The Land of My Fathers

The sole claim that Klal Yisroel has to the Land of Israel is based on the fact that Hashem gave it to our forefathers to be passed on to their descendents. But to listen to Israeli spokespersons and officials, one would think that the Land of Israel was discovered by them in much the same way that Columbus discovered America.

In his comments explaining the ceasefire that he had reached with Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said:

From the day the State of Israel was established, it has had to deal with complex challenges in the Middle East, and we can all see that these challenges have increased in complexity in the last few years. Under these conditions we are required to navigate this ship, the State of Israel, wisely and responsibly while taking into account all considerations – military and political alike.

We have had to deal with complex challenges in the Middle East since the time of the Avos, but for Bibi it seems that the clock starts from the day the State of Israel was established.

He then went on to thank everyone and his uncle for the great success that he was claiming for the State of Israel:

I would like to thank my colleagues, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman. We worked together as a team, in full agreement. I also thank the Nine-Member Ministerial Forum, the Cabinet and the Government, for working – each in its field of responsibility – for the citizens of Israel. I also appreciate the factions of the Opposition and the factions in Knesset for standing with us and proclaiming their support. I thank the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, the Chief of Shin Bet, Yoram Cohen, the Director of the Mossad, Tamir Pardo, and all of their people for their exceptional efforts in reaching our accomplishments in Pillar of Defense. On behalf of the people of Israel, I thank the IDF commanders and soldiers, the pilots, the Iron Dome operators and developers, the members of the intelligence services, and to the reservists, who left their families.

With one exception, he pretty much got everyone in.  By the way, did anyone see Hashem at the news conference?

He must have been in Florida.

Bibi then closed with:

…and above all – I salute you, the citizens of Israel. We have a strong army; we have a strong people.  I am proud to be your Prime Minister.

Personally I’m ashamed, but at least it’s clear why Hashem didn’t rate so much as an honorable mention in his remarks.  It seems that we have a strong army.

It would have been a very big Kiddush Hashem for Bibi to have stated that this is the Land of my Fathers and to acknowledge Who gave it to them.

He didn’t.

But, as they say, Nature abhors a vacuum so someone else said it instead:

Palestine, from the river to the sea, from the north to the south, it is my land. And the land of my fathers and grandfathers, inhabited by the Palestinians from a long time ago. This is my land, my right,” said Khaled Mashaal, the Numero Uno of Hamas in his comments as to the ceasefire.

I don’t know what’s worse. The fact that Bibi didn’t say it or that no one challenged Khaled Mashaal when he did. 

Seeing the Whole

In EmunahSpeak: Seeing the Good we spoke about bringing the concept of gam zu l’tova down to street level by seeing the good in those things that happen to us that at first glance would seem to be anything but good as that term is generally understood.

Whereas the seeing the good that was mentioned above was in the context of life’s travails, it’s not the only game in town.  It conceptually applies no less to people and we get there by way of first seeing the whole.

Rabbi Moshe Weinberger tells us that a person who sees the whole understands how precious every Jew is, be he a Sephardic Jew, a Hesder yeshiva student, a Chasid, a kollel yungerman or a secular Jew.  He sees the greatness of every Jew because he is looking at the place of greatness.

This is what Rav Kook z”l called a unifying perspective, and Rabbi Weinberger let’s us hear that a person who has internalized this unifying perspective as part of his hashkafic toolset responds to tragedy with the thought that Hashem is telling him to go help others.  Although he was referring to a person responding to his own tragedy by helping others, this unifying perspective is no less susceptible of being internalized by those Jews who are standing outside the line of fire peering in.

And we need look no further than Tropical Storm/Hurricane Sandy for a case study of this principle in action.

By what other means should one describe the manifold activities of Achiezer in the Far Rockaway/Five Towns area along with the many volunteers that they marshaled to do what ever needed to be done or the Boro Park Shomerim who were so active in the wake of the devastation that engulfed Seagate?

And what about the bus loads of volunteers that shlepped from Baltimore to wade into the flooded basements of Seagate to pump out the water, carry out the debris, and clean up the mess that was left behind?

Moreover, Rabbi Weinberger takes us a step beyond to reveal in the name of Rav Kook z”l that as a person’s unifying perspective grows deeper, stronger and clearer, it penetrates all the more into the depths.  As a consequence thereof he sees reality more and more in the way that the true tzaddikim look at reality.

And what does he see?

In particular he sees the unity of all Jews.

Rabbi Weinberger points out that a tzaddik sees that every Jew belongs to the whole – that every Jewish child is the child of every Jew.

Or as the Lubavitcher Rebbe zy”a answered when asked why he reached out to non-religious Jews:

And what if they were your children?

