Latest / Rabbi Moshe Haber - Daily Mussar/Weekly Perasha / Rabbi Moshe Haber Orchot Yashar:The Sacred Chain: The Power of Tradition and Rabbinic Authority 5.3.26
Transcript
- 0:01We were continuing to sip it of Jonte Shay from Heineken have
- 0:05skins going through the different keys and important
- 0:10elements of life unless we bought a letter of half, which
- 0:13last week we did keep what I've have and then segue into the
- 0:17importance of covert of rabbis and we asked the question last
- 0:20week. Our community, Hashem gives a
- 0:23lot of respect to rabbis and you know, we give everyone major
- 0:27respect. How powerful and significant and
- 0:30important is it? And we said the reason that it's
- 0:32so important, even if the person may not be the biggest gun one
- 0:35out there does not matter. The reality is with the respect
- 0:39it allows his voice to be heard. It allows us to take his word
- 0:43seriously and it's very important for the growth of our
- 0:47people. In fact, they respect those who
- 0:50give over the tada because if we deny respect and we question
- 0:52everything and we're running the risk of not really heeding the
- 0:58words of the rabbi's if we don't give them that proper respect,
- 1:00fine. That was the idea.
- 1:02And we said that's why there are such significant punishments as
- 1:06they bring for those who disrespect the rabbi, those who
- 1:09argue the rabbi, there are serious punishments because of
- 1:12the need to keep that pedestal up.
- 1:14Now he says there's another right behind over here in the
- 1:18step and says there's another reason why this is so so
- 1:21important to give these rabbis this trust is I'll tell you
- 1:25what. Hey Yanu kikoa tura anumukubalim
- 1:30dorum piador atmos shabin Allahabad Shalom our tura that
- 1:34we have was given down to us from generation to generation.
- 1:39Misura Misura means it's been passed down generation to
- 1:43generation. Commotion Mara a bomb then a
- 1:46bomb calculates 40 generations from a time in Marshall I've
- 1:51been who brought down the Torah. Torah was a rabbi and put
- 1:54together the 4 generations from then onward as well called door
- 2:00to Mosella door Shahrab. Each generation gives over the
- 2:04Torah and the one that came before it we got from our
- 2:07parents, our grandparents, and they got it from Khala.
- 2:10It goes up and up, right? I need to to say thank you to
- 2:24you because you're going to keep the Today after me.
- 2:27So in other words, my chairman of himself told the Jewish
- 2:31people you are very important because you're going to hold on
- 2:33to today. You're going to pass it down
- 2:36after I'm gone. We have a concept.
- 2:39The way we have it without today is based on passing the baton
- 2:43from generation to generation, Generation Minnesota, says the
- 2:47rabbi. This is how we have we have
- 2:50everything that we have today. We have the word, we know the
- 2:52word. The word is tradition.
- 2:54Everything we have today is based on tradition.
- 2:56And if you would at all destroy the source of tradition, you
- 3:02destroyed everything. You know, families out there,
- 3:04communities out there that don't have a strong tradition, they're
- 3:07much weaker. They don't really have knowledge
- 3:09of what we do, what we don't do, what's right, what's wrong, what
- 3:12do we hold or what we not hold because not a tradition.
- 3:15Tradition is everything. Tradition mean hog Minnesota
- 3:19mold the structure of our people.
- 3:22And that is why respect is so important.
- 3:25Because if you don't respect the rabbi who came before you, then
- 3:29you don't really go with what he says.
- 3:31If you don't trust his word, you don't care for what he says, you
- 3:33don't go what he says, and you're making everything up from
- 3:36scratch. So you say I have the books, I
- 3:39have the sabbating, I have the Gemara.
- 3:42I'm the problem, I know what to do.
- 3:43No, you don't. The color, the culture, the
- 3:46tradition, the beauty of our people is based on it being
- 3:50passed down literally from person to person.
- 3:52It's not enough to have the book, it's not enough to have
- 3:55just the tuna itself. You need to have a tuna with
- 3:58full delivery. I'll give you an example.
- 4:02And the time when they go on. The villain, there was a person
- 4:06who sat and learnt the whole day alone.
- 4:09He lived alone and he did everything alone and everyone
- 4:13thought this man learns the whole day alone.
- 4:15He must be absolute genius, absolute genius, OK, He must
- 4:23have been a great hakam. He sits alone all day.
- 4:26It's him and Hashem. It's great.
- 4:28Right before he passed away or before he passed away, he put in
- 4:31his will and he wants to be buried with his writings.
- 4:36I think this other story goes he wants to be buried with his
- 4:38writings, all the writings that he have, all his notes, all his
- 4:41Torah, so many years sitting and learning alone and they before
- 4:46they buried his writer, he passed away and burying his
- 4:49writings. I said, let's just look over the
- 4:51writings, see what it says must be so great.
