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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, good morning everybody. Boker Tov. Shach Koyach for coming. We are learning in the month of Iyar לעילוי נשמת נחום שמעון בן יצחק אריה בתיה פייגה בת ישראל and in memory of all the holy Chayalim that gave their lives and the ones who are working tirelessly to protect us in Eretz HaKodesh.
The week is sponsored by Mindy Barad, Refuah Shleima for the Chayal Eliyahu Ben Smadar, by the Lukin, Lukin and Almond families in memory of Sarah's grandfather חיים יצחק בן דוד whose Yahrtzeit is on Chaf Tes Iyar, by Regina Warshawsky in honor of her brother, our dear friend whom I miss so much, Doctor, Heiliger Rabbi Doctor רב חיים שלמה ורשבסקי, Peter Warshawsky's birthday, and Miriam and Avrom Deutsch L'ilui Nishmas Avrom's grandparents שרה בת יוסף זאב and אברהם אבא בן זכריה and other family members who perished in Auschwitz on Chaf Daled Iyar. Okay, if you can open up please to page sixty-four. Sixty-four. The last thing that we learned in the Sefer that we're learning from Rav Eliyahu, Rav Shmuel Eliyahu was the whole notion of Milchemes Mitzvah.
Is this a Milchemes Mitzvah or not? We gave a lot of examples from here, we gave a lot how it is, we had a lot of examples from our lives that show that the people that are running the war still are not in the consciousness of this is a Milchemes Mitzvah because when it's a Milchemes Mitzvah things operate a little bit differently and we're still in the thick of it even though we're in a very strange Tekufah, right? It's very strange right now, it's Keilu, כאילו שלא קרה כלום, it's as if nothing happened and we're just breathing the air again of and like a big, big, big, one of the biggest enemies of Am Yisrael, Sinwar once said, he said אנחנו מכירים אתכם אתם מכורים לשגרה, he said, you're addicted to routine. So you're just addicted to to things going back and being normal while we continue to, you know, deepen our our sick, sick, disgusting imagination of what we could do. It's an amazing, it's a wild, unfortunate truth and hopefully the Torah that we're learning won't allow us to get addicted to routine and and understand the necessity of what we're trying to do and Hashem should give us the Koach to implement them and fulfill them and that Yidden shouldn't ever go into these types of routines ever again. Amen.
Today what we're learning about is עזרת ישראל מיד צר ממלחמת מצווה. The category of Milchemes Mitzvah falls under a lot of other places as well and like we're going to see right now based on the Rambam that when you see there's an Inyan of לא תעמוד על דם רעך, don't stand over your blood's, your brother's blood that has a lot of weight and a lot of meaning. It's not just a nice statement that we liken to the Inyan of embarrassing somebody. Usually there we say 'Ah, לא תעמוד על דם רעך', have you ever heard that analogy before? We always go there.
Don't embarrass your brother, that means because embarrassing someone is like spilling their blood. That's a nice Drash. But then there's like the Pshat, right? The Drash, okay, don't embarrass anyone, we have enough Sefarim and and plenty of Sefarim in Torahs to get us into the Inyan of Ahavas Yisrael V'chulu. But the Pnimiyus, the the Pnimiyus of it is is and the Chitzoniyus are the same thing when it comes to the Pshat, לא תעמוד על דם רעך, if there's a Metziyus if there's a reality that Jewish blood can easily be or not even easily, just is can will probably be spilled, there's a Chiyuv there to change that Metziyus, to change that reality.
Now, what's interesting is like this, I was happy and I was sad last night. Why? On my drive, like I mentioned before, I drove out to Yitzhar. Yitzhar is about an hour and a half from here. You go on the sixty and you just keep on going on the sixty northbound and you pass Shilo, Ofra, Eli, you keep on going, you're in the heart of the Shomron there.
And what's crazy is that I was like wondering while I was on the road I was like, wow, how come I don't see any of the, I remember this road, like how come I don't see any of the Meshuganeh villages that I used to pass through like Hawara and Beita? And before you even realize it, they built Kvish Okev. Now so why am I happy? Because a little bit of a calmer ride, Chasdei Hashem. But why why is that also heartbreaking? Because you're avoiding, you're avoiding the Inyan. We're avoiding the Inyan.
It's like continuously Kvish Okevs. You're going to keep on building Kvish Okef so you're going to keep on doing, you know, going around and around and around. But what does the, so one could say, well wait a second, there's a Mitzvah of לא תעמוד על דם רעך. That means you have to make sure that your brother's blood doesn't get spilled.
So therefore the answer is build a kvish okef. Why? Because that's changing the long-term לא תעמוד על דם רעך? No. Ma pitom! Not at all. It was so bizarre.