A Gut Rehab

In EmunahSpeak: Red Alert! we said:

The give and take of our daily existence has been something of rocky road as of late.  Tragic murders committed by our own, terrorist murders committed by the usual suspects, the placement of what was once the world’s richest and greatest country on a road leading to a Third World existence, and a seemingly unending spectacle of the Ribbono Shel Olam’s koach as manifested in “Nature” all over the world, including a local appearance in the form of an earthquake, with the serious possibility of a devastating hurricane (Irene) following in its wake only 72 hours down the road, have all taken a toll on our equilibrium.

Sort of catches the current wave, mood wise, doesn’t it?

And in Red Alert! we also quoted from EmunahSpeak: Now We Know, in which we averred, in response to the murder of little Leiby Kletzky, a"h, that:

Everyone seems to be in agreement with the suggestion that we should all take on something, be it increased tzeddakah, a commitment to work on a given middah, Shimiras HaLoshon or anything else that will strengthen our Yiddishkeit. 

To that we added the following:

Maybe we should be taking on two somethings rather than one.  The first, which is reactive to the potch, conveys our understanding that Hashem is very upset with us, our present confusion as to the details notwithstanding.

That second something is proactive and carries a simple message:

Please, Hashem, let there be no next time.

And returning to EmunahSpeak: Red Alert! we said:

In light of all the tragedies that have both subsequently befallen us and are presently hovering over us (Hashem should protect us) coupled with the very unraveling of the secure world we have known these past sixty plus years, “taking on something”  doesn’t quite hack it anymore.

Events have moved so rapidly that even the suggestion to take on “two somethings,” a suggestion which I thought was a big deal at the time (merely a month ago) doesn’t come close to addressing our predicament as it presently exists at street level.

The days where we could throw Hashem a bone so to speak and go about our business are over.

We suggested there that we all have to look within ourselves with laser like penetration at everything, not just something, and then take on as much as we can handle, each and everyone according to his strength of character.

And this was pre-Irene, long before Sandy traumatized a number of communities in the Tri-State area leaving an incredible amount of destruction in her wake.

What should we say now?

In EmunahSpeak: A Real Deal Teshuva, we pointed out that teshuva is not a once a year spiritual form of Pesach cleaning or something to be pulled out of the bull pen on the ruchniyas equivalent of rainy days, to level out the speed bumps that we invariably hit as we navigate our way through the minefield of life’s challenges.

And, according to the Rambam, it’s not enough to do Teshuva for the sins we have done. We also have to do Teshuva for who we are if we’re not who we should be, because a lot of life’s challenges reside within, in the form of bad character traits, which also require Teshuva. 

The bottom line here is that we don’t just change our actions and call it a day. 

It’s not simply that yesterday I did, while now I no longer do, but rather that yesterday I was, while today I no longer am.  The growth process is about changing you.

Change your desires.  Change your ideals.

As I watched all of the sheet rock being ripped out from the first floor of my house which took a hit during Sandy I came to terms with the bottom line meaning of changing you…change your desires, and change your ideals.

In the ruins of Long Beach, Belle Harbor, Seagate, and Staten Island, to name but a few of the worst hit areas, Hashem has revealed to us where we go from here. The gut rehab that hundreds of us are doing to all or part of our houses is a moshol for the gut rehab we have to do to ourselves.

You have to become a different you, period.

And we don’t mean doing the Daf, writing a big check for disaster relief, or becoming a regular on the Shemiras HaLoshon Hot Line or at the Ohel Sara Amen Group.

As we said above, The days where we could throw Hashem a bone so to speak and go about our business are over.

We’re talking Tikkun HaMiddos here as the Mesillas Yesharim understands it. Simply put, in paralleling what we are doing to our houses we have to rip out our gaiva, taiva, kas, and kina and toss it into the dumpster with the sheet rock.  

Anyone who thinks he can get away with less shouldn’t live anywhere near the water.

Presidential Musings

As you have no doubt observed, the Name of this blog is EmunahSpeak.  Under these words there is a tag line which reads: emunah, tefillah, a little mussar, and a shmeck of geulah.

The word, politics, is nowhere to be seen because we are concerned here with how one plugs into, so to speak, the thoughts and desires of Hashem and our place in his world.

And we are decidedly not interested in the machinations of politicians, be they hucksters, outright crooks, morally dissolute low lives, or those who could be charitably described as plain vanilla morons.

Be that as it may, I can’t let the disaster of November 6^th, otherwise known as the presidential election, pass without comment.

The incredibly destructive storm (Sandy) that whacked New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut amongst other places the week before the election is an all too grim reality for those that Hashem chose to put in its path. But it also serves as a metaphor for what the Presidential Empty Suit and his radical leftist (pardon the redundancy) gang of wreckers who will systematically do to the economy, security, and to what’s left of the moral fiber of the United States of America.

