Today the Talmud continues some philosophical statements before returning to the topics of spreading canopies and filtering foods and liquids on Shabbat.

Rabbi Yosei ben Elisha says: If you see a generation that many troubles are befalling it, go and examine the judges of Israel.  Perhaps their sins are the cause, as any calamity that comes to the world comes due to the judges of Israel acting corruptly, as it is stated: “Please hear this, heads of the house of Jacob, and officers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity, who build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.  Their heads they judge for bribes, and their priests teach for hire, and their prophets divine for money; yet they lean upon the Lord, saying:  Is not the Lord in our midst? No evil shall befall us” (Micah 3:9–11).

They are wicked, but they placed their trust in the One Who spoke and the world came into being, the Almighty. Therefore, the Holy One, Blessed be He, brings upon them three calamities corresponding to the three transgressions for which they are responsible, as it is stated in the following verse: “Therefore, because of you, Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the Temple Mount as the high places of a forest” (Micah 3:12).

The extreme danger of corrupt judges is a frequent theme in the prophets, the Bible Ex 23:8 warns that a judge who takes a bribe is blinded to real justice.  Any man needs to be able to judge situations objectively.  Being swayed by flattery, promises, or even a women’s smile can degrade your objectivity and reasoning ability.

A careful reading of the prophecy in Micah gives us another insight: when you do something for gain it changes the way you do it.  When a teacher is paid, he alters his teachings to fit what the customers want (in Jewish law we don’t take payment for teaching Torah, only the cost of lost opportunity).  An author writing for an audience changes how he writes to sell more books.  A man often changes his behavior or his way of life to get attention and approval from women.

The most important thing you need to judge objectively is yourself.  Are you growing, developing, and using your potential?  What are you living for?  A certain mission?  Then are you using wisdom to pursue it properly?  Men still “bribe” themselves by telling themselves they are good enough, doing fine, don’t need to change.  This undermines their motivation to get more out of life.  Taking such a “bribe” blinds your ability to judge yourself and your progress in life.  This same human vulnerability caused our ancient judges to consider themselves righteous, even though they were wicked and perverting judgment.  We made an interesting psychological observation about mankind in Hukat and Balak: balancing acceptance and selfishness, finding the right friends:

an evil man will tell you with great certainty that he is a good, righteous, upstanding man.  And how dare you questions his motivations!  While a truly good, introspective man will doubt if he is actually as good as he could be.  He knows he can improve, he does not identify as purely righteous.  He thinks he is a work in progress, and he should be willing to work with you to help himself and you to improve in life.

Being able to fairly judge others, but especially yourself, is a key to success in life.

The Talmud today takes a detour from the topic of when it is permitted to make a temporary roof on Shabbat (this would apply to a canopy over a bed and possibly the sunshade of a baby carriage).  Our sages bring enigmatic and frankly scary predictions:

When our Sages entered the vineyard in Yavne, they said: The Torah is destined to be forgotten from the Jewish people, as it is stated: “Behold, days are approaching, says the Lord God, and I will send forth a hunger in the land, not a hunger for bread and not a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11). And it states: “And they will drift from sea to sea, and from north to east they will roam to find the word of the Lord, but they will not find it” (Amos 8:12).

We see this in our generation, especially among young men who are looking for deeper meaning and purpose in life.  There is a hunger and a thirst, in this generation that does not see physical hunger and thirst, for something greater.  A mission, a purpose.  Some call this generation of young men “lost boys”, this only captures part of the reality.  We are seeking, hungry and thirsty for a greater destiny in life, but so many of the answers given are not satisfying for long.

Our sages go on to discuss what it could possible mean that the Torah (the Bible and Oral Law) could be forgotten.  The Gemara brings a nuanced view:

Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai says: Heaven forfend that the Torah should be forgotten from the Jewish people, as it is stated: “And this song shall answer to him as a witness, for it shall not be forgotten from his seed” (Deuteronomy 31:21).  Rather, how do I explain: “They will roam to find the word of God, but they will not find it”?  It means that they will not find clear law and clear teaching together, but rather there will be disputes among the Sages.

Rashi explains clear law means agreement on the reasons for a law.

