Shalom everyone and thank you for joining me in the study of Parashat emor. Today's Shi'ur, today's class, we will try to understand a midrash, a basically a rabbinic study of the following verse. The Torah states, which is keves a lamb, or ez a goat, ki valed, when it will be born, seven days it should be with its mother, and from the eighth day, then he will be accepted to a shem as a kurban as a sacrifice. And we know that basically those are the three species that the Torah accepts from the animal world for a sacrifice: shore, an ox, keves, lamb, and a goat. And the midrash are rabbis, basically in Vaikra Rabbah, which is a pretty much of an early Midrash agada around the 6th century in Eretis, they try to understand why specifically, why Davka, Shor, Kesev, and Ez, an ox, a lamb, and a goat. What about a calf? What about other animals that are kosher and cannot be sacrificed? So the rabbi said the following. Rabiakov Bazavdi, and today we're going to learn only the midrash with different aspects and obviously different levels. Rabiakov Bazavdi Patak. So Rabiakov Bazavdi made his opening statement by saying, he quotes a verse from Ezekiel that says, The prophet Ezekiel says that there's going to be a time when some kind of an object will not be a constant reminder of their sin anymore. It will be omitted, it will be erased. What's going on here? What does it mean? So in Ezekiel there is a verse that says that there is going to be a time when some kind of an object will not be a constant reminder of the sin that the Jewish people committed. And we obviously already are a little suspicious that we are talking probably about the golden calf. But keep that thought. Then Rabiakov Bazati says, okay, one second, there is another verse in Isaiah. And in Isaiah it says that when Isaiah saw Maasem al-Kavah, when he saw that the heavens basically opened and he saw God's kingdom, he saw that Srafimum Dimima, that there are some kind of angels, and they have six wings. Each one of them has six wings. With two, the angels will cover their face, two, they will cover their feet, and with two, they will fly. So that's why they need six wings. Now, the rabbis are trying to understand what exactly they do with each wing and why do they do that? So Bishtaimi Of, so why do they need to have two wings to fly? Lekilus, in order to praise God. So they fly from one place to another to praise God. Okay. Beshtaimicha sepanav, the angels will use two wings to cover their face. Why? So they don't want to look at the divine presence at God Himself. They can't. Why? Because their feet, the structure of their feet, is look like a feet of a calf. And a calf reminds us, the angels, and God, the golden calf. But Ezekiel says that lo yeh odlebet Israelim if tahmas kiravon. There is going to be a time and a place that this golden calf, that this sin that the Jewish people did with Egelazav will not be mentioned. Therefore, the angels are covering their feet because their feet looks like a feet of a calf. So we cover it. So therefore, no one remembers the sin of the golden calf. Now, this is a very interesting idea. You cover it, but still they have the structure of their feet, it's like the calf. Why don't you change the structure of their feet? It seems to be that the idea is yes, it's there. It's there for all of us to remember, but you can cover it. Something that it's covered does not mean it does not exist. Something that it's covered, it means that it's there as a reminder, as a warning. It's something to remember. But at the same time, it allows you to continue your life. Let's pause here for a second. The approach towards sins can vary from one person to another, from one situation to another, from one condition to another. But definitely there is a question of what to do with sins that we committed in the past. Should we always bring them in front of our face to remind us? Or we should try to bury them in a way to cover them. There are obviously advantages and disadvantages to every approach, but definitely we understand that if you have your sins all the time in front of you, on one hand it can be a great way to encourage you not to do it anymore, but at the same time, it might deter you and terrify you from doing anything better because this sin will take you down. Now, the same advantages and disadvantages you have when you cover your sins. On one hand, you can be totally oblivious, oh, I never did it, it's covered, it's out there. Oh, and then I can do whatever I wanted, I will not be afraid or terrified to do it again. Or you say to yourself, No, I put it here, I covered it, I know it's there, I will be careful, but I need to have enough space in order to improve myself. Here we have something interesting. Ezekiel says the golden calf is not going to be now