אִם יִרְצֶה הַשֵּׁם
י״ט חֶשְׁוָן תשפ״ז
After Talk that blows air the sugya is still the appointed time. Tape: Perek Chelek 16 - 98a. Rav Avigdor Miller zt"l. Printed Gemara is Sanhedrin 98a.
Neither post nor transcript has been reviewed by Rav Avigdor Miller zt"l nor the Toras Avigdor organization.
Tzedakah
Ein Yerushalayim nivdith ela be-tzedakah.
These statements are never to be taken strictly. One of the big things required is the midah of tzedakah. Tzedakah is kindliness bein adam la-chaveiro. It is not merely the giving of money. The entire Torah stands on that principle.
Hillel told the prospective ger the whole Torah on one foot: do not do to others what you do not want done to you. Rashi: most of the Torah depends on that midah. If a man has not developed kindliness, cooperation, compassion, seeking virtues in others, he has no shaychus to the Torah.
Tzion be-mishpat tipadeh, ve-shaveha be-tzedakah. Mishpat is bein adam la-Makom. Tzedakah is bein adam la-chaveiro. Without the first, the second is meaningless. When both are kept, bein adam la-chaveiro is itself service to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
Dross
Ka-bor sigayich: purify as with soap your dross. Sig is dross, and sig is also "great." Your arrogant ones. Va-asirah kol bedilayich: remove those who separate, le-havdil, between you and HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
If the arrogant Yehudim who live like Gentiles go lost, the Magi go lost. The Magi persecute the practice of Torah. If the wicked dayanim go lost, the Gentile magistrates stop.
Mida keneged mida. Shimshon said ki hi yashrah be-einai. The Philistines took out his eyes. Standing blind while they mocked him, he remembered that he had gone after his eyes. When the magistrates of the goyim deal harshly, look at our own dayanim. Maybe they did not follow the laws of the Torah. The Jewish magistrates should have shown an example.
When to hope
Ve-am ani toshi'a: when the nation becomes poor in numbers, wait. It is one of the portents.
Im raita dor she-tzaros rabim ba'in alav ke-nahar, chakeh lo. When the tzaros come like a river without a break, hope. Yaakov sent groups of animals to Esav and ordered a space between each group. The Midrash reads the space as the breathing interval HaKadosh Baruch Hu places between the tzaros. Closer to Mashiach the pains come like chevlei leidah, one upon the other.
Ki yavo k'nahar tzar, Ruach Hashem nisasah bo. Raised like a banner, or the spirit of Hashem gnawing away in preparation. Then u-va le-Tzion go'el.
A generation all virtuous, or all wicked. All virtuous: they deserve it. All wicked: ein mavgi'a, there is nobody left to importune Him, so He does it for His own sake. A remnant always remains. When the renegades are so many that it can be called kulah chayav, that too is a time. In Mitzrayim they cried out. When the people still daven but it is a stereotype, and they do not gather to cry out, Hashem says there is nobody pressuring Me.
Be'ito achishenah. Two words that pull against each other. Zochu: I will hasten it. Lo zochu: in its time.
With the clouds of heaven, or ani ve-rochev al chamor. Zochu: rapidly. Lo zochu: slowly, belatedly.
Shapur said to Shmuel: you say he comes on a donkey. I will send him a lightning horse. Shmuel: do you have a bar chivar gavanei, a hundred-hued steed? When he comes, the transportation will be supplied and will astound. He will not need yours.
One bandage
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi found Eliyahu at the entrance of the cave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Will I come to olam ha-ba? If this Master wishes. I saw two and heard the voice of three. He would not go in.
When will Mashiach come? Go ask him. He sits at the entrance of Rome among the poor who suffer illnesses. The others untie all their bandages at once. He unties one and ties one. Dilma mitba'ei na, ve-lo ikah: perhaps I will be needed. I must not be delayed.
He greeted him. Shalom alecha bar Leva'i. That greeting guaranteed him and his father the world to come.
