Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] This rabbi is approached by the mafiosi of their town, who's also obviously Jewish.
[00:00:09] And the mafiosi of the town says, I have a problem with somebody who lives in a town next door who is also Jewish.
[00:00:20] And I'm going to that town to figure things out. But in our town, I have everything what I need to take care of, I can do myself in my town, I have all the connections I need. In this other town, I don't know anybody. And I need you to write for me a letter that the rabbis in that town would work with me and would do what I need them to do.
[00:00:44] And they'll come with this letter to the rabbini courts in the town. Rabbini court will rule that I'm right and the other guy's wrong, and they will give me all the assistance I need.
[00:00:54] The rabbi says, listen, it doesn't really work like this. I cannot tell other people what to do.
[00:00:59] Other rabbis, it says, listen, you know that I know where you live and I know where your kids are.
[00:01:05] You better do what I say.
[00:01:08] The rabbi says, okay, okay, fine, I'll write you a letter, but I need to hear about your story. I need to base my letter or something. Okay, so this mafiosi is telling him the story. And the rabbi realizes the more he hears the story, the more he realizes.
[00:01:22] So he says, okay, fine, I'll write you a letter.
[00:01:26] And he writes an extensive letter that I know this in this person, and I'm writing here that he has a business dispute with so and so.
[00:01:34] And I've interviewed him, and I looked into the case, and I see that this person is 100% correct, and he needs all of your support.
[00:01:42] And he's coming to town. I need you to help him. And I am doing this ruling based on this halacha in this book, in this place, in this place, and more importantly, based on what it says in the Babylonian Talmud in Tractate Babakama, page 28, folio B. And he signs this letter and gives it to the guy. And the guy travels to this other town with this letter, and he brings it to the Rabini court there. And Ebini court looks at the letter and say, wow, it's.
[00:02:16] We know that rabbi. He's an impressive rabbi. If he writes something, you have to pay attention to it. And they read what he writes, and they read all of the details of the case and all the citations.
[00:02:26] And then when they come to the end, they look at each other.
[00:02:30] Baba kama, page 28, folio B. From what they remember doesn't say anything about these laws which are pertaining to this dispute. They're looking at each other.
[00:02:41] Maybe we missed something from that page.
[00:02:44] They right away pull out the volume from the shelf, look at it, and as soon as they start reading, they understand very well what's going on.
[00:02:54] One of the first things on that page, it says that if someone is transgressing or someone is saying falsehood based on the fact that he's under duress, God forgives him.
[00:03:08] They understood right away what's going on.
[00:03:11] And there are several stories like this in Jewish folk history, and it's very possible that there's one just like that, just connected to this Torah portion.
[00:03:27] God is telling the Jews how to make all of the vessels in the temple and and all of the articles of clothing for the High Priest Kahan Gadol.
[00:03:38] And one of the things that he's supposed to have is a sit, which is a headpiece.
[00:03:45] And on that sit, on the headpiece, it should say, Kadosh leh hashem, holy for God.
[00:03:52] It says what's supposed to be written there. It doesn't say how it's supposed to be written.
[00:03:56] And rabbis and Talmud are discussing how is it supposed to be written.
[00:04:00] And the majority of rabbis, almost all the rabbis, say that it's supposed to be written on one line.
[00:04:06] Kadosh le hashem, holy for God, supposed to be written in one line.
[00:04:10] Rabbi Eliezer Bar Yossi says that it should be written in two lines, Kadosh le holy, four in one line, and Hashem's name on the next line.
[00:04:22] Why does he say that? He says that he was in Rome.
[00:04:27] And just for historical perspective, Talmud was written already after the destruction of the temple. The second temple was destroyed in the first century of common Era. Talmud was written afterwards. It was completed in the fifth century of common Era. So these rabbis, they are discussing all this couple centuries already after the destruction of a temple. And we know that the Romans who destroyed the temple claimed to take with them many artifacts from the temple after they destroyed it. And some claim that they're kept now in Vatican as well.
[00:05:00] And Rabbi Eliezer Bar was in Rome and he saw that headpiece.
[00:05:08] And the headpiece that he saw had it in two lines.
[00:05:12] So that's why Rabbi Eliezer Bar says that it should be written in two lines. Everybody else, every other rabbi, says it should be written in one line.
[00:05:20] So here's a question.
[00:05:22] If all of the rabbis hear testimony from a rabbi who saw the actual item, why are they not going along with it?
[00:05:31] And why Is there this dispute in the first place?
[00:05:35] More than that. Rambam, who lived another few centuries later, writes that it should be written really on one line. But if it's written on two lines, it's also kosher. It's not the best, but it's also kosher.
