The Ethics of Exodus

Pesach is coming. The birth of Am Yisrael as a nation. All births are difficult and involve pain and suffering. But they do not involve injustice. Most especially, the birth of the Nation that is destined to bring Hashem's Torah to the world and thereby perfect it in His kingdom cannot possibly be brought about by injustice...but many seem to think that it can. There are three main aspects of Yetziat Mitzraim that are often misinterpreted in this light, and I want to discuss all three.

The Guiding Principle

Avraham Avinu set the standard way back in Parshat Va'yera. In debating with God to save the people of S'dom and Amora, he asked (B'reishit 18:25), "...Shall the Judge of all the Earth not do justice?"

Avraham won that debate with God...there is no other way to put it. If only there had been 10 righteous men in the cities of the plain they would have been spared. And the principle was established for all time...Hashem will only act justly. If something He does seems unjust, it is we who do not understand. This is the basis for our understanding of the Exodus story, as well as all the others in the Torah and later.

The Three-Day Request

Shmot 3:18: "...you and the elders of Israel will go to the king of Mitzrayim and you will say to him, 'Hashem, the God of Israel has called to us; and now let us please go three days journey in the desert, and we will sacrifice to Hashem our God.'"

That's all we asked for...a three-day vacation...with an unspoken implication that we would come back. Over and over again, that's what Moshe talks about. But when we finally packed up and left, we never came back.

Isn't that deception? We lied to Paro and then took advantage of it! Some of the commentators even say that when Paro was told "that the nation had fled" (Shmot 14:5) that it meant B'nei Yisrael had continued moving away from Egypt after three days, instead of turning around as expected. So what gives?

The answer is, three days was just an opening bargaining position. Even Paro understood that we wanted more; hence his attempts to limit who would go each time he was ready to concede after bad plague experiences. And the fact that even such a reasonable request was refused (three days off after over 200 years of service?) shows just how imperative it was for us to get out of there.

But the clincher is, the three day idea was dropped by the Mitzrim at the end! The horror of the deaths of the firstborn made them want to get rid of the Jews forever, and they kicked us out for good! Hashem told Moshe it would happen: "And Hashem said to Moshe, 'One more plague will I bring to Paro and to Mitzraim; after that he will send you from here. When he sends you, he will surely completely drive you away from here.'" (Shmot 11:1) After the plague, Hashem says, Paro himself will tell you to leave and never come back. Then in 11:8, Moshe tells Paro the same thing...when Paro's servants come to kick the Jews out, they will tell them to leave...period. No more discussion of a three-day pass...Moshe clearly tells Paro we are leaving for good. So there is no deception.

And in fact, in 12:22-23, we see that both Paro and the Egyptians only want to kick the Jews out...they don't say anything about returning. And finally, when Paro hears that the Jews are leaving (despite the commentaries I mentioned earlier), he doesn't complain that the Jews broke their word. He bemoans the fact "that we sent away Yisrael from serving us." (14:5) We told them to go away and never come back, and now I regret it. That's what Paro means here.

So there is no injustice here. We started with an opening proposition that would let Paro show if he would respect Hashem and Yisrael; when he failed the test we told him the deal was off and that we were going for good, and that is what happened.

The "Spoiling" of Egypt

(based in part on an original Meturgeman Drasha, Parshat Bo, 6 Sh'vat, 5762)

Shmot 3:21-22: "I will put the favor of the this nation in the eyes of Egypt, and it will be that when you go, you will not go empty. Each woman should ask of her neighbor and of the one in whose house she dwells vessels of silver and vessels of gold and clothing; you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters; ונצלתם Egypt." (See also 12:35-36)

The word I didn't translate is the stickler. It's usually translated, 'you will spoil.' As in, the spoils of war. Compare the Purim story, where we fought our enemies but did not touch the spoil. Our purpose is not to be common marauders, but to win/maintain our freedom as a Nation.

It's made worse by the fact that the Hebrew word for 'ask' is usually translated 'borrow.' It looks like Hashem is telling us to lie once again to the Egyptians...ask for a loan that we don't intend to pay back.

I don't know about you, but my God doesn't work that way. While it's true that the Hebrew word for ask also can be used for borrowing, it is anathema to say that is what happened here. It also goes against logic...we just explained that the Egyptians wanted to be rid of the Jews forever...why would they want to see them again, even to get their loans back?