Rome here is the galus of Rome, the galus of Edom. The wounds are mumin from the ways of the goyim. Rabbi Yehudah remembered that as a boy, boys and girls of seventeen played in the streets of Teverya and nobody thought of anything immoral. Only after the ways of the goyim entered did separation become necessary. In the old days young men went to choose a wife on Yom Kippur and the fifteenth of Av, as men go to choose an esrog. A wife was a mitzvah. That is why it is called kiddushin.
Others have many wounds: in tefillah, in tzedakah, in purity of thought, the wounds of this galus. The one who has divested himself most of the ways of the goyim, and adjusted himself most fully to darkei ha-Torah, will be chosen from bnei David when the time comes. He keeps only one bandage open.
Ha-yom
Mashiach said: today. He did not come. Eliyahu: ha-yom im be-kolo tishma'u. Today, if you will listen to His voice. If Am Yisrael will listen to the Torah, he is ready any moment. The waiting is the service.
Whether a man has olam ha-ba cannot be known while he is still alive. In his last moment he can retract. Only acharei motam they become kedoshim. About Mashiach, Eliyahu would not say. He sent him to ask.
Nes is abhorrent
Rabbi Yosei ben Kisma was honored by the Romans because he was careful with them. When Rabbi Akiva wanted to teach Torah in public after the decree, he urged him not to. Go into a private place. When he died the Romans made a great funeral.
His disciples asked when ben David would come. He hesitated lest they demand a sign. Nes is abhorrent. HaKadosh Baruch Hu established the laws of nature. Miracles change them. He hates them, and His people hate them. Do not seek signs.
When this gate falls, is rebuilt, falls, is rebuilt, and falls a third time, and they will not have time to rebuild it, then. Rav Miller zt"l says he is not able to tell you what that means. The thrice-fallen gate is an observable mark. They asked for a sign anyway. The waters of the well of Pamias turned to blood, given only after they insisted. A remez to the massacres after Betar, which the Rambam says were worse than the churban.
On his deathbed he ordered that his coffin be buried deep. Every palm in Bavel would have a Parthian horse tied to it. Every coffin in Eretz Yisrael would be taken and used as a feeding trough. After Betar the rivers ran with blood. The slain lay unburied for seven years. Then the fourth berachah of Birkas ha-Mazon was added.
Ein ben David ba ad she-tispashut ha-malchus al Yisrael tish'ah chadashim. Over Yisrael, and in Yoma over the whole world wherever Jews are, for nine months. Like birth. Then the remnant returns.
Let him come
Ulla: let him come, but I do not want to see him. Rabbah the same. Rav: let him come, and I should sit in the shadow of the manure of his donkey.
Abaye: there is a remedy. Be busy with Torah and gemilus chasadim. Why are you afraid? Dilma yigrom ha-chet. Even that promise remains conditional unless He raises His hand in oath. Yaakov was afraid despite ve-hinei anochi imach. They were worthy that the second return should be like Yehoshua. The people were not on the same ideological virtue. The chet caused it. It was not.
Rabbi Yochanan: let him come, I do not want to see it. Resh Lakish offered the Amos verse of lion, bear, and snake. Rabbi Yochanan: we have that already now. The Roman boundary official, the tax collector, the starving children.
The real reason: madua ra'iti kol gever yadav al chalatzav ka-yoledah, ve-nehafchu kol panim le-yerakon. The one whose power is everything is in distress. The hosts of heaven and of below turn green. Halalu ma'asei yadai ve-halalu ma'asei yadai. Heichah aved elu mipenei elu? These are the work of My hands and these are the work of My hands. How can I destroy these because of these? The civilizations of the goyim are also what He made. The suspense itself is a terrible experience. That is why some say let him come but I do not want to see it.
They push the horse into the ox's stall. Am Yisrael are more important. Once the goyim are installed it is difficult to remove them to make place. It will be done. The place must still be made.
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