עצי אשרה is the wood which is of a tree that they worshipped for avodah zarah. Gemara says היכי דמי, what is the case? אי דאיכא סכנה, if it's a dangerous situation and life is in danger, אפילו עצי אשרה נמי, why can't you even cure yourself with עצי אשרה? אי דליכא סכנה, even if there's no סכנה, so אפילו כל איסורין שבתורה נמי לא. You can't use anything, anything that's טרפה you can't. So the Gemara says לעולם דאיכא סכנה. We're talking about there is a סכנה. And therefore, everything else you're allowed to use. אפילו הכי עצי אשרה לא. And still even if life is in danger you can't use עצי אשרה. Why? Because this is avodah zarah, and the Gemara is going to bring that for avodah zarah you have to give up your life. תניא it says in the beraita, What would possibly be a benefit of the אשרה, anyway? I don't know, some kind of medical cure. But they don't they don't find that there might be? I mean that, do we know of is every tree an אשרה, or you could make an avodah zarah out of a tree? Oh, any type of tree. It's only if, you have to make sure, no, it's only if you made, you planted it for the sake of avodah zarah. You cannot make עבודה זרה דבר המחובר לקרקע. Someone's going to bow down to the to the mountain, so the mountain becomes avodah zarah? Someone bows down to a tree, it doesn't become avodah zarah. It's only if it's planted לכתחילה לשם עבודה זרה, then it's אסור. And this is what עצי אשרה is. So you can't use it to cure yourself because you're having הנאה from avodah zarah, and you're not allowed to, even if it means giving up your life. What do we see here?

תניא it says in the ברייתא, רבי אליעזר אומר, רבי אליעזר says, it says in the pasuk, \"ואהבת את ה׳ אלוקיך,\" love Hashem, \"בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך,\" with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your life, with all your מאדך, the way he taytsh'n here, with all your money. So he taytsh's like this: אם נאמר בכל נפשך למה נאמר בכל מאדך? If it says with all your life, with all your נפש, then why does it have to say with all your money? ואם נאמר, if it says בכל מאדך למה נאמר בכל נפשך? If it says with all your money, why do you need In other words, what are the two things here? אלא ללמדך, to teach you, which is a strange thing, אם יש לך אדם שגופו חביב עליו מממונו, if there are people that care more about their life than about their money, לכך נאמר בכל נפשך. So if it would say you have to give you have to love Hashem with all your money, and a person loves more his life, he'd say, \"Okay, my money I should give away, but who says I have to give away my life?\" That's why it says, \"בכל נפשך,\" give up your life. ואם יש לך אדם שממונו חביב עליו מגופו, you have some people their money is more beloved to them than their bodies, their life, לכך נאמר בכל מאדך, says your money too. Because if it would just say your life, he'd say, \"Okay, my life I have to give up, but my money? That's even worse.\" The pasuk says both. But in the meantime, what do we see here? That a person has to give up his life for loving Hashem, which means not to do something which is avodah zarah. See every aveirah that you do, basically, it shows that you are against Hashem, but it's not direct. But this is mamash direct against Hashem. So that's why עצי אשרה you're not allowed to use to cure yourself even if your life is in danger. Because is if you're using the idol to cure you? No, there is it's asur. Yeah. Even though it's not your intention. So how does one How does one know that that that that tree is avodah zarah? If you don't know, you don't assume. You don't assume. Only if you know. No. Even though it's not your intention at all, it doesn't matter because פועל he's using avodah zarah. If you worshipped avodah zarah then shogeg, there's a korban you can bring. Not on a shogeg, yeah. If you did it by mistake, you can bring a korban. Shogeg, yeah. If there's some something else which is avodah zarah, it's not an אשרה, you can use that either? Right, right. It's just that. Yeah, anything that's avodah zarah you cannot use to save your life. If a