It was such a mamash, it was such a conflicted feeling inside like, oh this is geshmak. This is it was so nice, it was so comfortable. On the other hand, ze lo ze. Ze lo ze.
See one of the tenets on October 7th is that some of the chayalim, the keilu weren't able to be by Gaza was because they had to be in Hawara. Nachon. They blamed Tiv Sukkot for that. Nachon.
He was there last night. He came with his son with his upshern. Okay, ezras Yisrael mideen לא תעמוד על דם רעך. Let's learn the Rambam.
This can now, we obviously can tangent the daylights out of these shiurim. We're going to try to bring it down to like learning halacha lema'aseh and learning mitzvos and learning the inyan and the chiyuvim. And there's no one greater to ground us than the Rambam. HaRambam kotav ואיזו היא מלחמת מצוה זו מלחמת שבע עממים.
We learned that already. Milchemet Amalek. We've definitely bunched into that.
ועזרת ישראל מיד צר שבא עליהם.
What does that mean? What do you think that means? Ezrat Yisrael, helping Yidden, מיד צר שבא עליהם. Where in the Tanach do we have this lashon of tsar? Where? Ish tsar ve'oyev, Haman hara hazeh. Tsar, tsorer, to be tsorer means we have the lashon also by Hashem telling Moshe Rabbeinu with the Midyanim צרור את המדינים והכיתם אותם. Tsorer, I don't know what the right word in English is for litzrol.
What do you think Moshe? Annihilate, wipe out, ken. So helping Yidden from the hand of the one that's trying to hurt them.
מלחמת שבע עממים ועמלק מפורשות בתורה says Rav Eliyahu. Those are clearly stated in the Torah.
But what's the makor מהו המקור למלחמת ישראל מיד צר? But where do we have a source for the fight, for the war of Am Yisrael to save us from the hand of the one that's coming to hurt us?
בשירי הקרבן על הירושלמי, it's one of the mefarshim on the Yerushalmi, כתב כי המקור לכך הוא לא תעמוד על דם רעך. It says this is the source, לא תעמוד על דם רעך.
מי איכא למאן דאמר דעזרת ישראל מיד הצר הבא עליהם לאו מצוה היא?
דהא אפילו ביחיד הנרדף איכא עשה ולא תעשה להצילו כדכתיב לא תעמוד על דם רעך והשבות לו זו אבדת נפש. What is he saying over here? We have this din that there's a chiyuv, there's a chiyuv to save and there's a chiyuv not to ignore when it's about one Yid, one Yid that's under that's in a state of oppression and that's going to be chas veshalom attacked.
So of course if there's a din on one Yid that you have to go out and save him, kal vachomer when the story is that you have עזרת ישראל מיד צר עליהם. We could also we're talking about yachid and rabbim, singular and plural. The truth is, as I'm thinking this, like what's the hava amina that it wouldn't be, that there wouldn't be a chiyuv to save a Yid? All of Am Yisrael in sakana. To bring the rabbim in sakana for a yachid? No, there's no hava amina, it's like על אחת כמה וכמה.
It's like if if you have an obligation, so it's even stronger obligation when it's more. Every life is shaveh kmo... No, yeah, but but but listen to but but there's a there's something in the weight of what Naftali is saying. Something of it, it's mizad hachashash that I'm machnis the rov into a sakana over a yachid.
Al rabbim I wouldn't have that sakana, I wouldn't have that chashash. It wouldn't be that it wouldn't be it. But for a yachid I could maybe say that. He's saying, ah, farkert, even on a yachid there's a chiyuv, then על אחת כמה וכמה it's also on the rov.
And it's also a chashash of the rov, but avada on the on the single person then. Right, it's a bari veshema bari. It's mamash like, yeah, nachon. Okay, we're getting lamdish here boys.
Wow, what's going on to me? Now, Rav Eliyahu says something here that I believe is a much-needed root canal in the yesod of our Am Yisrael's kop. We wait until we have this concept that's called sheket tmurat sheket. We spoke about it last time. We quiet for quiet.
There's no more anti-Jewish concept than that. That's not a Jewish concept that with enemies you act with quiet versus quiet. There's nothing Jewish about it. It's a big problem.
And that's been the lashon here for years. Quiet versus quiet. Listen, brother. others.
I know I'm bringing up stuff that's not comfortable for people to hear. I know. But I just can't afford from a voice of any form of leadership to pretend that going back to any type of shigra is going to be helpful to anybody to feel better about yourselves. So I know like I see your faces when I bring these things up and it's like why I feel like everyone has like a like a cartoon here saying remind me why I came to the shiur again today you know.
