| This week B"H marks the first anniversary of my family's aliya.
I believe it is a true simcha, a "dvar simcha shel mitzva" (see
Shab. 30b). The following thought is dedicated to this simcha.
In Deut. 1:7 we find:
Behold, I have placed the land before you (natati lifneichem)
come and possess (bo'u u'reshu) the land...
The verb _natati_ (infinitive: _latet_) implies a gift, a
present. _Reshu_, on the other hand (_Lareshet_), denotes action,
an act of possession. Which is it? A gift or a challenge? If
G-d wished to give us the land, why the need for any action on
our part?
The following strange Gemara is found in Shab. 118a:
He who upholds (kol hamekayem) 3 meals on
the Sabbath is saved from 3 calamities: from
the birth-pangs of the Messiah, from the judgment
of Purgatory and from the War of Gog and Magog.
What a deal! Eat three meals (you may have even eaten even
without such an inducement), and avoid the worst imaginable
misfortunes!
Many parents are in the habit of giving their children an
allowance. I say "habit" because they probably don't know
what purpose it serves, other than the fact that most other
people do it. Most don't provide any instructions to the
children, nor do they check. It's probably understood that
the candy store is actually the ultimate beneficiary of the
parental largess.
But imagine if the child would be observed putting away
his weekly stipend in a piggy bank, saving up for the
purchase of a _sefer_ or a similar item. The parent
would be beside himself with joy, and would be willing to
increase the child's allowance seven-fold!
We chant in the Sabbath _zemirot_ (see also Mechilta, Ki
Tisa 31) that the Sabbath is "a piece of the World to
Come." The Rambam (Melachim, 12:4), says the following
concerning the Epoch of the Messiah:
Sage and Prophet sought after Messianic times
not for control over the world... not to be
upraised in the eyes of the nations... not to
eat, drink and make merry; only for the sake of
having the freedom to study the Torah and its wisdom,
without enemies or distractions, in order to merit
the World to Come. (See also Tesh. 8:2).
Surprise! the Messianic Era is no more than an extended
Sabbath, a seven-day Sabbath-week, in which no work is
required, no interruptions are perpetrated, so that Torah
study is paramount.
Just as the parent must know that the child is responsible
enough to know what to do with his stipend before any thought
is given to increasing it, G-d looks to see if we appreciate
the one day a week we have of free time; to what use we put it.
If we don't know how to sanctify 1 day of free time, what will
we do with 7?!
If we demonstrate an appreciation for even the simplist aspect
of the Sabbath --eating three meals we would have eaten in any
case-- by transforming them from a mere animal impulse to a
holy _seuda_, we have shown that we have grasped the principle.
And we will receive six more Sabbaths per week. If not, G-d
forbid, then we must be made to appreciate the good which we
take for granted, in the form of the three tragic experiences
listed.
Similarly, the land of Israel is indeed a gift, a _matana_. But
human nature is to treat gifts lightly, to take them for granted
almost to the point of contempt. We must therefore perform an
action of some sort, a sacrifice if need be, an painful act of
acquisition. We must _possess_ the land --fill it with Jewish
people and Jewish values. And through this may we merit a truly
full and complete --shalem-- land and people. True Shalom.
Yehoshua
|
|
The following verse (1) is recited by the congregation
on the occasion of a circumcision:
...I saw you wallowing in your blood, and I proclaimed
to you: By your blood shall you live! By your blood shall you
live!
How strange a proclamation to one wallowing in his own blood
--particularly a baby! Is this a time for enigmatic messages?
And indeed, what is the message?
Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer (2) interprets the repetition of the
proclamation as a reference to two precepts:
In the merit of the blood of circumcision and the blood
of the Passover (sacrifice) I redeemed you from Egypt,
and in their merit shall you be redeemed in the end of
of the Forth Exile (i.e, the present "Roman Exile").(3)
What is the connection between these two precepts, and why will
redemption be brought about in *their* merit more than those of other
observances?
The 19th-century biblical commentator and Hebraist par excellence,
Malbim, in his work "Hacarmel" seeks to explain the meaning of the
word "ge'ula" -- redemption. The meaning is simply "closeness,"
-- relatives, close relatives willing to sacrifice for their kin.(4)
On the other hand, the Redak in his "Sefer Hasherashim" cites
an altogether different meaning of the word "ge'ula," as in
the verse, "lechem me'gu'al" (disgusting bread)... "ba'meh
ge'alnucha" (how do we disgust you?).(5)
The Netziv (6) points out that the Holy tongue utilizes
many of the same roots for utterly opposite notions. The
Maharal (7) explains that the true meaning of a concept
is culled only relative to its opposite. That is, opposites are
indeed two sides of one coin.