person did use it to save his life, so what's the din with this person? Pikuach nefesh pikuach nefesh and he Yeah, well it's a stirah. It's not a stirah, but the Rambam there seems to be two opposite dinim. The Rambam says, if someone tells you, \"Kill the person, if not, I'll kill you,\" or \"Have relations with this woman, which is asur, if not, I'll kill you,\" or or do avodah zarah, \"if not, I'll kill you,\" you have to yehareg ve'al ya'avor. Those three. If a person did not listen to this din, and he did avodah zarah, you still don't punish him. Beit din will not punish him, because the bottom line, he did it be'oness. Sof kol sof, he was forced into it, דמילא אונס, it's anything. Then there comes another halachah in Rambam, nagid this halachah, if someone cures himself with עבודה זרה ברצון, not shogeg, willingly, you would kill him. Someone worships avodah zarah in order to be to to to cure himself, let's say through avodah zarah. It's not it's not worshipping But the Rambam says you're not allowed to מתרפא, and someone that is מתרפא from עבודה זרה, גילוי עריות, שפיכות דמים, חייב מיתה. Even though lichorah it's an ones, he didn't want to do it, he only did it because to save his life. So the mefarshim ask what's the difference between these two halachot? Wait, wait, wait, you mean it's it's worse if he used it to cure yourself, to save your life, and if he then if he served the catch-can? It's worse than if he If someone says, worship this avodah zarah, if not, I'll kill you. 'Cause you're not allowed! But if the guy did not if the guy did avodah zarah, so the Rambam says, after all, he was an ones. And an אונס, רחמנא פטריה. But if the person was sick and he cured himself through avodah zarah, then he's חייב מיתה. What was the difference? So there are the sefarim that say the difference is like this: In the first case, it was an ones. This case, you're doing it b'ratzon. You wanted to do it, no one forced you to do it. You wanted to save yourself, that's something else. That's a different story. That's an indirect. There is a direct ones and there is an indirect. It's also an ones, you don't want it. Different type of pikuach nefesh. No, pikuach nefesh is the same. There's different type of how you're doing the avodah zarah, a different type of ones. The first way, the ones is direct. I'm forcing you, I want you to do the avodah zarah. Here, no one said to do avodah zarah. I can not do the avodah zarah. You want to do the avodah zarah. There's a reason why you want to do it, to save yourself, that's something else. So that's why he's חייב מיתה. Using using avodah zarah is not the same thing as being worshiping avodah zarah. Rambam refers to this din of מתרפא. If someone is מתרפא בעבודה זרה, could be מתרפא through worshiping. Got to be. Otherwise, it's just a chiyuv, is it hana'ah? So if he chops the tree down and says he ground it up to use it for the medicine That was grown for avodah zarah. I understand, so that's like an hana'ah of avodah zarah, not worship. Right, hana'ah. So what would be a case? Okay, you worship the avodah zarah so they should let him into that hospital or something? Or do something like that? That, yeah, something like that. That's a good example. What? You want to go to the hospital, they don't want to let you, unless you worship avodah zarah. No one's forcing you. Don't worship, no one's telling you to worship avodah zarah. Otherwise you won't be saved. Don't be saved! But the other case, the guy's telling you, I want you to worship avodah zarah, he's forcing you to worship עבודה זרה. Okay, so what about these guys like that lived, right, I remember, he's already gone, who went, pretended they went they went into they look looked like a German and he went into for not the whole time, but part of the time, he went into the into the church and he pretended to be a German. Yeah, but that's something pretend to be a, going to, it doesn't mean you worship עבודה זרה. That's a different שאלה you have on that. על פי דין, you're allowed to save yourself with a בית עבודה זרה, if it's פיקוח נפש. Allowed to do what? Save yourself. By doing what? By going into a בית עבודה זרה. Always. But what if you pretend to actually do the service? Pretending, how many how many Yidden were in in in That's actually worship. in orphanages and all these No, that's, yeah, but actually would were actually would would would bow down to עבודה זרה, actually kiss the cross or something? They made the kids do it. No, not that I think. Yeah, most of them not actually. Yesterday, by the chasan, one of the letters that they gave out in the תשורה, the Rebbe writes, נצרות is עבודה זרה. You saw, you looked at it? נצרות, נצרות is עבודה זרה, and איסלאם is not. I mean, it's נוגע to something, so the Rebbe writes with, איסלאם's not. Islam is the one that's supposed to blow people up all over the place. Okay, that's שפיכות דמים, not עבודה זרה. Cut people's head off. I mean they're acting more