Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So if there's a person who is inadvertently killing somebody, not only it wasn't intentional, there was no even any wrongdoing on his part, there was no negligence, then what would be the outcome? According to our law here, the American law, we could speak to a lawyer about, but according to the Torah, this person cannot be charged with murder.
[00:00:31] But a person like this was supposed to go to live in a separate city which was called IR Miklat, the city that was designated for an exile. For specifically cases like this.
[00:00:45] What were these cities? When Jews entered the land of Israel, they were instructed to create those places strategically in various ends of the country.
[00:00:58] It says if someone kills someone inadvertently, then the relatives of the victim are allowed to revenge. They are allowed to kill the person who killed their relative, unless this person is running into this IR Miklat, the city of refuge.
[00:01:17] So this is how the Jewish law created this city of refuge. Without police. You don't need police to enforce that. These people are staying in the city of refuge.
[00:01:28] You don't need anybody going around checking their documents. Are they allowed to be out and about or not? But normal person would leave a city of refuge in these situations because he's afraid to get killed by someone who he doesn't even realize is sitting there.
[00:01:43] So this was the law, what was going on in these cities of refuge?
[00:01:49] It is interesting that otherwise, besides for these exiled individuals, the city of refuge were places where Levites were supposed to live.
[00:02:01] The tribe of Levi didn't have its own land for farming for their animals, because their job was not in agriculture, their job was not in business. They were meant to serve in temple and teach the Torah. And all the Jews were given 1/10 of their income to Levites, to the tribe of Levi, because they were performing these duties.
[00:02:22] And this is how they sustained themselves. And they lived in these cities of refuge. But not only they were also spread around the country because they needed to teach in every school, in every town, in every city.
[00:02:36] Why was it necessary?
[00:02:38] The Torah insists that if there is a person who has committed a sin inadvertently, even though it wasn't his intention, and when you ask a person like this, he'll tell you, what do you mean? I didn't do it intentionally. It wasn't my thought process that led me there.
[00:02:58] It was beyond my control. And it's true, this is what is going on in his conscious mind. But the Torah says if someone commits a sin inadvertently is because subconsciously, somewhere on a spiritual level, he has a connection to this sin.
[00:03:15] So he needs to rid himself of this connection.
[00:03:19] And because he's subconscious, that's why it's even harder for him to do it.
[00:03:23] By the way, this is also why in the Jewish law, a person who committed inadvertent sin was supposed to bring a sacrifice in the temple.
[00:03:36] Because these are the sins which are the hardest to repent for.
[00:03:39] The person will say, I didn't do anything wrong.
[00:03:42] So he needed a special help, the help of a sacrifice to get rid of this inside of him.
[00:03:49] So this person is exiled. Now this person who murdered somebody by mistake is exiled in one of these cities.
[00:03:58] Obviously it makes sense that Levites, the tribe of Levi, who are teachers, who are rabbis, who serve in the temple, they live there, and they are there to assist those people, to rehabilitate them. It makes sense.
[00:04:14] But here is something else.
[00:04:17] It says that if, let's say, the cities are not very well populated, Levites are low in count. For some reason in this region.
[00:04:26] They're busy with other jobs, other cities.
[00:04:29] And here we have a big influx of those people who killed somebody by mistake, inadvertently, is coming into IR Miklaat, the city of refuge. It says that we were supposed to populate those cities with non Levites, regular people, not people who murdered somebody by mistake, regular citizens. We were supposed to populate those cities.
[00:04:54] Why?
[00:04:55] There are two answers. First answer is so that if the city is empty, there's nobody living there and only couple people who murdered somebody inadvertently live there. Then someone who wants to murder them, a relative of their victim, will feel freer to come and take revenge. The city is a ghost town anyway.
[00:05:16] So to prevent that. But then there's also spiritual reason for it. What is the spiritual reason?
[00:05:22] These people are there for a reason.
[00:05:27] The city is called IR Miklat. Ir Miklat means city of refuge. Like for example, today in Israel, houses are built. Unfortunately, they have to be built this way, with a room which is called miklat, which is a shelter.
[00:05:43] Refuge. Shelter, same word, miklat. It's a shelter. It's a bomb shelter. With all the bombings and everything in Israel, all modern houses which are built, are built with miklat. Miklat in Hebrew has another meaning. When Olim Chadashim, when new immigrants would come to Israel, the agency that was taking care of them was called Mirkaz Aklata.
[00:06:08] This is an office that does miklat. What does miklat also mean? It means assimilation, absorption.
[00:06:17] You need to assimilate the newcomers into the society. You need to teach them the language, explain to them how things work, what you do what you don't do.
[00:06:28] Help them acculturate themselves in this new place.
[00:06:32] So this called aklata also, same word, Miklat.
[00:06:36] So what was the purpose of Ir Miklat? First of all, it was a city of refuge, to protect them from somebody who would murder them. But also it was there to help them to assimilate into their regular society.
[00:06:50] A person who murders someone else goes against the society. You see, we Jews are all like one body.
[00:06:59] We are not just a nation.
[00:07:02] We are like one body. And this body has its head, has its feet, has its arms.
[00:07:09] And if we are one body, if we understand it, we would never hurt someone else.
