party, the Meretz party, doing some grave damage into the heart of Am Yisrael's ruach. And I got so, I started getting so nervous just walking down the street and I was like having like a shtikel mini panic attack. I was like, what's wrong with me? And then I realized, because I started asking myself, what am I supposed to say to him? And then I realized, you don't have to say to him anything. You're not your father.
Like you don't have to go and tell him anything. You would've probably. But I could use that. I don't know.
Yeah, you could use it. I'm like, I'm tripping. I'm like, oh my god, I'm freaking out. What am I gonna say? I don't know what to say.
And then there was another voice was like, you don't have to say anything. And I didn't. But with this guy who shall remain nameless, I went up to him after the chuppah and I said, if I'm a Breslover, I'm gonna izamra him right now. And I said to him, I want you to know that there's so many things that I know about you that drive me crazy.
But there are plenty of things that I'll never know about what you've done for me and my family and for Am Yisrael and for that I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart, like mamash talking ruach. And he looked at me and he said, mi atah? I said my name is like... okay, me'eifo atah? I said Los Angeles. And then he started talking to me about like nothing that had to do with what I told him, meaning I saw that ruach had no play at all in the back and forth, kimat zero.
It's very rare you find people that are sitting in the Knesset or in government even from what people we would say from our machaneh, whatever that means today. They're not anshei, they're not really anshei ruach. Yitro's telling Moshe Rabbeinu, you're going out to be a to represent Am Yisrael with gevurah, has got to be anshei ruach, has got to be part of the way. And we see over here we're stricken with this epidemic of having for many years people that were Ramatkalim, that were heads chiefs of staff, that end up being prime ministers and ministers of defense.
The ruach part is bichlal not not not part of it. Not part of it. We have in this room a guy that has ruach and they don't they don't get into the Knesset. They ran for the head of Bayit Yehudi.
Look what happens. B'emet? No, b'emet. It's true. Don't be so humble right now.
It's family business. I mean beseder. It's true. Once you tried, they caught you on Har Habayit and shechted you, and you're out.
Because you were actually speaking divrei ruach toward... Exactly. It's amazing. Mamash kacha.
No, no, zeh bediyuk zeh. It's mamash zeh. Like we still live in this world thinking like no, no, no, don't have the ruach people so much there because they don't הם לא מבינים את מזרח התיכון. They don't understand the Middle East.
It's funny in all those other places who are their heads of the terrorists? Imams. Imams and sheikhs. They're this it's all ruach. So a little don't kill me chaver a little limud zechut on Rav Froman alav hashalom.
He was trying to operate from that place of saying if this is really a spiritual war then people of spirit must go. Now we don't I don't you know hold of that shita for nothing at all. However I I understand kind of where he was coming from.
אדם גדול, אדם מאמין, אדם בעל אהבה גדולה לעם ישראל וארץ ישראל.
You said this before for them it is a spiritual war for us it's not. I told you guys so many times I'm walking down the street in Be'eri with Yossi and I read the graffiti on the wall that they sprayed on one of the houses. Remember? Always, yeah. I read because I can read Arabic and I remember remember I told you what it says on there.
They came in Simchat Torah morning with graffiti. Not a it's like amazing they had so many different things in their pockets like you know graffiti was one of them and they graffitied on a wall Mabbul Al-Quds. What's that mean? That means the the Al-Aqsa flood meaning they're going to Be'eri killing Yidden that didn't believe maybe that didn't believe in God maybe they killed them in the name of Mabbul of Har HaBayit. In other words there's another in Nir Oz that also had that same graffiti.
That same graffiti. Also and and I I didn't even tell you that. I was with a someone like I guess for the CIA like I don't know she she was from the CIA of some kind of intelligence and she said this handwriting looks like a female. Meaning it was already it wasn't even the Nukbah it was already the Ezrachim doing the things down in Nir Oz by the delet.
I mean the Nukbah the regular people were all in on it. Unbelievable. You can speak to people who go into the Arab villages even around here when they go and they make arrests there's not one house not one house that doesn't have a picture of Al-Aqsa and Muhammad. Not just in not just in Gaza.
All the Arab villages around here. Every single one. Right. But these are the good Arabs.
