Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

What Are They Thinking?

2009-11-11T08:28:00.000-08:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

As Democrats lurch further to the left and Republicans tend increasingly to adopt moral and traditional positions, frum Yidden tend to be more aligned ideologically with the Republican Party.

The election of Barack Obama has highlighted a gradual shift in Jewish voting patterns as the changes in party doctrine are being felt at the grassroots level. Obama’s extreme liberal positions on moral issues; his socialistic approaches to the economy; his ingratiating speeches to European and Muslim audiences contrasting with his toughness towards Israel, have many in the Orthodox Jewish community worried.

The great euphoria over Obama, who was elected with so much hope and promise, has dissipated. Just one year later, much of the hope has turned to fear and the promise to betrayal. The great potential for change has collapsed into a morass of Washingtonian pragmatic hypocrisy. The promise of inspired leadership has slowly fizzled out.

The shortage of such leadership in the world at large is one of our generation’s most acute problems, affecting every society and industry. People are bewildered and lost, seeking leadership in a drifting world. People look for someone they can rally around. They seek someone who can put their feelings into words and give voice to their concerns. Yet, strong, honest, selfless leaders - who act in the best interests of the people they serve - are in very short supply.

By contrast, manipulative, scheming politicians are ubiquitous to the point where the word “politician” has become synonymous with “con artist.” Nonetheless, people continue to fall for their platitudes and hollow promises, and give them the power to effect radical change.

If people exercised their power to think, they would quickly grasp which party raises taxes as a matter of policy and which seeks to reduce taxes. They would analyze the records of the candidates and determine whose positions most closely match their own. They would realize that their votes have consequences and vote accordingly.

The masses are content to let others do their thinking for them. They hear only what they want to hear, content with half-truths, never really bothering to understand the issues even when they are vitally affected by them. They develop opinions based on snippets of biased and often inaccurate information they happen to pick up.

America thought it had found the answer to its search one year ago when the country elected Obama, who cast himself as a centrist who would be able to unify the American people and govern as a moderate. He down-played his long-time and much criticized association with the radicalist Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He wooed the American public with his eloquent oratory.

As the months passed, people began to realize that they had been hoodwinked once again by a politician who said one thing on his march through the election campaign, and another once he was safely ensconced in the White House.
With Obama, it’s always been form over substance. By now, he has shown that he can’t deliver on his poetic promises. Capable as he is of delivering impactful speeches, when it comes to building coalitions, to being open and honest with the American people about actual laws and proposals, he has displayed his ineptitude.
He promised to create a new mold for elected officials. Instead, he has shown himself to be no different than the typical politician who panders to the masses and tests the wind before reacting. Far from being a unifying force, he has veered even further Left, stooping to mock his political opponents.
For evidence of public disenchantment with the president, consider the drubbing the Democrat party took in two closely watched and hotly contested races. The White House itself had declared early on that these elections would testify to public approval for Obama policy.
The President traveled to Virginia and New Jersey several times to campaign for his boys. He declared their election vital to his ability to carry out his proposed agenda of change. Members of his administration, on all levels, pitched in, doing their best to demonstrate that the American people are supportive of their radical program despite falling poll numbers

When the votes were counted, however, the Democrat party had lost badly in both contests and Republican governors took over for Democrat incumbents. Virginia swung by 24 points since the last election when Obama won the state and New Jersey swung by 20 points to the Republican side.

And here’s the grand irony: Refusing to concede that the double defeat was a blow to her party, Congressional Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi seized on a minor win in another state to declare the elections a victory! Party spokesmen took self-deception to a new level by joining the vain effort to put a positive spin on the night’s results. From Obama himself, there was silence.

This obvious detachment from the will of the people was underscored on Motzoei Shabbos when Congress passed the sweeping health care overhaul by a vote of 220 to 215. The contentious bill will cost the nation over a trillion dollars to solve a problem that is not high priority for the vast number of Americans. In a time of economic recession and widening unemployment, the bill will increase taxes and further hamper already reeling small businesses.

Opinion polls have demonstrated time and again that the American people are opposed to the further expansion of government, higher taxes and more strangling regulation, yet Democrats in Congress - in the dead of night - voted for just such a bill.

Can it be that the politicians are that far detached from reality that instead of concentrating on returning America back to work, instead of enacting legislation that would return consumers to the stores, and health to the economy, they persist in enacting budget-busting boondoggles only their base can support?

Can it be that they are oblivious to the message of last week’s elections as they pursue reform no one is clamoring for and which only a minority support? Can it be that they don’t realize there will be serious consequences when next November rolls around and the entire Congress is up for reelection?

And what about a president who is facing a world spinning out of control? Events in Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea and Honduras, to mention just a few, are not going according to plan. The young president is facing serious decisions in responding to predicaments which pose a threat to his world-view and have the potential to cause much carnage and destruction. Yet, despite all that, he plows head-first into health care, bizarrely treating it as the crisis of the hour.

The world is up in arms over the Goldstone Report which convicts Israel of crimes against humanity for targeting civilians during its war against Hamas in Gaza. There is almost universal denial that Israel was engaged in a war for its survival against terrorists hiding behind civilians. The world also willfully ignores the fact that accepting the report’s findings compromises their own ability to combat terror. Their hatred for Israel and loathing for the Jewish people blinds them to the inevitable consequences of sanctioning terrorism.

As the UN debated the acceptance of the report, Israel captured a ship loaded with Iranian weaponry on the way to Hezbollah in Lebanon. While Iran, the greatest destabilizing force and the greatest exporter of terrorism in the Middle East, gets a pass from the world body, Israel is slammed for protecting its people against the onslaught of Hamas terror. Could there be a greater irony?

Let’s take a look at the latest act of terror on our own American turf. Last week, a Muslim terrorist killed 13 people and wounded 30 more in Fort Hood, Texas, in a crime that shocked the nation. As he jumped up to begin spraying bullets into the hearts of fellow servicemen, he shouted, “Allahu Akbar,” the traditional salute of terrorists as they engage in murder.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan had a history of spouting radical Islamic propaganda, making anti-American statements, justifying suicide bombings, and visiting and posting on websites condoning terror. Nonetheless, the media and officials investigating the heinous crime did their best to blame the army and associated tensions for the murderous rampage.

The red flags in Hasan’s behavior leading up to his assault were not hard to miss. But common sense was shunted aside in favor of avoiding racial profiling—the same twisted moral relativism that insists on having elderly Americans remove their shoes before boarding a plane lest Muslims be insulted when they are forced to undergo an enhanced security check. Thus, the army allowed itself to ignore dire warnings from fellow servicemen that this army major was exhibiting a frightening identification with extreme Islamic terror.

Amazingly, the media too closed its eyes to the glaring facts. Instead, news outlets vied with one another in trying to lay the blame for the attack on the doorstep of the military. They cited Hasan’s upcoming military service in Iraq and Afghanistan as the trigger for his murderous aggression. They refused to call the incident what it really was; a terrorist attack. They follow the liberalist dictate of never using the term terrorist when referring to Muslims.

The reason for this stunning effort to rationalize away the facts is that people have their minds made up and can’t bear to be wrong. Their agendas are in place and they don’t want to be confused by the truth. The culture of political correctness hamstrings the army, even as it wages a war on terror. The liberal philosophy cannot accept evidence that some people are more prone than others to violence and terror. They would rather twist the facts and impugn innocent people than admit their world view is divorced from reality.

President Obama and his Democratic colleagues would rather press ahead with their radical agenda than recognize that the people are opposed to what they are doing. They continue to claim that they speak and act on behalf of the people, even though signs are unmistakable that they no longer have their finger on the public’s pulse. They watch the dipping of their poll numbers and their party’s election defeats, but instead of absorbing the obvious message, devise all kinds of rationalizations to explain the disappointing results.

Such is the way of men who aren’t interested in the truth, but rather their own personal aggrandizement. They continue to cast a favorable spin on events until forced to confront the ultimate rejection by those whose loyalty they were sure of. Finally, it all comes to a head, and their constituents vote them out of office.

In our world, we are no different. Don’t we too refuse to recognize the truth when analyzing problems in our community? We recognize corruption, yet we ignore it. We see hypocrisy, yet we turn the other way. We are afraid to say the truth and permit ourselves to be terrorized into following what we know to be a deceitful party line. We permit the molesters to molest and the abusers to abuse as we wring our hands in feigned horror.

Of course it is easier to point fingers at others, and mock Obama and Pelosi for their arrogance, shortsightedness and insistence on a course of action that endangers their own careers no less than the health of a nation. It is a lot more painful to turn the spotlight on ourselves and our world. But difficult as it is, we owe it to ourselves and our children to do so.

A mature society is one which is not afraid to engage in self-scrutiny in order to root out injustice and evil. We need to summon the inner strength to uphold our ideals, even at the cost of alienating the powers that be who may not be happy with us for rocking the boat. Don’t we want the best for our children? The society they inherit from us is the one we create. The values we choose to live by are the ones that become our legacy to future generations. Our lives can be vibrant, growth-oriented and infused with yiras shomayim. Or they can be marked by cynicism, self-deception and banality.

