Don’t Believe the Warning. But Don’t Ignore It. | 10@9 | 2026.09.09

Good morning. Today is Wednesday, September 9th, 2026. This coming Monday, the day after Rosh Hashanah, is a fast day. Zom Gedalia, the fast for Gedalia. This relates to a fascinating incident in our history with tremendous lessons that apply to us today. So when Nebuchadnezzar and Babel, the Babylonian Empire, destroyed the first base of Mekdosh and sent the Jews into exile to Babel, that was on Tisha Ba'av, the 9th of Av. So most of the Jews were exiled to Babel, but some Jews remained in Israel. And Nebuchadnezzar appointed a Jewish governor to oversee them to maintain order on behalf of the Babylonian Empire, and the person that they appointed was Gedalia. At the same time, there was a king of Amon. Remember, Amon was a small nation on the eastern bank of the Jordan River. Today, what is today Jordan? Long time enemies of the Jewish people. And so at that time, the king of Amon plotted to assassinate Gedalia, and he had a very sneaky way to do it. He hired a Jewish man named Yishmael Ben Netanyah. Yishmael, the son of Netanyah. And by hiring a Jewish person, he hoped that Ba'avel would see this as a rebellion, as the Jews rebelling against Babylonia, and then would wipe out all the Jews that were left. That was his intent. By assassinating one and by having it look like it happened by the Jews, he would get all the Jews in trouble. The story is quite complex because Yishmael may have had his own reasons for agreeing. In fact, we know that he was jealous of Gedalia. He thought that he should have been chosen for this position, so it's kind of a murky plot. It would make for a good spy movie. In any event, Yishmael came with a group of soldiers to visit Gedalia. Of course, Gedalia had no idea what the true intent of this visit was. There was another Jewish man whose name was Yohanan Ben Kareyach, Yohanan the son of Kareyach, who did know why Yishmael and these soldiers had come to visit, and Yohanan warned Gedalia, be careful, they're not here on a friendly visit. They're coming to assassinate you. Gedalia responded to Yohanan, I'm not listening to you. You're making false accusations. You're speaking the Shon Harah, evil gossip. I don't believe you. I'm not listening to you. But Yishmael did kill Gedalia. And Bovell did either kill or exile the remaining Jews in Israel. We observe the anniversary of this assassination as a Tainist seabour, a public fast day every year. For at least two reasons. One is because it's an event of a Jew assassinating a Jewish head of state. And that had not happened since and did not happen again until Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish assassin in 1995. That in itself makes it a terrible event, a dark stain on our history. Secondly, this represented the complete separation of the Jewish people and the land of Israel. Even more so than the destruction of the base of Mughdash and the exile of most of the Jewish people. Now there were none. So it represented this rupture between the Jewish people and the land of Israel. The first time for the first time since the Jewish people arrived led by Yishua. And so that's at least two reasons why this is so serious and observed as a fast day every year. Our sages tell us that Gedalia was partially right and partially wrong. He was right not to believe Yohanan's report that these people were coming to harm him. But he was wrong not to at least suspect that it may be true and that he should protect himself. The Talmud says as follows, this is a G'morom as-Sachdanidah. High Lishnabisha, if somebody tells you Lishon Harah, somebody says that such and such a person is going to hurt you. So that's Lishon Harah. They're speaking negatively about another person. Afapidilakabule, Lomi Boy. Even though you're not supposed to accept Lishon Harah, we've spoken about this before. Not only is it prohibited to speak Lishon Harah, evil speech, but it's also prohibited to accept it. That means to accept that it's true. But even if I don't accept that it's true, Misha Shlomi Boy, I should at least suspect that it might be true. And I should at least take steps to protect myself in case it is true. And there's a very important difference between accepting and suspecting. Accepting that it's true could mean that I might cause harm to that person. I might punish that person to be Khoshesh to suspect that person means only that I will protect myself from that harm. But I don't have evidence to be able to actually punish or cause harm to that other person based on the report without any other evidence. But the question to ask, the question I want to ask is why not accept it is true? I mean in this case, in the case of Gdalia, it was true and Gdalia paid for this by his life. Why not accept it is true if somebody tells you something? And the answer is very important because people make mistakes. Even if they don't have a malicious motivation, people make mistakes. And especially when we are sure that we are right, we have to be more careful that perhaps we are wrong. I would go so far as to say that the more certain I am that I am right, the more possible it is that I am wrong. So that's a very important distinction between accepting and suspecting. I heard this story many years ago from Marabra Yisrael Reisman. I've shared it with some of you before, but it's a story that I need to hear repeated from time to time. There was a woman, a religious woman traveling from New York to Israel. She arrived at Kennedy Airport early. She checked in for her flight and she had extra time before the flight was going to board. So she went to the gift shop and she bought a newspaper and a box of cookies. She went to sit down at the gate. It wasn't too crowded. So she put the cookies on the seat beside her and she opens the cookies and she starts to eat the cookies while she's reading the newspaper that she bought. Now two seats down, the seat on the other side of her cookies, another religious woman is sitting there. And the first woman sees this other woman reach out and take one of her cookies. She couldn't believe it. I mean the other woman didn't ask, may I share your cookies? She didn't even look at her. She just reached over and took one of my cookies. The woman was so shocked she didn't know what to say. Such a chutzpah. Just to sit down and take somebody else's cookies because they're on the seat next to you. Who could do such a thing? So the woman who bought the cookies took another cookie and she sees that the other woman also took another cookie. And the whole package of cookies goes like this. She takes one and the other woman takes one. It's unbelievable. She takes one and the other woman takes one. And finally there's only one cookie left. And she looks at the package and she thinks, now what is that woman going to do? And the other woman, still not even looking at her, takes the last cookie, breaks it in half and eats half the cookie and leaves half there. Now this woman is boiling angry. She can't believe how this other woman is acting. And just then they call her flight. So she takes her newspaper, she gets online to board. She avoids the other woman, stays away from her in the line. Still not able to believe how chutzpahdik this other woman is. She's just hoping she doesn't have to sit next to this woman on the airplane for the whole ride. She doesn't know how she can handle that at all. And as she gets to the front of the line, she opens her bag to take out her boarding pass and she sees the unopened bag of cookies. The cookies she bought, she put in her own bag. The other woman had obviously bought an identical box of cookies and put it on the chair next to her in between the two women. And at that moment, this woman had a shocking revelation. She was the other woman. Every terrible thought that she had about the other woman, that was her. She was the one taking the other woman's cookies without asking, without looking at her. And the other woman, now she realizes, oh my goodness, how kind, how compassionate that other woman was. She didn't say a word that I was taking her cookies without even asking, without even looking at her. And she shared her cookies, and especially the last cookie. The last cookie. And it was hers. And she breaks it in half so that I could have the last half. We need to try to be slow to anger, slow to judge, to stay calm until we have the entire story. If we hear or think that someone is harming us or may harm us, yes, we should be hoshesh. We should protect ourselves, but we should not be makabe. Because we could be wrong. And the more certain that we are that we're right, the more possibility that we are wrong. And with just this one adjustment in our lives, we could change our lives. And we could change the lives of those we touch. That's the lesson that Godalia's tragedy should teach us. My friends, I wish you a great day, and I look forward to seeing you soon in person.