But I'd much rather be flying off of Rebbe Nachman but I want to be alive in order to fly over Rebbe Nachman so that's why we're learning this okay. Isn't that the isn't that just the common misunderstanding of what peace actually means? A million percent. A million percent. Where peace is you have the ability to totally destroy and annihilate the other but you don't.
That's true peace right? Are we there? I'm just asking no I'm just no no no I'm asking that's the chiluk that I heard that's the common misunderstanding that peace means demilitarize but actually peace means afoch no increased military strength. Afoch afoch afoch you know there's a vort from רב שמחה בונים פשיסחה I think it's Reb Simcha Bunim it says by Aharon HaKohen what would you think about this mishna that we learn in Pirkei Avot אוהב שלום רודף שלום אוהב את הבריות מקרבן לתורה. So what machaneh would you put camp would you put Aharon HaKohen in?
אוהב שלום רודף שלום. Right? Like you but yeah but if you had to put him in a political party today right? What camp? He'd be in Tel Aviv.
רב שמחה בונים פשיסחה says Aharon HaKohen you have to be rodeph shalom pursue peace you have to rodeph after those that are preventing you from being an ish shalom. Rodeph. Someone's preventing you from being a real peaceful person they're an obstacle for being peaceful ah rodeph they need to be run after. That's not the way we learn it.
He was running around with flowers to everybody all day long right? That's rodeph shalom. No rodeph shalom is also the way that you're teitching it and now look what the gemara says.
בגמרא סוטה אמר רבי יהודה שיש שלושה סוגי מלחמות מלחמת רשות מלחמת מצווה ומלחמת חובה. I want you to remember these three things this terminology three types of war reshut mitzva and chova and we'll hopefully figure out where we're at.
אמר רבי יהודה במה דברים אמורים שהמארס אשה ולא לקחה חוזר מעורכי המלחמה במלחמת מצווה meaning when a person engaged got engaged to a woman but he didn't consummate the marriage they didn't get married so we say he has to come back from the war and what type of war are we speaking about over there milchemet mitzvah? Aval b'milchemet chovah but when it comes to wars that are obligatory immediately lechatchila hakol yotsin. I don't know if you remember when Rav Judah was here a little bit after October 7th not when he was upstairs when he was downstairs and it wasn't for teenagers put it like that. You remember that? That was one of the most intense nights we had here and not recorded b'davka Baruch Hashem so we could actually speak not like me. So no I'm kidding I could speak.
Hakol yotsin he said he quoted this gemara. Hakol yotsin means the all of you every part of you has to go out to this type of war you have to hakol all of you yotsin.
אפילו חתן מחדרו וכלה מחופתה even a chasan and a kallah coming out of their chuppah have to go out and go out to this war. That has to do with milchemet chovah.
והסבירה שם הגמרא אמר רבא מלחמות יהושע לכבוש דברי הכל חובה. When Yehoshua came into Eretz Yisrael and he starts with what's the first place he goes to? Yericho and then begins many wars how many were they? 31 we learned last time and he's doing 31 different wars he says Amar Rava that really according to everyone what they were busy doing while they were conquering the land al kibush was fell under the category of what's called milchemet chovah. Beseder? An obligatory war.
מלחמות בית דוד לרווחה.
What does that mean the wars of Beis Dovid l'revachah? Expansion. To expansion project.
דברי הכל מלחמת רשות. Milchemet reshut.
כי פליגי למעוטי עובדי כוכבים דלא.
כי פליגי למיעוטי עובדי כוכבים דלא לייסו עלייהו מר קרי לה מצוה ומר קרי לה רשות. Ah, but when is the, when is it not clear? So what does he mean over here when it comes to ovdei kochavim? And how do we deal with ovdei avodah zarah within the am? That's when it gets complicated, he says. Because some say that it's milchemes reshus and some say that it's a milchemes mitzvah.
Wouldn't there, couldn't you make a distinction that in both, in our case at least, you both have the ovdei avodah zarah and they've taken lands from us. So it's like a double. It's ovdei avodah zarah that are Jews, not necessarily that that's the case? Where? No, no, no, but where it's a machlokes where it's a reshus or a chovah? No, you can't have a situation where ovdei avodah zarah are living in lands that they understand are shayach to us, but they're here and you have to get them out of here. But in our case it's a double.
Because it's because both fall into the same category. So it only strengthens the case. Okay, maybe he'll take us there later on, I don't know if right away, but let's see. So he explains here: bemilchemes kibbush ha'aretz, second to bottom paragraph, bemilchemes kibbush ha'aretz כולם חייבים גם מי שארש אשה.