Yitro Yitro is telling Yitro is telling Moshe Rabbeinu it's gotta be like he says here יתרו הציע למשה שילוב של אנשי חיל. Yeah, yeah, you have to be warriors but they must be בעלי מידות רוחניות גדולות. They must be spiritually developed people to lead this place. Remember I you know I told you this one of my dear chavrusas longstanding chavrusas is married to Bibi's daughter from the remember Bibi has a daughter from a previous marriage right and they're they're stark Breslovers.
They live in they live in Mea Shearim now. And Bibi has an einikel that who did a siyum shas at his bar mitzvah. These kids are mamash with it's unbelievable. Zocharta? It's unbelievable it's an amazing thing.
And the only question that always intrigued me when we would sit and learn and he'd say oh we had yeah we had dinner with the shver or you know didn't happen that often but he would be like oh yeah we we went over to for whatever. I always asked him like I just want to know one thing. Does your shver believe in Elokei Yisrael? It's the only thing I care about.
לא עניין אותי שום דבר cigars champagne none of this things.
Does does your shver believe in Hashem? And you know what when Huckabee was by us for dinner Friday night I think I told you that was the only question I only had one question for him. He was talking the whole night he was sharing such amazing things it was so it was such a beautiful evening. It was such a bizarre evening. Four Hummer stretches on in my driveway four guys security from the State Department in my kitchen and then Mike at the Shabbos table.
It was surreal. And I said and I I turned to him during dinner I said I said Ambassador I really only have one question. Do you believe that President Trump believes in God? What do you think? What do you think? He gave the most elaborate 20-minute answer that gave an answer. Yeah yeah he he felt that after what was it called Butler? Yeah the bullet grace.
After the bullet grace. graze, he said he saw that something shifted in his way of thinking about something, right? Something did shift. What exactly he couldn't, he couldn't, he wasn't going around saying now that he should give shiur in Messilat Yesharim obviously, but some, something shifted. mashehu nishtana, something changed.
Yitro is telling Moshe Rabbeinu, if you want to win, you have to have people in those chiefs of command that are spiritually holding. Baalei midot gedolot. And what did your chavrusa say about Bibi? Tell you the truth, he said he didn't know. He said he did, I asked him this many years ago.
This was, this I probably asked him this like 15 years ago. I don't know, he's definitely saying b'ezrat Hashem much more in his speeches much more in his look now. But he's, I don't know, you know, I don't know. But I told you when I saw him when I met him on Yom Haatzmaut this year, last year, and I asked him what his mother's name was for davening, I saw that it did, it was, you could see something is b'emet.
Not that I'm a navi or anything, but you can tell when someone brushes you off, even with their eyes, and someone that's caught with like oh, you're asking me my mother's name? You could ask me anything in the world, that's what you're asking me. Yachol lihiyot, I don't know.
יראי אלקים אנשי אמת שונאי בצע הספורנו אומר כי משה... now Rav Eliyahu says, הספורנו אומר כי משה לא מצא אנשים שיש בהם את שתי התכונות הללו.
Moshe Rabbeinu looks for people that have this combo of both and Moshe Rabbeinu couldn't find.
ביקש ולא מצא אנשים שיהיו בהם כל המעלות שהזכיר יתרו. We see another allusion to this in Parshat Devarim. It says I'm looking for אנשים חכמים נבונים וידועים.
And then it says he found anashim chachamim viyeduim. Nevonim he didn't find. What does Rashi say? What does a person in the olam has navon, which means tevunah, which means binah? Rashi says, אלו אנשים שמבינים דבר מתוך דבר. Right? Moshe Rabbeinu says those I didn't find.
Chachamim, betach. Yeduim, known, prestigious, found. Nevonim? No, didn't find that.
ולמה לא מצא אנשי חיל יראי אלקים? lama lo matza? On the bottom, כי אנשי חיל חושבים שבדרך כלל שההצלחה שלהם היא בזכות עצמם.
Generally speaking, people of war, like really top-notch warriors, generally attribute success to themselves. And this is what the Torah writes in Sefer Devarim: פן תאכל ושבעת ובתים טובים תבנה וישבת ובקרך וצאנך ירביון וכסף וזהב ירבה לך וכל אשר לך ירבה. And good things are gonna happen to you, you're gonna conquer and multiply and it's you're gonna have stock and everything's gonna be amazing.
