The 7th sugia of our Av Mishna חגיגה starts on :דף ד and concludes upon :דף ה. Consider the meaning of סלח לנו adjacent unto הרוצה בתשובה. Success in all endeavors – business, life, or proactive defensive warfare etc., depends upon a blessing. This concept of faith defines both the סידור and the communal nature by which Jews customarily gather in order to pray. Nothing explains, Jewish success stories throughout history, at least unto this commentator, as Jews forming a minyan, wherein a quorum of ten men pray for the כלל rather than the פרט.
The vast majority of our People lack the legal training to know how to learn prophets in the T’NaCH as precedents which define the k’vanna of making a blessing in the Shemone Esri. In similar vein, what distinguishes אל from רחום from חנון etc. The failure of our rabbis to teach tohor middot in Yeshiva likewise explains the כרת of the long previous g’lut.
Our Gemara weighs the mussar rebukes by which HaShem sent His prophets: ישעיה א:י – יז.
שמעו דבר ה’ קציני סדם, האזינו תורת אלהינו עם עמרוה. למה לי רב זבחיכם יאמר ה’ שבעתי עלות אילים וחלב מריאים, ודם פרים וכבשים ועתודים – לא חפצתי. כי תבאו לראות פני מי בקש זאת מידכם רמס חצרי? [אלא] רחצו הזכו הסירו רע מעלליכם מנגד עיני חדלו הרע למדו היטב דרשו משפט אשרו חמוץ שפטו יתום ריבו אלמנה.
Tohor middot development and maturity defines the mussar of ירמיה ח:יח – ט:כג.
כה אמר ה’ אל יתהלל חכם בחכמתו, ואל יתהלל הגבור בגבורתו, אל יתהלל עשיר בעשרו. כי אם בזאת יתהלל המתהלל, השכל וידע אותי כי אני ה’ עשה חסד משפט וצדקה בארץ כי באלה חפצתי נאם ה’.
The prophets as a man condemn flattery, lies, deceit etc which promotes anarchy within any city. The mussar given by both ישעיה וירמיה, briefly quoted above connects with Parshat מסעי, specifically the Levitical city of refuge ie its small Sanhedrin court of 23 judges, and adjacent to this Torah ideal of justice – comes the famous court case of the daughters of Zelophehad.
The prophets of the T’NaCH all command mussar. Mussar, the יסוד foundation of all prophetic faith as learned directly from the Rav of kall Israel – Moshe our Teacher – who following the revelation of the Oral Torah 13 tohor middot at Horev, commanded all generations of Israel to dedicate unto HaShem that we accept the revelation of these tohor middot within ourselves.
Our sages teach that Torat Moshe contains 613 commandments, which includes 6 Yom Tov and 13 tohor middot. The order of the Shemone Esri: 6 blessing affixed to both tefillat Yom Tov or tefillat chol, and 13 middle blessings – dedicated on the days of chol. The work days of the week – 6 days. The kabbala of tefilla teaches that on each day of chol a person with k’vanna can dedicate a face of his soul unto HaShem.
The 6 Yom Tov a person with k’vanna can dedicate the specific Divine Name of his soul unto HaShem. P’sach: Ya/Shevuoth:Ha’El. Rosh HaShanna: El/Yom Kippor: Elohim. Sukkot: El Shaddai/Shemini Atzeret: Eish HaElohim. The Gemara of ברכות teaches the famous din: make your teffilot from a fixed place. The word מקום hints to the Name of HaShem. Hence the correct learning of that “fixed place” refers to the heart of man and not some physical external location.
Rav Aaron emphasized the order of precedence: Tannaim sources take priority over commentaries made by the famous Reshonim scholars. The question on the weekly Torah reading therefore centered upon what mussar does the prophet Moshe command. Rather than what p’shat does Rashi teach. This fundamental distinction gave me an immediate skill wherein it became obvious, the difference between the scholarship of Tannaim from the scholarship made by Reshonim commentaries.
דכתיב: סלח לנו אבינו כי חטאנו, מחל לנו מלכנו כי פשענו, כי אל טוב וסלח אתה. ברוך אתה ה’, חנון המרבה לסלח.
The mussar given by all the prophets: Israel why do you despise your Cohen inheritance and pursue to duplicate the cultures and customs of the none Cohen Goyim? The tuma Yatzir of Israel exists upon a לאו דווקא plane of reality – the tuma Yatzir afflicts the hearts of all Man kind.