Let us summon the moral and spiritual courage to choose wisely so that we can look forward with hope, and look back without regret.

Our Brotherly Concern

2009-11-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

As we continue studying Sefer Bereishis, we learn more of the immense stature of the Avos. Parshas Vayeirah is replete with vignettes of the life of Avrohom Avinu, one of the greatest people to ever walk the earth. From his devotion to the mitzvah of hachnosas orchim to the way he dealt with the nisayon of the akeidah, every nuance of his demeanor, speech and actions personified the values he sought to instill in his descendants. His example continues to guide and inspire us to this day.

The stories of our forefathers told in the Torah are not simple tales written for inspiration. They are benchmarks we can all reach and live by.

“Maaseh avos siman labonim.” The actions of the fathers serve as signposts for their offspring, pointing out the path to self-perfection in this world.

Some of the stories seem plausible only in relation to someone of Avrohom Avinu’s status. We wonder if we are really expected to reach the levels of chesed and kedushah that he attained. Yet, if the Torah records these spiritual milestones, it is unquestionably for our edification because they really do represent realistic goals for us.

Sometimes we need reminders to prod us to do what Avrohom brought himself to do naturally.

A story was told to me about an 82-year-old woman who was traveling to Eretz Yisroel. She refused to let her advancing age, weak legs and worsening arthritis stop her from visiting her family and spending time in the Holy Land.

As she made her way to the airplane, an airport security officer insisted that the old woman, who could barely hobble along, remove her orthopedic shoes for inspection, to ensure that there were no bombs in them. Her protests brushed aside, it was an understandably distraught elte bubbe who settled herself on a bench without a clue as to how she would manage this ordeal. Suddenly, a 70-something chassidishe Yid approached her.

“Allow me to help you,” he graciously offered.

“Oy, Reb Yid,” the woman replied, “How could I allow you to be zich matri’ach?” She was convinced that there was no way that an alter chassidishe Yid would help a woman remove her shoes.

“Please,” the man persisted. “I was ten years old when they took mein mamme off to Auschwitz. Whenever I see a regal Yiddishe bubbe like you, I think that this is how my mother would appear today had she not been murdered. Please allow me to assist you and pretend that I am helping my old mother!”

Tears streamed down both of their faces as the man gently undid the shoelaces, sent the shoes through the x-ray belt, and, after they passed inspection, put them back on her feet.

“Thank you,” the old woman said, after regaining her composure.

“No,” the man replied simply. “Thank you.”

This precious Yid poignantly exemplified the legacy of Avrohom Avinu. To our forefather Avrohom, every woman in need of help or a meal was his mother. Whenever anyone who needed aid crossed his path, he treated them as if they were his own family. And what don’t you do for family!

Rav Yaakov Neiman, the rosh yeshiva of the Petach Tikvah yeshiva, entered the home of the mashgiach, Rav Moshe Rosenshtein, one Shabbos afternoon, and saw him sitting and studying Chumash with a young child. Certain that it was one of his grandchildren, and wondering which of his children the ainikel belonged to, Rav Neiman asked the aged mashgiach with whose child he was spending his precious time on Shabbos afternoon. The mashgiach answered that it is “Der Ribbono Shel Olam’s ah kind,” a child of Hashem.

If we look at every Jewish child who wants to learn as if he was the child of G-d, we would be able to make time for him. If we recognized that every Jewish child is a yachson, we’d have patience to spend a Shabbos afternoon learning with him. If we remembered that every Jewish child is the Ribbono Shel Olam’s ah kind, we would treat him the way we wish to be treated - with love and care.

The greatness of Avrohom Avinu was that he didn’t need little mayselach to remind him of the importance of every individual. He didn’t need to imagine that a little old lady who needed help was his mother. He helped anyway.

Avrohom was so perfect in his beliefs that there was no gap between comprehension and performance. He didn’t need to process the situation in his mind and conclude that positive action was called for. The chesed came reflexively. We, however, need these little reminders to be kind.

The parshiyos of Bereishis are intended to inspire us to train ourselves to do chesed until it becomes second nature, as Avrohom did. These parshiyos remind us that it is indeed possible for us to judge people favorably and to deal forthrightly, honestly and charitably with everyone.

Many ask what the great nisayon of the akeidah was. Hashem commanded Avrohom to bring his son Yitzchok as an offering. How could Avrohom have been expected not to comply?

Rav Elazar Shach answers that the only novi to whom G-d appeared be’aspaklarya hame’irah was Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe was told exactly what G-d wanted him to do. All other prophets saw their prophecy in a dream and in a moshol. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu appeared to Avrohom and told him regarding Yitzchok, “Vehaaleihu shom le’olah,” Avrohom would have been justified in interpreting the command in numerous ways, none of them involving the death of Yitzchok.

Hashem had promised Avrohom that his name would live on through his son Yitzchok. It would have been reasonable for him to assume that Hashem had something else in mind and that “Vehaaleihu” didn’t mean to sacrifice his beloved son, but rather to raise him.

But Avrohom didn’t take that approach. He removed all negios from the equation, he analyzed G-d’s words as if they were referring to someone other than his son, and he reached the conclusion that Hashem wanted Yitzchok for a korban.

There is always the urge to wiggle out of doing good things. Too often, we look for a way to get ourselves off the hook of having to perform a chesed, or a difficult mitzvah, that was dropped in our lap. We say, “It’s not for me to do. I don’t have a big enough car. I don’t have enough strength or time. They don’t need my money; they only need my advice.” If we are asked to make a phone call to raise money for a needy person, we often procrastinate and offer excuses as to why we are the wrong person to make the call. Many times we simply aren’t in the mood to be bothered with other people’s problems.

Not so Avrohom. He didn’t make any excuses or rationalizations. He didn’t look for a way out. Every person was his brother. He taxed himself to the maximum to understand the word of G-d and then he ran to fulfill it.

When we have a mitzvah to do, when we have obligations, we shouldn’t seek the easy way out. We shouldn’t look for excuses to shirk our duty. We should seek to carry it out to the fullest, with all hiddurim, exactly as Avrohom would have done.

The posuk states, “Vayashkeim Avrohom baboker - And Avrohom awoke in the morning.” Many explain that the posuk is teaching us the greatness of Avrohom. Even though he was going to shecht his son, he still awoke at the crack of dawn to fulfill the word of Hashem.

The Brisker Rov offers another fascinating insight. He says that the chiddush is not that Avrohom awoke early. One who is going to fulfill the word of Hashem would naturally wake up early to go do it. The chiddush is that Avrohom was able to sleep the night before! Even though he knew that he was going to shecht his beloved son in whom all his dreams for the future were invested, he was able to sleep peacefully until morning.

One who is sure of himself, has no doubts about the ways of the L-rd, and doesn’t question but serves with complete faith sleeps very comfortably at night. One who deals honestly with his fellow man; one who hears the pleas of the hungry, the desolate and the poor; one who rises to every occasion and doesn’t turn a deaf ear to the cries of the abused and afflicted; one whose life isn’t a string of excuses and half truths, is a son of Avrohom Avinu and can sleep comfortably at night.

There are people of such nobility in every neighborhood. They are the people who are active in bikur cholim, the Hatzolah men, the menahel who takes in children others would ignore, the mechanchim and mechanchos who care more than anyone will ever know about their students, the people who quietly raise and donate money on behalf of those too embarrassed to ask, the people who empty the trash pails in shul when no one is looking, and all those who do all the little things which help so many people in big ways.

Let’s say thank you to them this week and every week. They are the people who keep the spark of Avrohom Avinu alive and make our people great.

No Shortcuts

2009-10-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

In Parshas Lech Lecha, we learn how Hakadosh Boruch Hu told Avrohom Avinu to leave his home and birthplace for a promised land. Avrohom received Hashem’s promise that he would be blessed in the new country. The posuk relates that following the command to leave his home, Avrohom gathered Sarai, Lot and the nefashos they had made in Choron and left for Canaan.

Lot’s shepherds were not able to get along with those of Avrohom Avinu, and Avrohom decided that they had to separate. He told his nephew Lot to choose the area where he preferred to live and said that he would find a place for himself at a safe distance from Lot.

The posuk relates that Lot saw that the Kikar Hayardein was blessed with fertile abundance and chose it as the area where he would settle. He was looking for a quick fix. He was seeking to make a fast buck. It didn’t bother him that he would be living with the wicked people of Sedom. All he was interested in was making money. The dollar bills were dancing in front of his eyes as he surveyed the territory he had chosen as his own.

He left the company of Avrohom, the holiest and kindest man alive, to go live among the most wicked and selfish people ever to walk the earth. As soon as Avrohom asked him to leave, he was gone, with not a word of protest, off to the Kikar Hayardein, where he thought he would be better off than living in close proximity to an honest and righteous man.