Everyone's obligated to go and fight when it comes to conquering the land, which is very interesting, that if I had asked you do we need to tell me are we done with milchemes kibbush ha'aretz? No. But then you have tons of people that would say well, it seems like we are. Because we've settled in the terms in the land, and this is what works for best, and now from here we're going to go and work to some kind of an appeasement or a solution, and from here we'll go weiter. Now, if we hold like that, we have no business of even starting the whole enterprise, right? What's the point of the whole thing lechatchilah? But you have to realize something.
If you say we're here lichbosh es ha'aretz, do you know what kind of, do you know what the extent is? That's Greater Israel. Yes, yes. So you have to you kind of have to decide what makes most sense, but with the kavanah lechatchilah of what kibbush ha'aretz means for you. I'm talking to you as in ke'ilu the am, the nation.
What is it we're trying to do over here? Because if you come here you say thank you to the November 29th, 1947 United Nations and say zeh maspik, yesh po ba'ayah. Because where you heading to? Lean holchim? Okay, so bemilchemes kibbush ha'aretz כולם חייבים גם מי שארש אשה.
במלחמה, now this is interesting, במלחמה שמיועדת להחליש את האויבים שלנו זו מלחמת מצוה. A war that's fought in order to weaken our enemies, that's considered a milchemes mitzvah, אבל לא משתתף בה חתן מחדרו וכלה מחופתה וכל מי שארש אשה ולא לקחה חוזר.
Why? Why isn't that a chiyuv? Because what category does it fall under? Mitzvah. Bemilchemes chovah, they'd have to go out to war no matter what. Because it's not an immediate threat? Right, so so this goes into our times that the people that are against the Prime Minister are saying what are you hocking a tshaynik about with Iran? It's not an immediate threat. And his whole thing is that he's saying is that you guys don't realize.
They're about to get an atomic weapon. It is an immediate threat. It is a clear and now let's say, bo nagid kachah. I'm putting on a completely different hat for a few minutes, okay? B'seder? Let's say that there was no aspiration to achieve nuclear weapons mitzidahm from the Persians, right? But there was a lot of hatred, and maybe let's say they were sending, funneling money to the proxies.
Let's just say it was money, right? So when you go to that, so would you say that that falls under this category? Yes, if the proxies pose an immediate threat and they would be talking about Qatar. I'm talking about Iran for a second. I know, but that example is Qatar. They're not directly attacking but they're funneling.
So therefore, is there any difference between yafeh, is there any difference between Iran and Qatar? Slight. No, Qatar's actually more dangerous. No, I'm talking halachically. I'm trying to, I'm not trying to just speak about this in terms of our feelings, but in terms of this, in terms of the inyan of milchemes mitzvah, milchemes chovah and all these things.
If something is a clear and present danger to ישראל הצרים מיד צר, what are we doing? Like, who... Whose side are we on? What are we battling? The whole headspace of how we go about our country and our people when it's not coming from the world of Torah, we see en shum kivun. There's no hachvannah. Because Naftali's right.
You're right, Oriel. If we actually were real with what's what's the root of things, have would we have waited till we got to this situation with either of those countries? Throw Russia into the mix even. No I'm serious. You could but but the other two are much more, you know? They're all...
did did he specifically use the word lehachlish because that... so in other words, if you're only weakening them, then it's mitzvah like it's a... It's a milchemes mitzvah he said. If they're not wiping them out.
It's not a milchemes chovah he says, it's a milchemes mitzvah, yes. But but specifically because you're not totally taking... no he's saying because you're only lehachlish, you're going to milchemes mitzvah to not need to go to milchemes chovah. Exactly.
Milchemes mitzvah should be there to prevent a metzius that would demand of you to go on a milchemes chovah. That's, I mean and that's a that's a... like why is that so complicated? I don't understand. Why is that such a complicated thing to understand? Politics.
It's the weirdest thing in the world. Why is that a complicated thing? Why is that even considered to be kailu a kitzoini thing to the way way of thinking? Listen, when you go like this and you try... the Torah says... the lashon i'm probably like אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה.
Yishray lev. Yeah, Reb Nachman has a this amazing Torah. Is it Torah Daled? About the thunder. You know about this Torah from Reb Nachman about the re'amim? The re'amim, what were what was thunder created for? It says leyasher akmumiyus shebalev.
That means to straighten... Mayor what what teaching is it? I don't know, sorry. No, you know you're being humble. Leyasher akmumiyus shebalev thunder comes to in straighten to straighten the crookedness of the heart because when you hear thunder, what happens to you? It's like a shock system, right? So chevreh, we heard thunder, thunder and lightning October 7th.