[00:07:15] If my right hand does something wrong, my left hand doesn't slap it.
[00:07:21] You did something really bad. Bam, bam, bam. Doesn't happen. I got the news for you. Even more, if my right hand by mistake will hurt my left hand, my left hand will not hurt it back.
[00:07:33] You did such a terrible thing.
[00:07:35] If you have seen somebody doing that to himself, then you know, call appropriate help for this person.
[00:07:43] We are one body.
[00:07:46] So when one Jew murders another Jew, even by mistake, he goes against this notion that we are one body.
[00:07:53] And this is why he needs to be in Ir. Miklat. He needs to be part of a community. He needs to be assimilated into the community.
[00:08:02] And this is why we need to have a community there, regular people living there.
[00:08:07] The city needs to have an economy. They should be able to go about their business. They should have regular jobs. They should have a shul, a synagogue to go to. They should have their friends. They should have their coffee shops and restaurants where they can hang out.
[00:08:20] It should be a regular community.
[00:08:23] So this is the point of absorption or assimilation. This person who killed somebody inadvertently, he needs to feel, needs to regain this sense that he is a part of the Jewish nation, part of the community, part of one body.
[00:08:41] And we usually read about all this in the Torah at the time period like now, which is the time right before the destruction of the temple. We know that on this Sunday is going to be 9th of AV, which is a fast that's commemorating the destruction of a temple.
[00:09:01] And three weeks prior to that is a period of time when the city of Jerusalem was conquered and the temple was about to be destroyed. So these three weeks prior to 9th of AV are sad weeks. They're weeks prior to and day of the destruction of temple. Why was the Temple destroyed? It says that the second Temple was destroyed because Jews were not treating each other with proper respect.
[00:09:28] Because Jews were fighting too much Because Jews were hating each other, as our sages say, the cause of destruction was baseless hatred.
[00:09:37] Now how do you rectify baseless hatred with baseless love?
[00:09:43] What is a baseless love?
[00:09:46] Baseless love is love. Just because I don't have to have a reason to love someone or something, that's baseless love.
[00:09:55] So now what is baseless love? If I look at someone else as another person, then my love for him has to have a reason.
[00:10:05] If somebody will ask you, why do you love this person? Why do you like this guy? Why do you could explain it.
[00:10:10] Most of the time people don't need a reason to love their children.
[00:10:15] Do you know why? Because usually people love their children. You know why? Because they look at their children as a continuation of them themselves. It's an extension of them. It's part of them.
[00:10:28] And the more I feel this way, the more I will love my children, you know? So in other words, why do I love my children? I got news for you. I love my children because I love myself.
[00:10:40] Just like people will ask me, do you love your hands? What do you mean, do I love my hands? These are my hands. I got news for you. A different guy has much better hands. They're stronger, they maybe look better.
[00:10:52] Do you love his hands better than your hands? No, he don't love his hands better than your hands. Do you love your face? Well, it's my face.
[00:11:00] There are much prettier faces out there. I got news for you.
[00:11:04] So why do you love your face? Why do you take care of your face and you don't take care of his face?
[00:11:10] Well, because it's my face. Because I love it.
[00:11:13] So this is called baseless love. We love ourselves for no reason, just because it's me. That's the only reason why I love myself.
[00:11:22] I can tell you. I can give you a long list of people who are smarter, kinder, nicer, more courageous.
[00:11:30] Every good trait you could think of. I can give a long list of people who have these traits. But I still love myself more than all of them.
[00:11:39] Because it's me.
[00:11:41] This is baseless love. By the way, this is why the Torah says, love your fellow like yourself.
[00:11:49] Why did I say love your fellow like yourself?
[00:11:52] Because you love yourself without really any reason.
[00:11:57] And you need to learn to love others this way as well.
[00:12:00] But not only that, your love for others starts with your love towards yourself. You learn how to love others from your self love.
[00:12:11] And I've got news for you. People who don't love themselves, they can't love others. Either a person who hates himself, unfortunately, there are people like this cannot really truly love others as well. That's why it says, you should learn how to love others from how you love yourself.
[00:12:27] So when we look at all other Jews, like a part of one body, this is part of me. This is not somebody else.
[00:12:36] That's how we rectify the reason why the temple was destroyed. If I see another Jew doing something wrong, I might be very saddened. If I will see that my hand did something wrong, my hand did something stupid inadvertently and broke something, I'll be very saddened.
[00:12:55] Maybe even I will be upset at myself for doing it. I'll be upset at my hand.
[00:13:01] But will I be angry?
[00:13:03] Will I want to punish my hand? No.
[00:13:07] Every time when we do something wrong, we kick ourselves and we say, yeah, it's terrible that I did it. We all make mistakes.
[00:13:15] But then do we want to punish ourselves for that? No. Nobody wants to punish themselves for what they did, even though they recognize what they did wrong.
[00:13:24] So, same thing. When another Jew does something wrong, we can be very upset, and rightfully so.
[00:13:32] But do we look to punish him? Now?
[00:13:34] That's a whole different story.
[00:13:37] So this is what we learn from how the Torah treats people who did inadvertent sin. They need to be assimilated in order to feel that they are a part of a community. They are part of one body.
[00:13:51] And once they feel it again, that's when they fully rectify what they have done in the past.