Redemption is not a magical transformation. It is a process,
one dependent in great measure on our own actions. Thus, R.
Alexandri in the name of R. Joshua ben Levi says (8): "if
they *merit it*, it shall be hastened; if they do not merit it,
it shall come in its time." Indeed, Maimonides codifies (9) that
repentence --our own actions-- is a prerequisite to redemption.
In order to merit redemption, we must at least demonstrate a
*desire* to be redeemed -- to draw closer to the holiness and
the Holy One on the one hand, while consummately rejecting and showing
disgust for --*redeeming* ourselves from-- the depraved customs of
the nations. The Paschal sacrifice was a symbolic rejection of the
idolatry; circumcision a rejection of hedonism/body worship and
its inevitable result, sexual immorality.
Thus, the Jews had demonstrated a readiness for redemption by
their parallel rejection of foreign abominations and
resultant turn to holiness. The sincerity of their actions was
made obvious by dint of their willingness to sacrifice their
very lives for such cause, by slaughtering the Egyptian god in
the case of the Paschal sacrifice, and by risking Pharoah's
declared death penalty in circumcising their young.
With this self-sacrifice they defined the choseness of the Jewish
nation. Jewish immortality is guaranteed by her connection to
the Holy One -- at the price of literal self-sacrifice if necessary.
The Jewish nation understood that true life --eternal life-- is only
that life which is willing to be sacrificed for a holy cause, a cause
much larger than fleeting life. But in the face of this, the "irony"
is that the Jewish people has survived while our enemies live on
only in history books.
Therefore, the true danger is not the temporal fact of "wallowing"
in one's blood. On the contrary, this itself is eternal life. It
is sometimes necessary for the the nation to be forcibly reintroduced
to its roots --its *basis* (as in mitboseset (1) - wallowing)-- as R.
Joshua says, "if you repent, well, but if not I shall install over you
a ruler whose decrees resemble those of Haman."(10)
The true danger to Israel's existence is spelled out in the continuation
of Ez. 16 --Israel's rejection of her heavenly Father. Therefore, the
punishment of excision is reserved for non-performance of a
positive precept (in contradistinction to active transgression of a
negative injunction) only in the case of two commandments --the
Passover sacrifice and circumcision. (11) For it is not *readiness*
for martyrdom which is the real threat to Jewish continuity, but
on the contrary, the desire to shirk and to hide from our glorious
destiny.
The American Jewish Committee sponsored a survey by Steve Baum in 1989
to determine the degree of observance of Jewish practices by American
Jews. According to the survey, even the Day of Atonement was nominally
observed by a paltry 23%. On the other hand, two observances enjoyed
popularity exceeding 90% --Passover and circumcision. And so is it
prophetically foretold in the "Tanna D'vei Eliahu": (12)
(In the end of days) they will devoid of all commandments
save for these... Passover and circumcision.
I heard from Jerusalem's Rabbi Motty Berger a wonderful explanation
in this connection. We are told that Elijah rose to heaven in a firey
chariot --alive-- he never died. He appears at two events regularly
--at the Passover Seder, symbolized by the Goblet of Elijah, and at
circumcisions, symbolized by the Chair of Elijah. Elijah is not
the future Messiah --his task is to *announce* the impending arrival of
the messianic era. He is intimately acquainted with the observances
of the multitudes of Jews, to see if they merit redemption; if they
yet cling to the most *basic* commandments; if they are prepared
to fearlessly proclaim, "Pour Your wrath out upon the nations which
know You not!"; (13) if they are prepared to risk their lives by
physically distinguishing themselves from the nations by the act of
circumcision.
Thus, all such events proclaim loudly that we are yet vital and vibrant,
that we are yet willing to sacrifice our lives for the sake of the
Torah's precepts and to thereby acquire eternal life. In this merit
may Elijah reveal himself as the harbinger of good tidings, and
"return the hearts of fathers to their sons and the hearts of sons
to their fathers," speedily in our time.
(1) Ez. 16:6.
(2) Chap. 29.
(3) Compare Shochar Tov 309:114; Zohar,
Bo "Va'evra"; Shir Rabba 1:35.
(4) As per Num. 35:12, Ruth 2:20.
(5) Melachi 1:7.
