Daily Chidush: The Biggest Sinat Chinam Is The One We Are Ignoring

0:01How are you? Hope you're having a good week. Unfortunately, many Jews today are not having a good week. So many different problems we hear about each day. Whether it's divorces, family problems, marriage problems, partnerships going bad, people stealing, people doing, people struggling. Suffering so much as a nation, and one of the major things that we struggle from still today is 2,000 years of sinat chinam, 2,000 years of baseless hatred. And as we said yesterday, we're trying to learn from Pinchas, learn from parashat Pinchas of last week... suffering so much as a nation, and one of the major things that we struggle with still today is 2,000 years of sinat chinam, 2,000 years of baseless hatred. And as we said yesterday, we're trying to learn from Pinchas, learn from Parashat Pinchas of last week, and see how we could apply just the first few verses of Parashat Pinchas in Sefer Bamidbar (Numbers), Chapter 25. Just the first few verses and see what we can take out of this and apply it to our lives. Because we're struggling so much, we have to find the answers in the Torah. As we all know the very famous story of Pinchas

1:08he was zealous for Hashem, and when he saw Zimri, the leader of the Shimon tribe, publicly sinning with Cozbi, the daughter of Tzur of the Midianite people, the non-Jew, he saw that he was sinning with her, which is strictly forbidden in the Torah. Pinchas was zealous for Hashem and killed them both in a major public event. And Hashem says to him that and He says to the entire nation that Pinchas, because of his zealousness, turned back the wrath of Hashem because he avenged Hashem's vengeance. Now, in chapter 25, verse 12, it also says a couple of things we want to focus on today, different from yesterday. It says, "Therefore, this is Hashem speaking, say," meaning say to all of the people, "Behold, I give him My covenant of peace. And it shall be for him and his offspring after him a covenant of eternal priesthood. Because he took vengeance for his God and he atoned for the children of Israel." By Pinchas rebuking and acting upon... Behold, I give him My covenant of peace. And it shall be for him and his offspring after him a covenant of eternal priesthood because he took vengeance for his God and he atoned for the children of Israel. By Pinchas rebuking and acting upon

2:35His belief and his zealousness for Hashem. Hashem is telling us that this action, this pure action, this mesirut nefesh, which means self-sacrifice, actually atoned for the grave sin that the entire nation was committing. Obviously, we're not advocating for people to go out there in the street and kill other Jews or other people in general. But there is a lot to learn from Pinchas. First and foremost, in regards to the mitzvah of being zealous for Hashem and taking action upon it, the sages explained to us that there is no one that is as zealous as Pinchas in our generation, and the reason why is because Pinchas was this way all of the time, not just sometimes. So unless you're like this all of the time, you cannot compare. Second, and more importantly, there is a much easier way that Hashem gave us the ability to do this, and it's not only an easier way to do it

3:37It's actually an obligation to do it, of each and every single Jew, whether the simple one or the advanced and the learned one. Whether the Talmid Chacham, the scholar, the rabbi, or the guy that just did Teshuva last week. And even the guy that's not keeping anything is obligated in this mitzvah, which is one of the 613 mitzvot called Hocheiach Tochiach Et Amitecha. You must reprove or rebuke your people. When you see them sin, a Jew that sees another Jew sinning must reprove them, must rebuke them, must let them know that they're sinning because sometimes they don't know that they're actually sinning and sometimes they don't know the significance of the sin. Either way, we must let them know. In the Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah and also in Gemara Masechet Shabbat, page 55. Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah, page 4a, it says that before Hashem destroyed the Beit HaMikdash, which we're going to talk about in a couple of weeks on Tisha B'Av, at a major event we're having in New York by Chazaq and Torah Anytime, that they have each year.

5:03Something we need to know about this event is that it happened twice in history. We don't have a home for Hashem on earth because of what happened during this time. Whether it was idol worship or it was sinat chinam—baseless hatred—that we're still suffering from today, or it was immodesty or idol worship, the key here is that we're still suffering from all of them today. But in those Gemarot, Hashem is giving us a secret. The sages ask Hashem, "Hashem, why did You punish the righteous before punishing the wicked?" We can understand if you punish the wicked, the ones that did idol worship and the ones that stole and the ones that were immoral and the ones that hated everyone for no reason and the ones that cheated and lied and violated Shabbat and all of these different sins that we have in the Torah. We can understand if you punish them first.

6:11But we don't understand when You punish them last. And not only that, we don't understand why You punish the righteous first. That doesn't make any sense in a human mind that's so lowly and so far from the truth. So Hashem, in His mercy, answered us. And the Gemara says... weren't considered righteous, weren't considered fully righteous. The tzaddikim weren't considered complete tzaddikim. Why? Because they didn't rebuke the people. They didn't tell them the truth about their sins. They didn't tell them, "If you sin, you're going to get punished." But then there's a question on this. The question goes back to Hashem: "But Hashem, isn't it true that..." People of that generation, the generation of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, were so wicked that they wouldn't have even done teshuvah.

7:19Even if you would have rebuked them, even if you would have told them, even if you would have told them you're not allowed to drive on Shabbat, they still would have driven on Shabbat. Even if you would have told them that you're not allowed to worship money and work 24 hours a day and ignore Hashem, they still would have continued it. Even if you would have told them that they can't walk around naked like people do today, they still would have walked around like people do today. This is what the Gemara is asking. And the Shekhinah of Hashem answers us: I knew this, but the tzaddikim didn't know. I knew that even if you would have told them, they still wouldn't have done teshuvah. But the tzaddikim did not know. And so long as you don't know the outcome, and the outcome is only in the hands of Hashem, you are obligated. You're not only obligated to do everything that Hashem says for you yourself, but you're obligated and responsible for the rest of your nation. You must rebuke your people; it is not a character trait. It is not something nice to do. It is not something you do on the side.

