Daily Chidush: I Don't Like What The Rabbi Said Can I Comment Publicly?

0:55Or if it was too much impurity, then it would be Gehinnom. So Hashem gave us the same opportunity, the same tools to use either for Kedushah or for Tumah. So this is one of the main things that we learn from Parashat Va'etchanan. When we hear the first verse of the Torah, the first verse of the Parashah, Moshe Rabbeinu says, "I begged Hashem at that time, saying, 'My Lord, Hashem Elokim.'" You have begun to show your servant your greatness and your strong hand, for what power is there in the heavens or on the earth that can perform according to your deeds and according to your mighty acts? So here Moshe Rabbeinu is telling us that he's begging Hashem 515 times. We know that the numerical value of Va'etchanan, the first word of the parasha, is 515. meaning "begged." I begged; its numerical value is 515. The numerical value for the word "tefillah," which means prayer, is also 515. So, Moshe Rabbeinu, in essence, is saying here that he begged Hashem to let him into the land of Israel. At the same time, he's acknowledging Hashem's greatness, as everything that Hashem is doing is demonstrating this.

2:17and your strong hand, your deeds, your mighty acts, and ultimately, it's obviously showing us that Hashem is just with everything that He's doing. He's just still trying to overcome this decree. So, first and foremost, we should know that when Moshe Rabbeinu is mentioning "your greatness" and "your strong hand," he is mentioning two separate things. Just like the word Adonai, which literally translates to "my Lord," is referencing mercy; the second name for Hashem is actually referencing Hashem's Din, which is judgment. So, just like these two names of Hashem each represent two different things, "greatness" is also referencing mercy, while "strong hand" is obviously referencing judgment. The same is true with the end of the verse: "deeds," meaning good deeds, and "just deeds," and "mighty acts," meaning, again, judgment. We see that Moshe Rabbeinu is showing us that three words are, in essence, synonymous with...

3:32And three words are, in essence, synonymous or represent the same concept when it comes to judgment. So Moshe Rabbeinu is beseeching Hashem to apply both His mercy and His righteousness in His judgment. and deciding to let him into the land of Israel. Now, we've talked about this in the past as to why Hashem ultimately decided and told him, "Rav Lach" ("It is enough for you"), meaning don't pray another time, don't pray the 516th time, because at that point, I would have to let you into the land, and I don't want to let you into the land. If I let you into the land, you're going to build a Beit HaMikdash, and if you build it, then I will not be able to destroy it a thousand years later, or over a thousand years later when Am Yisrael sins with idol worship, with murder, with the sex crimes, the three major sins of the first Beit HaMikdash. And if you build it, I won't be able to destroy it, which would mean I would have to destroy the nation of Israel. So, nonetheless, the bigger question here is, why is Moses... ...begging Hashem to go into the land of Israel? I mean, technically, right now, if he dies, he's going into the real world. He's going into Olam HaBa. He's going into the ultimate Olam HaBa. This is the prophet of all prophets. Why is he so gung-ho about going into the land? I mean, what's the big deal? I mean, you're going into a much better world. And this is something that we really need to understand, which is the whole purpose of this chidush. So, nonetheless, the bigger question here is, why is Moshe Rabbeinu...

4:46Begging Hashem to go into the land of Israel. I mean, technically right now, if he dies, he's going into the real world. He's going into Olam HaBa. He's going into the ultimate Olam HaBa. This is the prophet of all prophets. Why is he so gung-ho about going into the land? I mean, what's the big deal? I mean, you're going into a much better world. And this is something that we really need to understand, which is the whole purpose of this chiddush. All Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to do was serve Hashem. And he was even willing, as we learn from the Midrash and Rashi, to go into the land of Israel without being its leader. He wished to enter just to fulfill one more mitzvah. Just one more mitzvah for Hashem in the Torah. So we see that Moshe Rabbeinu truly knows the value of one mitzvah and how all of the gold, all of the silver, all of the money, and all of the wealth that ever existed for all of mankind is not even worth the smallest mitzvah in the Torah, in the real world of Olam HaBa. So he obviously knows this. So how do we explain