This concept also applies to our generation.  There is so much content available that it is difficult to find and identify what actually works and can apply to your own life.  Simply taking in advice is not enough, a man needs to sift through all the wisdom and nonsense and find the grains of useful, actionable information.  Even when advice is not contradictory, the sources often disagree over the reasons behind the advice.

Often you need to be the one to combine the facts or actionable advice (law) and clear presentation.  You can learn from another man’s wisdom but after reformulating and teaching it to yourself in a way that you can internalize.

 

Today the Talmud wraps up a discussion about which infants can receive a circumcision on the Sabbath, if the eight day from birth falls on the Sabbath.  Most of our ancient sages held that a hermaphrodite born with both male and female genitalia does not, but Rabbi Yehuda allowed it.  The Gemara points out that even Rabbi Yehuda did not consider a hermaphrodite to be a male for other areas of Law.  He agrees that only a normal man is a man in Jewish Law generally.  Only by circumcision he includes hermaphrodites, based on an extra word in Genesis 17:10 “This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your seed after you: Circumcise for yourselves every male”.  That word could mean that for circumcision we should include everyone with an aspect of maleness, namely a hermaphrodite.

We see from this discussion that even in ancient times people dealt with issues of gender identity.  However, these situations were due to medical issues like chromosomal abnormalities or birth defects.  The idea that someone would choose to pretend to be the opposite gender, or mutilate their genitalia, was totally unheard of in ancient society.  A man was a man and a woman was a woman.  The Bible even forbids cross dressing (which was used for a man to sneak in and see a woman or vice versa for immorality).

In Jewish law, we recite blessings every day thanking God for many aspects of our life including hearing, eyesight, clothing, legs…  Men thank God they were not make female, and women thank God they were made female.  There is a profound wisdom in trying to do the best with what you have.  No one expects a 5’2″ man to become a professional basketball player, or a man with poor eyesight to become a fighter pilot.  They don’t have the tools for that job.  God gives each human a unique mission and purpose in life.  But modern secular society expects us to accept without question that a man can be a woman and vice versa…
It is important for men to rediscover how our ancestors dealt with these issues and see the wisdom in getting back to the basics.

On the topic of circumcising babies, the Talmud notes that if an infant (God forbid) passes away before reaching 30 days of age, there is an assumption that the infant was not viable to begin with.  There is no official period of mourning required by Jewish law as would be for a regular death in the family.  The Gemara brings an episode where a sage had such an infant pass away, and did observe mourning.  When the sage’s father took him to task for that, he explained that he knew this baby was full term, and assumed it was viable, and therefore was practicing some mourning.

This is an interesting sociological insight, and gives us an appreciation of modern medicine.  In a historical n era when infant mortality was much higher, people did not generally consider the death of a very young infant to be as painful as the death of an older, viable child.  The 30 day minimum for official mourning would save a lot of tears for parents who gave birth to a non viable infant or miscarried (heaven forbid).

There is also a practical wisdom here:  If you have a new relationship and you need to break it off, don’t be upset.  People come and go, in more ways than one.  If a girl needs to move away, don’t try to maintain a long distance relationship.  If a business deal falls through, find another opportunity.  Don’t keep fixating on a short term thing, let it go.  If there was something serious for a time, it is appropriate to mourn, learn whatever lessons you can, and then move on.  In Jewish wisdom, mourning and reciting a special Kaddish prayer for the deceased help the living to regroup emotionally and get back to living life, as God intends.

The Talmud is exploring which circumcisions override Sabbath restrictions.

Rabbi Asi stated a principle: Any child whose birth renders his mother ritually impure due to childbirth is circumcised at eight days; and any child whose birth does not render his mother ritually impure due to childbirth, e.g., caesarean section, is not necessarily circumcised at eight days. As it is stated: “If a woman bears seed and gives birth to a male, she shall be impure seven days…and on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised” (Leviticus 12:2–3).

Abaye said to him: The early generations, from Abraham through the revelation at Sinai, will prove that your principle is not valid, as the birth of a male during that era did not render his mother ritually impure due to childbirth, as the rules of the impurity of childbirth were commanded at Sinai, and nevertheless, the child was circumcised at eight days, as stated in the Torah, in the book of Genesis.

Rabbi Asi said to him: There is no proof from that, as when the Torah was later given at Sinai, the laws were renewed.