Great and mighty empires have risen and collapsed throughout history. The last century alone witnessed the rise and fall of the 3rd Reich, the USSR, and finally the sun set upon the British empire, together with victory of Hồ Chí Minh over the French in south east Asia. Post Shoah Europeans have heard the death knell of empire, their evil lie of cultural superiority.
Never again, while the Jewish state rules independent from European 2 state “Final Solutions”, shall European arrogance rule over empires in Africa. The Shoah perpetually testifies against their crude Neanderthal like SS and Gestapo racial Primitivism . The Jewish people experienced g’lut for our failure to cause our sons and daughters to inherit the Cohen tohor faith. Post Shoah, with the rise of the Jewish State, if we achieve tohor t’shuva then HaShem shall war against the tuma Yatzir within the Goyim. The Cohen nation lives as the פרט within the larger Goyim tuma Yatzir כלל. Justice the King weighs in the balance for all eternity.
The judgment of HaShem: uphold righteous justice within the Cohen civilization and the איש מלחהמ ה’ שמו brings the din of g’lut upon the Goyim “enemies” of HaShem. If we pursue the cultures and customs of assimilation, then the איש מלחהמ ה’ שמו brings the din of g’lut upon the Jewish “enemies” of HaShem – כרת.
The concept of faith: From Eretz Israel tohor middot can go out unto the Goyim. But from g’lut tohor middot can not bring the geula redemption unto the Jewish people. Herein explains why the Jews in the last g’lut failed to learn the tohor middot as the definition of Oral Torah logic. And instead treated halacha learned from the Talmud, the Great Codes, as comparable to beef carcasses frozen in a freezer.
The משל of halacha to beef carcasses, contrasts steer flesh with that of a living ox. Oral Torah logic lives through actual thoughts and ideas expressed through a political discussion. Histories of times way past when do not breath living logic, just as the halachic codes failed to teach Torah she’bal peh. In order for halacha to live, as opposed to exist as a cadaver, the spirits of prophetic mussar must breath through the halacha like the loom requires both its warp and weft.
Rashi p’shat on the Chumash teaches how to correctly learn Gemara. The Baali Tosafot commentaries upon the Talmud teach how to learn by means of bringing a precedent. Rashi p’shat on every page of the Talmud teaches how to correctly read a Mishna or Gemara. But the Gemara stands upon how it learns a Mishna, by continual bringing of logical halachic precedents from other sources. Herein proves the failure of how the Rambam’s Yad HaChazakah learned, from beginning to end, and why Rabbeinu Yonah, cousin of Nahmanides, placed him into the כרת din of tuma charem.
The mensch moral code does not compare to a woman’s shopping list wherein she buys goods at a supermarket. The mensch moral code directly compares to Yaacov wrestling with the Angel of Esau. This mensch code lives as a duty of the heart, just as tefilla. Kill the tuma Yatzir within the heart, and chickens cease to lay eggs. כלל: it takes two to tango; day requires night just as up needs down. Herein explains the juxtaposition between הרוצה בתשובה and חנון המרבה לסלח.
To learn how to learn absolutely requires a blessing, together with a Rav. Blessings exist as the toldoth of oaths. Just as the עשרת הדיברות, the relationship of the 8 commandments to the opening first two commandments has an אב\תולדה connection. From this יסוד the Gemaras of Shabbot and Baba Kama asks: do the toldoth follow after the Avot? Oral Torah logic has a consistency that functions from beginning to end throughout the sealed masoret: T’NaCH, Talmud, Midrashim, and Siddur. The Sages of the Talmud refer to this type of learning, as a sh’itta.
The Jewish Civil War which followed the first Crusades disaster in Germany and Jerusalem, witnessed the burning of the Talmud in Paris, followed by the destruction of the Rashi, Tosafot schools – with the expulsion of French Jewry. The follow up disaster of this Rabbeinu Yonah/Rambam Civil War, the destruction of Spanish Jewry and their expulsion in 1492. Actions produce consequences which requires generations to express and work out.
The outdated feudal code of chivalry and honor died at Agincourt in “1415/1945”. That flawed knight ceremony whose arrogance based its identity assumptions upon self centered egotism – all about the individual person, personal glory, the warrior elite killing machine, SS nonsense, politics by other means – genocide. Both Adolf and Mussolini thought that they could dictate their political greed agenda from their offices. That they could use war to accomplish their megalomaniac political ambitions.
A tuma code promoted Civil War not only between self centered Nazi knight warlords, but the belief in aristocratic SS superiority, which viewed foreigners as inferior – this racial prejudice extended to both Jews and the common man alike. Unthinking skewed preconceived judgments marks the tuma of worthless feudal codes, which time and time again fails to learn from its lunatic errors of deliberation . Like the first Crusade – redemption through slaughter, Catholic war crimes.
