The Greatness of Our Sages (8 minutes)

1:01Now, before learning Torah, it's very easy to think the Rambam was like us. To think the Rambam was like us. Like he's, like, just a rabbi. He's like a local Chabad rabbi or Breslov rabbi, Orthodox rabbi, this rabbi. They just don't know, it's a rabbi, big deal. So I don't agree with him, he's human. But little do we know that he's as far from us as we are from monkeys. In fact, with all due respect, because I'm included as well in this argument, we are closer to monkeys than we are to the Rambam. When it comes to intellect, when it comes to wisdom, when it comes to Torah, and when it comes to just overall middot and character traits. Now, this is hard for us to understand because this is far from us. So, let's understand what we're dealing with. The Rambam got all of his laws from the Gemara. The Gemara preceded him by almost a thousand years.

2:02And the laws were transmitted for 2,000 years before that, from Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our Teacher) on Har Sinai (Mount Sinai) approximately 3,300 years ago. It was transmitted orally until the Mishnah, and then subsequently into the Gemara, and so forth. Now, in the Gemara, there's a rule that any rabbi mentioned by name is significant in the discussions. Revive the dead, meaning that they themselves don't necessarily have powers, but they have the holiness. They have the Kedusha that their prayers are so significant that Hashem answers them to such an extent that He would revive the dead. So one of the times, they had a very interesting story where Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi's chavruta was Antoninus. Antoninus was the Caesar. At the same time, he was an ish emet. He was a seeker of truth; he found the truth. His desire was to learn Torah with Rebbe, whom all of the sages at that time agreed was such a perfect person, full of holiness and beauty. He was a descendant of David. I mean, he was such a perfect human being that if Hashem decided the Mashiach would come, he would be it. This was Antoninus. They would study together.

3:20Antoninus built a cave or tunnel under his palace that went directly to Rebbe's study hall. Every night he would take two of his guards with him. As a king, you would always have somebody with you. So, he had two guards. One guard he would kill right on the spot so there would be no witnesses. And the second guard, as soon as he arrived at Rebbe's place, he would kill him also. Because he knew that if these guards knew what he was actually doing—learning Torah with the Jews—he would tell others, and they would kill him. So the din (judgment) to allow him to kill this guard was based on the law of Rodef. Meaning that if someone comes to kill you, you are allowed to kill him first. So he wasn't a murderer; he was protecting his own life. He was just obligated as a king to have these guards. Nonetheless, one time, He arrived at the study hall with Rebbe HaKadosh, and he sees Rebbe, one of his talmidim is there. One of the talmidim is there. He says, to the Rav, with all due respect, I told you the learning is just between you and me. The learning is just between you and me, not your talmidim. You know, I can't have witnesses. He says, don't worry. He's not a human being. He's not like regular people. He's not like regular people. He goes,

4:42Okay, if he's not like regular people, he says he's like a malach (angel). He says, if he's a malach, tell him to go tell my guard, bring my guard inside. The guard's dead, but he doesn't tell him that. So he sends, go, bring the guard, go bring the guard. He goes to bring the guard. Now, the saying in the Torah, in the Gemara, is that the Chachamim (Sages) say, only a fool brings bad news. Only a fool brings bad news. So now, the talmid (student) of Rebbe sees a dead guard. He says, maybe he didn't know he was dead. This story, found in the Talmud, illustrates the wisdom of Rebbe and his ability to navigate challenging situations with insight and sensitivity. These narratives teach us the value of wisdom and understanding in our interactions with others. It's a reminder of the respect and reverence the Talmudic Sages had for life and the supernatural abilities attributed to them in the rabbinic literature. Maybe he knew, maybe he didn't know. I'm going to give bad news to the king of the Goyim. Only a fool does such a thing. What does he do? He brings him back to life. Why? Because he was Kadosh. He brings him back to life, they go inside. Now Antoninus knew he killed them. He says, ah, Rebbe, you're right. Your students, they're not like other people. They're not like other people. Why? Because they're mentioned in the Gemara. They're not like other people. They can revive the dead. But please, next time, don't bring him anyway. Now why do I say this? Rabbi was in the generation after Rabbi Akiva. He was a student of the student of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva was a student of Rabbi Eliezer Ben-Horkinos. The chain of tradition continues, going all the way back to Moshe Rabbeinu.

6:00Amazing thing is that just when you talk about Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, in order for you to be a student of his student and to be mentioned by name, you would have to revive the dead. Meaning that even the Rambam was not able to be a student of Rabbi. But when it's compared to us, like I said before, we're as far from the Rambam as we are from the moon or as far as we are from the sun. It's beyond us, and the way that we see it... that there was one guy, one intellectual, a Nobel Prize winner, who one time said, "What's the big deal about this Rambam? What's the big deal? He wrote some laws. You guys are studying how he wrote it? Just study what he wrote." No, no, no. We don't study that way. The Rambam has such wisdom, we study how he wrote it. What letters he used. As if it's like how God wrote the Torah. It's not just what he wrote, but how he wrote it. What's the big deal? He says, listen, he wrote not only the law, but he wrote it in the least amount of words. The most amount of information with the least amount of words. But Einstein said, if you can't explain something simply, you don't know it well enough. Meaning you have to be able to explain it to a child. Most amount of information with the least amount of words. So he says, pick any law that the Rambam—Maimonides—wrote in our Torah and write it in the least amount of words.

7:17The guy studies this law, simple law, whatever it was. After a few months, he comes back. "Okay, I wrote this law in 21 words." The Rabbi said, "Lower it a little bit." Okay, a few more months later, "17 words." "Lower it a little bit." "What do you mean? It's less than 17?" He lowers it to 13 words. 13 words. And then it gets to a point where he's convinced that at 13 words, we're finished. They look at the Rambam, where it's seven words. And not only that, at the seven words, it's actually more clear and more educating than the 13. That's how far we are. So when we understand how holy and smart and wise... where he's convinced that at 13 words, we're finished. They look at the Rambam where it's seven words. And not only that, at the seven words, it's actually clearer and more educational than the 13. That's how far we are. So when we understand how holy, smart, and wise And far be it from us to disagree with the great sages. We have to think twice before we say, "I don't agree with the Rambam," or "I don't agree with Rebbe," or "I don't agree with the Gemara." Because in reality, you are only saying it because you don't understand who you are dealing with.