 

This is a critical concept in Jewish law.  We don’t perform circumcision merely because Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did so.  We do all of the commandments because we accepted them at Mt. Sinai.  Therefore, the details from Sinai are what matter for our current situation.

If you have aspects of your life that are based on tradition, doing what you have always done, that can be nice and comfortable.  But if it does not correspond to your current needs, you need to reevaluate what you are doing and ask why.  Many men keep on keeping on without stopping to consider if their old approach to life is still ideal to the present.  A wise man balances tradition with the need to innovate and adapt.

 

Today the Talmud discusses proper bandaging after a circumcision, and how to do this on Shabbat.  The ancient sage Abaye, who was an orphan, recounts some medical advice told to him by a woman he identifies as “mother”.  This was actually his wet nurse.

This shows us that men are capable of associating women with the role of mother.  This can obviously be beneficial, as with Abaye and his nurse.  However, in mainstream society, for many reasons including the rise of single mother households, modern men commonly associate their wife with the role of mother.  This is not only a mother for the children, but a mother figure for him.  For example, he defers to her, tries to please her, and tries to explain and justify himself to her when she criticizes him.  The relationship devolves into a recreation of childhood, with the wife as mother and the husband as child.  This is not healthy for anyone.  A grown man needs to develop himself into a adult and not seek approval of a mother figure.

For contemporary wisdom on this dynamic, see Manuel J.Smith’s When I say no I feel guilty and Robert Glover’s No More Mr. Nice Guy.

Today the Talmud discusses the interplay of circumcision (milah) and an affliction known as tzaraat which causes discolored skin.  It is forbidden to cut of the tzaraat affected skin, but the Gemara explains the source that it can be done in the context of circumcision.  This is not just by accident, but even when the afflicted skin is purposefully being removed.  Our sages note that even if the father of the baby announces that he wants to remove the tzaraat, he can perform the circumcision.  The baby itself has no intentions regarding the question, only the father.

This alludes to a deeper concept that an adult man should have his own intentions and be responsible to himself.  There is a common shaming tactic people will try on you of asking you to explain yourself, why you did such and such that (they feel) was wrong.  The implied attack is you have bad intentions.  Don’t fall for this.  You only need to justify your actions and intentions to yourself, and if you a man of faith, to God.  Other human beings are not God.  You don’t owe them a justification in response to their trying to manipulate you through shame.

Yes, our sages tell us to act in ways that are acceptable to other (righteous) men.  They don’t tell us to give in when others attempt to shame you.  Be responsible to yourself and hold yourself accountable.  Your intentions drive your life, not other people’s attacks on your intentions.  For elaboration on this see ‘When I say no I feel guilty’ by Manuel J. Smith.

 

The Talmud discusses the concept of beautifying Biblical commandments, such as having a nice Sukkah and Lulav and tzitzit, based on “This is my God and I will glorify Him (ve’anheihu)” Exodus 15:2.  However, Abba Shaul says: Ve’anveihu should be interpreted as if it were written in two words: Ani vaHu, me and Him [God]. Be similar, as it were, to Him, the Almighty: Just as He is compassionate and merciful, so too should you be compassionate and merciful.

This is a complex, multifaceted idea.  I do want to point out that God always comes from a position of strength.  God is not nice or merciful because He owes us anything or is in a weaker position in any sense.  In no way can we give back anything like what He gives*.  He doesn’t need our prayers.  God gives to us, even when we are totally unworthy, because he has ultimate power.

Examine your role in relationships.  Do you give to make someone else happy, or make yourself look good to others, or to get something from her?  This is niceness from a position of weakness, to make up for something you lack.  You need to shift your perspective to giving from a position of strength and completion.  When you are a well developed and capable man, you have what to give, and you don’t need to get something back.

*What God does want, according to our ancient sages, is for man to become more like God, a partner in creation.

This week we study the portions of the Bible called Matot and Massei, Numbers 30:2–36:13.  These sections round out the Book of Numbers, and with it the main action of the Bible. The last book, Deuteronomy (Words), is almost entirely Moses’ final teachings and farewell address to the Jewish people.

Matot first explains the rules of making and annulling vows, which we will delve into God willing.  Then the Jewish people go to war against Midian in revenge for their sexual attack on the Jewish people. That caused a plague which only ended when Pinhas assassinated a Jewish prince while he was copulating with a Midianite princess.