Thunder and lightning. Mamash. And for a few for a few minutes there was a yishur of akmumiyus shebalev. For like a few seconds.
Right? And where are we now? It's pashut lo... it's pashut mitoraf. Pashut mitoraf that we haven't been able to get a grip in terms of what we're saying to the world, what we're saying to ourselves and what we're saying to Hashem. And chas v'chalilah there shouldn't be another thunderous moment that that's meyasher things in that in that type of a way because otherwise things don't really get straightened out again. But what Moshe said, that mahalach is like such a simple thing.
You have a milchemes mitzvah in order to avoid a milchemes chovah. Who wants to go out to war? Like people in the world as a Yid Jews... you know as a Yid Jews, right? As a Yid Jews and our enemies actually believe that we would we would like voluntarily choose milchemes chovah before milchemes mitzvah. Lo yuman.
Lo yuman. Okay, v'chen hisbi'er Assari. Sorry about that tangent. But not sorry.
וכן הסביר שירי הקרבן על ירושלמי בהא דאמר בבבלי למיעוטי עכו"ם דלא ליסו עלייהו אין הפירוש להצילה מהצער שבאה עליהם אלא הפירוש שעושה מלחמה עם שכניו שיש לחוש שברוב הימים יעשו עמכם מלחמה לכן עושה מלחמה עכשיו עמהם למנעם. What does leman'am mean? Preventative.
שלא יהיה בהם כח לבוא על ישראל. What's he saying? One more time.
When we're talking about akum. Sorry. What's the whole inyan that he's trying to say about why there should be a war waged against them? He's saying it's not necessarily about them. But what is it about? The future predictability when you allow a certain sheker and a certain choshech to spread, you could imagine it's going to spread and it's going to come against you eventually.
Even if right now it's not fully directly against you, it will come against you. So this this topic of this level of milchama as much as we would love to just say you know I'm just going to stick to the chovahs and feel like I'm yotzei, ein mah la'asos. Milchemes mitzvah over here is referred to as milchemes menia. Menia, a preventative.
Like sixty-seven. Wouldn't that be like 67? They did the preemptive attack, well they knew they were going to, but no, they were already like attacking, they were already coming en masse, and we had a surprise initial attack. But this would be more like you see that there's a potential of them organizing and coming at us. It was like Begin in what year was it with Iraq? 82, when they bombed the Osirak.
Right, it was 82. Nachon. We discussed it before. It's the whole concept of the Israeli Defense Force.
Oh, yeah, yeah, no, we're done with that word. No, I'm saying, but that's the whole machshava on our end, which is ridiculous. Right. October 6th, we knew what was going on in Gaza.
Everyone was told that there's everything going on. Instead of waiting for what happened, we should have taken care of business prior to. And it's funny because the propaganda on the other side calls us the IOF as if it's a derogatory. Right, that's actually, right.
Or like people say also, you Zionist. Thank you. You're Zionist. You meshichistim.
And it goes back to Sinwar where he's saying that you guys just love routines. Like as if they're trying to shake us into what we're supposed to be. Nachon, nachon. I don't want to sound genocidal, but I will.
Anyone that starts a sentence like that is not exactly going to be talking about olives after this. But I think we're so desensitized to what's going on that even this isn't, this isn't preventative. Preventative is like if you have some enemy far away, I guess Mamdani, we don't know whether Mamdani one day is going to want to pick up a gun and come kill us. You could say it's preventative or not preventative.
All these people are actively involved in killing us now. Chayalim have been killed in the last week. I'm saying it's not some like theoretical thing, maybe one day they'll wake up and try. They're actively involved.
All these countries. Qatar, Turkey, Lebanon. Today, today. We had people killed in the last week from all these enemies.
In the last 48 hours. I'm saying so how, I don't even understand how this is only a mitzvah and not a chova. I mean, all these people are actively involved in killing us. It didn't deter itself.
No, no, no. That's chova. What you're describing is chova, it's not mitzvah. They're in a milchama.
That's what I'm saying. No, no, no. Milchemes mitzvah meaning it's milchemes chova falls under the category of a milchemes mitzvah. It's not reshus.
We have to change the lashon. 100%, it's a chova. And it's not preventative. 100%.
We're going, we've been stretching it saying listen, even when it's not immediate right now, there's still an inyan to marchik the danger. A million percent, you're right. It's too late to be preventative. We became desensitized, just completely desensitized.
Hamas from Gaza yesterday or the day before called for people in Ayosh to carry out October 7th. This is going on now. Lebanon is actively shooting at us now. And we're, right, and we're wrapping up and we're scratching off, we're tearing off patches of Beis Hamikdash from chayalim.