Hashem Yerachem.

End of comment.

Here We Go Again

Anyone who lives on the east coast of the United States has by this time heard the dire predictions concerning Hurricane Sandy.  Maybe these predictions will chas v'shalom come to fruition in whole or in part in the next few days or they won't.  In either case that will be a fact that those affected by it will deal with.  But lest we make the same mistake as we collectively did last year in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene when we cut Hashem out of the postmortem, I'm reposting EmunahSpeak: A Divinely Pulled Punch before Sandy hits for the purpose of assessing the storm in its proper context in whatever form it ends up taking.
 

A Divinely Pulled Punch

Hurricane Irene or Tropical Storm Irene or just a rainy day named Irene depending on where one lives and the condition of one’s basement, has (almost) come and gone leaving most of us a little wetter, no wiser, and maybe even less so.

While there was plenty of water to go around in upstate New York, Northern New Jersey, and Vermont to mention but a few of the waterlogged venues visited by Irene, these and most of the others severely affected by the storm were victims of fresh water flooding courtesy of voluminous amounts of rain that overwhelmed storm sewers and sent local rivers over their banks.

The flooding in parts of Westchester County was such that if not for the occasional sighting of a guardrail ever so slightly poking out above the water line, it would have been impossible to distinguish the Saw Mill River Parkway from the Saw Mill River.

On the other hand, the threatened Storm Surge that put to flight thousands of residents of the South Shore of Long Island and forced the evacuation of the entire Rockaway Peninsula failed to significantly materialize, and as a result my neighbors and I still have where to live, Boruch Hashem.

  

In the aftermath of Irene,Weatherdom, by means of satellite tracking, high speed computers, and specialized software modeling, all of which comprise the heart and soul of weather forecasting, has every answer to any conceivable question as to what did or did not happen, storm wise, to the New York Metropolitan area between Friday and Sunday the week before last.

It’s all a matter of timing.

After the fact, we are treated to cutting edge sophisticated analysis.  And before the fact, like when it might count for something, one could do just as well by flipping a coin.  It’s the high tech version of drawing the bull’s eye around the arrow wherever it lands. 

It’s bad enough when the Weatherman attempts to explain away weather in general and Hurricane Irene in particular in the language of teva.  But as insufferable as the Weatherman’s teva babble may be to the ears of those whose heads are screwed on according to the Manufacturer’s specifications, it’s beyond inexcusable when those of us who profess to see through the teva smokescreen begin to think and speak in the tevadik language by which Weatherdom and the rest of the secular world defines its existence.

As I look out across the street to the peaceful ocean beyond I am less troubled about reports of another hurricane forming south east of the Bahamas that will put the entire coast from North Carolina to New England definitely at risk than I am by the general response to Irene, or rather lack thereof. 

In advance of the storm, some of us went to the Catskills, some to Queens, others to Brooklyn, and a number of us sought refuge in Monsey.

But where did Hashem go?

To hear people talk, one would think that at the same time many of us were packing out of the area in a hurry, Hashem was also heading for the high ground to points north and west of the city.

While most of us correctly see the Yad Hashem in devastating manifestations of “Nature” we seem to have a blind spot with the flip side of the equation which, in the absence of the predicted devastation, leads all too many of us to see no more than another "mistake" by the Weatherman, and "mistakes" by the Weatherman tend to preclude the perception of a hatzala which in turn is not particularly conducive to a teary eyed Modim.

The weather people tell us that in the last twenty years or so they have made great advances in tracking violent storms, and indeed, the predicted path of Irene was almost spot on to the tract the storm actually took.  Hashem allows them to follow His Shadow around as He flashes them the picture He wants them to see, which is accurate at its inception.  And then, not being bound by the teva that is driving the computer models that are trying to make sense of the storm, He does as He pleases.

Had Hashem stuck with the original picture of Irene that He revealed to the weather satellites, the storm would have whacked us pretty good.  But at the end of the day rather than devastating most, if not all of the kehillas stretching from Baltimore to Boston, He withdrew His Hand and threw water in our face instead.

And all we saw was rain.

Thanks for the Freebie

In a number of pieces, with EmunahSpeak: "Interior Decorating” being but the most recent, we have established the core principle of the Chovos Halavovos as being that we should recognize the munificent kindnesses that Hashem bestows upon us from the time of our inception until our neshamas are recalled to their source.  And we also learned that, as a consequence thereof, this recognition should quite naturally instill in us a desire to be makker tov for all of the aforementioned kindnesses.

And in addition to spending our lives attempting to pay back some small part of what we owe to Hashem, in the form of Torah and Mitzvahs, for the 24/7/365/lifetime beneficences that have been bestowed upon us, we also said in EmunahSpeak: If You Feel Blessed that if you feel that Hashem has bestowed you with extra tov you should feel obligated to pay back a little more by adding something to your avoda, be it an extra twenty minutes of learning, a little more kavana in davening, or perhaps resolving to put more effort into doing chesed.