anymore a constant reminder of your sins. You did something terrible, Jewish people. You built a golden calf and you bow down to this thing, to this object that you know it's not God. So we're going to cover it. The angels that are praising God, when you are in the holy service, when you are serving God, you will cover those feet that look like a calf to allow the healing process, I would call it, and to allow the Jews to come closer to Hashem. And the rabbis continue this idea and clarifies it. And they say the following, Tamantan. We also learned in the Mishnah. You can use all the horns for a shofar from every animal, chutzmish el para, except of a cow. Lama. Lama chutzmish el para, why would you exclude the horn from a cow? Because it comes from a calf, in order to fulfill Ezekiel's prophecy, that we shouldn't use, that this object of the golden calf should not be a constant reminder of our sin. So we are shying away from anything that has anything to do with this golden calf. Therefore, the angels, the angels, that they did not participate in the golden calf. When they praise God, they cover their feet. When we blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, when we crown a sham as the king on us, we will not use a shofar that is made out of a calf because we don't want to use a reminder, something that reminds us, the sin that we perform. So now we get, I think we got the point. The point is that we don't want to use what? An object that brings us down. Again, it's not to be oblivious to it. But actively we don't want to use something that basically almost brought our demise. Now, hold that thought because don't forget, this midrash is on the verse that we read before. Show kesev oez, which means an ox, an lamb, or a goat. And we asked immediately why there is no calf. A calf is a kosher animal. You should bring it to what to the Mizbeach to the altar. Answer is, it seems to be, at least according to what we see now, that it's in order to fulfill what Ezekiel said later on. You cannot bring anything or something, and definitely not that thing, that reminds you of the golden calf. The midrash continues on. So this is the story of a woman who went astray, and if she does not admit, or if she didn't do anything, she drinks, she drinks from the glass of water, and there is some ashes in it, and if she really didn't do anything with the with the other person, so she will be okay, and if she did, she will explode. So she drinks and she drinks some, and let's say there is another woman, she cannot drink from the same cup. Why? Interesting. She shouldn't drink from the same cup that another woman drank and died because people will say, Oh, this is like a cursed glass. Don't touch it. And then again, taninan. Basically, this midrash takes another example. And in order to understand that example, I'll give a little introduction. In a case where a person has a sexual relationship with an animal, what do you do? You kill the person and you kill the animal. The Talmud asks, I understand that you kill the person, but why would you kill the animal? The animal didn't do a thing. The person forced the animal to be with him. So the Talmud says, as an answer, is that because if you were not going to kill that animal, people will see that animal and say, ah, this animal? This animal was the animal that had this relationship with that person. And basically it will do what? It will perpetuate the memory of that person who had relationship with that animal. So in order to cut it off, in order to finish it, in order to basically make sure that it's not a constant reminder of the sin, you also kill the animal. We can argue about that point, but there is an idea here. The idea, at least, of what the midrash is trying to do, is to basically say, we do not want to be obsessed with the sins, with the transgressions. It needs to be somewhere in the subconscious, it needs to be somewhere that you are very mindful and aware of. But it cannot dictate your life. And then he continues. So the midrash is asking a very good question. A show, an ax, was not born an axe. He was first a calf, and then it becomes an axe, it becomes an axe. So the midrash is asking, why do you call it show? Call it a calf. Answer. So now we have an answer. Why does the Torah says show and axe? It does not mention sorry at all egel, a calf. Answer is we don't want to mention that word. We do not want to say a calf because it brings bad memories, it brings bad experiences, it brings bad thoughts. We don't want it. Now, before we continue on, I just want to take a few minutes to understand this idea. And also a little bit historically. This Midrash, and that's why I said it at the beginning, it's an ancient Midrash Agadah, and it was composed in Israel, in Erat Israel, in the land of Israel