This is Not a Miracle
Anybody lately hear Dubya talking about how wise and understanding the great nation of Israel is? How about Tony Blair? Mahmoud Abbas? No? Well, you ask, why should they?
Here's why: D'varim 4:6: "And you should keep and do [the Torah], for it is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the nations; for they will hear all of these laws, and they will say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'"
This pasuk is a statement of simple fact, NOT a promise of a miracle after the days of Mashiach. But it is conditional on one thing. IF B'nei Yisrael keep the Torah PROPERLY, the overwhelming truth of it's wisdom will FORCE people to recognize it. Whether they like it or not! And THAT will bring Mashiach.
There is historical proof. Take a man who hates the Jews, who is doing his best (according to Chazal) to circumvent a direct Divine order and imbed hidden curses in all his blessings. The one time he simply looks, really looks, at the Jews living in accordance with the Torah, all those thoughts are driven from his mind and he is forced to proclaim, "Ma Tovu Ohalecha Yaacov, Miskenotecha Yisrael." (BaMidbar 24:5)
Didja ever wonder why the first thing you say when you walk into a shul each day is a blessing composed by a non-Jew? This is why! The ideal we must always strive for is to reach the level of proper Torah observance that will force the world to echo the blessing of Bilaam and to proclaim the wisdom and greatness of Yisrael! Because if we can permanantly reach that level, none of our enemies will be able to touch us.
They won't even want to. Shmot 34:24 says we can just leave our homes to go to Yerushalaim for the Shalosh Regalim and no one will want our land! It doesn't even say we have to set guards.
This is not miraculous; it is merely the power of Torah. When the world sees us properly observe it, they have no choice but to fall in line; respect us and look up to us.
But it is not what they are seeing now. When non-Jews and non-dati Jews have any contact with the frum world, far too often it is very negative. Granted the news media is biased against ANY religion and ignores the good apples, but we give them too many bad apples to choose from in any country where there are Jews. Over the years we have seen money laundering and murders, child sexual abuse and prostitution, business lawbreaking and epithets...just to name a few. All from people labeled as, or calling themselves, "Orthodox" or "Chasidic." Not to mention the spectacle of Rabbis meeting in public to curse people they don't like, from Rudy Giuliani (before 9/11) to Sharon...it didn't work in either case. Or cases ranging from the dance-hall collapse a few years ago to Katrina today, where instead of showing sympathy for human beings that are hurt, there are Rabbis who blame the victims.
There is a collective term for this: Chillul Hashem. How can we educate the world, how can we lead them to the ways of Hashem, when some of us make His name look so bad? It's not just that they don't understand our beliefs...in most of the cases there are actual violations of those fundamental beliefs that make us all look like hypocrites. In other cases it is people not violating any specific Halachot, but fitting perfectly into the Ramban's description of "naval bir'shut HaTorah" (a scumbag within the parameters of the Torah.)
We need to stop, now. We may not be able to control everyone, but we can control ourselves. We can speak out against those that set these examples. We can try to force our own institutions to exert pressure on individuals who behave like this to stop BEFORE it becomes public (sometimes now the institutions just try to cover it up, making it worse when the scandal finally breaks.) We can refuse to patronize establishments involved in these scandals. On a personal level, we can try even harder to behave towards each other as if the next action we took could make or break the coming of Mashiach, today.
Because when we all start behaving towards each other like Hashem intended, that Pasuk will come true, and Mashciach WILL come, today.
Here's why: D'varim 4:6: "And you should keep and do [the Torah], for it is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the nations; for they will hear all of these laws, and they will say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'"
This pasuk is a statement of simple fact, NOT a promise of a miracle after the days of Mashiach. But it is conditional on one thing. IF B'nei Yisrael keep the Torah PROPERLY, the overwhelming truth of it's wisdom will FORCE people to recognize it. Whether they like it or not! And THAT will bring Mashiach.
There is historical proof. Take a man who hates the Jews, who is doing his best (according to Chazal) to circumvent a direct Divine order and imbed hidden curses in all his blessings. The one time he simply looks, really looks, at the Jews living in accordance with the Torah, all those thoughts are driven from his mind and he is forced to proclaim, "Ma Tovu Ohalecha Yaacov, Miskenotecha Yisrael." (BaMidbar 24:5)
Didja ever wonder why the first thing you say when you walk into a shul each day is a blessing composed by a non-Jew? This is why! The ideal we must always strive for is to reach the level of proper Torah observance that will force the world to echo the blessing of Bilaam and to proclaim the wisdom and greatness of Yisrael! Because if we can permanantly reach that level, none of our enemies will be able to touch us.
They won't even want to. Shmot 34:24 says we can just leave our homes to go to Yerushalaim for the Shalosh Regalim and no one will want our land! It doesn't even say we have to set guards.
This is not miraculous; it is merely the power of Torah. When the world sees us properly observe it, they have no choice but to fall in line; respect us and look up to us.
But it is not what they are seeing now. When non-Jews and non-dati Jews have any contact with the frum world, far too often it is very negative. Granted the news media is biased against ANY religion and ignores the good apples, but we give them too many bad apples to choose from in any country where there are Jews. Over the years we have seen money laundering and murders, child sexual abuse and prostitution, business lawbreaking and epithets...just to name a few. All from people labeled as, or calling themselves, "Orthodox" or "Chasidic." Not to mention the spectacle of Rabbis meeting in public to curse people they don't like, from Rudy Giuliani (before 9/11) to Sharon...it didn't work in either case. Or cases ranging from the dance-hall collapse a few years ago to Katrina today, where instead of showing sympathy for human beings that are hurt, there are Rabbis who blame the victims.
There is a collective term for this: Chillul Hashem. How can we educate the world, how can we lead them to the ways of Hashem, when some of us make His name look so bad? It's not just that they don't understand our beliefs...in most of the cases there are actual violations of those fundamental beliefs that make us all look like hypocrites. In other cases it is people not violating any specific Halachot, but fitting perfectly into the Ramban's description of "naval bir'shut HaTorah" (a scumbag within the parameters of the Torah.)
We need to stop, now. We may not be able to control everyone, but we can control ourselves. We can speak out against those that set these examples. We can try to force our own institutions to exert pressure on individuals who behave like this to stop BEFORE it becomes public (sometimes now the institutions just try to cover it up, making it worse when the scandal finally breaks.) We can refuse to patronize establishments involved in these scandals. On a personal level, we can try even harder to behave towards each other as if the next action we took could make or break the coming of Mashiach, today.
Because when we all start behaving towards each other like Hashem intended, that Pasuk will come true, and Mashciach WILL come, today.
posted by meturgeman | 9:54 PM
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