And this fact of Hakoras HaTov being the core principle of the Chovos Halavovos most assuredly means that it’s not limited in its application to Sha’ar Avodas Elokim which discusses the nature of our service to Hashem.

In Sha’ar HaTeshuvah of the Chovos Halavovos we are taken beyond what the Halacha requires as to normative teshuvah in cases between man and Hashem. In such a situation it is not enough just to say you’re sorry, coupled with viduy etc.  In addition to confessing our guilt in relation to the errors that we have committed, regretting those errors, and taking on never to the repeat them, the Chovos Halavovos adds a little something of its own.

Rav Chaim Malinowitz tells us in its name that if we err, it means that the organ, limb etc. with which we erred is, spiritually speaking, weak.  In order to properly complete the teshuvah process we therefore need to exercise the “muscle” that was weak and go to the other extreme in order to ‘tone it up.’

You spoke Loshon Hora?

It’s the view of the Chovos Halavovos that from now on you should only speak good thereby refraining even from negative comments that would be perfectly permissible.

You ate something that you shouldn’t have?

Henceforth, take on to stay away even from some food that is permitted.

And so it goes for every move you made that ended up requiring you to do teshuvah.

But isn’t teshuvah the ultimate free lunch?

Therefore the Chovos Halavovos, consistent with its view that the Hakoras HaTov that we owe Hashem for everything and then some is the touchstone of our existence, tacks on a little something to what the Halacha requires of us vis á vis teshuvah.

After all, if we should feel obligated to pay back a little more by adding something to our avoda, for those little right turns that our lives take, courtesy of Hashem, as opposed to lefts, then what should we say about teshuvah which is essentially a freebie that Hashem throws our way in the form of a second chance after we have made a train wreck out of chance numero uno?

"Interior Decorating”

In both EmunahSpeak: If You Feel Blessed and EmunahSpeak: If You Feel Blessed (2) we put forth the yesod hayesodes of the Chovos Halavovos, which is that we owe everything to Hashem, and we rationally concluded that being makker tov to Hashem should be the focus of our lives.

In EmunahSpeak: If You Feel Blessed we said that if you feel that Hashem has bestowed you with extra tov you should feel obligated to pay back a little more by adding something to your avoda, be it an extra twenty minutes of learning, a little more kavana in davening, or perhaps resolving to put more effort into doing chesed.

And in EmunahSpeak: If You Feel Blessed (2) we took the proposition a step further by stating that this principle (of giving back a little more) also works on a national level because Klal Yisroel, even in golus, has almost always lived better than the people in whose midst they lived.

Okay, so in the spirit of all that is written above, you took stock of all of the tov (both gashmiyous and ruchnius) that Hashem has been showering upon you since day one of your earthly existence, and driven by a desire to be makker tov you began to learn seriously or took on one or a series of mitzvahs big time so as to bump up your Avodas Hashem.

As far as the Chovos Halavovos is concerned, you’re good to go, in that you have responded in kind to the beneficence that Hashem is bestowing upon you.  And we said in EmunahSpeak: If You Feel Blessed (2), in relation to your response, that Hashem will continue to shower upon you that special shefa that distinguished your lot from that of others. And that He will even add to it.

And when He in fact does, your recognition of such will once again push you to respond in kind, and so it goes in what will hopefully be an endless cycle of ever increasing Avodas Hashem.

But we’re not quite finished as yet.

Whereas the Chovos Halavovos looks upon your increased learning and all of your other aliyahs in Yiddishkeit as a form of payback for what Hashem has sent your way, the Mesillas Yesharim takes somewhat of a different view.

Rabbi Yisroel Brog tells us that rather than look upon your growth in Torah and Mitzvahs as satisfying, in some small degree, your obligations to Hashem, the Mesillas Yesharim’s take on the matter is that those madreigas that you climbed actually increased those obligations.

You’re learning half a day and your beard and clothes are commensurate with your newly minted madreiga so that your appearance is that of a serious Ben Torah?  Then you have to increase your Tikun HaMiddos accordingly, says Rabbi Brog.

Torah is supposed to improve a person. 

So if someone is immersed in Torah while his middos are merely floating on the surface, this disconnect between what he appears to be and how he conducts himself is a denigration of the Torah and therefore a chillul Hashem.

We summed up the approach of the Chovos Halavovos in EmunahSpeak: If You Feel Blessed as follows:

Therefore, if Hashem gives us more, we understand from the structure of the mitzvahs that we are supposed to do more than we have heretofore done.

Or put another way, if you feel blessed you should be putting a little more on the table.