The Jewish people are now approaching the border of the holy land. The tribes of Reuben and Gad request their inheritance to come from lands east of the Jordan river, what was Transjordan and is now called Jordan. That is where the Jewish tribes were situated after battling Midian and capturing their land.

Massei lists the journeys and stops that the Jewish people made coming from Egypt to the border of Israel, and the procedure for distributing ancestral land in Israel. It concludes with Moses setting up cities of refuge on the east bank and the marriage of the daughters of Tzelafhad.

Be a man of your word, and of hers

The concept of vows and oaths should be familiar to modern men.  Your word is a bond.  In Jewish wisdom, it is also a religious imperative.  You make a vow and not just your word, but also your duty to God require you to fulfill the vow (30:3).  However, a man who made a vow by mistake or without realizing all of the consequences can go a sage or a court to have the vow annulled.

In addition, a father can annul vows made by his daughter and the husband for his wife (Numbers 30:8-17).  The Talmud explains that this is when the vow has some effect on the household, this imposes a hardship on the house to procure alternate food.  While a woman had the right to make a vow, her father or husband had veto power when that vow impacted others or interfered with the family.

This surely sounds absurd to people brought up in modern western feminized culture.  But those brought up in such a society think that becoming the “strong independent woman” is the end all be all goal for any female.  We explained last week, that in truth it is not:

Women are told (indoctrinated) that work and wealth will bring them meaning.  But they are often frustrated that their work takes them away from their homes and families, the very things that bring them a deeper, more lasting sense of well being and fulfillment.  I see a struggle in many a young woman between finding her value outside of the house, where modern society told her it will be, and also having the time and resources to build her own home, where she has immensely more value and impact…

A woman must carefully consider the messages being pushed on her from modern society.  For thousands of years, women developed the unique skills to be the central figure in the home.  Women were responsible and hard working and found fulfillment in family and building a legacy.  Today young women are being manipulated to devalue family.  They are told to find themselves and become something.  The reality is often this something is a cog working for someone else’s profit margin.

The Bible gives men power over a woman’s vows not to rule over women, but so the family can get along in harmony.  You can’t have one family member swear not to deal with the neighbor when the family needs to work together with that neighbor to survive.  Even vows for spiritual growth can be revoked, since the father and husband have the responsibility to guide their families towards realistic, attainable spiritual goals.

People may bite off more than they can chew, or undertake stringencies that in the long term cannot be sustained by the family.  The father, and later husband, need to have the awareness of the spiritual level of their family members.  What is called headship is actually a duty to work with every family member on their personal growth and religious observance.  This is why God holds Abraham accountable for a minuscule lack of faith in Sarah.

In modern society, a father and husband must be even more careful shaping his family, since women are being fed  the idea that she should not bother to work for the common good of the family.  Explaining why something is not good for the family works much better than stating that her idea (or vow) is wrong.  Deep down, under the feminist brainwashing, every woman does value family and wants hers to succeed.

The Bible points out that the husband has only one day to annul his wife’s vow (30:8).  A man who lets things slide is not able to guide his family.  When the husband remains silent, his wife and children never know how they can improve.  The Bible only gives the man veto power when he is ready to stand up and take action immediately when his family is out of line.  The Bible has the same concept by the test of the wayward wife, the Sotah.

Whose revenge is it, anyway?

“Take revenge for the children of Israel against the Midianites; afterwards you will be gathered to your people.”  31:2

So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm from among you men for the army, that they can be against Midian, and carry out the revenge of the Lord against Midian.  31:3

The Jewish people are called the sons of God.  If a bully beats up and humiliates your son (heaven forbid) then another kid going after that bully is ostensibly taking revenge for your son.  Naturally, you understand that it is the ultimately the father’s honor at stake.  However, it would look bad for the father to stoop to taking revenge against a schoolyard bully.  This war was Divine retribution, but also retribution by man on behalf of the Divine.

Moses is also underscoring a crucial point that we have seen in the Torah many times.  When you take things personally, other people can undermine your success.  When your actions are only about the mission, the higher cause, then you don’t take it personally.  If it hampers your mission then you eliminate it, if not, you don’t let it bother you.  Moses was the most humble man who lived.  His entire life was dedicated to God’s mission, so even though Moses knew this was his last battle, he went ahead with alacrity.

