How Parashat Tetzaveh Saved Rav Yom Tov Heller

0:04For the average person that's looking at it superficially, it seems like they're not really relevant to your life in the year 2024, where you're young, single, looking to get married one day, or you're married, a newlywed, you have a couple of kids maybe, or you're old already, you're in your 40s, your life is relatively developed, and you've got a little business going, you've got a position at some major company. What am I going to do with the clothing of the Kohen? What am I going to do with this? How could I apply the weekly parasha to my life? Some people don't know that this is not a recommendation; this is not a suggestion. Every Jew must read the weekly parasha twice. Twice you have to read the parasha and once with commentary, meaning you have to go through the parasha three times every week. Many people do this on Friday or on Shabbat.

1:09They use one of the times when the Ba'al Koreh reads the Torah as an opportunity. They handle it at other times, either right then, after shul, or during the week. The bottom line is that just as you have to make a blessing when you wash your hands or eat kosher food, it's halacha that every Jew must learn the weekly parasha twice and the commentary on the parasha once. So even when it's a parasha where, on the surface of things, it doesn't look like it's relevant to your life, it doesn't look like it's relevant to your life. So first, you have to know that just because something doesn't look relevant, doesn't mean it's not relevant. And since we're already on the train of stories, I'll tell you another story. But this story didn't happen 2,000 years ago. This story took place about 400 years ago. The Gadol Hador at the time was Harav Yom Tov Heller. Harav Yom Tov Heller was one of the Tosafot, an extraordinary Chacham. At the time, he was living, I believe, in Prague. And he was extraordinarily intelligent.

2:28He was successful in the world of Torah, gaining major notoriety all over Europe. He was the biggest rabbi on the continent. He was also extraordinarily successful financially; he was well-off, although not as well-off as the non-Jews thought he was. Nonetheless, he was well-off. Now... The King Ferdinand II passed a decree that since there was a war at the time, and they wanted to raise more money for the war, so of course, the victim of all of the crimes of the enemies of the Jews are always going to be the Jews; they're gonna make the Jews the victims, even for their mistakes. So what happened? They wanted to tax or they taxed the Jewish community, In there, $40,000. In so many words, in today's money, I don't know, $40 million. An extraordinary amount of money, or maybe more. Now, of course, unlike today, where there is a "each to their own" mentality that people have, this came to the Jewish community. Who has to deal with it? The Gadol HaDor, the Rav Yom Tov Heller.

3:58...ruled that the wealthier people in the community have to contribute a large chunk of this $40,000 that was due to the government. ruled that the wealthier people in the community have to contribute a large chunk of this $40,000 that was due to the government. You would think, okay, these are all religious people, who keep Shabbat, keep the holidays, and give tzedakah. The biggest rabbi in the world, the chief rabbi, told you this is what you have to do, you do it. Well, it didn't work out so well. Why? Shortly after he told them this, they didn't really like it and they asked for others to get involved. There was a meeting over it. You would think, okay, these are all religious people, they keep Shabbat, keep the holidays, give tzedakah. The biggest rabbi in the world, the chief rabbi, told you this is what you have to do, so you do it. Well, it didn't work out so well. Why? Shortly after he told them this, they didn’t really like it, and they asked for others to get involved. There was a meeting about it.

5:02They re-evaluated the whole thing and confirmed that what the rabbi said was fair. According to the Torah, it was 100% fair. Well, before they ever gave the money, all of a sudden, as Rav Yom Tov Heller is studying his holy Torah, he gets a knock on the door. It's one of the messengers of the king telling him, "There's a ruling where you are under arrest. You have to come to the castle. You have to come to the court. It's a big embarrassment. They arrest the biggest rabbi in the world. Treat him like a criminal. Without even telling him what the charges are. Tell him that he did something against the kinghood. What did he do?" There's a ruling where you are under arrest, and you have to come to the castle. You have to come to the court. It's a big embarrassment. They arrest the biggest Rabbi in the world and treat him like a criminal without even telling him what the charges are. They tell him that he did something against the kingdom. What did he do? Long story short, finally he goes to court. They tell him the charges and that he's under arrest. Why? Because in your books, they say, you wrote derogatory statements against the Christian people, who are the people of this country. You wrote derogatory things against the Christian people, calling them idolaters, and uh...