And we could add, as per the Mesillas Yesharim, that when you put that little extra on the table make sure you use your finest china and silverware so that it will ‘look’ as good as it ‘tastes.’

Do Not Fear

It’s getting rough out there.  

Even a cursory glance at the news gives one the feeling that the busy season for the panic stricken is upon us.

In EmunahSpeak: Someone’s Knockin’ we quoted Rav Shimshon Pincus as follows:

We live in a very fateful generation.  It’s a twilight generation, something akin to bein hashmashos.

The period of radiance has passed, and we already hear the sounds of what is to come.  Moreover, we are living in a period when even looking out the window can be dangerous.

Someone who is wise can already hear a voice calling out from Shomayim.

We also said over there that Hashem changes the times, and in consideration thereof Rav Pincus held that we must be cognizant of what is going on around us so as to be able to devise corrective strategies.  

And he didn’t mean keeping on top of the news because he constantly spoke out against wasting time reading newspapers and such.

Being cognizant of what’s going on around us as per Rav Pincus refers to those times when Hashem shows His hand, be it ever so subtly.

To my thinking, Hashem seems to be showing His Hand even if it’s ever so subtly and it’s beginning to look like a redux of the Purim story, and it’s even being shot on location (Iran).

What to do?

We said in EmunahSpeak: The Call of the Hour that a number of….very serious seforim on emunah… have independently come to the conclusion that it is a matter of pikuach nefesh for this last generation before Moshiach to seriously strengthen its emunah in order to stay the course for what’s coming our way.

Simply put, we’re headed for a very bumpy ride, and if we don’t buckle up with emunah we risk being thrown from this world.

Being that the events of the day could well play out like a Purim meisa what could be better than to mechazik ourselves by drawing from the same well that Mordechai HaTzaddik drew from?

Citing Esther Rabba, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath informs us that when Mordechai learned of the wicked decree that Haman obtained to murder all of the Jewish people, he went out into the street and met three young cheder kinderlach. He asked each one to say over what he had learned that day in cheder.

The first boy answered, Do not fear sudden terror, nor the destruction of the wicked when it comes..

The second cited the verse, Contrive a scheme, but it will be foiled; conspire a plot, but it will not materialize, for G-d is with us.

And the third replied with To your old age I am [with you]; to your hoary years I will sustain you; I have made you, and I will carry you; I will sustain you and deliver you.

Rabbi Bernath tells us that from these three posukim Mordechai knew that the Jewish people should fear no enemy; he took it as a divine omen that Haman's plans to annihilate the Jewish people will come to naught and that G-d would deliver them from all danger. 

Those who instinctively look at their watches when they finish the Aleinu prayer may not have noticed that there are three posukim printed under it that we are supposed to say.  And not just any posukim mind you, but the very ones that the cheder kinderlach said over to Mordechai:  


Do not fear sudden terror, nor the destruction of the wicked when it comes.

One should not be afraid of fear, for fear is paralyzing and harmful in itself. Even when the wicked are there and planning to destroy the world, we should not be afraid.

Contrive a scheme, but it will be foiled; conspire a plot, but it will not materialize, for G-d is with us.

We should not be afraid. We say to our enemies "You may make your wicked plans, and utter your wicked threats, but nothing will come from them, for G-d is with us."

To your old age I am [with you]; to your hoary years I will sustain you; I have made you, and I will carry you; I will sustain you and deliver you.

No matter how long the exile will be Hashem will always "carry" us. We are Hashem’s responsibility. Our exile and dispersion among the nations of the world is also Hashem’s doing. He will, therefore, surely deliver us from our enemies and from this exile. 

And we also hear from Rabbi Bernath that reciting these verses expresses confidence in G-d's protection, and all are regarded as auguries of deliverance.  And if that weren’t enough, the Mekubalim tell us that many powerful things are hidden in these verses.

It may indeed be getting rough out there, but if we read these three posukim with kavanah after every Aleinu that we recite it need not concern us because just like Mordechai we will fear no enemy, the plans of the wicked will come to naught, and Hashem will deliver us from danger.

It’s All About Us

In EmunahSpeak: Now We Know  we said that As is well known, the Gemara teaches that every disaster that comes upon the world comes only because of Klal Yisroel.  It’s always about us.  It always was and it always will be.

Rav Miller, z”l used to say that if you see a small news item on the bottom of page 89 in the New York Times reporting a cyclone in Bangladesh that killed 200,000 people, the whole purpose for this devastation was that a Jew named Miller in Flatbush should hear about it and do Teshuva.  And if he doesn’t do Teshuva, then it’s a waste of a lot of goyim for nothing.