Boys, it's really, it's really wake-up time. Like zeh lo, it's not gonna work any other way. Is there an element that enabling so much of this hatred towards us and spreading the whole world, that's also a third element that they're not just trying to Who's enabling? The people around us, the Yishmaelam, whatever. Enabling, they're pushing it.
They're the source of this growing hatred in the world. So isn't that even intensifying the chova and the mitzvah to deal with this because it's not just a territory? Of course, of course. It's both right, of course. Of course.
And yet someone would walk into our room right now and listen to the conversation, they would, what's so sick about the world is that they would come in here and look at us and say you guys are all fanatics. And they're warmongers. It's the most upside-down thing in the world. 70% of Israeli Knesset members would say we're fanatics.
I'm saying it's not a world problem. It's the Israeli problem. It's our issue, our own, our own within our own chevra. It's a wild reality when this is like the most, I feel like it's the most composed, thought out, and the healthiest and emesdicke loving approach.
Like emesdicke loving approach. But because like I told you guys from October 9th when we first came back to learn after the zva'ah, I said it would be too easy to speak now from the gut and too dangerous. You have to go into the sefarim to learn these sugyas al da'as torah. We have to.
That's why we're doing it this way. There's no because the other way is too easy. To come to all the conclusions we came to. A Jewish way is we go to the Sefarim.
We go and see, wait, wait a second. What, what did we miss over here? What did we miss? What was, what was given over to us in a way that made us think that coming to this state of reality is acceptable? So we have to go back into the Sefer. And that's why I love this Sefer so much cause it keeps on coming and showing us, listen, I'm not making these things up. This is coming from the sources.
מכאן למד הרמ"א שמחללים שבת גם כשגוים עדיין לא הגיעו למלחמה ורק מתכננים.
כותים שצרו על עיירות בישראל אם באו על עסקי ממון אין מחללין עליהן את השבת. Kutim?
באו על עסקי נפשות ואפילו סתם יוצאין עליהם בכלי זיין ומחללין עליהם את השבת. If you have robbers, that's what he's saying.
If there are thieves that come from another town, then you don't mechallel Shabbos over them, but then he says if people come and they're, they're coming with and you know that they have weapons, they haven't done anything yet, מחללין עליהן את השבת.
ובעיר הסמוכה לספר אפילו לא באו אלא על עסקי תבן וקש מחללין עליהן את השבת. That's we learned this once, I remember upstairs, that even people that are coming from a town that's close to where you are and they're only coming with iskei teven vakash. You know what that means, teven vakash? Small arms? Teven vakash is literally teven is a straw, kash is straw, teven is another word for straw I think.
Yano, it doesn't look like they're coming for anything so serious, but that could be all hidden in disguise. You go out, you go out into war on them. You mechallel Shabbos for them.
והרמ"א מוסיף בשם האור זרוע ואפילו לא באו אלא רוצים לבוא.
What's that diyuk? What's the diyuk from the Rama over here? They haven't come yet, they just want to. You know that they want to come with weapons, they didn't do it yet. Do you know what the, do you know what the laws, this is, this is a very painful thing. Do you know what the, I forgot what it is, how do you call it Hora'at pticha ba'esh? How do you say that in English? Rules of engagement.
Rules of engagement. Do you know what it was in this country for years? Still is, still is. Pachot, but it's a little bit different. Just go, just go to rocks, yeah.
Are you turning this on to you? You can't, you can't, you can shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, you can't shoot. When can you shoot? When, when the motion is this. When the motion's this you could shoot. Other than that, is it soldier or civilian? Not true.
I'm telling somebody who did a course last week. I don't want to go into this right now. I'm going to take it back over here because I know that it's been true for many, many years and many Jewish lives were put in danger because of that sick twisted not Jewish philosophy. That's not a Jewish concept.
I don't even know what to call it. It's the exact opposite, well, I do know what to call it, I'm not going to say. It's the exact opposite of how the Rama learned out what, what we just brought to light. This is not the Jewish way.
It's called the Avodah Zarah of being politically correct. And that's Avodah Zarah that's, that has come back to hurt us and sting us so many times. VeZe lo ya'azor. It won't work.
Hora'ot pticha ba'esh. Go back to what we started speaking about. A few more minutes, yeah, a few more minutes.
לא תעמוד על דם רעך.
Hamakor lechiyuv lehatzil. The source that obligates you to save someone is brought in Maseches Sanhedrin.
מנין לרואה חברו שהוא טובע בנהר או חיה גוררתו, you know what that means? The beast is dragging you.
או ליסטין באים עליו שהוא חייב להצילו.
How do we know that you have to be chayav to help someone that's in this?