around the 6th century. Give or take. In that century, a few things happened, especially in the 5th century. At 429, the house of the Sanhedrin and the house of Beitanasi, the president's house of the Jews, or Bangamliel, was closed down by the Roman Empire. And also the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as their formal religion. And persecutions began. And it was pretty hard for the Jews to leave. Also, theologically, one of the major, major claims of Christianity against Judaism in the beginning was look at you Jews. Even 40 days didn't go by since Hal Sinai, since the revelation on Sinai, and you dance with a calf. You abandoned God, you ignored God, you build for yourself an idol, and you dance with this idol. You are traitors. You cannot be trusted. And there is no, it's not a surprise that God basically abandoned you and chose us, the Christians, to be the new Israel. And if you read some of the theological confrontation between Judaism and Christianity, you will see that the golden calf was some kind of a prime example of Christianity against Judaism. So, in a way, the rabbis, if you look at it from a historical perspective, you can see that the rabbis were well aware. And therefore, what do they do? They try to mitigate it, they try to minimize it. They are not trying to ignore it. No rabbi will say, Let's erase that sin from the Torah. Moshe wrote it. God told Moshe to write it, that we're not going to erase it, we are going to confront it. But there are ways to confront it. You can confront it, put it in front of your face, and basically will be paralyzed spiritually. It was such a terrible, terrible transgression. At the same time, you learn from it. You do chuva, you repent. You try to make yourself a better person after you did something wrong. So they it's it's really a brilliant idea. They take a verse from Ezekiel that basically says that there is going to be this object, this transgression, the golden calf, that should not be mazkil avon, should not be a constant reminder of your sin. It should be there, you should always remember it. But I want you to also remember the other side of the coin. Moshe went down from the mountain, broke this golden calf to pieces. He had no opposition to it. Then he went up to the mountain, he pleaded with God, and God forgave him. On Yom Kippur, God forgave him and forgave all the Jewish people. And gave us the Torah again, the second tablet, which means we were able to overcome it. Is that something that we will carry forever in our memory? Sure. But is it in it it is in our hands to fix it, to correct it, to overcome it. By giving us this midrash, this first part of the midrash, it gives us in a way some of the most important fundamentals of Judaism. How to deal with failures. How to deal with personal failure and national failure. You can be depressed, you can be obsessed with the failure and not be able to move forward at all. You can cover it, not erase it. Not being oblivious to it. It's there. But I must continue on. I must go forward. And therefore, I will not mention a calf. I know that an ax is not being born an ox. That I know. But you know what? I don't need to mention a calf. And I will bring only an ox and not a calf. So that's the first part of the midrash. Now the second part of the mitrash. This is a verse from Kohelet that God will always seek, protect, keep the nirdaf, someone who is being chased. Meaning, when Kohelet King Solomon says God will always seek, protect, keep the person who is being persuaded or pursued and chased, it applies in all cases. Even if a tzadiq, a righteous person, is chasing a rash, an evil person, God will protect that evil person. God always will take revenge of the blood of the nirdafim, the people who are chased, from the people who chase them. So they are bringing examples. Avraham Nirdafmi fla Nimrod. According to our tradition, Nimrod took Avraham, threw him to the fire, to the furnace. You see a list of biblical figures that were chased, and God chose them because they were chased. Which obviously it's not the only reason. We know that Avram did many other things in order to be chosen. Itzhak did a lot of things in order to be chosen, but the Mitrash has a point, and we'll get to the point in a few minutes. Yaakov Nirdafni Playesav. Yaakov was chased by Esau, and God chose Yaakov, Shinemarki Yaqov Bakarloka. And Yaakov was chosen by God. Yosef nirdafmipnechav. Yosef was chased by his brothers, Ubachar, Kadosh Bahubi Yosef, and God chose Joseph. Shinamar edudbi Yosef Samu. Moshe nirdafmipne Paron Moshe was chased by Pharaoh, and God chose Moshe. David Nirdafmi Pne Sha'ul. David was chased by King Saul and God chose David. Sha'ul Nirdafmi Pne Plishtim, Saul himself was chased by the Philistines, and God chose Saul. And