Based upon its perverted egotist belief system, it routinely underestimated enemy strengths. These complacent, invulnerable, blunderhead, nincompoop, benighted “knights” despised all enemy personnel who did not look like them, dress like them, act like them, and fight like them. The European Civil War which the Nazis started, fought and lost – for ever destroyed the good name of Europe.
Contrast the victory of Israeli Independence in 1948 against European “neutrality” – which assumed the Arabs would succeed in throwing the Jews into the Sea. To the absolute chagrin of virtually all European Capitals, stateless Arab Balestinian refugees now fill the g’lut niche once “occupied” by the Jewish people.
The rule יסודי of g’lut peoples: stateless refugee populations have no nation of their own, and therefore they enjoy no political or civil rights. Nestling into the refugee status, frame of mind, takes centuries. The Office of ריש גלותא ceased to exist only after the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258.
In like manner, EU pompous pretentious of grandeur, their unconditional demand that Israel surrender both our Capital and Samaria frontiers unto stateless Balestinian refugee populations, who lost their genocide wars of 1948 and 1967. It has yet to dawn upon Europe and the EU, their overbearing presumptuous demands, that Israel divide itself into two hostile nations.
The demand that Israeli leaders defile our national sovereignty, voluntarily degrade our nation unto banana republic dominated by Europe. That perhaps Israelis, like this commentator, would perceive the agenda of these foreign alien governments, together with their leaders – as complacent, invulnerable, blunderhead, nincompoop, benighted “knights” … complete and total “democrat” liberal lunatics … Southern Californian/Hollywood sun stroke victims.
Israel has no debt of obligation to the king of Jordan. The notion that Israel would agree to pay a peace price, wherein the Jewish State assumes responsibility to repatriate Arab Balestinian refugee populations instead of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Such a dumb down idea ignores the responsibility of Arab governments to Arab people. Arab governments lost their wars to throw the Jews into the Sea, and actions have their consequences. Political reality stands upon the facts on the ground of 2019, not 1947 – irregardless how much Brussels moans and groans.
To transform the Sahara into forests and farm lands requires both vision and miracles. Building vibrant city states all along that North African trade route. Such cities require that the people who live therein swear an oath alliance not to do acts of theft, oppression, ערוה, and that these oath sworn allies honor and respect the independent courts together with their judicial rulings.
To enable the power of North/East African ‘City-state’ – magnetism – requires enticing people to live in these new urban hubs. Climate change – rain and planting vast forests in the Sahara – “Toto, I have a feeling we are not in Kansas anymore” – The Wizard of Oz 1939. This commentary has previously addressed in detail, how an Israeli Ashdod/Dead Sea canal could achieve this miracle.
City states serve as economic interfaces all along the North African Sahara trade route. To mobilize their assets to attract creative people and businesses from across the globe, to boost economic, social and environmental development. Seoul serves as a great model of city state development – producing 21% of national GDP – the market value of all the goods and services provided – while occupying less than 1% of South Korea’s land mass.
As a menorah has 7 branches, to transform desert wastelands – unto centers of wealth and prosperity, certain crucial requirements must thrive.
1) Tohor judges and judicial courts which operate totally independent from government(s).
2) Global financial capital vortexes. GDP growth. High employment and tourism. Foreign governments who establish trade diplomatic missions. Strength of producer services, financial services, technology and media power.
3) R&D – Efficiency and access to capital and information. Foreign direct investment, the concentration of corporate headquarters, number of particular business niches etc.
4) Cultural Interactions – racial diversity, number of overseas visitors, international students and foreign residents, elite educational institutions.
5) Livability – low housing and general living costs.
6) Environment – Clean water, Clean air and Clean land. Beautiful Parks. Extensive public transportation systems. Infrastructure that favors cycling or walking over cars. Protection of wild areas as nature preserves.
7) Accessability – An ideal model of success, the Dubai International Airport.
דף ד: (ישעיה א) למה לי רוב זבחיכם יאמר ה’. ר’ אלעזר כי מטי להאי קרא בכי (בראשית מה) ולא יכלו אחיו לענות אתו כי נבהלו מפניו. ומה תוכחה של בשר ודם, כך תוכחה של הקדוש ברוך הוא על אחת כמה וכמה.
This sugia include multiple examples of prophetic mussar. Human society does not exist in a vacuum. Torah faith rejects the error of medieval chivalry which the SS and Gestapo monsters embraced. Peace most essentially depends upon people trusting one another. Trust a Man must earn, just as a person makes a living through work.