But the truth is that when we learn from Chazal that even a ship carrying goods from one country to another does so only for the needs of Klal Yisroel even if there are no Jews living in either of those countries, they are telling us the paramount centricity of Klal Yisroel in this world is such that it transcends disasters to touch every aspect of life.

From these well established core teachings of Chazal as to Klal Yisroel’s importance and responsibility vis á vis the rest of the world, we can extrapolate the importance and responsibility of those Jews who are loyal to the Torah to the vast majority of our brothers and sisters who presently are not.

And while we’re at it, how did this vast majority of Jews, who are presently having difficulty distinguishing Shabbos from Tuesday, get this way?  Rabbi Yigal Haimoff cautions us not to let assimilation, Communism, Socialism, Zionism, Czarist despotism or Eastern European poverty et al. divert our attention from the real source of this disaster.  He tells us in the name of his rebbe that the reason that there are so many Jews who think that Shabbos is the best day to wash the car or play golf is because the Jews who do observe Shabbos don’t keep it the way they should.

The vicissitudes of life invariably bring upon us circumstances that we perceive as giving us cause to cry.  But for the real reasons that we have to cry we are not, says Rabbi Haimoff, because if we see a Jew driving on Shabbos we don’t cry.

So Hashem gives us other outlets for our tears.

But Shabbos is but one responsibility gone awry.  Given the fact that all about us in the context of Klal Yisroel’s constituent parts means that everything  Torah Jewry does impacts for better or worse on those Jews who are less affiliated, we should not have difficulty making a connection between our failings in the realm of proper tznius and the disregard that all too many of the not yet affiliated Jews have for the concept of clothing one’s body.

But Rabbi Haimoff takes us one step further by informing us that if those whose level of tznius is already conforming to the Halacha in every respect would do a little more, the others would get dressed.

So how far does this go anyway?

Rabbi Aharon Lieb Shteinman says that if a Jew who is loyal to the Torah takes upon himself something new in Torah and Mitzvahs that previously wasn’t his custom to do, fifty people will walk out of the hospital and the doctors won’t even understand the reason.

Why?

Because it’s all about us. 

Testing…Testing

The world is a test.  Everything is a test.  Even for a frum young man or woman.  And our sole business in this life is to withstand them.

That the tests of life are without end was one the main themes to which Rav Avigdor Miller z”l consistently returned over the course of the many decades in which he set the standard for the spreading of Torah in the United States of America.

He taught us never to think about a vacation from the Yetzer Hora because the Yetzer doesn’t do weekends.  It also doesn’t do breakfast, lunch, supper, or coffee breaks.  Or put a different way, a Jew should never sit with his back to the door of life unless he enjoys getting blindsided.

He was also wont to remind us that the temptation of Apikorsis was forever in the air.  And although he articulated this warning many years before the Internet, our wireless connections testify to how prescient his warning was.

But the tests of life to which Rav Miller z”l referred were neither limited to dangerous philosophical abstractions nor to more grounded dangers such as Marxism, which he considered to be the biggest enemy that Klal Yisroel ever faced.  He saw them in every facet of life with no circumstance being so benign as to pass unchallenged under his penetrating gaze.

You had a piece of toast for breakfast this morning?

If you are a cookie cutter example of what usually passes for a frum Jew these days, you first washed your hands according to the Halacha before diving in and you concluded your repast with a recital of Birkas HaMazon.

But did you see the nes (miracle)?!

Yes, even the piece of bread on your table is a test to see if you can eat it while being oblivious to the nes that is inherent within.

And by the nes of bread, Rav Miller z”l meant the literal nes that should be widening your eyes, and nothing less.  Suffice it to say that while the many steps in the bread making process from the planting up until the grinding of the grain into flour and from the flour onward are plausible in that over time mankind could have either figured them out or could have simply stumbled across them, the actual grinding of the grain into flour is a divine gift beyond the collective imagination of all humanity.  But that’s a story for another day.

So how far does this testing go anyway?  Rav Miller z”l took it even a step past the bread to the table.

How does one approach a Jewish table?

Do you gruffly plant yourself down to stuff yourself as you would at an outdoor picnic table or do you approach it with great Derech Eretz as befitting something that is Kodesh.

Do you sit on it or are you zoche to understand that the Jewish table is a mizbeach (an alter)?

Testing….Testing.

Look, Judge, and See

In these three words Rabbi Mordechai Groner shares with us a series of pass words that will take us past the barriers that stand between us and the good kvittel that will give us yet another year to effect a gut rehab that will transform our total essence.

By means of Look, Judge, and See we are able to leverage Hashem’s system of midda keneg midda (measure for measure) in our favor to such an extent that our actions in this regard are actually co-extensive with the first draft of our judgment. 

Everything else we do during the Yemei HaDin, be it Tefillah, Teshuva or Tzedakah is for the purpose of getting that first draft signed in indelible ink.