barbaric. שפיכות דמים. That's not עבודה זרה. 100 years ago they were more barbaric. They believe in him as a נביא, they don't believe in him as a god. But נצרות, the Rambam says clearly, נצרות is עבודה זרה. Okay, let's go vayter. כי אתא רב דימי, רב דימי came, אמר רבי יוחנן, and said in the name of רבי יוחנן, הכל מתרפאין, you can heal yourself with anything, חוץ מעבודה זרה, גילוי עריות, ושפיכות דמים. But you cannot save your life through עבודה זרה, adultery, and murder. עבודה זרה, where do we know that you can't save yourself with עבודה זרה? הא דאמרן, we just said, the פסוק says, ואהבת את ה׳ אלקיך בכל נפשך. You have to love ה׳ even if it means, the Gemara doesn't use the לשון here, but the לשון is אפילו נוטל את נפשך, even if it means that he's going to take your life. גילוי עריות ושפיכות דמים מנלן, where do we find that adultery and murder is also included that you cannot save your life even if even if it means your life is in danger, you cannot do it? תניא, it says like this, רבי אומר, רבי says this pasuk, quotes the pasuk, who speaks about נערה המאורסה, a woman, girl, a woman who was already married, she was engaged, but in those days, engagement meant she was already an אשת איש, she was a married woman, and the Torah says what happens if someone forces her? So it says, that person gets killed, and she's she was an אונס, she didn't do anything, but he gets killed. And the pasuk says a strange pasuk. The pasuk says, why do you not why do you kill him? כי כאשר יקום איש על רעהו ורצחו נפש, just like someone would come to somebody else and kill him, כן הדבר הזה. So, this stood by נערה המאורסה, doing this to this woman is like somebody would come and kill somebody. וכי מה ענין רוצח אצל נערה המאורסה? How can, what are you imagining? We're talking about נערה המאורסה, we're talking about adultery, and he mentions it's like murder. הרי זה בא ללמד ונמצא למד, it seems like it comes to teach you that this is like murder, but he's trying to say to teach you a din, it's not stam trying to compare. מקיש נערה המאורסה לרוצח, it comes to compare נערה המאורסה, which is adultery, to murder. And a רוצח to נערה המאורסה, and the other way also, we compare both ways and we learn out a din each one to the other.

Number one, מה נערה המאורסה ניתן להצילו בנפשו, just like a נערה המאורסה, we we know a din that if you're able to if your only way you could save this girl from this guy is by killing him, you're allowed to he's already you're allowed to kill him. אף רוצח ניתן להצילו בנפשו, so if someone wants to murder somebody, you're allowed to kill the murderer. And this is a chiddush. We'll see in a second why it's a chiddush. I mean it should say why not. Oh yeah, it says it says if you could have saved her or saved the man without killing him, then you're a רוצח, then you're a murderer, not allowed to. But if that's the only way Not by a gun. Not by a gun. That's right, John. That's right, John. So, that's what we learn out. נערה המאורסה, we learn out that this adultery from this from murder, מה רוצח יהרג ואל יעבור, just like by murder, the din is that you have to rather get killed than do it, נערה המאורסה תיהרג ואל יעבור. If they force you, want to force you to do adultery, you have to rather get killed rather than do it. Then the Gemara asks: רוצח גופיה מנלן? Where do we know murder itself? Where does it say by murder that you have to allow yourself to get killed rather than kill somebody else? סברא הוא. It's a sevara. What's the sevara? דההוא דאתא לקמיה דרבא, like a case, someone came to Rava, אמר ליה he said to him, מרי דוראי אמר לי, my master, my my governor told me: זיל קטליה לפלניא, go kill this guy, ואי לא, if you don't kill him, קטלינא לך, I'll kill you. What should I do? אמר ליה, Rava said to him: ליקטלוך, let him kill you, ולא תקטול, don't kill the other guy. Cuz דמאי חזית דדמא דידך סומק טפי, what how do you know, what makes you think that your blood is redder than his blood? Your life is more important than his life? דילמא דמא דההוא גברא סומק טפי, maybe he's more important. In other words, you can't go push a nefesh for a nefesh. גילוי עריות? Huh? גילוי עריות, how does that work? What do you mean? I'm saying what he was I'm asking before גילוי עריות, even in in in just in גופיה, why is there a din of a rodef? If someone If Reuven is chasing Shimon and the only way you could to kill Shimon, and the only way you could save Shimon's life is by killing Reuven, then why do you have to kill Reuven? Why is his life better than his life? Because he's a bad guy. No, there's