תלמוד לומר לא תעמוד על דם רעך. In the Gemara it's very pashut. It's not a, even for chevre that aren't holding so much with Gemara kops. This piece is not so complicated to understand, right? I'm going to read it again, just to make sure that I didn't misread it.
מנין לרואה חברו שהוא טובע בנהר? How do we know that someone that sees his friend drowning? O shechaya gorarto? Or that a beast is dragging him. You got trapped and a beast is dragging him.
או ליסטין באים עליו and thieves and robbers are coming onto him. How do we know that he's chayav to be saved? Talmud lomar because this is why we got Torah and the Torah said לא תעמד על דם רעך.
And I'm telling you I feel wherever I go now in the world all I want to scream is קול דמי אחינו זועקים אלינו מן האדמה. The voices, the blood of the voice of our brothers and sisters that have been killed for many many years but specifically in our modern gesheft from October 7th are screaming from the ground. What are they screaming to us?
לא תעמד על דם רעך. Now here's where mamash you see that there's still a need of a huge paradigm shift within the klal.
Does the name Vivian Silver mean anything to anybody? Someone's mother? No, no, no. I heard smolanit in Gaza. She was a Yid. Don't give her titles yet, she's in Olam HaEmet.
Vivian Silver was found I think 53 days after October 7th. Why? She was killed on October 7th. Vivian Silver, I'm sorry to say this, she was literally, this is the term, burnt to a crisp where you couldn't even tell who this person was. Vivian Silver was the leader, leader, now she's in Olam HaEmet and now תהא נשמתה צרורה בצרור החיים.
א ייד איז א ייד איז א ייד איז א ייד.
ואין לנו רשות להתחיל להגיד דברים רעים חס ושלום. I'm explaining to you in the context of how absurd things are. You would think that anyone that was a chasid of Vivian Silver after what happened to her would probably come to the conclusion that her life's work of transporting people from Gaza to hospitals in Eretz Yisrael maybe wasn't the smartest idea because a lot of intel that was used against us came from a lot of those things that were happening.
I was asked to in her memory, I mean I'll never forget this, a few days after she was identified, there's no kvurah or anything there's nothing there. A few days after she was identified I was asked to make a donation in her memory to the foundation that would continue this once things open again. And I promise you that the person that sent me this really believed that they're coming from a holy place. That's what's so crazy.
So what do you do with someone like that? You see it's not someone that's coming in the name of anger or hatred. It's the most disguised evil in the world. They don't even realize it's evil. It's the level of Esav wearing a shtreimel type of evil.
But this is so sick that people could still actually think that this is the way to go about the gift of life that Hashem gave us. Not only is this not preventative, this type of mahalach of thinking will not maybe lead to another October 7th. ze al batuach. Not even a shayla.
Not even a shayla.
לא תעמוד על דם, לא תעמוד על דם רעך.
קול דמי אחינו זועקים אלינו מן האדמה. You can hear it.
You can hear it if you're willing to be emet with yourself, you could hear it. It's still there. Now what's so petrifying from the following statement is that I don't know if you'll agree with me or not. Tell me chevre.
Are we in a better place since October 7th? How define better? Is Am Yisrael's thriving of building ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש בארץ ישראל, does that seem that it's we're more like suitable, it's more we're more on the track of oh wow we were much more dangerous but now unfortunately through all the korbanot it's much more safer? If you really look far down the road, you get a few weeks of chemotherapy, I think we're on the right track. Huh? It's on a better track. There's an expanded consciousness of what? October, how many October 7th Jews are there? So can't you say October 8th Jews? October 8th Jews, yeah. Sorry.
Thank you. Yeah. And also are they here or are they in chutz la'aretz though? Gam vegam. Yeah, both.
I just know it's still an opportunity. We're alive, we're living here and it's an opportunity to get our heads on and to not give up lomshane ma, not because Golda Meir's definition of our secret weapon. weapon, which I don't think is a good statement. You remember what she said? Which president did she turn to that she said to them, you know, we have our secret weapon? Wasn't it Kissinger? Was Kissinger, Nixon, that era.
And she said it's really not important, I'm sorry, who she said it to, it's important that we understand this is also a misguided mehalach and she had a lot of zechuyos, but we wouldn't put her with Esther HaMalka, you understand. So she said, you know, our greatest weapon, our secret weapon, is that we have nowhere else to go.
זה לא יושב לי טוב. That's our secret weapon? That's like Waze and cherry tomatoes.
Our secret weapon is that השם תובע דם אבינו לך ימחה מארץ החיים and every Yid has the zechus of discovering what that means. That's our secret weapon. And once that's embedded within the consciousness, milchemes mitzva, milchemes chova, all of those things start to take shape in a way that we could do something with it. Let's finish this page.
