No Agent for Sin

If you ask, or hire someone, commit a crime, and the “agent” does so, you would be guilty of a crime in the U.S.  

The Talmud, however, says that “there is no agent for a matter of sin”, meaning that the you (the sender) are not guilty. The reason is, because you can tell the agent “the words of the master and the words of the student, who should you listen to?”. You, therefore, cannot be prosecuted in the human court, only G-d can and will hold you accountable.

There are many legal theories that explain this law, we will offer a possible philosophical explanation on why the Torah does not simply legislate that it’s a crime to ask someone to commit a crime. Would a law like that not be beneficial to eliminating crime?

The answer is no. For nothing is more powerful then to tell the criminal: you are on your own, no one else will be held accountable for helping you sin, it's your responsibility to “listen to the words of the master”. Prosecuting the sender would send a message to the broader society that the criminal is not entirely guilty since the blame is shared with someone else. From a philosophical point of you, the moment you say that the sender is also guilty, you are shifting some of the blame off the criminal.

The Torah therefore chooses to look a person in the eye and say: just know that whatever you do is entirely on your shoulders, no shifting the blame or holding others responsible for your actions.    

Sports

G-d is everywhere.
(A period ends my last sentence not an exclamation mark, why because he is there even when I don't feel him.)

Does Hashem really care about the outcome of tonight's game?!
Whether a guys lifts his right hand to call timeout or his left hand?

Lately I have noticed that players and commentators have come to mention more frequently terms such as the football gods, the sports gods for an explanation for that which in sports is unexplainable or just completely unexpected.

What we know about Hashem is that we can't understand him. Can't fathom him.

But what does he want us to understand?

That he is not able to be constrained by our expectations.

You think you know what is good, yeah you really do?

Which way is up you fool?

What is dangerous and what is safe?

What is best for you or what might be your downfall?

You really want wealth?! Let's see what it does for you?

You want to be famous? Really?! How does it feel to die young, a drug addict?

You want to be an angel, only good? Ba'al Karchach atah chai.

Oh so you start to see what is G-d.

So he picked Israel, why? Because they were the smallest.

So the angels wanted to sing at the Yam Suf (we see G-d, we understand what he is doing), Shtok my creations are dying.

The miracle of the Maccabees, the small against the many.

A built in mechanism (13 middos) so when you mess up like no one is able to mess up, I mean we just were able to experience not just G-d's presence (Har Sinai) but the underlining cause of this
whole story, Bechirah and that bechirah is greater that Chet HaEgel.

Ahron, does he get punished for his role? OK I understand Chag LaHashem Machor but please?! rewarded with Kehunah Gedola?! What am I missing?

It's amazing absolutely amazing that we know we have no intellectual ability to have an advantage gambling on football games yet hundreds of commentators give their predictions and even record their record. However bad it may be! Don't we know already that nobody knows what they are talking about! And they aren't even ashamed to admit it! Yet we read it with avid interest as if we are going to gain some semblance of added insight.

The three most lopsided football lines that I can remember are 1991 Bills vs. Giants, Bills are favored big, they lose. 2002 Rams vs. Patriots, Rams are favored big they lose. 2008 Patriots vs. Giants, Patriots are favored big they lose.

The playoff game between the Patriots and the Broncos was the highest rated tv program since the previous Super Bowl. What does this mean? Obviously that unscripted reality drama where we can't predict the outcome unlike Sitcoms and even reality TV is what we want to see. That even as we spend as much time figuring out the possible outcome it is always unexpected.

It is what we want yet we refuse to understand it.

The world thinks, how can a great powerful G-d busy himself with the minutiae of everyday life?
Yet there is a pattern and that pattern is to expect the unexpected.

Humans are the lowest of all creations yet we are the greatest and perhaps the greatest in comprehension. How so you ask? Angels can only comprehend that which they comprehend yet humans can comprehend that which we have no understanding of.

Which is greater Nigleh or Chassidus?

Nigleh or Chassidus?

Which is greater, Nigleh or Chassidus?
Well Nigleh is the Guf and Chassidus is the neshamah.
But we do know that the makor of the guf is that much greater than the neshamah.

I sit with a blatt gemorah struggle or no struggle and I feel amazing even on a day that the gemarah doesn't read itself. I chap a question of Tosfos or Rashi or the gemarah itself my mind is working in tune. I am one with the gemarah but do I feel that I am one with Hashem?

I sit with a Likutei Torahor Torah Or, davka with Likutei Torah or Torah Or, and I need to be able to understand it ( I can't understand (let's be charitable and say 50%) most of it). So I skip to a maamar that I understand and I am one with it, it is something greater than I. I am one with Hashem!
I disagree with Rav and Shmuel (I usually like the underdog) I even sometimes disagree with the Shulchan Aruch HaRav but Torah Or and Likutei Torah this fights through my layers and penetrates deep
and I am disappointed when I can't get to this state,

Unity

How is it possible to unite with people who are different than us?
It is not by seeking out in others their commonality with us,
rather by stripping away our externalities and becoming one with ourselves.
And that essence is what unites us.