ורם לבבך ושכחת את ה' אלקיך המוציאך מארץ מצרים מבית עבדים ואמרת בלבבך.
You may not say this outside, but in your heart you'll say כחי ועצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה. My might and my strength did this. And he explains here, this is not necessarily a level of rishut, this is a level of tivut, it's natural for a person to look at life's successes and forget about the Ribbono shel Olam even if you ask a person, do you believe in God? Of course I believe in God. So who did this? Well, God gave me, right? And you can still link the God thing into like you, but at a certain point it's ושכחת את ה' אלהיך.
It is.
התכונה הטבעית של מי שמצליח היא לחשוב שההצלחה באה לו בזכות עצמו. This is just natural.
שהרי הוא טרח ויגע בכוחו לחרוש ולזרוע.
This is one of the reasons why we have the mitzvah of Bikkurim. Why is mitzvah Bikkurim שקולה כנגד כל התורה כולה? Chazal say, it's an amazing Midrash. Why is mitzvah specifically of Bikkurim? Bikkurim. What do you bring? You plant a tree, you have a little grape, a tamar, whatever, and you take the first grape and you bring it to the kohen.
That mitzvah is שקול כנגד כל התורה כולה? Yes. Because the consciousness and the awareness that absolutely everything, just the zechut that we have right now to sit around a table in Efrat on a Monday morning and learn Torah after davening in a minyan. is all because Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us the opportunity. Yes, I pride myself I wasn't lazy.
Why weren't you lazy? Because I tuned into the kochos that Hashem gave me. That's the only reason. Eli's hand is halfway up, so I don't know if that's Every time we have a major event we make a seuda, and the seuda you say hamotzi, which is the most counter-intuitive bracha in the lexicon.
המוציא לחם מן הארץ really? I plant it, it's the most labor intensive achila that you could ever have and I'm saying that you brought it out of the aretz.
So we're forced like every single day, every Shabbos, every time we sit for a seuda we realize this, but we don't internalize it. Beautiful. Nachon, nachon. Again, second to bottom, second line in the bottom paragraph, שהרי הוא טרח ויגע בכחו לחרוש ולזרוע, הוא טרח בחכמתו להשקיע נכון את כספו, listen.
I went to school, I know how to invest, I know how to use my money, I know where to put my money, I know where it goes. That's why that's why I made back big bucks on that investment. Right?
ומרגיש כי המאמץ שלו נשא פרי, he feels that his work bore fruit.
ולכן הוא מתגאה ורם לבבו משם קרובה הדרך לשכוח את השם.
It is so easy to forget the Ribbono Shel Olam.
כך אומר הפסוק בתהלים גבה עינים ורחב לבב אתו לא אוכל.
גבה עינים ורחב לבב, these are all attributes of a person that the success gets to them. Oto lo uchar.
That's he's not part of the gesheft, he's not part of the picture of why Hashem created the world.
אבל גאוה וגסות הרוח, says the Gemara, the famous Gemara in Sotah.
אמר רב חסדא ואיתימא מר עוקבא כל אדם שיש בו גסות הרוח אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא אין אני והוא יכולין לדור בעולם. Him and I can't stem, we can't chill together.
It's interesting, you could have said this same response from Hashem of אין אני והוא יכולין לדור בעולם, who else would you think it's shayach to say that about? Rasha? Like what kind of rasha? Like give me another attribute of like a murderer? Mechalel Shabbos? Adulterer? Idol worshipper? Idol worshipper for sure. Gasus ruach. Gasus ruach, gasus. My father used to say a word that I thought was English, because my father's accent I couldn't tell sometimes growing up certain words, I didn't know what he was saying.
Thought maybe it was English, Hebrew, I don't know what language it is. Did you grow up with the word prost? Yeah. What language is that? It's Yiddish, Russian. Russian! Here he comes, here he comes.
It's like our national anthem, yes. The Russian! What does it mean in Russian? Simple. Simple. No, it's vulgar.