- 4:53His notes was unbelievable and you look at his words and they
- 4:56saw nothing made any sense. Everything you wrote, nothing
- 5:00made sense. They said how could that be the
- 5:02guy who spends his whole life connected to the everyone
- 5:05thought he's a genius, probably because he does all day.
- 5:08How can that be? And the answer is because he has
- 5:10no connection to the people around him.
- 5:13He has no reception receiving from those who gave it to him.
- 5:16It's just him alone. You alone will not have the
- 5:19proper tradition and the proper make up of our people.
- 5:22You need the fact that you're receiving the baton, the baton
- 5:26from those who passed down to you.
- 5:28You need that. That makes up who you are.
- 5:30And so Heinrich says that's why respect of our rabbi is so
- 5:33important, because without respect, you'll question
- 5:36everything. If you question everything, you
- 5:39won't go by what they did. And then, and then you'll have a
- 5:42different picture made-up by yourself and it won't be based
- 5:45on the tradition that we need. That's why it's so significant
- 5:48to give respect to our elders and respect to the rabbis that
- 5:50came in for us. He says that there was a rabbi
- 5:54who was very sick, Masay Shabaru Rabenu Ludukia.
- 5:59There was a rabbi who was very sick.
- 6:01And a few students of his younger people came in to visit
- 6:05them. And he told them.
- 6:08He told them, I need to tell you thank you.
- 6:11You're an elderly rabbi or a young rabbi is coming in.
- 6:16Why do you need to tell us thank you?
- 6:19He said, because you are going to be the ones who will continue
- 6:23the Torah. You are the ones who will pass
- 6:26it down, this Miss Torah, Constant Goshen, the ones who
- 6:29came before us, to us and from us down to the next generation
- 6:32with a very important chain and a very important process.
- 6:35And I need to therefore tell you thank you because you will pass
- 6:38down tradition. How significant is Mihag?
- 6:41It's very powerful. How important is what our
- 6:43parents told? This happened in the old days.
- 6:45It's extremely powerful. How important is it to trust
- 6:48what the rabbis have to say? Also so powerful because it
- 6:50gives you the mold and it gives you the process and it gives you
- 6:54the look of how a Jewish life should be.
- 6:56If you just had the book, you would not know how to live.
- 7:00You need to have the book with his delivery combined.
- 7:04You know how to be a Jew, to be a Jew in our people.
- 7:06I'll give you an example. You just said the halal car
- 7:08downstairs about like Loman, right?
- 7:11Celebrate, not celebrate. The customers listen to music.
- 7:14Interestingly enough, 20 years ago, at least according to my
- 7:18father, it was not the case. When I was, I was going to
- 7:21elementary school and she had school and they used to have a
- 7:24lot of homemade celebration in the school and I used to go to
- 7:28that school and stand to the side by the celebration.
- 7:33I didn't join in. My father told me, if I remember
- 7:36correctly, not to join in because that's not what we do.
- 7:40We don't have, we didn't have a major like moment.
- 7:43I came in years ago. You never heard of the bonfire?
- 7:44You never heard of this stuff. So honestly speaking, I was
- 7:48debating 3 years ago, four years ago when we made this bonfire, I
- 7:51was debating if we should do it or not because it's not really
- 7:54our way, honestly. But my rationale to do it was,
- 8:00it's not a bad thing. It's actually a very beautiful
- 8:02thing. You're celebrating and enjoying
- 8:05Toyota. You're making things exciting
- 8:07and lively. And I'll, you know, I'll, I'll,
- 8:10you know, give a little on something that's not really our
- 8:12custom. And Ohio coming from the Rabbi
- 8:13Michael, my father was sick at the time.
- 8:15He was in the hospital at the time.
- 8:16So I never asked him. But I knew you knew.
- 8:18I eventually knew about it. And there were a problem with
- 8:20it. But I said, well, give a little
- 8:23because it's, it's on the whole issue of not listening to music
- 8:26because of a small custom #1 #2 here we are celebrating a
- 8:31beautiful thing #3 in Israel. With how many said, I deem they
- 8:35do have bonfires and celebrations.
- 8:38So even if it's not really part of our community's way, it's not
- 8:41like we ever said no to it. We just didn't do it.
- 8:44And therefore we gave a little. The reason of allowing it or
- 8:47we're doing it is only because of that.
- 8:49Technically speaking, if someone asks me, is a log on bonfire A
- 8:53mitzvah, am I going to go and say it's our customer, our way?
- 8:56I wouldn't do that. But then you and I Fast forward
- 8:5920 years from now, fair. And for the 20, for now, there
- 9:02will be people who will be travelling to mid on for sure.
- 9:07And there will be people who will consider this tomorrow
- 9:10night one of the biggest nights of the year in our community
- 9:13because tradition keeps changing.