Shmuel, Israel. Oh, so now we get to the point. Israel nirdafimpneomot. Am Israel, the Jewish people, are being chased by the other nations. And God chose Israel. Why? The axe is being chased by a lion. Ez. A goat is being chased by a tiger. Keves and a lamb mipnace the ev because of a wolf. This is yet another brilliant idea of the midrash. If we go back to the verse, sho kesev oes. So three types of animals can be sacrificed: an ax, a lamb, and a goat. So the first midrash talked about what? Why doesn't it say a calf? And the answer was how to deal with a sin. A constant reminder to be oblivious to it, to cover it, to open it. And we talked about the idea that the midrash basically says balance it. Cover it, know it's there, but move forward. And you can do it. So that's why a calf is not mentioned. The second midrash talks about totally different things. He says, What's the common denominator between an ox, a lamb, and a goat? They are being chased. Meaning they are not strong animals. They are weak animals in a way. And they are being hunted by stronger and mightier animals. The lion will chase the ox, the tiger will chase the lamb the goat, and the wolf will chase the lamb. Those three types of animals are Nirdafim are being chased, and therefore God wants them. But this is not the only idea. The idea is look at all the examples of the Midrash. Noah, Hevel, Noah, Abraham, Itzhak, Yaakov, David, Shaul, and Am Israel. Again, a bit of history. The nation of Israel in the sixth, fifth centuries, not in a great shape. They are being chased. And they feel that they were basically rejected by God. And especially that you hear from your Christian friends. The rabbis took a verse that basically has nothing to do with the idea, but they create a connection. They said, look at the sacrifices. What does God want? He wants the ox, he wants the goat, he wants the lamb. Why? What's the common denominator? Because they are being chaste. Because they are not the mightier ones. Because they are not the strongest ones. That's you, Am Israel. I'm not talking about your physical abilities and your physical strength. I'm talking about something else. I elokim yeva kesha ta nirdaf. So even if you feel that you are chaste and you feel abandoned by God, you need to know God chose you again and again and again because you are chaste. This is a very interesting idea. Specifically in a time that you are weak, you need to know that God loves you. If God loves me so much, why am I weak? Why am I being mocked and humiliated? And the answer is there is no answer. But God wants you. Don't give up, don't lose hope. The closeness to God will be not through being the hunter. Hopefully, it's also not always to be hunted, but it's not about the might, it's not about the strength. And that's what the midrash says in around the sixth century. So the second midrash talks about the common denominator between the three species and their identification, in a way, with Am Israel, with the people of Israel. Then the third one. That's a verse in Hoshea. So now we have a different question. The verse began with what? Shoes? An axe, a lamb, or a goat. Why? The question of the Midrash is why did you start with an ax? Why not to start with a lamb? Why not to start with a goat? Look, we know for sure that even if the Fasoq will start with a goat, we'll ask the same question. But obviously, here is the question. So there is a parable to a story to a king that he has his wife, and his wife is very important and very nice, and everything, and there was some kind of a bad reputation about her that she has some kind of an affair with someone else. The king looked into it. He investigated the issue and he found nothing, just rumors. Nothing happened. So what did he do? So the king made a big feast, big meal. And he took that person. That all the rumors says that this person had an affair with the king's wife. He put him at the head of the table. Why? Because the king wanted to show publicly. If I would find something, I will definitely not put this guy at the head of the table. I will kill him. The fact that I put him at the head of the table means what? That I investigated and there is nothing in all those rumors. Here you see it. Here you see how the midrash in a way express and in a way say it between the lines the Christian claim against Judaism. You did the golden kiff. There are basically there are two claims here. A, you are idol worshippers. That's who you are, Jews. And B, you abandon God. And therefore, it's obviously that God will abandon you. And therefore, you need to be us. But the midrash says, This is a very interesting midrash because it's almost antithesis to the first one. Basically, God investigated the golden calf and he found nothing there. Now, what do you mean nothing? If