Rather the Jews asked their Egyptian neighbors for fair and just compensation for centuries of slave labor. Just as the owner of a Jewish slave has to compensate him liberally when he releases him (D'varim 15:13-15,18), so too the Egyptians had to make good for the services they had received. And they did, willingly.

So what is ונצלתם? There is an excellent analysis in the Hertz Chumash...he makes it very clear that the word means, not spoil, but SAVE! There is no other place in Tanach or in modern Hebrew where the root נצל is translated any other way. (You've heard of Hatzolah, the Jewish volunteer ambulance corps...they SAVE lives, they don't spoil them.)

The Egyptians did a horrible thing to the Jews...and they received their punishment in full with the plagues. They didn't need additional punishment for not compensating their released slaves properly. Even more, they didn't need the continued hate and resentment of B'nei Yisrael. We are commanded not to hate them, and to allow them to convert (D'varim 23:8-9). How could we do this if, in addition to everything else, they had turned away empty handed? This is what they were saved from.

(I should note that in light of the clear meaning of the Torah text that the Egyptians gave willingly because Hashem made them like us at the end, I have great difficulty with the Midrash that says we used the Plague of Darkness to find all the things they had tried to hide from us.)

The Hardening of Paro's Heart

Shmot 7:3: "I will harden Paro's heart, and I will multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt."

This is the big one. It sounds like Hashem needs a straw dummy to prove His strength; so He keeps setting him up and knocking him down. Poor Paro, then, shouldn't be reviled. He should be pitied. Over and over again he was prepared to surrender, but Hashem wouldn't let him. He lost his free choice, and was punished for it. What kind of justice is that?

But the Ramban makes it all very simple. He says, God wasn't taking away Paro's free will, he was giving it back! The Plagues were so overwhelming, Paro had no choice but to admit to Hashem's power and give in...and being forced to be good is no less a loss of free will then being forced to do evil. So when he reached that point (it wasn't until the sixth plague), God restored the balance...He gave him enough strength/stubbornness to make his own choice as before! And he chose evil.

It was this ultimate evil of Paro...the basic nature that always went to the evil choice when given half a chance...that brought about the need for all ten plagues. And so, in the final analysis, his punishment was just and deserved, as are all punishments from God.


It seems clear to me from these three cases; if we only take the time to understand the situation, Hashem always is the God of Justice. Since we are commanded to imitate His attributes, it behooves us as well to increase our efforts to act justly; to drop the petty hatred and bickering, and to once again become a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation, and a true Light to the Nations. Only then can we truly bring the Geula.

Painful Reevaluations

It has been raining here in Israel. A lot. I don't know if it's above or below average, and I'm sure it's not enough to completely alleviate the effects of five years of drought, but it's a phenomenal improvement over the past several years.

And when it started, I was upset. Here I had just written a 'fire and brimstone' post attributing the drought to Divine anger, and, in defiance of not only my post but the long-term forecasts of the Water Authority here, it looks like we have a respite.

I have had to admit to myself that I had become just like some of the people I complain about, who try to force every situation into their view of the Jewish version of Armageddon, gleefully anticipating the deaths of tens of thousands or millions (in the case of one person I know, possibly billions) of people in order to bring the Geula.

Between that and several other recent traumatic events in my life, I had been thinking of giving up this blog. However, I think it more important for me to continue...with some changes.

I have been forcibly reminded of a quote from Rav Yaakov Love of Passiac, NJ (which I heard indirectly from my good friend Alan Schleider): I am not God's CPA. We know the general guidelines that Hashem gives us for reward and punishment, but we are not the ones to determine how those guidelines are applied. We certainly don't have the ability to see all the ramifications of all of the actions of all the people in the world and how they impact on what will happen to one person, one group, or one nation. That's all up to Hashem, and while we can speculate and try to see how He is applying the guidelines in this world, it is absolute chutzpa to thing that we know.

The facts that I stated in that previous post are still the same. Drought DOES come to Israel because of the sins of the Jews, and there is much seriously wrong with our behaviour as "frum" Jews. But how this is applied to the real world, whether the drought was because of that or something else, and why we now have a respite, are much harder to pinpoint. I will still speculate about these things, but I will attempt to be far less pompous and certain about it, and I will certainly try to stop gloating. It hurts me when anyone suffers, even if they deserve it. I would much rather that everyone do T'shuva and we can end all of the punishments now.