no such klal. What happens if a guy is In other words, this whole din Rava's case when he said go kill him, so I'll kill you, so you have to let yourself get killed. But what happens if that guy's a bad guy? When it comes to murder, we don't say, well, the better a good guy is better than a bad guy. So, same thing here. So, the guy who's trying to the murderer is a bad guy, true. And the other guy is a good guy, but they're two Yidden. But he's actively doing it. So what? No, I'm saying, what's what's the seichel? It's a chiddush of of the Torah, but על פי שכל, if we accept this sevara that you cannot kill one person, you cannot take away one's life, who knows, so why is the rotzeach's life better, I mean, the guy who's the nirdaf, the one who's being chased, better? Because this guy's not not a murderer, and this guy is? There's no such din that because he's a murderer. And and ela mai, that's what we learn out from the pasuk. We learn it out from the pasuk from נערה המאורסה, that the Torah by נערה המאורסה we know there's a din like that. No. Yeah, by נערה המאורסה we know ניתן להצילו בנפשו, so same thing here also. So, by that's how I asked you. By by, so what happens? If you can save the person Yeah. you you you kill the person. Yeah, if the only way you could save her by killing the person, you kill him. But there you don't have the sevara of דמא דידך. Right. It's a different thing, it's an aveirah for killing. But here, we're saying they're both going to die, so why is one more important? To avoid, yeah, to avoid to avoid, to force somebody to to This makes sense. I know it makes sense, but I'm saying the other way. If this makes sense, then how could you kill the murderer? The murderer is a rodef, so we say you're allowed to kill a rodef. The first clause. So if that's הבא במחתרת, הבא להורגך השכם להורגו, you're allowed to kill the guy. But it's not so pashut. I mean, I don't feel it is, I could understand it, but it's not simple. So was this sevara it was הבא להורגך was only if you're talking about the guy who's who's saving himself, an onlooker is is is So we're learning out the same thing, yeah. Yeah, we're learning out the same just like, be'emet you could ask the same question, הבא להורגך השכם להורגו, he's going to kill you, self-defense. Who says his life is your life is better than his life? And self-defense, וחי אחיך עמך, you you're supposed to live. He's supposed to, no. He's also supposed to live. And you're supposed to kill him. No, yeah, if a guy wants to kill, the pasuk says, it's already, that's not, וחי אחיך עמך means even if it was your own brother, so So, it's all from a pasuk, it's not from a seichel. I'm saying this, here he says a sevara. בנוגע that you can't kill somebody to save your own life is a sevara, there is no pasuk to this. In other words, the סברא פשוטה is, the simple sevara is that there is no, you can't compare lives, you can't say one life is more. But I'm saying if you're going to go with this logic, then the other cases would be different also, but we have pesukim. We have וחי אחיך עמך, we have all the pesukim that teach you. And אי הכי נמי that's The aggressor gets killed. Yeah. So, how does here you're saying he can get killed just from a sevara? Yeah. Yeah, in other places. It's from a sevara. A sevara, a sevara is a d'oraita. The Gemara says, once, many, few places in Shas the Gemara asks, learns out a din from a pasuk, and the Gemara asks, למה לי קרא? סברא הוא. So, the mefarshim say, what's the kashya? And what if what? A sevara is not a דין תורה? It's a sevara only. So they say no, that the Beis Halevi writes that a sevara if it's a real logical sevara that the chachamim feel it's a right sevara has a din of a d'oraita, like in the Torah, cuz the Torah is logic. So, what do you need the pasuk for? That, you know, so the So, this is a sevara, it becomes the other pasuk and you're ממשיך from this pasuk and from this sevara, in the case for the rodef the Torah's made, במחתרת, and all the other pesukim that we have. This is the source of the din of if a woman's life is in danger while she's giving birth, you're allowed to kill the baby. That's what the Rambam says, to save the mother because the baby's a rodef. Come on, that's still baby. Very smart. You're a very smart boy. He's listening. He is a very smart boy. You got to fix that. Okay, we won't tell him. Yeah. Shtikah. Shtikah. That's no good. שתיקה כהודאה. So, the Gemara Weiter, before that אמר רבי שמעון בן פזי, אמר רבי יהושע בן לוי, משום בר קפרא, רבי שמעון בן פזי said in the name of Yehoshua ben Levi in the name of בר קפרא, קול, מראה וריח אין בהן משום מעילה. There's a din of me'ilah,