Avrohom had rules that Lot did not abide by. He was upset when Lot cut corners and fed his animals from other people’s property. Lot couldn’t wait to leave and join the rich and successful people of Sedom.

We all know the rest of the story. Sedom was destroyed and its inhabitants and their wealth were obliterated. Lot was saved in the merit of Avrohom Avinu.

The solution to Lot’s problem would have been to plead with Avrohom Avinu for guidance and direction. The resolution would have been to stay true to the principles taught by Avrohom since they had lived in Choron.

We are all affected by outer appearances. Promises of fame and glory tempt many people. The things we chase after may not be good for us, but we don’t admit that. We rationalize and fall prey to the lure of Sedom. The glitter dazzles us and blinds us to what lies beneath the veneer.

We look out at the beautiful foliage and comment on how gorgeous the trees are. All summer long, they seem bland; they are all the same color. But with fall, the trees change to brilliant red, bright orange and yellow. Warm brown hues emerge and we are all taken by the blast of beauty. But it doesn’t last long. The colorful exhibition is a signal that the end is coming. The brilliant red means that the leaves are about to die, fall off and be swept away to eternal oblivion.

As long as the leaves are green, we know that they will live and endure. The bright colors are a sign that they are about to meet the fate of Sedom and all of Lot’s friends and neighbors there.

Like Lot, at times we look for shortcuts. We look for excuses. We look for a way out of fulfilling our obligations. We fail to act responsibly and utilize our gifts for the betterment of ourselves and mankind.

We should recognize how lucky and blessed we are to live in this age with so many opportunities available to us. We should take advantage of these opportunities and utilize them constructively and responsibly. We should appreciate these gifts, focus on the good and endeavor to increase goodness in our world. We should seek to help more people appreciate the beauty of the old and true and help dispel the allure of the bright and colorful hedonistic enticements.

As we witness the explosion of Torah across the country we should contemplate that not all that long ago we were written off. Yeshivos went begging for talmidim and scrapping for paltry donations to keep the impoverished institutions open.

Acting responsibly means realizing that growth doesn’t come easy and is often associated with growing pangs and various difficulties, including funding. As children of Avrohom, we cannot shirk our obligation to recognize that it is incumbent upon us to do more to help the kol Torah reverberate around our local towns and cities.

Torah is what identifies us as a people. Torah is what makes us who we are and defines what we do. Our Torah institutions should be our priority. They should claim our deepest support and respect. Instead, we allow them to go begging for the financial assistance they need to survive and flourish.

If we care about Torah, if the future of Am Yisroel is important to us, then we have to be prepared to sacrifice for it. Torah has to be our thing.

We are living in a period of financial difficulty and tension and are barely able to keep up with all the demands and obligations pressuring us. Despite that, we have to realize that we live not only for ourselves. We must make time for others. We have to recognize that as members of a larger community, we have responsibilities to each other.

In the battle for the soul of the Jewish people, we have to turn inward and strengthen ourselves in our dedication to Torah, and dig deep into our pockets and our neshamos to safeguard that which is most holy and precious to us.

There is so much good in our community. There are so many people who dedicate themselves to enhancing the tzibbur in myriad ways. They need our help if they are to succeed.

We can’t take the easy way out and depend upon others to act responsibly, operate within the proper parameters, and always behave honestly as we seek to skirt the rules. As scions of Avrohom Avinu, we shouldn’t be looking to others to faithfully carry out the burdens of communal obligation as we seek easier pastures.

If we want to enjoy the benefits of Divine blessings - and who doesn’t - we have to remain loyal to the precepts of our leaders without attempting to escape their gaze to enjoy misbegotten gains on islands of neglect and negativity. The influence of Torah must guide us in all facets of our lives. Maintaining faith and stability in turbulent times is fundamental if we wish for permanent attainment and achievement.

Temptations abound. In periods of economic downturn, the appeal of looking away from the ramifications of disregarding the rules is more dramatic. The allure of quick financing for our projects while ignoring the larger message that accepting money from dubious sources conveys, becomes yet stronger. The urge to equivocate and rationalize public appearance with corrupt characters, who translate the participation with them as conferring legitimacy on themselves and their adventures, has to be condemned and halted.

That is also part of the legacy of Avrohom Avinu, who, as the Torah relates in this week’s parsha, refused to take as much a shoestring from the King of Sedom, lest he be able to issue press releases proclaiming that he aided Avrohom. We ought not to be any different. All of our actions should be able to pass the test of Avrohom.

As people of faith, we should not be cutting corners and turning a blind eye to our obligations. We must behave in a manner that causes a kiddush Hashem and not the opposite.

The promises that Hashem made to Avrohom are extant for his progeny in posterity if we follow in his ways. As the posuk states, “Venivrichu vecha - They will be blessed through you.” By abiding by the example of Avrohom and adhering to the code he lived by, everyone can be blessed. Us too.

Our Mandate

2009-10-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Every time I learn Parshas Noach, I am struck again by the words of Rashi which seek to quantify and minimize the greatness of Noach.

The posuk states that Noach was a perfectly righteous man in his generation. In a way in which no other biblical leader is measured, Rashi, the great elucidator of the Chumash for the Jews of all ages, compares the illustriousness of Noach to that of Avrohom Avinu. Though the Torah testifies to his greatness by declaring him a tzaddik tomim in his generation, Rashi is quick to quote the rabbinic debate as to whether Noach would have been recognized as a tzaddik if he had lived in the generation of Avrohom Avinu.

Obviously, there is a lesson for us to be learned here, though I doubt the lesson is to judge our leaders, theoretically rating them on a scale with giants of different generations. We are cautioned not to rate and judge our leaders, and we are taught that “Yiftach bedoro keShmuel bedoro.” Each leader is viewed as he relates to his generation. Furthermore, the Torah declares, “Uvasah el hakohein asher yihiyeh bayomim haheim” - You shall go to the kohein who is in your day and (as Chazal teach us) you should not declare that the kohein of your day doesn’t measure up to the one of previous generations.

Why, then, do Chazal go to great pains to determine how great Noach really was and if his greatness and tzidkus compares to that of Avrohom, who lived in a different place and time?

Additionally, why do Chazal, who measure the greatness of Noach, feel compelled to minimize him to the level of stating had he lived during the period of Avrohom, he wouldn’t have been considered anything - “lo haya nechshav leklum”? Why isn’t it sufficient to say that he wouldn’t have been considered a great person? What is there about Noach's greatness that would have deemed him irrelevant during the lifetime of Avrohom?

Chazal derive that the three avos, Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov, observed the Torah before it was delivered to their descendants at Har Sinai. They studied it and followed all its teachings prior to its observance becoming mandatory for the Jewish people.

While Rashi quotes the Medrash which derives that Noach studied the Torah, Chazal do not say that Noach kept the mitzvos of the Torah. Perhaps we can thus understand the need to tell us that had Noach lived during the period of Avrohom, he wouldn’t have been considered anything, for he did not keep the Torah.

Noach was a nice person who was blessed with a nobleness of character - and a lot more than that. In a generation of unparalleled evil-doers, he was the one person who stood out for favor in the eyes of G-d and, along with his family, was saved from destruction. But his kindness and his tzidkus didn’t have their roots in Torah and were thus flawed and incomplete. Had he been in the generation of Avrohom, who studied, absorbed and observed the Torah, Noach would have been considered a nothing, for without Torah we are all nothing.

This is not an indictment of Noach. It does not minimize his devotion to Hashem and his good deeds during a time of debauchery. It is a simple statement of fact.

Chazal point out a difference between Noach and Avrohom. When informed by Hashem that He intended to destroy the world, Noach didn’t pray that the decree be overturned. He accepted it and set about building the teivah to save himself, his family, and the animal kingdom. When Avrohom was told by Hashem that He was about to destroy the evil city of Sedom, Avrohom didn’t accept that fate and begged Hashem to spare the city from destruction and its people from death.

This fundamental distinction in the feelings of responsibility for other people is inherent in the difference between one whose chessed is a result of his own understanding and one whose acts of chessed are the result of Torah.

Noach’s kindness, compassion and sense of justice did not emanate from Torah, but rather from his own understanding of the concepts of being a fine person. He was aware of the serious limitations of the people of his generation and therefore, when Hashem told him that mankind as he knew it would be destroyed, he accepted their fate and did not attempt to advocate on their behalf.

Avrohom Avinu did not participate in acts of charity merely because he was a refined person who had spent his entire life devoted to self-improvement. His primary motivator was the mitzvos of the Torah Chesed (Maharal, Tiferes Yisroel, 20). Therefore, when it came to his consideration of other people, there was no limit to what he would do for someone else.

What drove Avrohom was the mitzvah of “Ve’ahavta lerei’acha kamocha,” the precept to love your fellow man as much as you love yourself. Therefore, when informed of the fate of the people of Sedom, he prayed for them in the same manner that he would have wanted someone to pray for him. His feelings for other people were governed by the principles of Torah and not by the thought process of man.