Look, says Rabbi Groner, at everyone with an ayin tov.  In the way we look at yenem that’s how Hashem will look at us.  And as far as Hashem is concerned, you can take it to the bank.  But we’re a different story.

You have four kids in shidduchim and your neighbor’s girls are always engaged before their twentieth birthday.  You may be able to effortlessly flash a sincere smile but you can’t fake your ayin tov, or rather the lack thereof.  When put to a test it doesn’t come easy but that’s the only way to merit Hashem flashing an ayin tov in your direction.  If not for your Yetzer Hora stirring the pot what would your ayin tov be worth anyway?  

Rabbi Groner also admonishes us to judge everyone favorably, and if that’s not a ticket just waiting to get punched by Hashem for a good year then what is?  But the devil’s in the details because everyone means everyone, not just tzaddikim and other people of which you happen to approve.

And favorably means in a case where unfavorably is at least as likely to be the correct assessment of the situation on the ground.  But it’s much more than that because we’re not speaking in a halachic context as to when we are required to judge others favorably.  To have Hashem judge us favorably in all circumstances no matter how rough the edges, we have to judge everyone favorably even in the most unfavorable circumstances.

Rabbi Groner also lets us hear that we have to see the good in people.

And this one doesn’t come easy either because the default position of most of humanity is to notice in others the aberrations of the norm as defined by us.  Seeing the good in others requires us to penetrate layers of what we shouldn’t be looking at just to get to that upon which we should be casting our gaze.

As we said in GuardYourSpeak: The One Thing, There’s someone in your shul that shows up late every morning about two minutes before Borchu, and he doesn’t come rushing in either.  And it just so happens that you’re the first one there.  You don’t know him that well but you do know that there’s nothing doing in his house that would slow him up in the morning.  

What we see here is most definitely not what we get because we’re talking here about our inability to see past our self imposed delineation of reality.

In contexts such as these, when there is a clear distinction in our favor between our avoda and that of our friend, it never occurs to us that for all we know maybe coming late to shul is the one thing he does wrong whereas coming early is the one thing we do right.

Seeing the good in people means if the good is not readily apparent then keep looking until you find it because it’s surely there.  And as far as your field of vision is concerned, nothing else exists.

And if we do it right, then Hashem will look for our good until He finds it, and as far as His field of vision is concerned nothing else will exist.

Morphing Hurt Into Blessing

We have to be careful of what we say to people and, no less important, how we say it.  And people also includes one’s wife (okay, okay, husbands also).

The aveira of Onas Devarim (hurtful words) is big stuff, which is bad news for most of us.  On Hashem’s scales of justice, which are so finely calibrated that the measurements are beyond human comprehension, Onas Devarim exceeds the recommended weight thereby setting off a cacophony of Heavenly bells and whistles that are immediately responded to by Hashem Himself because matters of Onas Devarim are not given over to a shaliach.  That one Jew should be suffering emotional distress from the verbal sting of another Jew is enough for Hashem to clear His desk, so to speak, and get Personally involved.

Moreover, as we know, the Gate of Tears is never closed.  

At the very least, Onas Devarim brings on tears of the heart, and those tears are given the red carpet treatment as they pass through the Gate of Tears.  In fact, some say that there may even be a special Gate for Onas Devarim that keeps the same hours as the Gate of Tears, but in either case the result is the same in that all of those tears are Personally massaged by Hashem Himself.

In the normal course of things, when someone who has suffered from Onas Devarim cries out in pain to Hashem, the story’s not going to have a good ending for the Mouth that Roared.  But that’s in the normal course of things.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

As Rabbi Yisroel Brog tells us, there’s a tremendous opportunity here for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear.  After all, who says that the Gate of Tears only deals in kind?  Tears open them for sure, but once opened, anything can march through.

Even Brochos.

He says in the name of HaRav HaGaon Chaim Kanievsky Shilta that if someone blitzes you with Onas Devarim (speaks to you harshly) you shouldn’t answer back.  It’s not easy to stand there and take one for the team, with the team being Hashem’s desire, but all in all it’s a concept that most of us are familiar with.  Reb Chaim then takes it a step further and says that you shouldn’t even complain to Hashem.  Instead, you should take advantage of your direct access to Hashem by way of the Gate of the Tears that was opened by your pain and ask for anything you need because vis á vis you at this moment in your life Hashem is all ears.

This is not just a nice vort that Reb Chaim once said at a seudah shlishis once upon a time.  This is what he tells people who come for a brocha.

And he tells them even more.  He says that if you see someone getting verbally ripped and he doesn’t answer back you should ask that person for a brocha for whatever you need because the Gate of Tears is open for him and Hashem is listening.

This is not a segula.  We’re talking about a direct line here.