8:36You must rebuke your people is an obligation that is relevant for eternity. And according to the Gemara, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the one who compiled the Mishnah, which even preceded the Gemara, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, a.k.a. Rebbe, says that someone who knows and sees his friend, his brother, his sister, his colleague, Anyone connected to him sinning and does not say anything is taking the sin upon themselves as if they sinned. Someone who sees his friend driving on Shabbat and doesn't say anything, thinking that he's a righteous person because he just started keeping Shabbat, is going to arrive at the Beit Din of Shamayim and he's going to be very disappointed when they call him a Mechalel Shabbat.

9:36You say, wait a minute, I didn't violate Shabbat. What do you mean? I kept Shabbat. I listened to the rabbi. I started doing Shabbat. I started keeping Shabbat. Yes, you kept Shabbat in your body. But what about the rest of your brothers and sisters? You don't care about them? You cannot be selfish in Judaism. Not allowed. Not allowed, my dear friends. In the Gemara Masechet Ta'anit, page 25b... Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, one of the rabbis of Rabbi Akiva, one of the greatest sages that ever lived. A miracle worker on a day-to-day basis. One that when he actually taught Torah... next to Rabbi Yochanan and Chaninah ben Dosa himself, his own father, and many others of the G'dolei HaDor, he taught them all Torah face-to-face, according to the sages, telling the story themselves. His face lit up like Moshe Rabbeinu when he came down from Har Sinai. In Gemara Masechet Ta'anit, page 25b, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkanos, at the end of one of the fasts

10:46sees everyone walking out of the synagogue, all calm and collected, and he says to them, did you all finish digging your graves? Everyone knew that Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus knew that there's a gezera from Shamayim. There's actually a decree from Shamayim, from Am Yisrael. He's not just saying this to mess around with them. He's not joking around. He's telling them your prayer was garbage. You didn't even reach the ceiling, let alone the Shamayim. You're still playing with your phone. You're still thinking about your games at home. You're still thinking about your business. Where do you think your prayer arrived? You think you even reached the ceiling? He's telling them all, just so you know. Your prayer didn't reach anywhere. And he actually said, "Did you finish digging your graves for the entire kehillah?" To the point where everyone started hysterically crying and ran back into the shul and started praying for real. And then Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkanus says, "Ah, now I know that the decree from Shamayim has passed because now you had real prayer."

11:57I hear today that when we're trying to arrange shiurim, we're trying to arrange lectures for Tisha B'Av, people are saying, no, it's going to be hard for me to come because I'm working that day. Working. The Beit HaMikdash, the home of Hashem Yitbarach, was destroyed today and you're going to work? What's your connection with Him? You call yourself a Jew? Even the Gentiles should mourn for Beit HaMikdash. How about that? The problem today is that we have no idea what it is to be connected to Hashem. The reason why is because we don't even know what it is to be connected to each other. People dislike each other because this one is Sephardic, and the other one is Ashkenazi, and the other one is Yemenite, and the other one is Syrian, and the other one is Moroccan. We have all the stereotypes in the world and we hate each other almost as much as the goyim hate us. It's time for us to wake up. Chazal tells us that every year and every generation that the Beit HaMikdash is not built, that generation and those people that lived during that year need to know that it's as if they destroyed it themselves. Because that means that the Sinat Chinam, the baseless hatred that we have, is still around.

13:21So how do we fix this? How does Pinchas in the Torah tell us to fix it? We don't have to go out there and chas v'shalom kill each other. The opposite. We have to bring back each other to life. We have to bring back each other to Hashem. And Rabbi Yonatan Eibeshitz lived about 260 years ago in his book Yeharos De'vash wrote something that's the perfect solution but, at the same time, shocking. He says that the biggest sinat chinam we have in our generation, and this was 260 years ago, is when one Jew sees another sinning and doesn't rebuke him—doesn't say anything. That's the biggest sinat chinam. That's the biggest baseless hatred. Why is it considered hatred when you're just trying to be politically correct and leave your friend alone and let him sin? Let him go to the beach on Shabbat. Let him go to the beach at all. Let him go and waste his life. Why is that considered baseless hatred? Rabbi Yonatan Eibeshitz says,

14:39When you know anything about Hashem, you know that Hashem has two places. He has Gan Eden and He has Gehenom. And that person that's not going to Gan Eden because he's not going to shul, he's not praying to Hashem, he's not keeping mitzvot, he only has one other option left. He only has Gehenom left. He only has the eternal fire left. So you're letting your friend write himself a first-class ticket to Gehennom and you're not even willing to say anything. Who's more evil than you? Who's more evil than you for not saying anything, knowing that your friend is about to get hit by a train, and you can say a word to at least get him out of the way? write himself a first-class ticket to Gehinnom, and you're not even willing to say anything. Who's more evil than you? Who's more evil than you for not saying anything, knowing that your friend is about to get hit by a train, and you can't say a word to at least get him out of the way? My dear brothers and sisters, it's time to wake up. The three weeks before Tisha B'Av are a very difficult time for Am Yisrael. I'm hearing more bad news on a day-to-day basis from people than I've heard, I think, in my entire life. Am Yisrael is suffering. Hashem is making it happen because it's time for us to wake up. Please wake up. Please wake up your family. Please wake up your friends. And please call Hashem from Shamayim and tell Him you love Him. May Hashem continue to bless you and let you get closer to Him so we can move on to better times and Mashiach in our day. Kol Tov.

15:51Please wake up. Please wake up your family. Please wake up your friends. And please call Hashem from Shamayim and tell Him you love Him. May Hashem continue to bless you and let you get closer to Him so we can move on to better times and Mashiach in our day. Kol tuv.