God the Widowmaker

(based on an original Meturgeman Drasha, Parshat Mishpatim/Shekalim, 27 Sh'vat, 5762)

I have repeatedly said it is a mistake to blame others for the suffering we are experiencing. It's easy to blame the Arabs, the Americans, the Europeans, and of course the chilonim and eirev rav (meaning any Jew that we don't agree with) for the suffering of Am Yisrael. But it's wrong. And nowhere is that made more clear than in this quote from Parshat Mishpatim (Shmot 22:21-23):

Do not opress any widow or orphan. If you surely oppress them so that they surely cry out to Me, I will surely hear their cry. And My anger will burn, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives will be widows, and your children orphans.

Can you say it any more clearly? If we sin, Hashem will take DIRECT action to punish us, mida k'neged mida! This is as direct as what it says in the Hagada, 'I and not a messenger.' Bear in mind what I said about that in this post: once God makes the decision in the Heavenly court, the person who does the action is irrelevant.

So when a suicide bomber blows himself up on a crowded bus and Jews die, making other Jews into widows or orphans, God sent him because of us. He never would have been brainwashed into believing it was the right thing, or he never would have made it through security, if it had not already been decided in Hashem's court. Hashem is the Widowmaker, no one else.

It hurts to realize this; and people get angrier at me for saying it than for almost anything else I claim; but it is unavoidably clear in the p'sukim. Note that Rashi on the first Pasuk says it applies to oppressing anyone; it uses widows and orphans as examples since they are perceived as weak and easy to oppress.

And there IS oppression going on in the dati world, as I have spoken about many times. Yes, there is also much that is positive, but that's not good enough. As the Or La'Goyim, the Light unto the nations, WE are expected to strive towards perfection...and to take care of our own who fail to reach it, instead of ignoring it or covering it up.

Look at Sefer Yehoshua (Perek 7). After the victory at Yericho, the Jews were defeated at Ai...the only defeat in the entire conquest...because ONE MAN secretly took from the spoils which were cherem, forbidden. The language throughout is PLURAL...'B'nei Yisrael sinned.' But it was only one man, and no one else knew? The answer is that we are expected to reach the level of perfection where it could not happen...only then are we worthy to take and hold the land promised to us.

We have to change ourselves first, and by the power of our adherence to both the letter and spirit of Torah, lift all of our fellow datiim to the level required; only then can we reach out to other Jews, and then to the rest of the world.