you read Parashat Kitisa in Shhmot, we we spoke about it. We spoke about Aharon and his involvement in the golden calf. You want to tell me that the Jews didn't do a golden calf? No, obviously they did. But the idea of Lomatza Bay Mamash means what? It didn't stick with them. Yeah, they did something. It's true. And they were punished. They were punished for many generations. But they are not idol worshippers, they are not someone who will abandon God, they give their lives to God if needed. It's amazing. Now, show, the first midrash says, why do we say show and not keves and not egel? Because we don't want to mention the word egel, kef. Here it says no. Show is the basically a mature calf, and we say it in order to do what? To show. This is the first species of a sacrifice because God investigated this transgression that we did and he didn't find anything in it. I would say that this uh this midrash is a bit of um what would I say? It's uh it's a midrash to try to, in a way, I don't want to say sugar code the golden calf, but basically to say yes, it was terrible, but the Jews let it go. That they basically they repented, it's over. The first midrash says it's not over, it's always there, but shouldn't be in your face. This one says it's not there. And the proof for it is that the show, the axe, is the first thing on the list. Rabiuna V Rabibu Basham Rabishwalbach, they said something else. So now, like in any other uh midrash, this midrash basically says that there is nothing there. This golden calf issue, there was nothing there. So, what do you mean there is nothing there? Obviously, the narrative describes that we did it. So, Ravuna and Rabbi Aibo, in the name of Abishman Ban Ahmad, say that it's really not the Jewish people did it. It was all the people who came from Egypt who basically attached themselves to Amisrael, they did it. And this is why they said elecha Israel, not ele eloke, but elohecha, your god. So basically, by saying that, you clean the Jewish people from any involvement in the sin. We understand that it's called justification. Um in obviously in the critical thinking, we should be a little apprehensive to accept it, but you can see the method. The method is the golden calf was not really a sin and we didn't really do it. Which means basically not that we didn't do it at all, but we we basically didn't think that it's so that it's so severe. So basically the third midrash is trying to minimize, mitigate, to basically almost like totally ignore the thet, that sin, and to tell us that God Himself even agreed with it. So that's the third idea for this verse. And now the last one, the fourth one. The varakel. Sho kesevoiz an ax or a lamb or a goat. Show bischut Avraham. The axe is because of Avraham. When the angels came and Avraham provided them a meal, he went first to the cattle, which was then axe, to slaughter an axe for them. Kesev bischut itzchak, the lamb is because of Itzhak. It's a deer, but it might be a lamb. Ez and a goat bischut Yaqov. So, and the goat is because of Yaakov, because when Yaakov brought the meal to Itzchak to get the blessing, he brought two goats. Now, what does it mean, two good goats? They're good for you and they're good for your children. They are good for you because you're going to get the blessings, Yaaakov. They are good for your descendants. Now take a look. There are two he goats that we bring on Yom Kippur. One goes to Hashem, one goes to Azazel, that you throw him in the desert. Basically, this last midrash says, Show Kesevoez, the axe, the lamb, the goat. It was not just chosen by accident. It was chosen in order to convey to us that the pillars of our nation, Avra, Mitzrach, and Yaakov, created a merit for us forever, for eternity, that will atone for our sins and will give us the merit to continue on, perpetuating the perpetuating their legacy. So if we go back to the first verse, which seems to be so boring, okay, the species that you can bring as a sacrifice, show, an ox, kesev, lamb, a goat, it carries so much meaning. It carries a psychological meaning of how to confront the sin and how to continue to live you with your life. It confronts the Christian theological blame and accusation against Judaism. And it contains the idea of a vot of the merit of our forefathers. And I think this is something that the Midrash explains, even though the Midrash is well aware that this is not the Pshat, it's not the simple understanding, but he takes this Pasuk, this takes this verse, and basically attaches it to the reality that the rabbis had to deal with, and gives us, even us, 21st century Jews, the strength, the power of the show, the ax, the keves, the ez, in order to be able to contribute our own contribution to Jewish legacy and to perpetuate the merit of our forefathers. Thank you.