Vulgar. So it's not I might be starting from that. That's not what my father meant. Right.
Simple prost. Poshute prost. No, that's not what my father meant. It's prost was like vulgar.
It's poshlost. Poshlost. It's right. What? Yeah, unrefined or coarse? Unrefined.
It's also what it means in Russian as well. I mean, that's also meaning the same thing. I know, but the connotation like my father would never have said in a, oh, it's simple. No, not simple.
Much more. Oh, you think it's from that? Pritzus? You think that's... I don't know. You think it comes from pritzus in Yiddish? Prost...
I don't know, no, I'm wondering. If there's one person who should know what the word prost means... I trust you. Give me a sentence, when would he use it? Rabbi, give me a quick sentence, when would your father use it? No, I'm not giving any example.
I'll give my own example. No, I can't give my own example because then you'll understand. Someone else give an example. Prost.
Don't watch that movie, that's a proste movie. Yeah? Okay. That would be pritzus. In Russian means like lumpen.
Like what? Lumpen. What's that? Are you speaking English or Russian? No, I don't understand. What word did you say? Lumpen. Lumpen? Lumpen? Lumpen? Eli? Just it's just coarse, it's vulgar.
No, I want to understand the word he said. Lumpen, I don't know what... Sasha... Alright, alright.
This is Rosetta Ice. Lumpen describes people or things that are dull, clumsy, unthinking, or heavy. This is from the German lumpen. It is often used disparagingly to describe the mentally sluggish lower class or lumpen proletariat.
That's great. This is great. This is amazing. Eli, he upped you one, man.
Sasha lumpen. Sasha upped Eli one, I love it. It's so crude. Yeah, ah yeah.
That is the only thing that Hashem says we can't chill together, right? Gassut haruach. But obviously this gassut haruach is shayach so much to ga'avah. That's really what it is. It's ga'avah.
All right, we can't hang out here together.
אין אני והוא יכולים לדור בעולם. We can't be together in this world. It just won't work.
How do you get gassut haruach from anshei chayil again? Why is he doing that here? Chochmah. Sforno explained that according to the Sforno's explanation of what an anshei chayil is, anshei chayil must be a warrior that's absolutely in tune with ruach because he's most prone to fall into that because of his hatzlachah. Like the—that he has most—listen, let's face it, successful musicians, performers, they're most likely to fall into these things, why? Because of the hatzlachah of the from the mitzad hamikabel, of course, so they're going to fall into it. They're easier to fall into it more than anything else, anybody else.
Anshei chayil is the same exact thing. Guy comes back from the battlefield as a warrior that was matzliach. What shmirah that person kind of needs. What shmirah.
Of course. Yeah, Eli. Yeah, that's what the Kiddushin... Hatov shebarofim l'gehinnom.
Right, and the good doctors go there because they're the ones that think that look what I'm capable of, life and death is in my hands, I'm really good at this. Not so fast. Tell you a quick story. We were just married, we're living here in Efrat, and I started getting a horrible cough that wouldn't go away, but it wasn't just—I didn't feel like bronchitis or anything, my sleep, everything was off.
I went to a doctor and he called me in and he looked at me, didn't ask me any questions, he's like יש לך ברונכיטיס יש לך דלקת ריאות. I said to him אתה יודע שרבי נחמן אומר שהרופאים הם הכי קרובים למלאך המוות. And he looked at me and he said and he showed me his Rambam that he had on the wall that said the Rambam says over there about the rofim sheluchei derachmana, right? So he prescribed me something, Augmentin or something, I don't know, I forget what he gave me. Whatever it was.
And then—and I'm like three weeks on taking it, nothing's getting—it's getting worse. I said, he'll see because in Kupat Cholim you could doctor-hop, and when your patient goes to see another patient, they could see it's all there. I don't care. I'm going.
The guy looks at me, he's like "Are you crazy? You've had mono for a month." And I was thinking of going back to him with that slip, and saying "Do you mind changing my prescription please, you know?" Of course, anyone in power—but any person in power, it's easy to fall into this. But davka the sakanah for Am Yisrael to be led by people with this inyan is sakanah me'ein kamochah. It's a danger like no other danger. It's not just another nice attempt to establish sovereignty over a piece of land in the world.