not milah, but me'ilah. Me'ilah is if a person has hana'ah, has benefits from anything that belongs to the Beit Hamikdash, hekdesh, you're called mo'el bahekdesh. And there's certain dinim. You have to bring a korban, and you have to pay pay back, and you have to pay a fifth. You've got the whole special din of me'ilah. What happens if you have hana'ah, you have pleasure, you have benefits from hekdesh, but it's only voice? The Levi'im are singing in the Beit Hamikdash, and you hear it, and you enjoy it, or mar'eh, you're looking at the beauty of the Beit Hamikdash and you pashut it gives you enjoyment, or re'ach, you smell the ketoret and you're also having hana'ah from it? So, it says, אין בהן משום מעילה. There's no din me'ilah. Why? Because it's not mamashut. Only when you take something that's mamashut, this is a more of רוחניותדיק ענין. What's mamashut? The mamashut is tangible. Concrete. This is not concrete. So, the Gemara Weiter, שתיק רב יהודה. There was a case, Rav Yehudah, there's a machloket, it was in הלכות פסחים, how you are supposed to destroy the chametz. And the Gemara tried to ask all kinds of kushyot on Rav Yehuda, and one of the kushyot the Gemara asked on Rav Yehuda was based on Rav Yehuda's own opinion for something else. And שתיק רב יהודה, רב יהודה had nothing to answer. אמר רב יוסף, said Rav Yosef said, היינו דאמרי אינשי, this is what people say, כפא דחטא נגרא בגויה ניסוף חרדלא, that in the same spoon that the one who made the spoon, the owner made the spoon, he could could use that very spoon to burn his own tongue. If he's going to use that spoon that he made, made to benefit, and he's going to use it and eat the hot pepper with it or something that's going to burn, that old his own spoon is going to, so here, Rav

Yehuda's own opinion was the one that got him stuck. Mustard, I said pepper, but maybe I didn't mean, just give another example. אמר אביי, Abaye said a different example, סדנא בדסדנא יתיב, a person who makes the the the, well the things the chain that not the shackles that you do for the prisoners, if he does something wrong, if he's caught stealing, they'll tie him up. They'll put him in chain with the chains that he made. מיניה וביה אבא לשלם. His own work will pay him. It happens. The guy who invented the guillotine was guillotined. Yeah, guillotined, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember what his name is, but it's very well-wished, that's what, Guillotine. What? His name is Guillotine? Dr. Guillotine. Louis, Louis Guillotine. 1436. Much before that. Louis the 14th. He was beheaded? Yeah. רבא אמר, Rava says a different expression, גירא בגירי מיקטל, a guy who makes the arrows could be killed with his own arrows. Same thing, מיניה וביה אבא לשלם. With the work of his hands of his own hands, what he does, he will get paid back for it. Or

someone says the lashon Yeah, the axe, what's the lashon in בלשון קודש? What's the lashon? The lashon that the axe itself is over the axe? Yeah, I remember what's the lashon. The axe fell out of the tree. Yeah, well, that's in Hanisrafim. Yeah, okay. The steel thing If you're not a handle to it, they won't cut the tree. No yet, in order to cut down the tree, you have to have a piece of wood. You have to have from the tree. But the lashon is that's not, that's in Aragon. No, it's a famous lashon. It's a famous expression, it's it's like this:

Rabbeinu Gershom was locked in the tower. How did Why did he not give up to get out? Because the guy who made that tower was also locked in the tower. And he made it he made it they came to get his body, he was gone. Gone, yeah. So, he figured Nobody knew how he got out, so Rabbeinu Gershom figured if he got out, I could also get out. It must be a way out. But I don't I don't think Rabbeinu Gershom got out the same way. It was a secret tunnel. Rabbeinu Gershom, he got out through a secret tunnel, a secret door he made, because he knew that he's going to sit there. Rabbeinu Gershom made it a gantze maaseh with strings, with this, with the worm. No, How could he do that? Because he found they raised up in the window. That's what the other guy had I think the other guy went out through a door had a door open. I don't know. Whatever, but the bottom line is the guy who made it expected to be sitting there, They made a movie from that, The Count of Monte Cristo. Really? Shkoach. Shkoach.