The KNOWLEDGE Of The YANUKA Child | Daf Yomi AVODAH ZARAH 56 | Matmonim by Rabbi Lapin

We have a very very strange this morning. One that if my father or my rabbim would hear me give, I can just imagine what their faces would look like, their raised eyebrows. But I was taken on this journey this morning and then I have been debating whether to share it with you or not. And I figured, well, if I was taken on that journey, why not take you on the same journey and see where we go? Hands and feet. The case here is a case of there was a young boy who learned a and understood it at six years old. So they asked him a cash. So you can already see why you can't blame me for going in weird directions. The story really starts strange that there's a six-year-old who un who learned a zoro what one can understand but b they ask a shila is there nobody else I understand the six-year-old's very bright and he knows a whole lot but is there nobody else to ask a shil other than the six-year-old can a Jew and a non-Jew trample the grapes together in a in a wine press to to make wine and it's a really missionary we a two back that's okay and then we got a that's not okay. So that's probably what they're asking him. Do we pin like the mission or like the said to them? You may do so. So they said to him, "Aren't you afraid that he could use his hands?" Okay, his feet. He's stamping on his feet, but he could use his hands. The nonju with his hands might dedicate the wine to a then it would be this idol worshiing nonjud. So the the says do we tie up his hands? His hands aren't it's true that if his hands are free then maybe you handcuff him. Can you not have the intention to cause the the wine to become of to become with his foot? Does it have to be the hand? Who says it has to be the hand? says the made by the leg is not heal and then the rishim go in and out. Do we paskin like the yuka? We don't paskin like the yuka the the the young boy and so it goes on and and the rishim don't even mention it. I didn't even see rishonim who who who mentioned this strange story you look at what it is. There's a bit of discussion. Were they asking him about an actual event that took place? Or were they asking him a hala? Were they testing him? Were they checking how well he knows or not? But if it was just a a check, I'm trying to just read the words of the Gomorrah as it is. If it was just a test, why would the Gmorra include it? Why would why would Ravaj have put the story in the Gmorrah? Was that the only child that was ever tested? H So clearly his words are important in in Hal. So who is this young child and why is the story relevant and why are we listening to him and what is he saying? There's something more also disturbing me more in the in the of the of the story. There's aim the says we learn from that if an idol worshiing non-Jewish person stamps on wine with his feet since his his his mind is on his stamping. His mind is on making the wine. His mind's not he's not in a religious place. Idol worshippers aren't like like Benra whose mind is on Hashem. No matter what they're doing, this is idol worshiing. When he's in front of the idol, he's worshiping idols. Now he's busy making wine. So we're not worried. But if he uses his leg to move the wine and thereby dedicate it to idolatry, that certainly is. That wouldn't be allowed says the ro the ran says no I don't agree I hold that even if he's not busy with his work he's just standing around stamping on the wine his mind is on something else altogether that's not and still it's not it's not forbidden to have benefit from it. The rivet goes a step further and says, "Kicking the wine around is not an important enough activity to be considered." Therefore, they consider using their leg to to dedicate the wine. That's disgraceful. If you want to if you want to dedicate the wine to our Vori, you don't kick it. It's it's not an activity that is that is fine. So he would say even more than the run. The run says even if he's not bit at all he's just he's just messing around with the wine still it's it's not the the run the goes further and says and the reason it's not is because that form of action kicking instead of handling is not the way they do y. We we can assume this is not this is not yay. This is not wine that has been dedicated to idol worship. My difficulty with all the rishim is the words that the yuka uses. He doesn't say he doesn't say stamping on the wine doesn't create he says implying even if the person dedicates he's doing that's what he's doing he's dedicating it to why is the rush talking about only if he's not if that's not his intention and the run says well even if it's not his intention if his intention is neutral and the ri says because That's not the way it's done. So we assume that it's not. The yuka says he is intending to do it. That's what he's doing. The problem is it doesn't work. The yanuka seems to be saying something almost cababalistic here. It just doesn't work. It doesn't matter what he's intended your leg as the vehicle of to dedicate the wine to y it doesn't catch on. It does it doesn't work. The only rish that that I saw in the vigor brings it in simal is the rash where he says even if his intention is it just doesn't work that that kind of doesn't work. And that led me into wondering, is this child, the six-year-old, is he tapping into something more than just the if it was just about the why would you ask the six-year-old child? There all these standing around there, why would you ask the six-year-old? Doesn't mean the six-year-old's wrong or doesn't know, but surely there are other people to ask. So, is there something? Does this young child have a a a gift to be able to tap into something deeper? And it made me think there's the story in in the Zar in Paris Balac of Rabi and Rabi Yehuda who were going on a on a mission and they were visiting Raamna Sabah in innik which is up here in the in the Galile and um they went in to visit the Ramuna Saba's wife is there the Rabbitson is there and they she invites them in and the son has just come home from school and she calls the son and she says you've got an an opportunity to get a braha from Rabi and Rabi asks them to give you a braha the son comes close and says I don't need a bra from these people thank you very much and they question what are you meaning how can you behave like that he says they haven't said krishma yet I'm I don't need a bra from them and you say he's right we we haven't said yet we've we've been busy with a very important mitzvah with we haven't had a moment to do that and we were also We didn't have to say, but he's right, which is so interesting. That means that even when a person is from a mitzvah, if you didn't do the mitzvah, it it's it's tangible. It can be sensed. So that's a yanuka. The same word is used a yanuka who is able to sense. And he said he could smell he could smell it on their clothes that they hadn't said yet. So So this yanuka has a an extra sense that he's using. Is it possible that the yuka here also is not just talking about the and he's reasoning it out from a Mishna which themselves know. Isn't something else going on here? What what made me think also I think I've mentioned to you before Rafkuk writes in the quotes that as civilization becomes more sophisticated intellectually it loses its intuition intuitional ability and amuno is intu is intuition. So as we get more cerebral and intellectual we get less able to tap into amuna into into true belief of hashem which is much more deeply embedded in in one's in one's soul. So you too, I started thinking, can it be that a child before he starts getting too intellectual is able to sense things that adults can't? And we know that that's sometimes true. I would that even explain how the baby before it's born can learn the whole Torah. The the less it gets involved in analytics, the the more it can sense through vehicles other than just left brain analysis. And that led me into into an interesting place where the the Beneskai wrote a safer shis and chubis a big s he wrote so much stuff. Beneskai from Baghdad. This is an amazing human being. Um and certainly followed by the Iraqi and other Sarodi Jews in terms of of Minhogim and Sakim even till today. And he wrote among he wrote a shas. But what's interesting in the approach and particularly in his approach is this intermingling of kabala and in a way that the you would never find in a Lithuanian poise. And he says after explaining why there's a ru why there's a a a negative energy on the fingers when we wake up in the morning for which we have to wash and he explains it's on the toes as well. And he talks about the 10 fingers and the 10 toes and it's 5 + 5 and it's 10 + 10 and a whole cabalistic thing. Then he says, "So why don't you do on your feet? You should every morning you should have to wash your feet just as you wash your hands." And he brings from the from 200 years earlier gives a reason. This negative energy is much stronger on the foot than it is on the hand. And a few a few glasses of water is not going to get rid of it. It's much more …