Davka here it's most, most, most detrimental when this is when you're not finding anshei chayil al pi HaSforno. We've seen it. We're seeing it now, we're living in it. We're in it.
How many more—and now again, the real anshei chayil are people that have to see, to read the map right, to understand what the matzav is and to bring it to the tachlit. That's what he says here, and bring it to the end. How many more times do our boys in Lebanon have to go in and out? How could it be that it's even a sheilah that we're not conquering Southern Lebanon? How could that even be a sheilah today? How could it be, how could it be a sheilah whether there should be Arabs still living— in the area of Gaza or not. How how is it even a shayla? B'emet I'm asking from the height of of temimus.
How is this even a question? So you go into the logical rational mind and you come up with all the reasons why it's still a question vechulei. And then you get stuck over there and realize זה לא יכול להיות. How many more times are we gonna and like what you just said about our friendly neighbors here that are sitting quietly just waiting for all the hatred to end so they could come back as they used to and bring us flowers before Shabbos. Who are we kidding?
אנחנו חיים פה לא רק בנסים אנחנו חיים באשליות.
We're living in illusions. What's the root of it? How did we get here? Gaasus ruach. We know through our military victories and our Western ethics and set of morals how to be a mensch to the people in the world. It's meshuga.
Absolutely meshuga. Now he gives a whole list over here the rest of the page of all the different doros that reached this place of wealth and goodness and fortune and ended up forgetting about the Ribono Shel Olam but I want to jump to page 39 just for a few more minutes.
כיוון שזאת תכונה טבעית של אנשים עשירים ומנצחים למרוד בהשם ולחשוב שהכל בזכותם. This is a natural tchuna.
This is a very natural phenomena of people that are matzliach to forget the Ribono Shel Olam.
לא היה בדור ההוא אנשים שהם אנשי חיל יראי השם. In the time of Moshe Rabbeinu he couldn't find these types of leaders.
עם ישראל צריך ליצור אנשים כאלה במשך הדורות.
We must create these types of leadership and in fact anytime there's been an attempt in the Israeli army for someone that has these tchunos to go to the top they've been cut right before they get to the top. Do you know what I'm talking about? You understand what I'm saying right? Regarding Aluf Pikuds and Ramatkals. To get to the top of it they're always cut short. To get to the top you have to be you have to have gone to an Ivy League school in America.
Where what do you mean? All of these people who are on the upper level upper echelon of the military. The Israeli military. Yeah. They've all gone to Ivy League.
Here you have guys the fiercest warriors and mamash anshei chayil from Hesder yeshivas from yeshivot but these guys are just gibborim gibborim gibborim and they know that sky's not the limit it's this place right before it. Rabbi Eliyahu's what's that? A glass ceiling. Mamash mamash yeah. My third son is in Hevron.
He was in a mechina and he mentioned a little bit to the Rav that they're not training them to be like alufim or go to the higher units. The whole tachlis of the mechina is to make them shluchim of emuna and simcha. Gevalt yeah they're going to the army to mechazek the army. That's the kavana nothing else no no agendas or trying to go higher and higher.
Because they read the map. Because their leaders they read the map and and they saw like okay like that it won't work but maybe let's go in yeah. So they're going into units you know my my oldest son was like you know you need to go to this unit this thing be a lochem and all the higher higher things because you know that's where he was involved and even people here have talked that way to me about that kind of higher unit kind of headspace. I remember in yeshiva same thing highest shiur but the real pnimiyus is that we have to do ratzon Hashem and and that's mechazek Am Yisrael.
Nachon that's what that's what he's saying.
עם ישראל צריך ליצור אנשים כאלה במשך הדורות.
אבל אם לא שמים לזה לב ולא משתדלים על זה זה לא קורה. If you don't try it it doesn't happen.
בימי משה עוד לא היה שילוב של אנשי חיל יראי אלוקים. In the time of Moshe Rabbeinu there weren't there wasn't the combination of these types of people.
ועל כן היה משה בבעיה קשה. Moshe Rabbeinu is stuck in a big problem.
