Shoftim 3

0:00Welcome to Tarati Mechanachiyomi with the OU Women's Initiative. My name is Khenolei Rappaport and today we will be learning Safer Shoftim, Perak Gimmel, chapter 3. This Perak begins with repeating the conclusion of the last Perak. There were Khenai name and other nations all over Ertsysraal. Why? For the purpose of Vayulina Sopram as Sysraal, there were there to test the Jewish people, to ask us to know how you should be in the U.S. with Sysraal, will you listen to the commandments of Hashem, a Shatsivas of Osambiyad Moshe, that he commanded our fathers in the hands of Moshe, and so in Puzzle K, verse 5 we see the reality. Obenay Israel Yashfu and the Jewish nation set the care of Hakanani, Hachiti, Hymori, Haprizi, Hachivi, Hiyavusi, we were surrounded by all these nations, nations we were meant to banquish, to conquer and we didn't. To test us, will we remain loyal, low and behold, they do not seem to pass their test. Puzzle Kvav, verse 6.

1:00Vayulina Sopram, they took their daughters for wives, they married the girls, the Khenai girls, Vespinosaim, and their own daughters, Nusnul of Nam, they gave to the Khenai boys, Vayavdua Selahem, and of course the result is they're going to serve their gods, their idols. What we notice about the center marriage is it seems like the Jews were very much in charge, they were the ones taking the girls, they were the ones giving their girls, they had the upper hand, and we could imagine that they were converting them, they weren't marrying non-Jews, but at this stage when the Jews have the power and the conversion could be coming from fear, what do you need this for, why are you doing this, you're going to develop relationships and connections, your kids are going to grow up with non-Jewish grandfathers, why do you need to do this? And so they start to drift, and Hashem sends them Kushan Rishatayem, a Kengu's name is Kushan Rishatayem from the word Russia twice, double Russia, double evil man, Mehlach Aram Naharayem, the king of Aram Naharayem, Vayavdubina Israel is Kushan Rishatayem Shmonashanem,

2:07and the Jews serve Kushan Rishatayem for eight years, anti-Semitism, in the form we see today or how it was back then, it comes from the same roots, it comes to serve a purpose, anti-Semitism is not the problem, anti-Semitism can be seen as a solution to a problem, sometimes we get too close to the non-Jews and Hashem sends us a reminder, this is something that has not changed throughout our long history, Hashem made a promise that we will never, ever disappear, and to keep that promise he sometimes needs to send the non-Jews to remind us who we are, and what our goal is, and the first nation who's going to test this is Aram, modern day Syria, the place where our other Senyumahos come from, we know Aram well, Avraham came from Aram, Rifka, Rahul Leia, they came here, and this Kushan Rishatayem was actually a descendant of Lavan, Lavan Harami, we say it on the say their night, say Ulamad, go out and learn, go out and

3:08see how evil this Lavan was, usually a man has great love for his sister's children, and Jakov marries his daughters, meaning Jakov is a Senyumah, and there's a brisk between the two nations, there's a covenant between them, but this Kushan Rishatayem back in the days of Lavan, and now today this evil king who stands up, get up and realize what this nation wants to do to you, what did he do Kushan Rishatayem? It seems like he asked them to pay taxes, and because the Jews were totally not used to this, having to answer to someone, since Mithraim, they didn't have to answer to someone, they didn't begin to know how to fight on their own, they agreed to pay taxes, so the Shibot wasn't too terrible, but in the context of being an independent Jewish nation, the fact that they had to give a foreign king money was very, very difficult for them, and so on Pushek Test, in verse 9, he was a Kubanator of El Hashem, and they cried out to Hashem,

4:13but Yachem Hashem, Moschil of Naes, Israel, and Hashem sends a savior to Benes, Israel, who was it, someone very familiar to us, Ayoshi Aim, and he saved them as Asneel Ben-Kinaz, Akhi Kale, Hakatan Mimeno, Asneel Ben-Kinaz, who he met in Perek-Aleph in chapter 1, who was the younger brother of Kale, he's already known both for spiritual and military accomplishments, but he seems unhappy to take over the leadership, but when the situation was becoming too difficult, he agrees to set to step up to the plate, and it says, Batihi Allah Ruach Hashem, and the Ruach of Hashem comes upon him, and we have a madrashtan Khuma that says, what does it mean that he had the Ruach of Hashem? He looks at what Hashem said to Moschil of Mithrayim. In Mithrayim Hashem says to Moschil of Ra'ol Ra'isi Asani A'mi Asher of Mithrayim, I have surely seen the pain of my