6:00the people today, and in past history, but more so today, I think, that are going against the Torah. And sometimes, obviously, you see you have heretics that, you know, they spend their life going against the Torah. They want to go against Rav Mizrachi. They want to go against me. They want to go against Rav Alon Anava. Whatever else they don't like that is fulfilling the will of Hashem. It's teaching Torah. And they just want to use their time to go against it because they don't like what they hear. Going against the Torah. And sometimes, obviously, you see you have heretics that, you know, they spend their life going against the Torah. They want to go against Rav Mizrachi. They want to go against me. They want to go against Rav Alon Anava. Whatever else they don't like that is fulfilling the will of Hashem. It's teaching Torah. And they just want to use their time to go against it because they don't like what they hear. a clip or lecture, and they don't like what they hear. They don't like it. They, uh, like, you know, listen and think that, uh, what you said is too strong. It's scaring people, or they make any nonsensical comment like that. You know, they don't like what they hear, and they decide to take the initiative and make a comment against the rabbi, either publicly or even to someone else. clip or lecture and they don't like what they hear. They don't like it, they, uh, you know, think, "I think that what you said is too strong, it's scaring people," or any nonsensical comment like that, you know. And they don't like what they hear, and they decide to take the initiative and make a comment against the Rabbi either publicly or even to someone else.

7:21What is the consequence of doing something like that? Well, first and foremost, as we learned from the Chafetz Chaim, we learned actually a couple of times in our lectures about lashon hara. Lashon hara obviously has a tremendous amount of consequences, a tremendous amount of punishment. You have to really do everything you can to stay away from it. But lashon hara against one person is one consequence. But if we fast forward to chapter 27 of the book of Deuteronomy, Sefer Devarim, in Parashat Ki Tavo, it actually gives us the consequences of Lashon Hara, or any act against the publicity of Torah, any act against the publicity of doing Kiruv and getting Am Yisrael to do Teshuva, For anyone, whether that person is a heretic or the person is supposedly ultra-Orthodox, but just decides to publicize his opinion against some rabbi, what's the consequence? If you go to chapter 27, verse 26, it says, so here we have...

8:38The tribes are standing on two different mountains and are saying these are the blessings, these are the curses. And it gives the details of who's blessed and who's cursed. And here on the cursed side... The word Arur is the worst possible punishment that anyone can get in the Torah. This is the worst word to describe punishment. It's called Arur. The first one to ever get it is the serpent, the snake, with Adam and Eve. And here in chapter 27, it says, "A cursed, Arur, is the one who will not uphold the words of this Torah to perform them, and the entire people shall say Amen." So Chazal explains to us, it's not just someone, it's not just referencing someone that is not just fulfilling the Torah, because that's obvious. Someone that's, you know, there's plenty of other curses before it that are signifying someone that's not a, you know, that's not fulfilling the Torah. Whether it's because they're homosexual, or because they don't keep the Shabbat, or they go against converts, or they lead, you know, they put some type of trap in front of a blind person and so on. You know, someone that degrades their parents, all types of horrible, horrible crimes. So why mention it after all of these other things? Why mention it?

9:52trap in front of a blind person and so on, you know, someone that degrades their parents — all types of horrible, horrible crimes. So why mention it after all of these other things? Why mention it? Specifically in regard to the Torah here, Chazal is explaining that it is not referencing just someone who is not fulfilling the Torah, but rather someone who is getting in the way of publicizing Torah, hindering Am Yisrael and the righteous among the nations. Back to Hashem, close to Hashem in any way that they possibly can in accordance with the Torah. So when someone makes what they believe is an innocent comment, "Hey, listen, Rabbi, I don't think that what you did is, uh, you know, what you said is the right thing here," and you start telling people that, you know, not to listen to this rabbi. If it's a valid opinion where you have, let's say the rabbi made a mistake, where you actually have solid evidence, listen, according to Shulchan Aruch, Halacha this, according to the Rambam, Halacha this, you actually have solid evidence that the rabbi made a mistake, then of course, yes, by all means, you can do it.

11:10You can make the comment, but it's better to do it privately so there's not a big balagan made out of it in case you're wrong. But if it's just your opinion, your lowly human opinion, well, you just don't like what you heard. You don't like that the rabbi said that the reason why the Holocaust happened is because of our sins. It's for the same reason why the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed. It's for the same reason why we had the pogroms and all the types of destructions we've had for our nation throughout all of history, which is, Hashem did it. Why did Hashem do it? Hashem did it because we sinned. When we sin, Hashem said, that He's going to give us punishment. If you don't like to hear those things, and you decide to make a comment, there's a cost for that comment. There's a very, very high cost for that comment because if you start telling people they shouldn't listen to this rabbi, or they shouldn't listen to this Torah because you don't like this one comment, you are getting in the way of publicizing Torah. And maybe that rabbi may not necessarily be the right fit for you, but he could be the right fit for thousands and thousands of others that don't have another right fit. So by discouraging them directly or indirectly from listening to that rabbi, you are fulfilling the description of this verse and, unfortunately, are bringing a curse upon yourself. Who wants to be cursed by Hashem? Who wants to get the worst possible punishment in this world?