Only someone guided by the axioms of Torah and not by his own levels of understanding would beg of Hashem to spare the lives of the Sedomites. Only a person whose direction is from Torah would interrupt a conversation with Hashem in order to treat other people the way he would have wanted to be treated and offer three travelers lodging and a good meal. Such behavior is beyond the realm of moral righteousness which man can reach through his own understanding.

This point is reinforced in a new sefer of shmuessen of the Alter of Slabodka, where he quotes (Chapter 294) from the Tana Devei Eliyahu that in the final judgment after one leaves this world, one of the first questions we will all be asked is, “Himlachtah es chavercha alecha benachas ruach,” whether we subjugated ourselves to our friends with an inner calmness. He points to this as an example of how far-reaching the mitzvah of Ve’ahavta lerei’acha kamocha is. Surely this degree of love is way above the concept of brotherly love which people would reach based upon their own understanding.

In the sefer Nesivos Ohr, which Rav Yitzchok Blazer wrote about his rebbi, Rav Yisroel Salanter, he recounts that his rebbi told him of the time that he was walking to shul on Erev Yom Kippur and a G-d-fearing man was approaching from the other direction. The man had a look of fear on his face and tears were streaming down his cheeks. Rav Yisroel asked him what his problem was and what was bothering him. The man was in such a state of fear that he did not answer Rav Yisroel and continued walking.

Rav Yisroel is quoted there as telling his talmid, “When I passed that man, I thought to myself, ‘What is it my fault if you are so G-d-fearing and you so are so afraid of the impending Yom Hadin? What does that have to do with me? You have an obligation to respond to my question calmly!’”

That is the extent to which the obligation to be mamlich es chavercha alecha benachas ruach reaches. This is a level that only a person suffused with Torah can reach.

The Chofetz Chaim carries the obligation further and writes in a letter (number 70 in the sefer of his letters) that we are obligated to work on helping out people as much as we would work on helping ourselves. If we can help someone, no matter the difficulty involved, we are obligated to do so, even if it involves putting ourselves out physically, spiritually or financially.

Rav Yitzchok of Volozhin writes in the hakdamah to his father’s monumental sefer, Nefesh Hachaim, that his father, Rav Chaim of Volozhin, would rebuke him for not feeling the pain of someone who was suffering. His father would say, “A person is not created for himself, but rather to help other people as much as he possibly can.”

Thus, although Noach didn’t pray for the people of his generation and didn’t feel their pain, he may not have been obligated to and the way he acted didn’t take away from his greatness. Prior to the deliverance of the Torah, not only was there no obligation to act the way Avrohom did in relation to the people of his generation, but the entire concept didn’t exist. Noach was a tzaddik in his day because he kept himself and his family holy and that was all that was expected of man at the period of time during which Noach lived.

Once Avrohom Avinu came to the realization that there is a G-d and accepted upon himself the mitzvos of the Torah, it no longer sufficed to be a tzaddik tomim based upon mortal understanding of right and wrong. From the time of Avrohom onward, a person could only be considered great if he followed the Torah.

This is what Chazal and Rashi are teaching us by stating that had Noach lived in the generation of Avrohom, he wouldn’t have been considered anything - “lo haya nechshav leklum.” They want to make sure that as children of Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov, we are aware of our obligations to those around us.

We have to be caring about other people. We have to help other people the way we would want to be helped if we were in their situation. We have to be prepared to do everything in our ability to put ourselves into the person’s situation to enable us to feel their pain and do everything we are capable of to be of assistance to them.

As bnei Torah, we must have at our core the knowledge to be cognizant of other people’s feelings and needs, and never to act selfishly and disdainfully towards anyone. We must never be oblivious to other people’s problems. We must daven for them and be a source of succor and sustenance for our friends, neighbors and others we come in contact with.

Chazal derive from the posuk which states “Es Elokim hishaleich Noach - Noach walked together with Hashem,” that Avrohom was greater than Noach, for Noach required a crutch to support himself while Avrohom didn’t. Avrohom was able to strengthen himself and walk alone.

Once again, we would think that the posuk’s testimony that Noach walked with G-d is a sign of virtue. But Chazal make it a point to indicate that this is a sign of weakness. Perhaps this is for the same reason that we expounded upon previously. Since Noach didn’t accept upon himself to observe the mitzvos of the Torah, he was in constant need of support and wasn’t able to raise his level of righteousness on his own. Avrohom Avinu, who kept the Torah, was able to grow through Torah study and observance. Torah raises the level of those who cleave to it and allows them to rise to superhuman levels. Thus, Avrohom, the shomer Torah umitzvos, was able to raise himself to unsurpassed levels.

We, too, who have been given the benefit of Torah, can raise ourselves to lofty levels of character and behavior if we seriously commit ourselves to its study and observance. That is the mandate handed down to us by Avrohom Avinu and part of what makes us special. It is what gives us the ability to stand out among the nations of the world. Let us live up to it.

Ah Gantz Yohr Freilach

2009-10-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Once again, a Yom Tov has come and gone.

Once again, after much preparation and hard work, we merited celebrating the beautiful, joyous Yom Tov of Sukkos. Sadly, by the time we turned around, it was over.

Throughout its duration - from constructing the sukkah, to decorating it, to shlepping the tables and chairs and mattresses and making it inhabitable, to selecting a lulav and an esrog, to all the buying and cooking and cleaning that the Yom Tov requires - we fantasized that it would last for a very long time.

We put out of our minds all the things that we had to attend to after Sukkos. We blocked out the thought of having to go back to dealing with the realities of life. After the teshuvah of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the tefillos of the Yomim Noraim and Yom Tov, and being mekayeim all the mitzvos hachag with so much simcha and devotion, we were sure that Moshiach would reveal himself sometime before the end of Yom Tov.

But it was not to be. We have not yet merited the arrival of Moshiach who will deliver us from golus. We are still enmeshed in our problems and worries; we still have to contend with all those unpleasant realities we wished would go away.

Having just experienced a most uplifting experience, we have to hold onto it and keep it fresh in our consciousness to propel us further. The Yomim Tovim are not meant to be like a typical vacation that becomes a distant memory the minute the plane lands and you are back home.

Yomim Tovim have to teach us and change us into better people. They have to leave an impression on our souls and minds. They have to leave us with important lessons that have the capacity to improve us and our lives.

One day we celebrate Simchas Torah with all its spiritual highs and the next day we are expected to cheerfully return to business as usual. One day we dance away without a care in the world and the next day it is back to the bleak burdens of work and school.

How is it possible not to feel let down?

Simchas Torah is commonly viewed as a celebration of the completion of Torah, and it surely is. But on Simchas Torah, as soon as we finish Vezos Habracha with great fanfare, we start Bereishis with the very same level of excitement. For many of us, the beginning is an even greater cause for celebration than the siyum.

The laining of Bereishis on Simchas Torah tells us that we all get another chance. Even if we didn’t learn the Torah as well as we could have during the past year, Vezos Habracha tells us that just as there is bracha in completing, there is also bracha in the beginning. We all get a chance to start again from the beginning. Even if things went wrong last year and we didn’t do as well as we should have, we are given a fresh opportunity to try again.

What a cause for celebration that is! What a special blessing is granted to the Jewish people, who for that very reason are compared to the moon. We have been gifted the special ability to bounce back. We are able to come back from near failure and oblivion.

When we dance on Simchas Torah, we do so due to the joy of completion and gratification, but also with a sense of anticipation.

As Jews, whenever we finish a limud, we immediately begin learning something else, Maharsha, Ovada Zara, 19a, D.H. Slick. No matter how hard it may have been to reach our goal, no matter how great the accomplishment, we don’t rest. We begin the trek all over again. The energy that propelled us to this point will now push us on further to even greater heights.

So we learn Bereishis and we understand that Hashem created it all. We realize that it is for a greater purpose. We live in a time when we are forced to work so hard to make ends meet. We are so trapped in the pursuit of our livelihoods that we allow ourselves barely a moment to wonder what it’s all about.

As the winter begins its steady descent, we attempt to keep the embers of the Yom Tov warmth glowing inside our hearts for as long as we can.

As we slide from the yemei kodesh to the yemei chol, we try to recapture the lessons of those sacred days and understand how to apply them during the days and months ahead.

To do otherwise would be to rob ourselves of the full benefits of the special days of Tishrei.

Sukkos is a sort of halfway house. During the days of Elul, we sought to raise ourselves to a higher level of holiness and increase our devotion to mitzvos and our fellow man. Rosh Hashanah and Aseres Yemei Teshuvah brought us to a new level of appreciating our obligations in this world. Yom Kippur was the apex of that evolution. In shul all day with our machzorim and tefillos, nothing came between us and Hashem as we communicated with Him in a way we don’t do all year. Klapping ahl cheit, we went through the list of temptations which can affect man and promised to never fall prey to them again.