For my part, I can’t think of anyone who’s going to punch my ticket for a deal like this.  But my wife’s going to make out like a bandit.

It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over

And so goes one of the most well known aphorisms of the mid-Twentieth Century American philosopher, Yogi Berra.

Although in his hands these six words never ran deeper than baseball, in ours they plummet the depths of the run up to Rosh Hashana 5773.

This past Nissan (5772), Rav Yaakov Akiva Mashinsky z”l left this world for the Olam HaEmes.  On the 29^th of Elul 5771(Erev Rosh Hashana 5772) he spoke in Yeshiva Ohr Somayach in Monsey where he was a maggid shiur and said the following:

If you’re davening Mincha Erev Rosh Hashana, in Boruch Aleinu you are davening that all of the good things that you davened for last year will happen this year.

In other words, NOW.

Have you ever thought about that?

Those of us who have the shofar of Elul ringing in our ears are so focused on our Teshuva in preparation for the Yom HaDin and on all the changes we intend to make in the coming year that we tend to forget that the current year has yet to run its course.

It was inscribed on last Rosh Hashana and sealed last Yom Kippur how many will pass on and how many will be created in these last few days of 5772.  It was also written down and sealed, how many of us will be tranquil amidst all the tumult raging fore and aft and how many of us will be emotionally and/or mentally swept away by the same in these waning days of our current cheshbon.  And so it goes for every facet of our lives.

I don’t know whether Rabbi Mashinsky z”l was already not well when he spoke last Erev Rosh Hashana or whether his subconscious was pointing him in the direction of grabbing the moment.  In either case, he was sharing something with us that was both profound and simple at the same time.

We’re davening for the whole Shemona Esray to be NOW.

From today until Rosh Hashana when you say Selach lanu (Forgive us) you are asking to be forgiven Now, not next year.  And when you say Refuainu (Heal us) you are davening that you will hear good news NOW, not after your doctor returns from Succos in Eretz Yisroel.

And Tikah B’Shofar Gadol (Sound the Great Shofar) is no exception. You’re not waiting for the election results or to see how things play out with Iran a few months down the road.  You are davening for Kibbutz Golious (the ingathering of the exiles), NOW, today, this year.  

But Rabbi Mashinsky z”l also takes us past Shemona Esray to show us a bigger picture of the 5772 countdown.  He tells us that every year Dovid HaMelech comes to Hashem and asks for his Malchus back.  Up until 5771 Hashem hadn’t yet acceded to Dovid’s request. 

It’s our hope that on Rosh Hashana 5772 Hashem did indeed return the Malchus to Dovid HaMelech and that we will still see it yet, NOW before the curtain comes down on 5772.

It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.

Hashem Is Looking

At the very beginning of the Torah it states that G-d created Man in His image.

Although there are five methods by which the Torah may be interpreted, we never go away from the basic meaning of a verse, and the simple meaning of G-d created Man in His image is that a man’s face is the image of Hashem, is it not?

Rabbi Avigdor Miller z”l reveals to us that one of the Torah’s chief purposes of teaching that G-d created Man in His image is that we should behave in the presence of others as if Hashem is looking through their eyes.

And truth be told, He is.

So when you look at someone’s face don’t forget that Hashem is staring you down through the eyes of that person.

And is it not human nature to try and behave when someone is looking?

If we really took to heart the reality that Hashem is looking at us through everyone’s eyes we would have to behave at least as well as we do in public, would we not?

We would indeed, but Rav Miller z”l tells us that we can’t appreciate that the human face is the image of Hashem unless we have Hashem in mind.  As he puts it, in order to have the proper attitude as to what a Tzelem Elokim means in relation to those around us, we first have to work on our understanding of Elokim.

With Rav Miller z”l pointing the way we try to understand Hashem in terms of our Emunah which, if correctly calibrated, lets us feel Hashem right here/right now.  And when a person is zoche to a feeling that he is locked in Hashem’s gaze from on high then he is ready to come to the realization that He’s also looking at him through the eyes of all those round about.

And with but one exception, what goes on in your house is no different from what takes place in public. Hashem is also looking at you through the eyes of your children and most certainly through those of your wife.

Unfortunately, the once exception is you.

As Rav Miller reminds us, a man is true in his house.  At home there is no posturing in front of neighbors, co-workers, or anyone else, in front of which one might be embarrassed to be himself.  It’s just the wife and kids.

 

And because it’s perceived to be only the wife and kids, Hashem gets to see a lot more than He otherwise would.  And He gets an earful also because Chazal tell us that the walls of a man’s house testify against him.

So on Yom Kippur, when you’re confessing all of your sins, don’t forget the ones that you commit in your house.  And especially don’t forget how you spoke to your wife (husband).

Hashem was looking at you.