Accountability and female agency

In revenge for the episode of debauchery that Pinhas stopped, the Jews go to war.  They mounted an attack against Midian, as the Lord had commanded Moses, and they killed every male, 31:7  The children of Israel took the Midianite women and their small children captive, and they plundered all their beasts, livestock, and all their possessions 31:9

When they bring the plunder back to camp, Moses was angry that the Midianite women were spared since “They were the very same ones who were involved with the children of Israel on Balaam’s advice to betray the Lord over the incident of Peor, resulting in a plague among the congregation of the Lord”  31:16.

This is juicy.  The Midianites sent their women out to seduce the Jews, so obviously their fathers, brothers, and perhaps even husbands endorsed the attack.  The men were totally okay with whoring out their women to seduce and kill Jews and encouraged them to go.  Why does Moses blame the women specifically?

In ancient times, a man exercised a lot of control over his wife and daughter.  A Moavite or Midianite man had the power to send his daughter out to tempt the Jews.  But it was up to the woman herself to act in a seductive manner, to express deep desire for the Jewish men in order to entrap them.  A woman decides when to be sexy, and when she has real desire she knows how to turn that on.

The Midianite girls pulled out all the stops, even wore golden lingerie to seduce the men.  The plot would not work if the girls did not turn on the charm.  They had to decide to be active in seducing the Jews by displaying or imitating genuine desire.  Therefore, Moses blames them.  Even in a society where men had much more power and control over women, Moses understands that women have agency, especially regarding their sexuality.  Back in Genesis we discussed responsibility and agency:

The Torah teaches that men and women are equally responsible for their actions, both are liable for punishment for sins (Numbers 5:6) and liable in civil court for damages.  In modern parlance, men and women have equal agency.  They are equally responsible for their actions and choices, both in the temporal realm (in court) and before God.

The mainstream push to free women who make poor choices from consequences and place their burdens onto men is against this reality.  It leads people to conclude that women have less agency than men.  This is contrary to reality and against the Bible.

War Brides?

No men were spared, it was women that troubles Moses.  In modern times, we forget how war was done by our ancient ancestors.  A victorious city or tribe would kill out the men and take the women and children as slaves.  This was often celebrated, as the Romans famously raped the Sabines.  Sometimes the victors razed everything and salted the earth for good measure (eg Carthage).  The goal was to eliminate the rival group entirely and absorb the female survivors into your own group [oddly, Midian comes back to fight the Jews again, Judges ch 6-8.  This is likely a different tribe that later settled in the land of Midian].

The attractive women would become wives to the victors, the less attractive became slaves.  This is known as “war brides”.  The ability of a woman to shift her allegiance from her prior family and society to the new victorious people has been demonstrated again and again in human history.  Rollo has an essay on War Brides from an evolutionary understanding.  Women seem capable of “moving on” much faster and with less lasting emotional trouble than men experience.

This aspect of female nature was needed when a new group invaded and eliminated their culture, fathers, and husbands.  The women who survived were the those ones able to change their loyalty to the victors.  This historical reality accentuates the unique nature the Jewish women displayed by not going over to Egyptian men during the slavery, and their use of sexuality to continue the Jewish people.

The novelty by the war with Midian was eliminating all of the women who were not virgins, since they had been involved in seducing the Jews.  Normally after a war all of the women would be kept alive.

This war with Midian was not just a regular war of self protection against a rival, but a spiritual vengeance for what the women had done to the Jewish men.  As we explained, Moses held the women accountable for using their desire and sexuality to entrap and destroy Jewish men.  Even though in the normal course of ancient war these women would have been kept and utilized by the victors, they could not remain among the holy Jewish people.

No doubt the Midianite women expected that if the Jews won they would be taken as booty, as war brides.  The Talmud brings a tradition that they wore their best golden lingerie when the Jewish army invaded. They were ready to be picked up by the victors, be they the Jews or Midianite men.  It must have been a shock when they were held accountable for their sexual attack that started the war and sentenced to death.