I will attempt to return to my main focus, as I said in my very first post:

Most of what I speak about is towards that one goal: we need to get back on track. Stop blaming the goyim and the chilonim, stop blaming outside influences. Concentrate on ourselves and what we need to fix.

Because there is one thing of which I am still certain: If EVERY Jew can return to the ways of Hashem as He wishes, if we keep ALL the Mitzvot in joy and gladness, most especially the Mitzvot Bein Adam L'Chavero, if we return to being a true Or La'Goyim, a Light unto the Nations, then the Geula will come. No ifs, ands, or buts. במהרה בימינו

Wake up and Smell the Parched Earth

As I have pointed out many times, people are all too willing to place the blame for our problems elsewhere. It's the chilonim, the eirev rav, the Arabs, the Americans, maybe even little green men from Mars. We concentrate on digging up obscure Midrashic references to prove that such and such an enemy is Edom, or Gog, or some other enemy that the Nevi'im predicted. After all, goes the argument, we are close to the time of the Geula now, and it will come whether or not we deserve it, so lets just try to fit the current situation into the prophecies so we will know what to expect, and whom to hate the most.

I suppose I should be comforted that so many people know what God is thinking, but I'm not. I also think I have some small inkling into His thinking, but it differs radically from the others.

Let's skip the obscure Midrashim and look at the simple P'shat in the Torah. We just read the second paragraph of the Sh'ma, in Parshat Eikev. The main difference between the first two paragraphs of the Sh'ma is that this one speaks quite clearly of the concept of s'char v'onesh, reward and punishment. And it is very clear (as the Hebrew version of the saying goes, black on white) in what it is saying: (D'varim 11:13-17)

If you do the Mitzvot, you will have plentiful rain and plentiful harvests. IF YOU SIN, THERE WILL BE NO RAIN AND YOU WILL BE LOST FROM THE LAND.

It doesn't say, if the goyim hate you. It doesn't talk about a few apostates. It is talking collectively to ALL of B'nei Yisrael, meaning especially US, the ones who actually believe and claim that we are keeping the Torah!

(You will tell me it talks about idolatry specifically; however it is clear from all the sources in the Torah and Chazal that any major failure to listen to the Torah works the same way.)

As I pointed out in regards to Tochecha, Israel is in the midst of it's worst drought in modern times. (Here's a recent audio link from Rusty Mike Radio with good information.) Yet I have barely heard a peep from the finger-pointers about it! You can't blame this on Dubya or Obama; Arafat and Abbas didn't stop the rain; and Sharon and Olmert didn't 'disengage' the rain clouds from our skies. So who is left to blame? They don't want to say it.

Drought comes to Israel because of the sins of the Jews. Period. Yes, there is global warming involved, and yes, water is wasted here, and yes, the government could do more towards desalinization, but the bottom line is it hasn't rained much in five years. There can only be one reason.

One other point. Last year was a Sh'mita year in Israel. One of the causes, according to Chazal, for the first Churban and Exile was the neglecting of Sh'mita...the Tochecha speaks of the land finally getting it's rest while we are gone. (Vayikra 26:34-35) The Sh'mita year we just passed through was rife with an increase of sinat chinam, poor Rabbinic decisions leading to forged Kashrut certifications, people being hoodwinked to go against the beliefs of their own Rabbis, and more Israelis eating actual forbidden produce than any time since the chalutzim started returning to the land. So while more people were able to follow the laws as they were done in the time of Chazal, it was at the cost of all that evil. I don't think Hashem was very pleased with us last year. (I will try to find time for another post on this subject.)

How many wake-up calls do we need? As long as we frum people are full of hatred, as long as we cheat in business, as long as we do all the other sins that we like to cover up, the situation can only get worse. We need to start changing, NOW.

Sh'ma Yisrael -- Back to Square One

This week's Parsha, VaEtchanan, is the source of the Sh'ma, which we say in our davening at least twice daily...along with the Amida, it is the centerpiece. When we say it, we are supposed to concentrate on what it means, as well as on the fact that by saying it we are accepting upon ourselves Ol Malchut Shamayim, the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven.

So what exactly does this little phrase mean? The words seem simple enough "Listen Israel, Hashem is our God, Hashem is One." But there are many, many interpretations as to what it is actually saying to us.

I would like to share one that I heard from Rav Shlomo Riskin at one of his Motzaei Shabbat T'shuva drashot in Yerushalaim. (I may have heard it earlier in my life, but this is the time that it stuck.):

"Listen Yisrael, right now Hashem is OUR God, but someday Hashem will be One for the entire world."