- 9:14So therefore I'm a little nervous, a little bit careful
- 9:17about this issue. But this is an example where
- 9:19tradition is important. You have to know what yes and
- 9:21what no. And really it is a debatable
- 9:23thing, but we're doing it because overall it's a beautiful
- 9:25thing. But this is one example of where
- 9:28tradition can go and where them in hog can be switched and kind
- 9:32of change and you have to be somewhat careful.
- 9:35Like I said, we're only doing it because it overall it's a
- 9:37beautiful thing. And the whole issue with playing
- 9:39music is very slight in the 1st place.
- 9:41Never we are to rely on. But again, customs matter.
- 9:45Tradition matters. What we what we have from before
- 9:48makes a difference. And that's why you need, which
- 9:52is just to say customs in our community is like law.
- 9:54It is no, not customs. Sigur lot all I go.
- 9:58I think Sigur lot maybe customs too.
- 10:01But now one last example of this concept is a classic story with
- 10:06Halil. Halil had someone who came over
- 10:10to him and said teach me tuda as a convert, but I only want to
- 10:16hear Tudaashi Bhaktab, the Iranian tuda, not the oral tuda.
- 10:22So hello, told him, OK today I'll teach you olive bed gimal
- 10:27Dalit. Very nice.
- 10:30Next day the guy comes to learn a little more.
- 10:32He only believes in the rain. He doesn't believe in the oral.
- 10:36The oral is the Gemara. And the oral also feeds into our
- 10:39masuda constant. We're talking about today
- 10:41tradition. So the next day hello, tells him
- 10:45Dalid gimal bed olive. The man says what I thought the
- 10:50order is Allahabad qui madar. Allah says, Who told you it's
- 10:54Allahabad qui madar you did yesterday.
- 10:57You trust me, Allah says you're trusting me, you're trusting a
- 11:01person. Maybe I got it wrong.
- 11:03How do you know what I'm saying is right?
- 11:05The man says, but you told it to me, you're teaching me tudah.
- 11:08So Allah says, don't you see the only way Tudah can be given over
- 11:13and be trusted as if you trust the rabbis.
- 11:15You were dependent on me to know basically all of it, and you're
- 11:19relying on me the next day to believe I'm right.
- 11:21So now you have to believe the oral to that, you have to
- 11:24believe the tradition. You have to trust the Miss Surah
- 11:26because if you don't have it, you don't have anything, then
- 11:29what I told you yesterday can be erased immediately.
- 11:32It's so significant to believe in our tradition and our Miss
- 11:37Surah, because if we break that down, that it's not just I don't
- 11:41care about the custom, I don't care what the rabbi says, but I
- 11:45keep the Torah. Eventually the Torah itself gets
- 11:49broken as Shalom and is not trusted because much of the
- 11:53Torah that we have is dependent on the way the rabbi is
- 11:56delivered it to us. That's why respect of a rabbi
- 12:00and trusting the rabbi's word is so significant and so important.
- 12:04This is all going up against a different approach.
- 12:07There's an approach out there that people can be cynical,
- 12:11people can be critical. People can say, say, who said
- 12:14that? Where'd you get that from?
- 12:17Who's his rabbi? He's coming up with new ideas,
- 12:19coming new things, where he's coming from.
- 12:21And that's OK to question and it's OK to to want to get
- 12:24clarity, but it's not OK to break it down and to break down
- 12:29the sources. Because if you destroy the
- 12:32sources of AL Misura, you destroy the chain.
- 12:35If you destroy the chain, you destroy the culture that we're
- 12:38basing it on. Everything about our homes, our
- 12:40suffer, our Shabbat meal, our schools, our schools, all that
- 12:46is based on tradition. And if I start to question and
- 12:49say, who said so, where'd you get this from?
- 12:51He was just robbing. Anyhow, I started to break down
- 12:54the basic chains and I do not have tradition.
- 12:57I don't have Misura and now it's all up to me.
- 13:00And if you leave things up to me myself, it's very dangerous.
- 13:03You can give me every book and every book under the sun at the
- 13:06end of the day, if you, the Tara would start with me.
- 13:10It's very limited. If the Tara is built on years
- 13:13and generations of beauty and building, and even if, like I
- 13:16said, that the tradition keeps changing, that's also fine.
- 13:19It's not a serious thing like that, you know, like Bowman
- 13:21becomes a thing one day. It's also fine.
- 13:23It's not like a heavy thing, but overall you have to absorb and
- 13:27trust and lean on the tradition and the culture of those who
- 13:31came before you. Because without that we have a
- 13:35very slim down Torah and we have also nothing really to rely on.
- 13:39So it's so significant and important to trust, to lean on,
- 13:44to respect the tradition and those that came before us and
- 13:48not to break down everything and said who said so.
- 13:51And therefore I'm not going with it and start to make fun of
- 13:54certain things. Second day holidays, you can
- 13:56make fun of all these everything.
- 13:57You can make just an example, you can start making fun of
- 13:59everything if you do not trust the misura and position and
- 14:05those that came before us. Yeah, we'll start with this.