5:13children that are in Mithrayim. What does it mean that it says Ra'ol Ra'isi that Hashem said, I saw and I saw? Hashem says to Moschil, I see them now that they're in pain, but I also see in the future these people are going to sin, they're going to sin with the ego, but even so, I'm going to judge them by seeing they're paid now, and this is what Asneel said to Hashem, Bainzakim, Khayabim, Alavloshiyam, whether they are doing the right thing, or whether they're not quite doing the right thing, Hashem, please save them. And Hashem listens to Asneel, and he took care of Kushan Risha time, and Pasakir Aliv, verse 11, Batishkota Arat, Arbaimshana, and the land is quiet for 40 years. May Amas Asneel Bankanas, and Asneel Bankanas dies. These 40 years of quiet, which also include the eight years of service, which proves to us that it couldn't have been so terrible, but then Asneel Bankanas dies, so we have eight years of serving, 32 years of quiet,

6:21and when he dies, although there's once again a system of local judges and leaders, there isn't one leader who takes over, and therefore, once again, there's a weakening of the spiritual stature of the nation, and this time, it's Moab who is going to come. We know Moab all, too. First of all, he's a child of Loth, and also the King Balak, who worked with Bilam, comes to him. Moab has been waiting since the defeat of Balak to come back and wage war against the Jews. The King was going to stand up. His name was Eglon. He is a grandson of Balak, and as Balak did, he also has a certain respect towards Hashem, so although he's fighting against the Jews, we'll see that he does, he does believe in Hashem. In P ussakir Gimal in verse 13, we see that Balak does not fight on his own, but he gathers together Amon and Amalek. How painful for us this coalition is all, they're all descendants from Avramavina, new enemies, old enemies. Amalek, as we see,

7:25takes the opportunity to fight whenever we can. It's a hard blow. These are three nations, who the Jews are commanded, you're not allowed to start up a fight with them. They should be expected to be kind to the Jews. Don't start up with us. You know we can't start up with you, so leave us alone. Well, we sort of expect it to get it back from Aram, who's a more distant relative, to get it from our own cousins, like our closer cousins, is a harder blow. He hits the Jewish nation, eglon, by your shoe ear, had to marm, and they capture one city called Ear Had to Marm, and although it's only one city, it's a huge blow because for the first time, after all the battles of Yehoshua, and the battles that we did in Perik Alif in the first chapter, here is a war that they lost, parenthetically, which war was it? Which city was it? Which city

8:28did they lose? Ear Had to Marm. We spoke about it two days ago, two generations after the Bnay Hakeini left there. Everyone thought that they would lose out by leaving a beautiful city to go to the desert to learn Torah, but look how much they gained. They weren't hurt, they weren't captured. The Jews serve eglon here for 18 years, a longer period of time before they start to cry out, perhaps because the sins were lighter, meaning that the the navi doesn't specify what exactly was going on, and therefore maybe they didn't feel an urgency of what they had to do to correct. Also, perhaps this serving of eglon was lighter, maybe they just had to bring them a gift every year. It's unclear exactly, but we do see that for 18 years, they waited before they cried out, and then we have from Pasuch Teswav to Khavgiml, from verse 15 to 23, the salvation is going to come, and I'm going to tell you the story of how it happens. The salvation will come through the hands of the Shofet, the new Shofet, whose name is Ehud Ben-Gera, and it comes from the tribe from the

9:31Shavet of Binyamin. It's interesting. Every Shavet has a Shofet or a navi coming from him, as we'll see through the Shofet and besides Shimon, besides the tribe of Shimon, but whenever Asav or Amalek is involved, the salvation has to come from someone who comes from the descendants of Rahul, really the only ones who could stand up against Asav, because Asav is Yakov's brother, and we know about that fight, but it's only the children of Rahul who could say we never fought with our brothers, because it's Yosef and Binyamin, Binyamin was not around by Machiawis Yosef, so therefore it's always going to be a descendant of Rahul here in this case, Ehud Ben-Gera, who comes from the tribe of Binyamin. Besides being from Shavet Binyamin, the only thing we know about him is that he is a lefty. He works his left hand is dominant, which will have practical implications, in the way that he is going to kill Eglon, and we know about Eglon, the Pasa calls him an Ish-Bari-Maut. He is

10:36a very healthy man, it means he is quite obese. What Ehud does is he takes a sword, and this sword has a blade on either side, and he, it's a very short blade, and he puts it under his clothing, but because he is a lefty, the sword goes in on his right side, so it's not noticed. Ehud brings the yearly gift offering that the Jews had to bring to Eglon. He brings it to Eglon, and then he didn't come on his own. He said he had come with other Jews, and he accompanies the other Jews to Gilgol, so that they should be out of the way when this, when he's going to actually kill Eglon, and then he comes back to the court, and he tells the court, I have a secret misive from Hashem. I have to talk to Eglon privately. Here we will see how Eglon fears Hashem, and he sends everyone else away, so that he can hear. Eglon was sitting on a special chair, and he stood up,