But then Yom Kippur is over and we are confronted by our old foibles again. Sukkos comes along and we become ensconced once again in a cloak of holiness. The Yom Tov of Zeman Simchaseinu helps us adapt once again to the real world. While no longer on the lofty plane to which the Yomim Noraim carried us, we are nevertheless enveloped in kedushah and separated for eight days from the mundane stress and pressures that dominate the rest of the year.

As we resolve to tackle life with our renewed attitudes, the simcha of the chag reaches out to us and gives us the strength and skill to do so. Thus, even on days which are not as awe-inspiring and uplifting as Yom Kippur, we work on being better people, stronger in our yiras Shomayim and in our bein adam lachaveiro.

On Simchas Torah, every Jew can reconnect to Torah and begin its study once again with a renewed intensity that has been building up since Rosh Chodesh Elul. Simchas Torah renews a Jew’s feelings for kiyum hamitzvos and on this day he is suffused with an otherworldly joy. On this day, as Vezos Habracha is read, he can appreciate that the Torah is the essence of bracha, blessing. He begins his study of Torah again with Parshas Bereishis armed with a fresh perspective and a determination to understand it better than he did last time around.

He opens up a Chumash and begins learning the first posuk. He then turns to the first Rashi we are all so familiar with, which asks why the Torah begins with the story of creation. Should it not have begun with the parsha of Hachodesh Hazeh Lochem, which describes the first commandment given to the Jews as a nation?

He reads the answer: “So that if the nations of the world accuse the Jews of being land robbers for stealing the land of Eretz Yisroel from other nations, you will be able to answer them and tell them that the entire world belongs to Hashem; He created it and He can give it to whomever He pleases. First he gave Eretz Yisroel to the other nations, and then He took it away from them and gave it to us.”

But the Jew wonders: Do the nations of the world really care about what it says in the Torah? Will they be satisfied with an answer based upon what it says in the Torah? Even if it is important to establish Hashem’s exclusive ownership of Earth, why must the Torah begin with this fact?

He continues on to the next Rashi: “Bereishis, bishvil Torah shenikrah reishis ubishvil Yisroel shenkire’uh reishis… Why does the Torah open with the word Bereishis? Because it signifies that the world was created for the Torah, which is also referred to as reishis, and to teach us that the world was created for Am Yisroel, which is called reishis.”

He ponders the connection between the two Rashis. Rashi doesn’t actually mean to say that the goyim will be influenced by the arguments of the Torah. Perhaps Rashi’s intent is for us to continually remind ourselves of some fundamental truths that dictate our purpose in this world: Hashem created the world and singled out the Jewish nation as His chosen people for all time. He designated them as the recipients of the Holy Land where they could elevate themselves through Torah to perfection.

Since time immemorial, Jews have been singled out for hatred by the nations of the world. They have accused us of every conceivable sin and have sought our destruction. The Torah opens with the statement of creation and Hashem’s dominion over the world to remind us that where ever we are and no matter what the nations of the world accuse us of, we should not become dejected.

The Aleph-Bais of Torah is to know that Hashem created the world and fashioned a special place for us in that world. This is why the second Rashi tells us that the world was created for Torah and Am Yisroel.

The Jew appreciates this and is able to stand up to all the scoffers who mock his devotion to Torah. The Jew recognizes that the Torah is not a history book designed to trace the odyssey of a people. It is the Creator’s “guidebook,” whose purpose is to teach His people how to live in the land he created in six days. Nothing that anyone says or does can change that immutable fact. We cleave to its every word and base our lives upon it.

On the day we end a cycle of study and begin anew, our celebration and joy are unparalleled. On this happiest of days, we dance and sing songs of praise of Hashem and thank him for choosing us and for giving us the Torah. We sway to tunes which express our love for Torah and our devotion to it.

We realize that the Torah is as relevant today as on the day it was delivered to the Bnei Yisroel on Har Sinai, and on the first day of creation. That awareness increases the fervor of his dance and heartfelt simcha.

As he danced away until he felt that his feet could no longer carry him, he understood why Sukkos follows Yom Kippur and why Simchas Torah follows Sukkos. Because following the spiritual levels that he attained on Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur, he needs a little sukkah to wrap it all together and to enable him to hold onto it.

He can only do that, however, if he detaches himself from all that is temporary and all the figments of his Olam Hazeh-ish imagination. He’s got to get back in touch with what is real and permanent.

He sits in his little sukkah, surrounded by his children’s little decorations, and he looks up to the heavens and realizes that he is not alone. He is happy. For once in his life, he has merited true happiness. He has learned a lesson in what is real and what is not, what is temporary and what is permanent.

Now he knows the secret of simcha - simcha that comes from working to understand Torah, simcha that comes from knowing that a Jew is never alone, simcha that is contagious. And nothing will deter him from being b’simcha.

He can now move back into the temporary world and still keep that simcha in his heart. He resolves to remember that simcha, that feeling of joy, of finally understanding what is important in life and what is temporary, as he returns to his job or to school to face the countless pressures and challenging moments that fill our lives. Nothing can take that feeling of satisfaction he attained on Simchas Torah away from him.

He has a new beginning and he intends to take full advantage of it. He will improve in every way possible as he carries the messages of Elul and Tishrei with him. No matter what is thrown in his path, he will maintain his belief in the Creator Who guides his life. He will be neither broken nor depressed during the coming cold days of winter, for he knows that he is not alone and he knows that if he tries hard enough, he can attain the blessings of Vezos Habracha.

Yes, it really is difficult to be freilach ah gantz yohr, but the memories of the warmth of the sukkah and Simchas Torah, the joy of the esrog and lulav, will certainly help.

Ah gutten, freilechen, un gezunter vinter to all.

The Simanah Milsah of the Sukkah

2009-09-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

On Rosh Hashanah, we partake of selected fruits and vegetables and recite various prayers for a happy, healthy and successful new year. The source of this custom is the Gemara in Horayos (12a) and a similar Gemara in Krisus (6a) where Abaye states that since we derive that a “siman” is “milsah,” an effective sign, we should eat gourds, leeks, beets and dates on Rosh Hashanah.

There are various ways to interpret the meaning of Abaye’s statement and the resulting custom amongst all of Klal Yisroel to eat these various foods and recite a yehi ratzon over them. Examining these approaches will help us gain an understanding of the mitzvah of sukkah.

The commonly understood basis for this custom is, as the Shelah (Perek Ner Mitzvah, 21) explains, that the eating of these foods and the recital of the yehi ratzon prayers which accompany those acts are to remind us to do teshuvah and repent for our sins so that we may be positively judged for the new year.

The Chochmas Shlomo in Shulchan Aruch (583:1) explains it differently. He says that we eat these foods and partake of sweets to demonstrate our belief that all will turn out for the good. By doing so, even if it was decreed otherwise, through emunah and bitachon and the accompanying statements we utter, we can overturn the evil decree.

He adds that a person should be in the habit of saying that everything Hashem does is for the good, and that way, it will indeed turn out to be good. Perhaps this is the source for the Yiddish expression, “Tracht gut, vet zein gut - If you think it is good, it will be good.”

The Maharsha in Horayos also states that we prepare these foods to demonstrate our belief that Hashem will judge us for a successful new year. He adds that through bitachon, a verdict for a sad year can be overturned.

Some Acharonim go even further. The Maharal in Beer Hagolah (2:7) and the Yaavetz in his siddur (Leil Rosh Hashanah) explain that we eat foods with a good “siman,” because through exercising the “milsah” aspect of these simanim, we are able to affect the outcome of the judgment of Rosh Hashanah in our favor.

Rabbeinu Yonah in Shaarei Teshuvah (3, 31-32) derives the obligation to have bitachon and trust in Hashem in a time of need from the pesukim in Devorim (7:17-18) which state that when you go to war against your enemies and you see their many horses and men, you shall not fear them - “lo sirah meihem…” From here we see that when a person feels that trouble is approaching him, he should believe in his heart that Hashem will help him and really have faith that he will be spared.

Every day of Elul and Tishrei, when we say the passage of LeDovid (Tehillim 27), we should see the words of Rabbeinu Yonah reflected there. We recite the words which say that Hashem is our light and salvation and we therefore don’t fear anyone. He is the strength of our life and we are thus not afraid of anyone else. When our evil enemies plot to destroy us and eat our flesh, it is they who will stumble and fall. Reminiscent of the pesukim from which Rabbeinu Yonah derives the mitzvah of bitachon, we declare that even if they prepare an army against us, “lo yirah libi,” we shall not fear.

We then continue and recite that if they bring a war against us, we still maintain our trust in Hashem. The only thing we ask is that we should merit dwelling in the house of Hashem. We declare that when we are in danger, we believe that Hashem will hide us in his sukkah shelter.

We recite this kapittel of Tehillim during this auspicious period, because the Medrash states that when the posuk says that Hashem is our light, this refers to Rosh Hashanah, when we say that He is our salvation, this refers to Yom Kippur, and when we say that He will hide us in his shelter, we are referring to the Yom Tov of Sukkos.