האם ימנה אנשים יראי אלוקים שאינם אנשי חיל או למנות אנשי חיל שאינם יראי אלוקים. Shoneh. So Moshe Rabbeinu is stuck with the problem here. Does he appoint fierce warriors that don't really have the Eibeshter in their kishkas or does he appoint you know chevra that are doing hisbodedus but don't know how to lift up a gun.
Basically.
משה רבנו בחר באפשרות השנייה.
ויבחר משה אנשי חיל מכל ישראל. So who did he end up choosing? That's what we have here.
Exactly. Exactly.
כי ירא אלקים שאינו איש חיל לא יודע איך לפעול בתוך המציאות because you could have the most spiritual person in the world but if you don't know how to how to how to kill Amalek, Amalek will come and kill you.
באופן שיוכל להביא את עם ישראל לארץ ישראל.
We had to we had to figure out a way for a physical movement to take place. Moshe Rabbeinu's like wait wait wait the job here is I have to continue teaching them but I can't bank on on just like a bunch of teachers to give Am Yisrael the koach to fight people like Amalek and then Sichon and then Og and all these different nations. So what what it seems like there was a compromise. It's very it's very pessimistic what he's saying over here.
But it seems that Moshe Rabbeinu came to the conclusion that like okay if the objective right now is to make sure we get to Eretz Yisrael physically then I have to just choose anshei chayil. Now it's amazing the symmetry to to our times. It's like it's pretty far out. Yeah.
Is he like saying because you started by saying you need both and then he goes okay if I have two options and can only have one I have to go with the anshei chayil. Is he saying that it's easier to to have the anshei chayil get the second part as opposed to the people that are already holding spiritually to get them to hold physically? It's not that it's easier but for the for the reality for the practically speaking it's easier to make sure people stay physically alive through gas ruach leaders than people giving out Tikkun Klali's. Yeah. According to Rashi who says it's all about money.
He says anshei chayil's wealth, anshei emes, yerei Elokim, sonei batza, everyone had 400 camels full of wealth. So was Moshe only able to find rich people? What was the chiddush there? There's a beautiful answer that Moshe was able to find rich people amongst the rich people. He saw people who had real wealth included yerei Elokim, anshei emes, sonei batza and anshei chayil included all those ones. So maybe you need to do the same thing here but according to Sforno is that everyone else left chamushim, they all had arms.
But the fine warrior amongst everyone who's carrying a arms included yerei Elokim, anshei emes, sonei batza. That's a total limud zechus on this, yeah. He saw the potential inside, he found the warrior so he said this is a real anshei chayil. He saw the potential.
Nachon. He saw the potential. I wouldn't so I wouldn't then the symmetry is gets lost because I I wouldn't say the same about today. That's a limud zechus on then.
Halevai, halevai on today. But also then the anshei chayil they got the job done militarily. They wiped out the enemy. They got them to Eretz Yisrael.
Here the anshei chayil עושים חצי עבודה כל פעם. Yeah. Yeah. Nachon.
And then it wasn't so smooth sailing. Right, it wasn't smooth sailing, it was it got done but it got done with a crazy price, yeah. But it is a test because I remember when I went to see my son's oldest son you know they're called Sparta and all like built like bricks like giant. You see these warriors you know from you know Savyon and Tel Aviv and Haifa, you know top mishpachas in Eretz Yisrael but like in the you know what they call the left or whatever they call it and they're big giborim and they're chazak.
And then you see the other bechina and all long pe'os and talking to Hashem and you know playing guitar and singing you know like these guys and it is a nisayon. Right. It is. It is.
Although units that are getting sent in front lines they are of the Hesder. So when we do the ratio, I mean this is a horrible ratio it's a horrible horrible thing to point out, but you know a lot of things that did bring a level of achdus for a certain while and I hope it's still there is when the chevra that are not really in what we call our machaneh noticed that the percentage of of chayalim that were killed since October 7th that come from yerei Elokim homes on a ratio level far surpassed. I mean I was I don't even I don't remember what the numbers were but it was like it was a joke. Huh? I think it was high 60s.
Elazar just put out a video he just put out a movie about just about that about he did a documentary with Rav Tamir Granot and Rav... Who did? The guy from Elazar. The guy from Elazar, yeah. He put out a documentary basically following Rav Tamir Granot from Rosh Tzurim who lost his son.