Ma kasha haGemara. Ma kasha haGemara.
למה צריך פסוק מיוחד הרי החובה להציל נלמדת מחובת השבת אבידה אם אדם חייב להשיב אבידת ממונו של חברו כל שכן שחייב להשיב לו את גופו. Gemara says why do I need a pasuk to tell me to save somebody? I have an inyan of hashavat aveida.
If I have an obligation to return a lost object to somebody, על אחת כמה וכמה do I have an obligation to return somebody their life?
מה הוסיפה איפה התורה במצוות לא תעמוד על דם רעך. What is the Torah adding on with this? Onah haGemara.
בהשבת אבידה חייב אדם לטרוח להשיב את האבידה לבעליה. When it comes to returning a lost item, a person's obligated to work hard, litroach, they gotta do something in order to return the lost object to its owners.
חובת הצלת נפשות יתירה עליה שצריך לשכור פועלים ולעשות כל מה שביכולתו להציל נפש. As opposed to when it comes to this, when it comes to לא תעמוד על דם רעך, it's not enough that you try a little hard. You have to go completely go out of your way to make sure that this is taking place.
חזור על כל צדדים שלא יאבד דם רעך.
Look at this.
חזור על כל צדדים שלא יאבד דם רעך. Did you go through every route to make sure that the one that you're taking is least probable that there should be Jewish blood being spilled? Did you do everything you possibly could to really think about all directions in all areas?
השולחן ערוך הרחיב והסביר.
זה Choshen Mishpat taf chaf vav.
הרואה את חבירו טובע בים או ליסטים באים עליו או חיה רעה באה עליו ויכול להצילו הוא בעצמו או שישכור אחרים להציל ולא הציל או ששמע נכרים או מסורים מחשבים עליו רעה או טומנים לו פח ולא גילה אוזן חברו והודיעו או שידע בנכרי או באנס שהוא בא על חברו ויכול לפייסו בשביל חברו ולהסיר מה שבלבו ולא פייסו וכיוצא בדברים אלו עובר על לא תעמוד על דם רעך. The Shulchan Aruch goes out of its way to say listen, לא תעמוד על דם רעך, it's not like only when someone's coming with a gun to your head.
לא תעמוד על דם רעך has a much wider range of what falls under that category. Like prevention to an extreme that we don't really understand.
It's too... it's so not politically correct to mefareish this Choshen Mishpat. Mamash, it is so... it would be considered, you know, Yemach shema, CEO has this whole thing about like the Talmud, right? She's she's been blowing up, right? Yemach shema vezichra.
Right? She I'm like, you know, sister, you could... I could give you much better stuff than, you know, I can give you... I can make so much money like contacting her... may she be'emes rot in hell as soon as possible.
Amen. She's... she's hell. Mamash.
She is... she is mamash hell. We could give her so much good... better chomer than what she has and make a lot of money, right? Because this is basically saying listen, לא תעמוד על דם רעך is covering a wide, wide range of things.
Wide range of things because the Torah goes out of its way to make sure that Yidden don't end up in situations that they could be targets.
ואנחנו עדיין צריכים לעבוד על זה. You just end... you don't have it in front of you...
they have... if you have the sefer, one more line...
ואם ש...
בזה שיחיד נמצא בסכנה חוב להצילו, and if we have an obligation when the singular, when one person has to be saved, כל שכן כשמדובר בציבור שנמצא בסכנה.
Chevre, if there is no kibbush gerush v'hityashvut throughout Gaza, achalnu otah. And again, and again, and everywhere. Gam darom Levanon, אבל בוא נתחיל ש those two fronts right now, those two fronts, we don't have the manpower to do it, those two fronts: Gaza and South Lebanon, Northern Israel. If those two areas remain intact, and this thirty thousand Hamas soldiers now, I think thirty-two thousand, thirty-one, thirty-four...
if we don't understand these types of things, then we're just going to keep on coming back here and say, what happened? How come the world can't see it? While we go to more and more chalila, chas v'shalom, more levayot and shiva houses. The more that we're scared to sound kitsoni when we're speaking about basic לא תעמוד על דם רעך, the more we're missing the point. The more we're missing the point, yeah. So the lo ta'amod is the prerequisite to הבא להורגך השכם להורגו, like the mitzvat milchemet mitzvah is the prerequisite to the milchemet hova.
Nachon. Nachon. Yeah boys, it should be a chazak day, b'ezrat Hashem, l'shem kol Yisrael. Chazak u'varuch, Hakadosh baruch hu.