When we construct our sukkos and sit in them, perhaps we are also engaging in an act similar to that of eating the specified foods on Rosh Hashanah. We are demonstrating, through simanah milsah, our unending belief in Hashem and our complete bitachon that He will save and shelter us from our enemies and the darkness which pervades our world. We erect a flimsy room and live in it for a week to show that we take those words of Dovid Hamelech in Tehillim quite literally and recognize that our only source of salvation and support is Hashem.

The Sefer Hachinuch (325) writes that the mitzvah of sukkah is designed so that we remember the miracles which Hashem performed for the Jews in the Midbar after they left Mitzrayim, and that He covered them so that the sun would not burn them during the day and the cold would not freeze them at night.

Rabbeinu Chananel, at the beginning of Maseches Sukkah, writes that there is an obligation to tell our children and family that Hashem gave us sukkos in the Midbar, as the posuk states, “Lemaan yeid’uh doroseichem ki vasukkos hoshavti es Bnei Yisroel.” It isn’t enough to just eat and sleep in the sukkah. There is an inherent obligation that we recognize why we are doing this and discuss it.

The Bnei Yisroel merited the splitting of the Yam Suf because of their bitachon in Hashem [Michiltah], as the posuk states, “Vayaaminu baHashem uveMoshe avdo.” When they saw their belief realized and actualized, they sang the eternal shirah of Az Yoshir and were led into the Midbar for the journey to the Promised Land.

The posuk states, “Lechtaich acharay bamidbar b’eretz lo zoruah.” They followed the word of Hashem and entered the desert with no visible means of support or sustenance, and in the merit of their belief, they were fed and protected.

Thus, we go into the sukkah and express our belief in and fidelity to Hashem, and we pray that we merit reaching the levels of bitachon displayed by our forefathers at the Yam Suf as they sang shirah, as the Mechiltah in parshas Beshalach writes that it was in the merit of their emunah that the Bnei Yisroel received ruach hakodesh and said the shirah.

We leave behind everything that we have gained through our work and toil. We declare that we acknowledge that all of our possessions are gifts from Hashem, and that if He wills it, we can survive in a temporal resting place. We show that it is not our might, muscle or money which we worship, but rather the Creator. We leave the comfort of the roofs above our heads which we constructed to protect us from the rain, wind, cold, heat and forces which seek our destruction and envelop ourselves in the sukkah of Hashem.

We demonstrate this theme further as we invite the Ushpizin, the people whose lives were totally dedicated to Hashem. As the Medrash (Bereishis Rabbah 47) explains, when Chazal say, “Ha’avos hein hamerkavah,” this means that the Avos were so close to Hashem that the Shechinah was always with them.

The Medrash in Parshas Vayeishev (39:2) quotes Rav Pinchos in the name of Rav Siman that the Shechinah went down to Mitzrayim with Yosef, as the posuk states, “Vayehi Hashem es Yosef.” Thus, Yosef adhered to Hashem, as did Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov. The other Ushpizin, Moshe, Aharon and Dovid, were also completely dovuk in Hashem. Moshe was the closest human to Hashem, Aharon was the one who served Hashem in the Mishkan, and Dovid was na’im zemiros Yisroel; his only urge was to find himself in the house of Hashem

By inviting them in to join us in our sukkah, we are acting as we did on Rosh Hashanah when we said the yehi ratzons as we partook of the designated foods. We are pronouncing that following the days of Rosh Hashanah, Aseres Yemei Teshuvah and Yom Kippur, we have fully repented for our sins and bad middos which prevented us from acknowledging that we are nothing without Hashem. We prove this by entering a roof-less structure without heat, air conditioning or insulation, and we show that we depend on Hashem to protect us from the elements and raw winds which envelop the world. Simanah milsah. We affirm our newfound level of holiness and state our wish to be strictly in the house of Hashem by inviting the Ushpizin, who were the epitome of such devotion, to join with us in our sojourn in the shelter of Hashem.

This is why it is such a terrible omen if it rains on Sukkos. We have prepared ourselves for the simanah milsah of demonstrating how devoted we are to Hashem and the strength of our bitachon in His ability to protect and sustain us, and then the sky opens up and rain pours on us as we are left without any protection. By this, Hashem is showing us that we are not really on the level of bitachon that we should be, because if we were, He would have protected us and made sure that the rain wouldn’t fall on us by the dint of our belief in him.

One who sits in the sukkah as he is soaked by the drenching rain is referred to as a hedyot, because by sitting there and making as if he is oblivious to what is going on around him, he reveals that he has not learned the lesson of the simanah milsah of the sukkah. By ignoring the rain, he is confessing that he refuses to recognize that he lacks the proper bitachon in Hashem. He is thus a hedyot, a small person unworthy of sympathy for the situation he finds himself in.

This is why on Sukkos there is a joy which doesn’t exist at any other time on the Jewish calendar. When we stand in the sukkah, we are like the Jews who were about to set foot into the desert. We are so overcome by our bitachon that we are, in the words of the posuk, “ach sameiach.” This is the reward for people who place their complete faith in Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as is stated in the sefer Chovos Halevavos, Shaar Habitachon.

This Sukkos, as we sit in the sukkah surrounded by friends and family, let us internalize the message of the sukkah and thereby merit the brachos of Hashem reserved for those who place their complete faith in Him.

The Mechiltah quoted above from parshas Beshalach adds that just as the Bnei Yisroel at the yam suf merited to sing the shirah of oz yashir in reward for their emunah, so too the gathering of the exiles will take place at the end of days in reward for emunah.

Let us rejoice with all the good we have and pray that we merit to sit in the sukkah fashioned from the skins of the Livyasan very soon.

Chag sameiach.

Teshuvah, Tefillah, Tzedakah

2009-09-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

The emotional high point of the tefillos of the Yomim Noraim follows the gripping prayer of Unesaneh Tokef, when the entire shul cries out, “Useshuvah, usefillah, utzedakah maavirin es ro’ah hagezeirah!” Teshuvah, tefillah and tzedakah have the power to overturn a ruinous judgment on Rosh Hashanah. But how exactly does this work? What is so unique about these three activities that they can reverse a Divine verdict?

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak to Rav Zvi Schvartz from Rechovot in Eretz Yisroel, as he visited here for two days on behalf of Lev L’Achim.

He asked me what the difference is between a person who is a kofer and one who is a ma’amin. The answer, he said, is gratitude. A kofer, at his core, is a kofui tov, whereas a ma’amin is a makir tov.

The conversation prompted me to gain an insight into the manner in which teshuvah, tefillah and tzedakah are intrinsically related, and how they are able to neutralize an evil decree.

His comment is packed with profound insight. Think about it. A kofer won’t acknowledge a Supreme Ruler of the world because that would imply indebtedness to a force other than his own intelligence and strength. In his arrogance, he is convinced that he is totally self-sufficient. He worships his own image.

Hakoras Hatov:
Teshuvah’s ‘Generator’

Jews who sin are contrasted with animals, as the posuk states, “Yodah shor koneihu v’chamor eivus b’alav, Yisroel lo yodah, ami lo hisbonan.” Even an animal recognizes its master who feeds it and cares for it, the posuk states. Am Yisroel, when it sins, doesn’t recognize the G-d Who cares for them.

A ma’amin knows that he was placed in this world by Hashem, Who cares for him and sustains him. He knows that his life and his livelihood are gifts; that every aspect of his existence, including his environment, social standing and day-to-day accomplishments all come from Hashem. The awareness that he owes all of life’s blessings to the One Above stimulates constant gratefulness and appreciation.

A ma’amin wakes up in the morning and says, “Modeh Ani, thank You, Hashem, for giving me another day of life.” He davens and says, “Modim, I thank You for all Your miracles, wonders and favors that sustain me.” He sits down to breakfast, thanking Hashem both before and after he eats. Gratitude to Hashem for another 24 hours of life and hope for His continued munificence set the tone for the rest of his day.

He doesn’t permit his ego to block his awareness of his dependence on his Creator. He doesn’t feel diminished as a human being when he expresses appreciation to Hashem for His guiding hand in every facet of life.

He is not too conceited to recognize that there is Someone above him Who watches over him and cares for him. It doesn’t hurt his ego to be thankful every waking moment. And since he knows that Hashem sustains him, he knows that Hashem created the world and he knows that he must follow the commandments that Hashem laid out in the Torah in order for him to thrive in this world.

Both as appreciation to Hashem for all of the kindness He extends towards us and because he recognizes that the Creator has placed us here for a purpose, the believer engages in teshuvah in order to bring himself closer to his Maker. Hakoras hatov is an integral part of his personality and he understands that if for no other reason than hakoras hatov he has to keep the mitzvos.

For a ma’amin, hakoras hatov sparks a readiness to reciprocate in some small measure by upholding the Torah and clinging to His laws. But just as important, hakoras hatov inspires teshuvah. It generates the desire to purify oneself, strengthen one’s faith, and come closer to the One Who protects and nurtures.

Thus, as Rosh Hashanah approaches, the ma’amin intensifies his efforts to do teshuvah in order to please his Maker to the greatest extent possible. He does this out of a sense of appreciation for the good he has and the recognition that the One Who nourishes him has set a code for him to live by.