Our task in the world is to MAKE Hashem One for the entire world. (Like the end of Aleinu, quoting Zechariah 14:9 "...On THAT DAY Hashem will be one and His name One.") It won't happen until we make it so! That is the charge that Moshe gave us in the Sh'ma. We have the Torah as our tool, and we must become a true Or LaGoyim to bring it about.

We are not doing that job very well. But worse, I think we have fallen back and are now failing at the FIRST part, "Listen Yisrael." Israel isn't listening to Hashem!

I'm not talking about the non-religious. I'm talking about the large number of frum Jews who keep the mitzvot for themselves, but could care less about anyone outside of their communities. Treif they won't eat, Shabbat they won't break, but anyone different from them they won't care about. Or more likely they look down on them. Not just non-dati Jews or non-Jews, but any dati group that has a different level of observance.

Many years ago in New York, before he made Aliya, Rav Riskin spoke of "Kitzur Shulchan Aruch Jews." They carry around a checklist, he said, of the behaviors that they think you should have. If you match up with the checklist, you're acceptable, and if not you are to be looked down on. They think, he said, that they have God in their back pocket!

People who think they are in control of Hashem, instead of the other way around, aren't listening. And if they are not listening, then Hashem isn't even One for the Jewish people. In that case, how are we supposed to make His Name One for the entire world? So the entire Sh'ma is cast aside and forgotten, no matter how loudly they shout it in shul.

We need to go back to the beginning. Forget our own arrogant judgementalism (remember, I'm talking to myself here as well...I know what I sound like) and join with the rest of Yisrael in listening. That will make Hashem One for us again; then we can go on to make His Name One for the universe.

Trouble at the top (Tisha B'Av 5769)

As I have said before, this blog is not a confessional (that's not how Jews deal with sins), but occasionally I feel the need to relate one of my own weaknesses, because it relates to the things about which I wish to talk

Today's weakness is k'vod harav. We are supposed to -- automatically -- give respect to Rabbis, as well as non-Rabbis who have reached a high level of Torah learning (including women.)

The trouble is, both real life and history show that just attaining that level of learning does NOT automatically confer judgement or wisdom. But the recognition of that learning often gives access to a 'bully pulpit' to allow wide dissemination of the owner's poor judgment.

My friend Ben Jacob sent me this once: (if anyone knows the source of the quote please email me so I can credit it properly)

The Komarna Rebbe, Yitzhak Eizik Yehuda Yehiel Safrin, relates an incredible story of the Ba'al Shem Tov, the founder of Hassidism, that he received from Yehiel Mikhel of Zlotchev:

On the road one day, the Besht went into the forest to pray minha (the afternoon prayer). His disciples saw him strike his head strongly against a tree and shout and cry strange cries and abundant tears. Seeing this they were stunned. They asked the holy man what was going on.

He replied that he saw, by means of his holy spirit, the generations which will exist just before the coming of the messiah. He saw that rabbis would be as plentiful as locusts, but that they themselves will be the ones to delay the redemption because they cause separation of hearts and baseless hatred.

It rings true, except for one thing. Sadly, it seems like this is so not only at the end but during every generation! Today is Tisha B'Av. According to Midrash this day is cursed because the Jews cried at Chet HaMeraglim. The 10 spies that caused this were all 'Heads of B'nei Yisrael.' (BaMidbar 13:3) And in Eicha(1:14 and 4:13) Yirmiyahu blames (among others) the false prophets and the Kohanim. (False the prophets may have been, but scholars they were.) Of course, the story of Kamtza/bar Kamtza and the second destruction is full of Rabbis. (Gittin 55b-56a) There were Rabbis sitting there when bar Kamtza was thrown out of the party and publicly humiliated. They did nothing. Either they didn't want to get involved, or they didn't care. And the end of the story has the Haredi stubbornness (euphemistically called "modesty") of Rav Zecharia ben Avkelos, which is what the Gemara blames for the destruction.

There are so many other examples. Korach was a talmid chacham, also, for instance. And Rav Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal, in his preface to his sefer Eim Habanim Semeichah, blames the frum Rabbis of Europe (himself included) for many of the deaths in the Shoah! Because they viciously opposed the Zionist movement and reviled any frum Jew who wanted to make Aliya, they kept all those Jews in Europe to die at the hands of the Nazis yimach sh'mam. Not only could hundreds of thousands of Jews have been safe in Israel, he writes, but with that many more frum Jews in the population, Israel could be a dati state today!