Right. And Rav Medan from the Gush whose son lost his legs. Percentage wise about that whole about our machaneh about how the percentage wise how much we've sacrificed. It's unbelievable.
Unbelievable. But there's an underlying kind of subconscious, it's horrible to think about because a Jew is a Jew is a Jew, it's almost like I've heard this from from others like look we're Malchus, we're the Air Force, we're Tel Aviv, we're koach we got this covered okay we we decide what programs Go in and you go, you go and you know you'll go on the ground and we shouldn't have to drop a bomb on civilians and so you guys will go and take, you know. Really? They're absolutely, I mean what I'm saying, I mean I maybe I'm not articulating it properly but the idea is there's something that's there. Oh, us in the Kiryah, we're up here, we have this...
we're Malchus, we're looking at the bigger picture, we have this, but the Yeshivah, yeah, yeah, go fight, Rav Kook, smack themselves, all that. I'm, it's crazy. It's crazy. But I'm telling you something that is there.
You see the mothers of the other side they're with powerful people so they could influence the media and to protect their own boys to not go into too dangerous places. But keilu to make them feel high and special but in the let's say the... say something. I mean am I not, I mean am I, I know this is like true, say something.
Sounds like you're describing this game of Stratego, you know? The mekimim for the country sacrificed in 1948, they sacrificed before 1948 and it was that sacrifice that brought them that leadership. So the leadership of Am Yisrael is now shifting towards the people that are sacrificing for the country. That's, they could do it for their perspective and it could be that that's really in their heart, I don't know, I haven't asked them but I feel like truly what's happening is that there is a shift that's happening that the leadership of the country is passing on to the next generation of Zionism, to the next generation of the people that love Hashem, that love Eretz Yisrael, they're sort of fusing the spirit and the koach of chayim. And that's just what's happening, it's happening through bedamayich chayee, it's happening through our blood but that's just the leadership.
Well, that's why they're flipping out. Thank you. They know it's shifting that way so that's why they're hanging on to whatever they can as the last glimpse of their being able to have a say in anything, which is why they were rebelling and doing all this thing that they were doing when it came to the Beit Mishpat Elyon and all those things because it all stems... that we learned Tikkun HaMedinah was very clear over there, very, very clear.
The whole evolution needs to take place davka from there, 100%. Okay, we can continue. You see over here, just the next tav, he says, אנשי חיל שאינם יראי אלקים מביאים צרות. See where we're heading over here.
So I want to pause here but two things, just because we're in this zman right now, we have no idea if we're even gonna have a shiur on Wednesday. Everything is, everything is up in the air, you know, we have no idea about anything. If we are, B'ezrat Hashem, we're gonna continue with this and learn Even Shlomo on the parshah on Friday for right, for right now. Beis, next Monday night is Yom HaZikaron.
We a few years ago the chevreh, the boys, we went out to Har Herzl. Were any of you with me? You were there, I think yes, you came. Yeah, with the chevreh, we found a spot where I as a kohen could sit. Monday night's Har Herzl is, is the closest thing to Beit HaMikdash until the Beit HaMikdash will be.
I want, I want us to, last year I was gonna do it at the last second, my Rebbe's sister died and I flew out to pay a shiva call and that's why it didn't work out. We were gonna go. But this year I want to, I want to, I want to go next Monday morning after davening, take a few cars and go and davka with this sefer because there's something here on the ma'alah of the kedoshim of chayalim that gave their lives to learn and daven on Har Herzl next Monday morning. If you're able to do it, right after davening, get there by tenish, be there for an hour, hour and a half, do this, whatever it is.
Just if, if you're able to block out that time and tell other chevreh, I want us to go strong and and really I think it'd be very special because from later on that day and the next day you can't get close to Har Herzl unless you're, it's gonna be mobbed. It'll probably already start, it'll probably, but Yossi's gonna find a spot where we could sit there, bring the sefer, and if there's chalilah techiyat hameitim by then then we will be there on next Monday morning, okay?
ישועות ונחמות לעם ישראל חנניה בן עקשיא אומר