How is teshuvah achieved? It requires a serious cheshbon hanefesh. It requires a person to subjugate his deepest self to intense scrutiny, to seriously review every aspect of his conduct. Yet that is only half the battle.

Once we’ve performed that painstaking self-assessment, we have to internalize and apply what we’ve discovered. We have to set about correcting our character flaws, and rectifying all the mistakes and errors of judgment we’ve made.

The process, when performed correctly, can be excruciating. After going through it, we emerge changed people. It is not enough to klap ahl cheit. We have to actually affect our psyches and adopt different behaviors. The teshuvah process has to humble every being as it reminds him of his proper place in creation and prompts a greater appreciation of Hashem’s role in his life.

Teshuvah brings us back to where we were before we sinned. It sets us straight on the path we should have been on all along and gives us the energy we need to do it right this time.

Teshuvah Triggers Tefillah

Teshuvah triggers an outpouring of sincere tefillah. Tefillah is a natural outgrowth of teshuvah. With a fresh awareness of how small and helpless we really are in the face of life’s frightening precariousness comes a spontaneous outpouring of tefillah, on three levels. We proclaim Hashem’s supremacy over all of existence, we thank Him for His daily kindness, and we beg that we merit His continuing generosity.

We pray for His salvation from all our troubles, individually and collectively, and for a year of health, happiness and success.

Middos tovos and proper ethics are prerequisites for teshuvah, for if a person is conceited, he will never come to recognize that it is not his “koach ve’otzem yado” which supports his lifestyle, and it is not his superior intelligence which earns him his living, but rather, he is totally dependent upon a Higher Power for all he has. Tikkun hamiddos and proper ethics are pre-requisites for teshuvah.

A man once arrived in the yeshiva of Kelm. The person sitting next to him during davening noticed that at the portions of davening which called for the return of the Shechinah to Tzion, the distinguished-looking visitor uttered the words with great devotion. During the portion of davening requesting personal sustenance, however, the person rushed through the prayers. The talmid who observed this conduct discussed it with the Alter of Kelm.

The Alter of Kelm explained that the person, despite his impressive outer appearance, was in fact not really a great ma’amin. When it comes to himself, he believes that he controls his life, arranges his own success, and doesn’t require G-d’s help. When it comes to other areas, he prays that Hashem bring about the change that everyone is awaiting.

As long as a person is haughty and continues to believe in “kochi ve’otzem yodi,” that his success is due to his superior intelligence, his ga’avah will render him incapable of repenting. He will be unable to reach the level of understanding required to draw himself closer to his Master and he will wallow in sin and self indulgence even as he goes through the motions of religiosity.

A person with an untamed ego will not be able to thoroughly examine himself and his actions in order to repent. His ego will blind him from recognizing that he is not in charge and that he has to subjugate himself to his Creator’s will.

How often does it happen that you try to show someone the truth about something and, despite the absolute clarity, the person refuses to listen? You can patiently work through an issue, take it apart piece by piece and reconstruct it to forcefully drive home the truth, all to no avail because the person you are trying to reason with can’t sidestep his ego and view the matter objectively.

Ga’avah is one of the yeitzer harah’s favorite tools. It prevents a person from comprehending what is obvious to everyone else. It derails a person from properly preparing for Rosh Hashanah and from becoming a special person.

Enlisting Chochmah In The Battle

In the face of the yeitzer harah’s constant maneuvers, we have to throw our energies into seeking strategies to offset the many challenges that prevent us from becoming better people. One of the most effective strategies, the Gemara tells us, is chochmah.

The posuk in Mishlei states, “Emor lechochmah achosi aht.” The Gemara in Brachos (17a) explains that the ultimate goal of chochmah is teshuvah and maasim tovim.

In order to overcome the roadblocks put in place by the yeitzer harah, we have to strengthen our ability to use chochmah. Only with chochmah can we subdue the yeitzer, as the posuk (Mishlei 24) states, “Betachbulos ta’aseh licha milchamah,” in fighting your enemy - the yeitzer harah - you have to use chochmah to outwit him.

The route to chochmah is through learning sifrei mussar which touch our inner core and put us back on course, following the literal translation of the word teshuvah, to return.

A Day of Redemption

Another powerful weapon available to us is embedded in the Yom Hadin itself. The Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 11a) states that Rosh Hashanah is the day on which Yosef was freed from the Egyptian jail, as well as the day that marked the end of crushing slavery for the Jews in Miztrayim. Thus, in addition to being a day of judgment, Rosh Hashanah is also a day of redemption. On this day we can all be released from enslavement to the yeitzer harah and to the web of desires that ensnares us. The avodas hayom and the day’s built-in redemptive power can return us to an earlier, more ennobled state.

Once a person reaches that higher level of spiritual awareness brought on by teshuvah, he realizes that he is not superior to other people who were created just as he was, b’tzelem Elokim. His eyes open to the plight of the many people in this world who are in need of assistance, evoking his sympathy and compassion. As part of the spiritual growth triggered by teshuvah and tefillah, he has a growing awareness that it is not enough to care for himself and satisfy his own indulgences, but he must share his blessings with others.

Become a Giver

Ga’avah prevents a person from helping others. An arrogant individual looks down upon others and views them askance from a distance with a measure of scorn and hate. His bad middah keeps him from using his gifts to help others. He looks down upon them and views them as somehow deficient, inferior to himself.

Once the baal teshuvah repents, however, he becomes a moikir tov to the Ribono Shel Olam and thus proves that his convictions have been corrected and his priorities straightened out. He has come to recognize that he is not all-powerful, and that he is dependent upon the grace of Hashem for his wisdom, wealth, health and happiness. He has attained a new level of contentment reserved for those who are humble and walk in the path of Hashem.

This thought echoes the oft-repeated comment of Rav Yisroel of Salant that the way to prevail on the Yom Hadin is to behave selflessly, helping and giving to others, and becoming involved in improving the klal. A communal-minded person indicates by his altruism and benevolence that he recognizes his mission: to emulate Hashem by being a giver. A baal tzedakah who conducts himself l’sheim Shomayim is, in essence, the truest manifestation of a makir tov.

When teshuvah, tefillah and tzedakah flow naturally, it indicates that a person has reached the level of observance required to prevail in the din of Rosh Hashanah. Thus, with our hearts focused on implementing the lessons embedded in these words, we proclaim, “Useshuvah, usefillah, utzedakah maavirin es ro’ah hagezeirah!”

May we all reach that lofty level, and may we find favor in Hashem’s eyes so that He will bless us all with a kesivah vachasimah tovah.

What If?

2009-09-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

The driver who took us from Postville back to the Minneapolis airport for the flight home summed it all up. As we were approaching our destination after a three-hour drive through the darkened cornfields in the wee hours of the morning, Jonathan Saphira turned around and said to me, “I must tell you something. Last year, when you came to visit after ‘the raid’ and I drove you from the Minneapolis airport to Postville, it was a life-altering experience for me.”

I was worried that I had done something wrong. I listened with rapt attention as our driver, a resident of Rochester, Minnesota, and a translator who worked with Hispanic Agri workers before the raid, continued.

“You see, I don’t know if you remember, but you were in the car with another rabbi. I had thought that I knew everything about Agriprocessors and the Rubashkins and that I didn’t have to pay attention to the media reports. But then I heard how that rabbi was speaking and how you were arguing with him in vain, and I realized for the first time the power of the media and how their unsubstantiated allegations took root and gained acceptance. Even religious Jews and people like that rabbi fell for what they were writing and that added to the pressure. I am sure that if religious Jews had fought back, the government never would have been able to proceed based on the anonymous, unfounded allegations I knew were wrong, and we wouldn’t be where we are today.”

Jonathan couldn’t have expressed it better. So many of our problems are self-inflicted. We hear a good story, we jump to quick conclusions without bothering to ascertain the truth, and in the process we destroy people, families, careers, and much else.

It’s not a secret to Yated readers that we are haunted by what happened to Agriprocessors and to Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin. I have read the malicious book about the Postville experience and the reports of the disgusting manner in which the workers there were treated. I read the articles painting the company managers as modern-day shylocks trading in human misery and making their living off of the virtual enslavement of a servant class of workers. They were rolling in money like typical evil capitalists, the articles claimed, enjoying the fruits of the labor of the illiterate, the unskilled, and the proletariat, whom they ruled over.

The facts as I saw them with my own eyes on my visit to the plant last year were so obviously contrary to the media portrayals that I didn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to sense that something deep and sinister was at work.

The plant was ultra-modern, ultra-clean, ultra-efficient, and so far removed from the jungles of Chicago and Upton Sinclair that it was inconceivable how any objective person could confuse the two. The workers, both home-grown Americans and those from Spanish-speaking countries to our south, smiled as they went about their work and, when we spoke to them, had only positive things to say about their jobs, their bosses, and their salaries.