It goes on today. Disregarding the latest corruption arrests in the U.S., many of the public statements and actions of 'great Rabbis' seem designed to do nothing but set Jew against Jew, encourage sinat hinam against both Jew and non-Jew, and avoid facing the real problems that are keeping us from the Geula...all in the name of Torah.

So I am afraid I will continue to have difficulty in automatically giving Kavod to any talmid chacham. I will not mention anyone by name, but I am afraid sometimes you will figure out about whom I am complaining. All I can do is pray that those gedolim who really do deserve our respect can influence some of the others to return to the true responsibilities conferred upon them by their learning. Maybe then we can get back on the path to Geula.

This one speaks for itself

I find it very hard to work without some background noise. From what I learned in Psychology many years ago, this is an adolescent phenomenon that I should have outgrown decades ago, but it seems I never did.

So, with the coming of the Nine Days, I switched from my favorite New York Oldies station to my favorite New York News station. (Yes, I know I'm in Israel but old habits die hard) That means I was listening Thursday as the news broke. First it was an FBI sweep of corrupt politicians. Then suddenly the word "Rabbis" started to pop up. Within hours it was clear that a number of frum people, including 5 Rabbis, were being rounded up as part of a major corruption scandal, including money laundering and even organ trafficking. (Here's one of the earliest articles.)

Of course everyone is proclaiming their innocence, and we don't know who is guilty and who isn't. But I find it hard to believe that they are all pure and innocent, and more importantly, the chillul Hashem damage is already done. One of the early on-line headlines read "Rabbis as crime bosses." And, not only did it quickly blow away the news of an American who had been helping al Qaeda and shooting at U.S. troops in Pakistan, when the imam of his mosque was asked about it, he was able to respond that you can't blame the mosque or Moslems any more than you can blame Synagogues or Jews for those Rabbis that just got arrested!

It's not a coincidence that this happened during the Nine Days. Not only is this the time of year when many bad things have befallen Am Yisrael, but it is another reminder from Hashem that we are still doing the sins that brought about the destruction!

Will this wake us up? Will we stop wasting our time blaming everyone else and start putting our own house in order? I would like to believe so, but past performances make me fear that it will not be so, and I fear for what else God has in store for us until we finally come to our senses.

Stop and Think...

(Bamidbar 25:1-15)

Too often we hear of violence committed by 'frum' people, against non-frum Jews, and against non-Jews...especially Arabs. And too often we hear of calls for more of the same. Most of it is justified (no matter how deranged the attackers may be) in the name of Pinchas, the kanai (zealot) par excellence from the Torah. After all, Pinchas took the law into his own hands (according to most opinions), killing the Jewish Nasi Zimri and the Moabite princess Cozbi while they were mocking the entire congregation with their lewd behavior. And rather than suffering for his actions, he was rewarded! So we should all grab spears and go around impaling all the people we blame for our problems, right?

Wrong. It's not so simple.

I once knew a very wise man who was a Conservative Rabbi named Irwin Zimet z"l. The fact that he was not dati according to my way of thinking does not lessen my respect for him. Many years ago, in Temple Beth-El in Poughkeepsie, NY, he spoke about Pinchas and he made a very important point. When we read the story in shul, it stops in the middle! The Jews sin, the plague starts, the mockers come, Pinchas takes his action, the plague stops with 24,000 dead, and...

What? What happens next? According to Jewish law, Pinchas is a murderer! And you're just going to leave the story there?

Remember, the division into Parshiyot is not from the Torah, it was done by Chazal...and Rabbi Zimet said they had a reason to leave a cliffhanger ending here. They wanted us to THINK...for a whole week until the following Shabbat morning...did Pinchas really do right? Is it ever justifiable to take the law into your own hands, or in the end do you just make things worse?

And after we've pondered for a week, the answer comes...it depends on the motives of the person involved. Pinchas could have been feeling self-righteous anger and hatred towards the sinners. Or he could have been feeling personally offended since the main targets of the disrespect and mocking of the sinners was his father Elazar and his great-uncle Moshe. Any of those motives would have made him just another hoodlum. But Hashem, the Discerner of motives, said of Pinchas, "he was zealous in My zealousy"...his motives were absolutely pure. He saw evil, he saw Jews dying, and he said, "This isn't right. It has to be stopped." He made himself a pure conduit for Hashem's zealousy. And that is the only reason he was rewarded and not punished.