6:25According to the law, if proven guilty, which we have proofs of, and even witnesses, the penalty is the death penalty. He said, "What witnesses do you have? What are you talking about? What I said is..." No, he tries to defend himself. We're not buying it, because, "No, I wasn’t talking about the Christians. I was talking about other Gentiles." We don't buy it. We don't buy it. witnesses who said, "Who are you? You're relying on what your Christian scholars are telling you?" And the court surprised them by saying, "No, no, no. We have people from your community that came to us and told us that you are constantly talking against the Christian people and calling us idolaters." The pain of being in prison and Being literally a stone's throw away from getting the death penalty was significant, but to hear that this all came from wicked Jews who pretended to be religious was the heartbreak of all heartbreaks. Now, he had a few friends—obviously, many people loved him. They did whatever they could to help him improve the conditions, at least until the trial.

7:54Long story short, one of the friends managed to arrange a meeting between him and King Ferdinand himself. King Ferdinand said, "Yes, I know about your case, and because of your friends who are also friends of mine, I'm willing to hear you out. What do you have to say about it?" Says, "Listen, uh, your highness, uh, these are false charges. I didn't talk about, uh, you." He says, "How? But you're saying in your books that Christians are idol worshipers." She goes, "No, no, if you notice in my books, I don't say the word 'Christian.' In my book, I say the word 'Akum'." And Akum, your highness, means people that are worshipping foreign gods, that is, Gentiles who are worshipping other gods. It's not necessarily referring to the Christians.

9:03so, and he explains, he tries to explain to this king how there's a difference between akum, where they worship the stars, the moon, and all types of idols and, you know, foreign things. And really, he's not referring to the Christians now. Of course, according to the Christianity is considered idolatry, but he's not telling him this. He needs to save his life; he's not obligated to tell him that. Really, yes, you guys are the idol worshipers, and please kill me. allowed to say no we're saying akum Akum is uh ones that are um that are uh worshippers of stars and other idols, whereas you guys believe in a trinity which, for us Jews, is forbidden. But you're entitled to believe what you want, though you're not the same as the uh people that worship an actual statue or pray to the sun. So King Ferdinand was a smart man, and he said, "Then wait a minute, how many of these akum, how many of these are in Prague?" He said, "Not many." "When was the last time you saw one?" He says, "Your Highness, I never saw one." "He says, how many of these...?"

10:27in Europe, there are people who worship the stars that you have seen and know of. So, your highness, I don't know of any. He says, "So how do you expect me to believe that you wrote in multiple books multiple times about these idol worshippers that don't exist, and it's not really referring to us? Why would you ever write about something that doesn't exist?" The genius of Yom-Tov Heller... says to the king, who literally has his life in his hands if you will—the flesh and blood allowed to kill him—says to him: "Do you honestly believe in our Torah? Do you believe in our holy Torah? Do you believe in the Old Testament?" Did you know that in the Torah we have Parashat Tetzaveh? We have a Parasha that talks about the clothing of the Kohen Gadol. We have a Parasha that talks about the Beit HaMikdash. We have a Parasha that talks about all the korbanot (sacrifices). And you know that we Jews study these halachot (laws) day in and day out. Every single day we study this, even though...

11:40Our Beit Hamikdash was destroyed, and even though we don't have a Kohen Gadol today, and in essence, we can't really implement all of these laws in our lives, we still study them. We believe that these are the words of the living God. This is what our Torah is not about—just what can I do today—but rather we learn the entire body of the divine words of HaKadosh, because all the words of HaKadosh, and all of it needs to be studied. The things that are clearly something that you could apply to your life today and the things that are not necessarily something you could apply to your life today—all of it must be studied. this is what saved his life. even though the argument against him came from within, came from within the Jewish community that nearly killed him, in essence, shows one example of why

12:52HaKadosh Baruch Hu had us study some of these things that may, at first, look like they are not relevant. We are meant to be a light unto the nations, not to follow their misguided practices. Remember, every Jew has to remember that he's a Jew and she's a Jew. We don't celebrate non-Jewish holidays, even if they seem harmless. It's a zilzul, disrespect, will lead to Chilul Hashem, desecration of God's name. Stick to our holy Torah and our own holidays. That's the path of a true Jew.