12:24So by you discouraging them directly or indirectly from listening to that rabbi, you are fulfilling the description of this verse and unfortunately are bringing a curse upon yourself. Who wants to be cursed by Hashem? Who wants to get the worst possible punishment in this world? for doing something that they think is not a big deal. I'm just making a comment on Facebook. I'm just making a comment on YouTube or Torah Anytime or any other place out there where you want to make a comment and you think it's not a big deal. You have to really think about everything that you do because just like when I was in the business world, I was very, very careful with giving email accounts to any new advisor who would work for me. The main reason is that I knew anytime anyone says anything, The world will find out. So when you have a new guy jumping on board, and he's a new 20- or 25-year-old kid, and he's starting to work, you don't really know what his mentality is like. You know his work ethics; you know possibly a few skills that he may have, qualities that he may possess, but you don't really know what's going on inside his head. So if you give him complete freedom...

13:41to just go start writing emails to random people, asking them for business. You never know what this guy is going to do because he doesn't really know that much. He doesn't really know the rules. He doesn't really know everything yet. Unfortunately, he could say something foolish that could put the entire company in jeopardy. So that's why we were very, very careful before we actually ever gave anyone an email account, and it would be like a big process. We need to act the same way with ourselves. We have to be extremely careful before we make any public comments, whether it's face-to-face with somebody or in a gathering, or worst of all, in a public format like Facebook or other types of social media. Because that comment, once it's out, there's no way to take it back. Because even if you delete it moments later, in those moments, 50, 60, 100,000 people or even 50 million people could have read the comment already. There's no way that you can ever retrieve that comment. And those people are going to make judgments based on that comment.

14:43and not about the fact that you deleted it. So to fix such Lashon Hara against Torah is nearly impossible, if not impossible, today because of how far the internet reaches. It has good and it has bad. There's Kedusha that could come out of the internet, and there's Tumah. On one end, you can reach 50 million people with just one single post, you know, that's two minutes or two hours. and get them all to do teshuva. On the other hand, that one comment on that post that tells people, "Hey, this rabbi is too extreme, I don't like him," or whatever nonsensical comment you make could easily make even 100 million people go against that rabbi and destroy his whole work and 20 years' worth of effort for no reason. Just because you decide you don't like it. So we have to be really, really careful because, number one, I don't think anyone, unless they're completely a rasha merusha, would behave in such a way. They probably aren't even listening, as it doesn't apply to them. They have a different level in Gehinnom. But someone who has decent intentions and is at least a decent human being would be listening to this.

15:57Because the rasha (wicked person) is probably not listening to this anyway. So, as a decent human being, you have to be very careful. Don't be reckless. Don't be foolish and just make comments thinking that it's okay. The freedom of speech and freedom of this and freedom of that - there's no such thing as absolute freedom of speech. Because your speech will have consequences, even if you don't see them in this world. So make sure you watch your words and your comments. The best thing in the world, if you have a comment or disagreement with a rabbi, is to privately message them, send an email, make a call, or send a text. You don't have to publicize your disagreement with something they said to the whole world, because you may be wrong. By the time you make a comment... And then they respond to you if they get a chance. By the time they respond to you, it could be a few days, a few weeks, or a few hours; even if it's just a few minutes. It could still take a long time. Any busy rabbi is going to take a while. For example, sometimes it takes me, and I'm not anything major, I could just tell you, sometimes two or three weeks to respond to a comment. So that's one of the things you have to understand.

17:10One of the leaders during the time of World War II said that the bad thing about truth versus lies is that by the time the truth wakes up to the lie that's around, it hasn't had the chance to even put its pants on yet. Meaning that the lie gets around the world before the truth could ever even get its pants on. Meaning that by the time you get to a point where you could respond to this lashon hara mistake, or even just a misunderstanding, the falsehood has unfortunately spread far and wide, complicating the pursuit of clarity and emet, which is the Hebrew word for truth. before the truth could ever even get its pants on. Meaning that by the time you get to a point where you could respond to this lashon hara mistake, or even just a misunderstanding, it's already too late. Be very, very careful because none of us want to be arur. We want to be on the blessed side. So may Hashem continue to bless you, continue to teach all of us Torah, and allow us to get strong enough to emulate the middot, the character traits of Hashem. Kol tuv. It's already too late. Be very, very careful because none of us want to be an aral. We want to be on the blessed side. So may Hashem continue to bless you, continue to teach all of us Torah, and allow us to become strong enough to emulate the middot, the character traits of Hashem. Kol tuv.