Only in the same circumstances can a person claim the protection of the Halachot of the kanai. Anything less and the person is a thug, at best a "naval bir'shut Hatorah, " a scumbag who yet doesn't break any Torah laws, and at worst a criminal at a lower level than the ones he attacks.

Most of the people who perpetrate, advocate, or defend such attacks today are, in my opinion, motivated by anger and hatred, not by the pure zealousy of Pinchas. (Some may have even more base or selfish motives.) When people like that take the law into their own hands, Hashem isn't happy and He only allows our situation to get worse.

And never forget, the lead sinner was a "frum" Prince of Israel. Once again, the evil starts from within out own community. Yes, there was a non-Jewish seducer involved, but it is WE who should know better and avoid the seduction.

So lets forget about attacking the non-Jews and non-dati Jews that we blame for all our problems, and once again turn our efforts to our own. For we know that if we set the right example there will never again be a need for acts of Pinchas.

Additional thoughts on Tochecha

The prevailing minhag for the reading of the Tochecha in the synagogue is to read it faster and softer than the normal layning.This is because we don't want to be reminded of the bad stuff, and want to get it over with quickly. Whether or not it is a correct custom is irrevelant here...that's the way it's usually done. A good Ba'al K'riya will only be a little faster and a little softer than usual, because after all everyone still is required to hear every word clearly and distinctly.

In his weekly video D'var Torah this week, Rav Shlomo Riskin tells of the Klausenberger Rebbe in the early 1950's, having escaped from the Shoah, who insisted that the Tochecha be read out loud...he said the Jews had no more to fear. All the curses had happened, now it was time for the blessings. He then also told his people that the blessing would only come to Israel, and within six months had moved all his Hassidim to Netanya in Israel.

It's a moving story, and I can understand how someone who lost so much and escaped the Shoah would feel...and hope...that this must be the end of the punishments. And maybe it would have been so, as Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik wrote in Kol Dodi Dofek, if we had listened to Hashem's knocks on our door in 5708 (1948) and all packed up and moved to Israel.

But I can't believe it now. We continue to go against God in so many ways; sinat chinam and stubborn stiffnecked selfishness parading as frumkeit are rampant. So maybe we're wrong to read it quietly. Maybe we should tell the Ba'al K'riya to speak up loud, and maybe we should listen harder. Maybe then we can get some of the message through our thick skulls.

Another prevalant minhag is to consider the Aliya containing the Tochecha as 'bad luck.' To avoiding insulting anyone, rather than call up a member of the congregation, it is often given to the Ba'al K'riya since he is already there...in some shuls they don't even call him up by name.

Rav Chaim Wasserman was always opposed to this minhag, and when he was the Rav in Passaic he insisted on being called up (normally and by name) for the Tochecha. It is, after all, part of the Torah. And how do the two rebukes end?

B'chukotai: "These are the statutes and judgements, and the teachings which Hashem gave between Himself and the Children of Israel, at Har Sinai by the hand of Moshe. (Vayikra 26:46)

Ki Tavo: "These are the words of the Brit which Hashem commanded Moshe to make with the Children of Israel in the land of Moav, in addition to the Brit which He made with them in Horev." (Devarim 28:69)

The Tochecha is an integral part of our Brit with Hashem! You can't have one without the other. If you want to sign a business deal but refuse to accept any penalty clauses, the other side won't sign. If we had refused to accept this list of punishments, Hashem wouldn't have made the Brit with us! So we should be honored to be given this Aliya, with it's lofty closing sentiments.

The last time I layned a Tochecha at my shul here in Kochav Yaakov, the Gabbai gave me the Aliya and then apologized. I explained that I wasn't upset because of Rav Wasserman's reasoning. This past Shabbat there was someone else layning, because it was his Bar Mitzva parsha, and he was a Kohen...no way to give him the Tochecha. The Gabbai remembered what I had told him, and so he called me for the Aliya. I was honored and pleased.

If we could all open our ears a little more to the two Tochechot, if we could honestly examine our ways instead of rationalizing them and blaming everyone else, then maybe we can get back to the place the Klausenberger Rebbe had hoped we'd reached, and we can listen peacefully to the curses as we enter the blessing time of Mashiach.