The mensch code by contrast builds upon fear of heaven, also referred to as Baal Shem Tov. People can trust a mensch because the latter has earned his good name over the years of his life time. The mensch knows that the reputation of a Man, compares to smoke. Evil men through their evil eye and l’shon Ha’ra continually strive to besmirch the reputation of his good name. Hence an additional meaning to the term: fear of heaven.
Herein concludes the learning on this Aggadic sugia of our Av Mishna חגיגה.
The 8th sugia of our Av Mishna חגיגה contains 20 lines of Gemara and concludes at the end of :דף ה. The concept of teaching mussar on immediate observation might appear quarrelsome. From my youth people, starting with my parents, complained about the chip on my shoulder. My grand children call me ‘Bad Pa’, and they like my song: step on toes, step on toes, step on little tiny toes.
Mussar compares to a farmer planting a crop. Mussar grows from within the heart. During the Middle Ages catholic priests forced their entrance into a Shuls and preached conversion theology to captive Jewish audiences. The latter arrogance shares nothing in common with mussar. These fools planted their seeds in deserts of sand, no water did they provide, and there after they wondered why nothing grew.
This commentators “tendentious” comparisons linking medieval chivalry to the Nazi crimes against humanity; the atrocities of first Crusades war crimes to 20th century abominations. With purpose, this commentator ignores Bavarian Himmler, born and raised Catholic, and his attempt to father a new mythology. Nazi propaganda sought to arouse passions, but even in mythology, no god does suicide and command his body thereafter burnt, rather than stand trial for war crimes.
Johann Andreas Eisenmenger wrote: Entdecktes Judenthum/Judaism Unmasked, published about 1700, wherein he quoted hundreds of rabbinic sources to bolster his anti-Jewish charges. Lateral Learning by contrast does not denounce only Xtain avoda zara; this mussar equally challenges פונדמנטליזם יהודי/Jewish fundamentalism, of the kind observed in religious-political movements.
This commentator prefers Rabbi Meir Kahane over the Lubavitcher Rebbe primarily because the latter failed to make aliya. רבי נחמן כהנא – one of the three rabbis who gave me s’micha. A picture of Abraham Isaac Kook hung opposite from my bed in Yeshiva. But this father of religious Zionism failed to teach, Torah as the Constitution of the Jewish Republic; he likewise failed to denounce democracy as a European cultural import. None the less the מוסד הרב קוק Rashi, a book acquired in my first year in Yeshiva profoundly shaped and influenced my understanding of that great Reshon.
According to Mitchell B Merback, author of the book: Beyond the yellow badge, [Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2008] “Eisenmenger believed his work to be aimed at a single purpose: to remove the Jews’ spiritual blindfold, lift them out of their abject state of ignorance, and reveal the truth of Xtianity – in short, to bring them to conversion where others had failed.”
Lateral Learning, by contrast seeks a total divorce from Europeans. But it likewise opposes Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich and his notions about the domination of halacha within the Jewish state. The Talmudic tohor logic, its my hope that it shall function as the basis, and also provide a working model, for the function of Common Law Courts in Israel. This commentator compares Rambam’s code to a woman’s shopping list in a supermarket; his halachot to a side of beef hanging on a meat hook in a freezer.
בשלמא למאן דאמר יל ישראל שגלו היינו דכתיב: כי נשבה עדר ה’. אלא למאן דאמר על ביטול תורה … מאי – כי נשבה עדר ה’? כיון שגלו ישראל ממקומן, אין לך ביטול תורה גדול מזה.
G’lut defines tuma. The Torah requires avodat HaShem in tohora – כרת. A person under the ban of charem, even if he wanted to keep mitzvot he could not.
ת”ר שלשה הקב”ה בוכה עליהן בכל יום. על שאפשר לעסוק בתורה ואינו עוסק. ועל שאי אפשר לעסוק בתורה ועוסק. ועל פרנס המתגאה על הצבור.
רבי הוה נקיט ספר קינות וקא קרי בגויה כי מטא להאי פסוקא (איכה ב) השליך משמים ארץ, נפל מן ידיה, אמר — מאיגרא רם לבירא עמיקתא.
From exalted tohor lands to disgraced tuma g’lut. Lateral Learning seeks to shine the light of Eretz Israel, Yidden once more we can learn Torah from a מקום tohor. The sealed masoret, its once locked gates stand now open.
Herein concludes the learning on this the 8th sugia of our Av Mishna
Conflict Resolution 