Is Bribery Ever Allowed A King, a Rabbi… and a Halachic Dilemma 02 12 2026

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Yoel Plutchok’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Okay. Um I I want to discuss a shila that's relevant to this week's para but it's essentially uh you know a very you say this question worth discussing in general. Now I I want to frame it by by pointing out a certain over here. I'm not a expert in the development of anti-semitism and how particular strains of anti-semitism you know morphed and devolved from one into the other. Obviously the and the fact that Israel has been faced and the fact that Israel has been faced with a tremendous amount of hate from the is something that's you know a feature a feature not a bug of our existence and it's been going on for the longest you know for the longest time but there's always there is patterns and evolutions and new and old and the repurposing and retooling of older myths newer myths and there is a lot to be it's it's a it's a whole study um suffice to say I just want to zone in on a particular time in history in the in the mid to late 1600s in the shadow of the mid to late 1600s in the shadow of the 30 years war. Now the 30 years war was a was a terrible calamity that that befell large swaths of of European population centers primarily in in uh portions of Germany where between five and 8 million people were killed over those three decades. um led to like tremendous depopulation in various areas there some to the point of losing 30 to 50% of their populations. It was a very very traumatic event for the for the for the European populist bal um it started

Jump to a moment

1. 0:00Okay. Um I I want to discuss a shila that's relevant to this week's para but…
2. 3:07this this form of anti-semitism which was not religious in nature so to speak it was…
3. 6:12obviously it's very famous and well known the kubis on kof and kav I'm He brings…
4. 9:19mashu kaz now the the well and scans tradition in in in zarist Russia was bribery…
5. 12:20bribery of now to get to our shil then the the the discussing which which is…
6. 15:35invited many Jews into his provenence. And he was he would like to entertain himself. He…
7. 18:38what's what's the idea of it? So he said it could be that over there since…
8. 21:44is one of the So first thing he says didn't bring up a clever perspective on…
9. 24:54says it's not allowed to give bribery to affect the says that you're it's unjust what…
10. 27:58to give to save his life. Um now inant and this is one of the the…

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