Plenty of Warning

(basedin part on the final Meturgeman Drasha, Parshat Behar-Bechukotai, 22 Iyar, 5762)

The Tochecha (Divine rebuke) in Parshat Bechukotai is unique because it comes in stages. Unlike the longer Tochecha in Parshat Ki-Tavo, which just keeps piling on more and more bad things, in this rebuke Hashem is giving us a piece at a time with a chance to do T'shuva.

There are five stages altogether. Each stage after the first begins by saying, IF we haven't learned our lesson from the previous stage but continue to rebel, ONLY THEN will we get the next stage, which is seven times worse.

In other words, we have plenty of chances to wake up and smell the beef-fry. If we can't figure out what's happening and mend our ways, then He will have to pound us some more. So whose fault is it? Our enemies? The politician? Nope. It's us. God is practically begging us to learn our lesson before it's too late, and we just don't get it.

Once again, I'm not the only one saying this. In this year's (5769) Torah Tidbits for the Parsha, Phil Chernofsky compares us to Par'o. We often comment about how seemingly impossible it was for Par'o to ignore plague after plague and stick to his stubborn evil ways. But we don't do any better! We ignore, we rationalize, we blame others for the bad things that happen. So Hashem has to smack us down, again and again.

There is a prevailing opinion in Jewish tradition that the first Tochecha refers to the destruction of the Bayit Rishon, and the second one to Bayit Sheni. This can seem very comforting, because it makes it seem as if it's all behind us. But I'm not so sure it's completely true. Certainly in a general sense, the warnings in the Torah about the cost of sin still apply. And there are frightening parallels from this Tochecha to the current time. I mentioned before, based on the insight of a friend, how the first stage of this Tochecha sounds a lot like the Hitnatkut from Gaza. That was nearly four years ago, and all the evidence seems to indicate that we are not listening yet to Hashem. And what is the second stage? (Vayikra 26:18-20) No rain leading to no crops.

Israel right now is in the midst of the worst drought in modern history. One of the places the government has cut back on water use is agriculture...leading to less crops and more imports.

Coincidence? Enough people seem willing to believe so that there is no attempt to correct our actions. Are we so willing to risk the next stage? (Which is to be overrun with wild animals; followed by besieging of the cities and resultant famine in stage four, and the final stage of cannibalism, destruction, and exile.) It would seem we are.

We need to change our ways; to work on the Spiritual lessons of Torah, to learn and to teach, and to lead others back to the correct path. If we can't do that soon, I fear we are in for more difficult times.

Torah Tidbits chimes in

I always like it when someone else says the same thing I am saying (and usually better). If you live in Israel you are familiar with the weekly Torah Tidbits published by the OU Israel Center and edited by Phil Chernofsky. (You can read it online or subscribe by email here.) Part of each issue is an aliyah-by-aliyah summary, interspersed with SDTs (Short Divrei Torah.) This past week, Parshat Balak 5768, had this SDT for the last aliyah:

This final lesson of the sedra must be learned well by us today. What Balak and Bil'am discovered is that if Israel is in G-d's favor, it will be invincible from outside attack. No nation can succeed against Israel, when we are "on good terms" with G-d. That includes attacks by swords or words... If we, however, incur G-d's anger, by being unfaithful to Him, by disregarding Torah and mitzvot, then we are extremely vulnerable to our enemies. And they might not even have to actually fight against us (as in terror attacks) - we can, G-d forbid, destroy ourselves (as in road accidents, and more). This was true more than 3000 years ago; it is no less true today.

On a certain level, Parshat Balak is extremely simple and straight-forward, with an extremely powerful message - because of that simplicity. For 95 p'sukim, we feel the protection of G-d as Balak and Bil'am fail time and again in what almost looks like a comical farce. The Gemara says that Bil'am was in some ways superior to Moshe Rabeinu, that when he was around, G-d Himself was extra vigilant in protecting us. For those 95 p'sukim, we beam with pride at the grudging admiration of a unique nation as expressed by Bil'am.

And then comes the last 9 p'sukim of the sedra. Bil'am went back home. So did Balak. No danger anymore. WHAM! We did it to ourselves. G-d protected us from Bil'am by giving him his words. By not letting him speak on his own. And then we turned around and betrayed G-d. 24,000 fatalities. And the toll would have been greater, except for the bold action of Pinchas. The sedra is shouting its message to us. All we have to do is listen to it.

Thanks Phil...I hope we all can truly learn to listen to it.