This war with Midian is the exception the proves the War Brides rule.  Normally in a war (aside from with the Canaanites or Amalek) women were valid as spoils of war (see Deuteronomy 21).  Only here, since the Midianite women had seduced Jewish men and caused them to do idolatry for sex (Numbers 25), were the non virgin women executed for their spiritual war crime.

Another element, unspoken by the Bible, is that a woman who never experienced a man would be more likely to be loyal and dedicated to her new people if she decided to convert to Judaism and marry a Jew.  The Jewish man would be the first dominant man in her life, and able to make a serious impression on her, so all her energies would be devoted for the new family and faith.  We explained this concept by Isaac and Rebecca.

Brothers in Arms

The tribes of Reuben and Gad, and later half the tribe of Manasseh, ask Moses for their ancestral inheritance of be in land on the east bank of the Jordan (Numbers 32).  They were in the cattle business and wanted this rich pastureland.  Moses first rejects the request in very harsh terms, but agrees when these tribes vow to join and lead the conquest of Israel proper on the west bank.  They even promise not to return home to the east bank until the war is won and the land divided on the west side (32:16-18).

You can accept that your fate, your legacy, is not the same as your brother, but still be on his side.  A brother is a brother.  This idea comes into western consciousness as “I disagree with what you say but I will defend your right to say it”.

Murder and accidents

One of the last things Moses does is to set aside the refuge cities for the land east of the Jordan river.  The Bible warns us that when we settle the holy land we “Shall not defile the land” 35:34.  It sounds like murder defiles the land, the ancient Medrash (Sifri, Masei 161) explains murder defiles the land and pushes away the divine presence, and due to murder the Holy Temple was destroyed.

The thing is, the refuge cities only protect someone who killed by accident, not an actual murderer.  So how is the defilement caused by murder linked to accidental killings?

My theory is that in a society where murder, aggression, and violence are common and not swiftly condemned, then even “accidental” deaths increase.  When citizens have less regard for human life in general, this not only increases murder but even manslaughter and negligent death.  We can draw parallel to present day America.

All deaths are tragic, but some deaths are used to score political points or incite people to violence that costs even more lives.  How many more innocents die when people riot over the death of one innocent man?  Does arson, looting, assault and battery show that Americans value human life or devalue it?  These are serious questions for thoughtful modern Americans.

Today the Talmud discusses the source for circumcision overriding Sabbath law (which includes prohibitions on wounding).  Our sages note that circumcision not just called covenant but is also called a “sign”, meaning something that shows others significance.  The same word in other contexts can mean a banner or flag, which displays your status.  Circumcision is compared to tefillin (phylacteries) and Shabbat, which are also called signs by the Bible.

Oddly, these three signs are not all the same.  It is obvious when a man wears his tefillin, you can see part of them on his head.  When a man keeps Shabbat, there is a blend: it is obvious when he makes lavish meals, sings, prays, and recites Kiddush in honor of Shabbat.  But when he avoids forbidden work, an onlooker may think that he simply lacks work to perform or is taking time off from his phone.
The sign of circumcision by contrast is private.  A (normal) man does not show off his private parts.  So how is this a “sign”?

When a man is aware of the power of his own sexuality and has it under control, he carries himself differently from men who are slaves to their lusts.  He doesn’t need to stare at women or poison his eyes with pornography, or slavishly fall over himself to try to attract women.  Instead, the man with power over his sexuality knows he can succeed with women, he has “bread in his basket” as our sages call the feeling that comes with having sexual abundance.  This gives him confidence and composure.  The covenant of circumcision is a reminder to get our sexual energy under control and channel it for constructive ends, not to be a slave to it.

Today the Talmud continues exploring Rabbi Eliezer’s fantastic tradition that not only the actual circumcision but even the preparations for it override Sabbath restrictions.  The Gemara notes that Rabbi Eliezer teaches than preparations for many but not all Biblical commandments override the Sabbath.  Our sages discuss which commandments are included, and based on various statements of Rabbi Eliezer they work out that when a commandment has to be done on that specific day, then even the preparations for it override Shabbat.  But when a command could be done any day, it cannot.

The lesson for us is that if we have things we need to accomplish without a specific time limit, we should get them out of the way.  That way, when there are tasks that need to be done now, we don’t have other items taking our time and attention away from where we need to focus.