[00:05:46] Okay, it makes sense. But do you really think that they would have an article of Cohen's clause and Temple which has not made the best way, like second to the best, second rated? Doesn't make sense.
[00:05:57] And this whole argument really is strange because you could have argument between rabbis about a law in theory, because one sees it one way, the other one sees another way. Here the discussion is about a fact. How was it written? It could either be written one way or another way. So how was it written? And here you have somebody who comes and says how he saw it being written. So why is there a discussion? It's very strange.
[00:06:24] So the Rebbe brings all this down, and the rebbe says a very simple thing.
[00:06:29] When the Romans were about to destroy the Temple, when they were in the middle of conquering Jerusalem, Jews obviously knew that Romans would be going after temples, artifacts after the first Temple was destroyed. We know that Jews hid many artifacts from the Temple in tunnels under the Temple Mount.
[00:06:51] And there's no doubt that they were trying to do the same thing in the second Temple.
[00:06:56] On the other hand, they knew that Romans might go look and dig, they might find them. What is the best thing to do?
[00:07:05] The best thing is to hide the actual artifacts and then create something quickly that would pacify Romans they should stop looking.
[00:07:14] And how do you create it? You create it in a way that anybody with the knowledge will recognize that it's a false item.
[00:07:23] They purposely were creating substitutes in a way that Romans would not know that it's a substitute because this was before the Talmud was written. So all these laws were just as an oral tradition. So Romans had no way of knowing those laws.
[00:07:40] Romans did not know it's supposed to be written in one line or two lines.
[00:07:44] So Romans would find it and they would say, oh, that's for sure the real thing. And they would stop looking and they would take it with them to the Vatican, to Rome.
[00:07:55] So here it is. So the rebbe also spoke about Dead Sea Scrolls in the same manner. And the rebbe spoke about Cairo. Geniza. There are many times when archaeologists or historians will point to some inconsistency, inconsistency between what we have in the Torah today and something which is written which was found in the Quram Cave dead Sea Scrolls or Cairo Geniza. And the Rebbe would say, one second.
[00:08:23] What is Cairo Geniza? What are the Sea Scrolls? These are places where people would bury their holy writings. When do people bury writings? Either when the book is already too weathered and it's not suitable for being used, or when there is a mistake.
[00:08:41] Today, if a scribe is writing a mezuzah and he makes a mistake, he cannot throw it out. The Jewish law doesn't allow us to just throw the scripts in the garbage. It has to be buried.
[00:08:54] So this is what Geniza is.
[00:08:57] So the Rebbe says, if 1,000 years from today, somebody will find the geniza of a scribe of today, you'll say, wow, back in those days, mezuzahs were written differently. Because I see here m different. No, missus were not written differently. The guy made a mistake, that's why he buried it.
[00:09:13] So very often we see how people infer things from the archaeological findings, but whatever they think they found is not it. In other words, nobody is disputing the fact what they found. But what was it to begin with? Was it the real item or not? And they were saying the thing about the shape of menorah. We know that in most of places, most of artists or sculptors, most of non Jewish sources draw menorah with circular branches.
[00:09:48] And we know that minority and temple had straight branches.
[00:09:52] And Rambam specifically draws in his book, Rambam draws with his own hand how these branches were. But people say one second. But we have a historical, archaeological proof that they were round. What was their proof? Titus arch.
[00:10:07] When Titus conquered Jerusalem and he was returning back to Rome as a victor, he had ordered that they would build a triumphal arch for him.
[00:10:20] And he would march through his arch with all of the trophies from the all the spoils of war.
[00:10:27] Now on this arch that they built for him, they drew him with a menorah in hand. And what menorah is it depicting there? Menorah with circular, with the round branches.
[00:10:39] So people say, this is the proof. This is the oldest depiction of menorah we have. And it's a proof that the branches were round, not straight.
[00:10:49] The Rebbe says, one second.
[00:10:51] When was this arch built? It was built obviously before Titus entered the city of Rome. So people who were building this arch have not possibly seen the menorah. They heard about it, they knew it's a candelabra with seven branches. They didn't know what exact shape it had. It was before Instagram where you could upload the picture. And people see it on other end of the world.
[00:11:15] So they were imagining Menorah being this way.
[00:11:18] It's not a proof that this is how it was.
[00:11:20] So this is why whenever we see discrepancy between what many historians or archaeologists say and what says in the Torah, you have to put things in context, and then you understand that it could be what the Torah says was actually how things were. If you put archaeological finds in context, you see a completely different picture.