11:39so that he can hear. Eglon is a descendant of Lot, as we said, who, who, who Lot himself had two drives. On one hand, he follows Abraham, and he welcomes the guests, and he doesn't tell Ansara, and on the other hand, he lives in Sedome. Eglon, too, was bad to the Jews, but we see he does believe in Hashem. As a reward, he's going to have two descendants. One is Russ, and one is Arpa, and again, they're going to take two very different paths, but we know that Russ becomes the matriarch of the royal family of David Amela, who will descend from, from Russ, who is a descendant of this Eglon. So Eglon does get reward for his belief and his honoring of Hashem, and so he picks himself up off his special chair, and he's presumably using both hands to get himself up, to stand himself up, as we said, he's a very big person, and Ego takes his left hand, pulls out the sword, and sticks it into Eglon's stomach, killing him. The Possex says, the fat covers the blade and the handle,

12:43and his intestines come out. And in Possex, Gimel, in verse 23, Beate, Aehood, Hamist, Draena, and Aehood comes out of, and then he goes out through the hallway, Beescar, Dalsais, Halea, Badae, Venaal, and he turns, he closes the door, the door of the attic where he was talking to Eglon on his own, Venaal, and he locks it. He locks the door behind him. It could be the smell of the intestines, or it could be just the locked door. The servants imagine that the king was using the bathroom and left him alone. But after some time, they force the doors open, and they see to their horror that he is dead. And the Possex says, in Possex's club, 26, Beate, Aehood, Nimlat, Adhismah, Ham, they're looking around, and they're waiting, and they're wondering, and while they are wondering what's going on, Aehood has run away, but who of our

13:45Esepsilim, Bay Malay, Tessirasa, and Aehood has gone past the Pselim, and he is running away. And he blows his shaper, and he gathers his troops, and he says, come, today is the day where we can attack Moav, and we could save ourselves from our enemies. Possex test, 29, Bayakus, Moav, Aesahi, and the Hit Moav on that day, Qasera, Salafim, Ish, like 2,000 people, Kalsha, main, all the well-built people of Hull, Ish, Khayel, and all the strong people, the lo, Nimlat, Ish. No one was able to escape. And in Possex, Lamid, verse 30, Vati, Kanam, Moav, Bayamahu, Tachas, Yad, Israel, and Moav was vanquished on that day, under the hand of Israel, Batishkot, Haaret, Shmonim, Shana, and the land was silent for 80 years. I remember when I learned this in school, our teacher made us remain silent for 80 seconds.

14:46She just stopped talking, and we were all just sitting in a water car, and 80 seconds is a very long time when they're silent. And she was trying to drive home a message to us. 80 years is a very, very long time of quiet. And this is the first time that Jews are allowed to actually kill Moav in our history because they started up, and then we have peace for 80 years. There are a tremendous number of miracles that had to take place here. Eglon is not an unintelligent king, and this is not a foolish nation. They wouldn't have been able to rule the Jews for 18 years if you were. This can look like a clever palace and tree, a very clever murderer, but it's clear to anyone who bothers to look that there's many miracles that are happening here. Number one, they have to trust him, the servants have to trust him, to leave them himself. Number two, they have to not notice the knife on his right side. Eglon has to be willing to get up from his chair. The blood has to go out naturally and not on a hood. Otherwise, they would suspect him.

15:48And of course, the murder has to work, the knife has to go in. We will not meet Moav again until Malachem Bayes. Many, many, many years will pass before Moav will have the audacity to start up again. A short afterward to this parake is in verse 31, Lamit Alev, and after him, Hayashem Garben Anas, there was Shem Garben Anas, Hu Bayach has pushed him six meals each, and he hit the plishdom, 600 of them, the Malmad Habakar. He used something, it's a sharpened agricultural implement that was used to drive oxen forward as they ploughed the field, so an agricultural implement, Bayashem Garben, Hu as you saw, and he also saved the Jewish nation. Of Shem Gar, we know nothing more. Later on in parake in the fifth chapter, we're going to see in the victory song of Dvara that he's going to be mentioned there as a time when the roads were

16:51deserted and the people who were walking on the roads had to go on long, circuitous paths to avoid the kanana, so obviously then we're not doing, we're not safe for the Jewish people to be around. So even though he hit, he killed 600 plishdom, it's, first of all, it's not a large number, and second of all, it seems like they didn't have many weapons at that time, they were using their, the tools of their farm, so that Shem Gar was able to prevail against 600 plishdom using only this oxen driver is, is a miracle, but as we see, it did not have a lasting impact. Thank you for learning in memory of our dear grandmother, is Miriam Shankar, Rahul Friedman, Theresa Schreiber, and Bella Openheimer, Alayem Mashalom, Nishot Chael, who lived at the Amos commitment to Torah about the Milos Lassadin, despite the physical and spiritual challenges they faced, living in the United States, Israel, or Europe. May their example continue to inspire our families and families of Klay Israel,

17:55Nina and Klayem Shankar.