(6) Deut. 1:8.
(7) Netzach Yisrael, chap. 1.
(8) San. 98a.
(9) Teshuva 7:5.
(10) San. 97b.
(11) Keritut 2a.
(12) Rabba 27.
(13) Jer. 10:25, Passover Hagadda.
|
| From: CRL::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon" 4-AUG-1993 14:41:38.47
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email protected]>
CC:
Subj: Netzach Yisrael, Part 1
The world has long been confounded by the Jews' pesky
perseverance. While many have attempted to abridge our survival,
it is invariably their own memory which is obliterated
in the end; the obstinate Jews continue to haunt
the planet, continue to thrive and flourish while would-
be exterminator after would-be exterminator warms himself
in Perdition for eternity. Mark Twain put it thus:
If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute
but one per cent of the human race. It suggests
a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze
of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly
be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been
heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people,
and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of
proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contribution
to the list of the world's great names in literature,
science, art, music, finance, medicine and abstruse learning
are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.
He has made a marvelous fight in this world in all the
ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him.
The Egyptian, the Babylonian and the Persian arose,
filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to
dream-stuff and faded away; the Greek and the Roman followed,
and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have
sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned
out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The
Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was,
exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening
of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his
alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the
Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the
secret of his immortality?
This very question is addressed by the Maharal MiPrague,
in his work, "Netzach Yisrael" - the eternity of Israel.
Each fortnight I will attempt to translate part of
this deeply inspiring work:
True understanding of good is grasped though an
understanding of its opposite; indeed all facts
can be apprehended through their opposites. Through
the appearance of black one may discern that white
is its opposite; so too all facts are grasped by
a knowledge of their opposites. Knowledge of opposites
is complete knowledge; the Sages (Pes. 117a) therefore
stated: the Telling (Hagada) must begin with disgrace
and end with praise. For true greatness can be
discerned only by acquaintance with its antithesis.
Therefore, in order to elucidate the meaning of the
Final Redemption, one must first understand the
meaning of exile and destruction, for through these
we may comprehend the goodness and redemption for
which we hope.
If we fully desire to delve into the topic of exile,
first the reason and other factors relevant to exile
must be explained. What is exile? Exile itself is
evidence and proof of an ultimate redemption.
That is, since exile is a divergence from and alteration
of (G-d's) order --G-d settled each nation in a place
fitting for it, and (He) settled the Israelites in the
place suited to them, the land of Israel. The exile of
the Jews from their land is therefore unnatural, a departure.
Whenever a being is taken out of its natural environment,
either it returns to its natural habitat or it adapts
completely to its new surroundings, until they become
"natural." This is however impossible, since the unnatural
can never become natural. For example, one cannot make
fire descend towards the earth, or make earth ascend
heavenward. If one of these unnatural phenomena were to
occur, then it would no longer be unnatural. So too,
if the Jews were to eternally remain in exile (an
unnatural state for them, for they belong in the land
of Israel, under their own aegis, as our Sages [Avot
4:3] said, "there is not a thing that does not have
its place," so too each entity must be under its own
control), this unnatural state would become natural.
For only a natural state of affairs can long endure.
G-d gave each entity a natural state, which sustains
it always; if the unnatural state endures for a great
interval --although contrary to the natural arrangement--
then its given nature was superfluous and void in toto,
without use --a thing which cannot be.
Likewise, dispersion is an unnatural state, for just
as each being returns to its place, so do dispersed
and separated pieces reunite into one entity. This
can be understood by all people of understanding, for
all the pieces have common features; therefore why
should they not be able to reunite? Dispersions therefore,
are given to reunifications. The dispersion of the Jews
amongst the nations is wholly unnatural; for one nation
would naturally be united in its home. It is impossible
to say that this state is attributable only to sin and
transgression: Israel's dispersion is unnatural, and if
it is to last forever it becomes natural. [Tr. note:
Perhaps the Maharal here means that if the state of
exile becomes "natural," it no longer serves as a
punishment for Israel's transgressions. YS].
Indeed, it is unfitting for one nation to rule over
and enslave another nation, for G-d created each nation
separate. It would be fitting, however, for Israel to
raised above the nations --when she fulfills G-d's
will. However, this is another matter, for although this
might be natural according to Israel's standing and
level, but the nations deserve no external yokes upon
them, since each is discrete by nature. In any event,
the yoke of the nations borne by Israel is a departure from
the natural order, an impossibility. From the exile we
now turn to redemption.
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