But as the only media outlet to constantly take up the cause of reporting what was really transpiring in that plant and in the town of Postville, our efforts, regrettably, were not enough to turn the tide and convince the masses of the truth.

People who should have known better didn’t. People who are enjoined not to accept lashon hara and hotzo’as sheim rah did. People who should have given their brethren the benefit of the doubt didn’t. People who should have perceived that the real target was shechitah, and should have raised a hue and a cry, didn’t. Thus, the lynch mobs were able to vilify and destroy the reputation of a family renowned for its charity and care of the less-fortunate.

A dream of the highest standards of kashrus coupled with the highest quality of USDA inspected meat was allowed to turn into a nightmare, and few who could have made a difference can say, “Yodeinu lo shofchu es hadom hazeh.”

We didn’t care. It was just another news tidbit for us to talk about. It was fodder for conversation, and we didn’t fathom the human toll and cost it would take.

When I saw how wide the gap was between the facts and the reports, I adopted the cause. I had never met Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin. We became close over the year of his travails by speaking on the phone and through emails and text messages, and then he decided that it was time we met.

My wife and I spent this past Shabbos in Postville, Iowa. We took off to the Shabbos of Chizuk for Shalom Mordechai with great trepidation, not knowing what to expect, but it turned out that we had nothing to fear, and we learned quite a lot over the day and a half that we were there.

Imagine living in a place three hours from anywhere where you can buy a house on a decent piece of property for $25,000. Imagine living in a town where there is no crime and everyone keeps their doors unlocked day and night. There are no hills, the earth is as flat as can be, and when you look around, all you see are fields of green for miles around you. You are enveloped by a calming silence and fresh fragrant air wherever you go. Very rarely does a car come by, and when it does, it is moving at about 15 mph.

The tiny sliver of a town has a shul, a yeshiva, a cheder, a mikvah, and a kosher, fully-stocked grocery store. Everybody davens in the same shul which, if you didn’t know better, could be confused for a chassidishe shteibel in Boro Park or Yerushalayim. As you walk out of davening, you hear the people speaking to each other in a dialect composed of Yiddish, English and Hebrew in a way that you can’t tell who is from here and who is from Israel. They all sound alike and get along so well with each other.

As strange as it sounds, some people live here and commute to their jobs in other states, coming home for Shabbos. One shochet I spoke to is a Klausenberger chossid from Yerushalayim. From his mother’s side, he hails from the Vilna Gaon. His great-great-great-grandmother arrived in Eretz Yisroel with the first organized aliyah shortly after the passing of the Gaon. He went to Postville to shecht for Agri and now commutes to the shechitah in Kansas. He loves it in Postville. What is there not to like? He says this is the best place to bring up children, so far from the vagaries of city life and incipit influences.

In addition to spending a Shabbos in the company of people we had just met but who felt like family, on Friday night there was a shalom zachor, and on Motzoei Shabbos there was a festive melava malka. We experienced real, living Yiddishkeit in the cornfields of Iowa. It was such a lovely experience to spend Shabbos with so many nice, normal, friendly people.

• • • • •

This week’s parsha opens with the posuk, “Atem nitzovim hayom kulchem - You are standing today, all of you…” The Medrash Tanchumah states that we can only be Nitzavim and merit the light of Hashem when we are united b’agudah achas. Additionally, the Medrash says, the Jewish people will not be redeemed until they are united together b’aguda achas.” If we want to merit the geulah; if we are to succeed in golus, we have to be all together. We have to see past the hype, past the headlines, past our own daled amos, and we have to give people with reputations as ehrliche Yidden the benefit of the doubt.

When an unholy alliance is comprised of conservative rabbis, the liberal media and unions who have contributed to the losses of millions of American jobs, we ought to know that they are up to no good and we should be prepared to engage them and defend our way of life before they destroy it.

When people who don’t believe in the divinity of the Torah, nor observe the laws of kashrus and Shabbos, discover new mitzvos, such as declaring that when employees are improperly treated the products they produce become unfit for Jewish consumption, alarm bells ought to go off. We should realize that not only is one factory and one family under attack, but all of us and our families have become fair game for those who have been battling our existence ever since the days of Mendelsohn, Graetz, Achad Ha’am, Solomon Schechter and all the rest.

They raise allegations and reinforce them with age-old stereotypes, neither proving nor substantiating their charges, and then they convict the religious Jew of living an antiquated way of life which leads to anti-social behavior.

We are vilified daily in the media and painted as extremist, backward weirdos who must be combated and put into our rightful places. We ignore it and let it fester. While a religious Jew used to be treated with a measure of respect, today we are barely tolerated and are looked at with contempt wherever we go. The lie gains traction if it isn’t batted down and has the potential of eventually becoming universally accepted as the truth.

Not only gentiles and secular Jews, but even we, the Torah observant community, begin viewing our co-religionists with added degrees of suspicion and cynicism. After all, the media has proven that frum Jews are dishonest schemers who can’t be trusted, we are repeatedly told. Not only that, but these Orthodox Jews are also dirty, unkempt, vile Neanderthals whom one should do his very best to avoid. They say we are anti-social, refer to cops as Nazis, walk around with hatchets with which to kill hapless Arabs we find in our midst, defend baby killers, and our rabbis moonlight as money-launderers.

An acknowledged baal chesed, baal tzedaka, decent, honorable person is about to stand trial for his life. Who would have believed that the beautiful experiment in kosher production and establishment of an entire town around it, would end this way? Who could have dreamed that the person who devised the most modern system of kosher shechitah, processing and distribution would be preparing to stand trial, being accused of running a decrepit operation, without the money to defend himself?

When you see that ad which we run here in the Yated every week for the Pidyon Shvuyim Fund, think to yourself that this is not just an effort to help one person. It is an undertaking to defend our right to practice our religion responsibly without people casting stones at us and depicting us as frauds, as has been the pattern throughout our history in exile.

We will keep this story alive until it reaches its conclusion and will continue to report the truth so that perhaps, one day, when people look back at this sorry episode and wonder what really happened, there will be a record for those who really care about the truth.

As we have done in the past, we will continue to try our very best to defend ehrliche Yidden, without respect to their affiliation, dress, or mother country. No frum Jew should ever again be considered fair game.

When religious Jews are selected for prosecution for engaging in standard industry practice, we must stand beside them and fight the biased racial and religious profiling.

Just last week, American Apparel Company worked out a deal with the government and laid off 1,500 immigrant workers whom the government determined to be working illegally. The factory wasn’t subject to a raid and the workers and managers weren’t led away to jail in shackles. A gentlemanly, professional agreement was negotiated and everyone got on with their lives. Why was the Agri experience so different? Why weren't they taken up on their offer to fire anyone who the government felt shouldn't be working in the plant?

Also last week, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was indicted for robbing charities as well as the Israeli taxpayer. There was no hand-wringing from the same people who have castigated our education system and entire way of life because of some unproven allegations splashed around in the press. The news was reported and that was it. No one dared call the Zionist system into question. No one spoke of Olmert’s heritage as a prince of the Likud party and a scion of a storied Zionist party. No one called on the state to learn lessons and adopt a moral code for all to follow. The people who are quick to tar all religious Jews at the slightest hint of scandal were not heard from when the embarrassment of the indictment of the head of the Jewish state spread across the globe.

Just imagine what would have happened if Olmert had been loyal to his Jewish religion and been a yid with a beard and payos. Imagine the commotion. Imagine the demagoguery and oratory that would have been let loose on religious Jewry. We wouldn’t have had where to hide. But since this corrupt decrepit leader is a consumer of treif and walks around with a bare head, he and his ilk get a free pass.

Yet we accept that double standard and take it for granted. Many times, we don’t even realize it is taking place.

• • • • •

The shul in Postville is named Achdus Yisroel and that is exactly what it is. It is a place that draws all types of Jews, who speak a collection of languages and hail from various parts of the globe. They all get along. A spirit of calmness pervades the shul where everyone knows everyone else, each person feels at home, and all attendees get along magnificently.

I couldn’t help but think of the Chazal which states that when Jews are b’achdus and together, they can stand up to any enemy, except those who we ourselves empower. But the thought that this idyllic little town of Torah in the middle of nowhere in Postville, Iowa, may be headed for Ghostville hung over the place. Despite all the smiles and the cheerfulness, and the pervasive simcha and bitachon apparent there, nobody knows what the next year will bring. This is because it is not only our external, eternal enemies who have been empowered to destroy this place of transplanted kedushah by themselves, but the fact that they have been aided and abetted by wolves in sheep’s clothing disguised as do-gooders concerned with the ethical treatment of animals and the people who process them.

As we approach the Yom Hadin and seek zechuyos for ourselves, let us daven for the success of the good Yidden of Postville and all the others in economic distress across the country, and resolve to improve in the middah of kol Yisroel areivim zeh bazeh in every aspect of our communal and Jewish lives.

Ish lereyeihu ya’azoru ule’achiv yomar chazak. When what divides us is external and minor, we have to ignore those differences and be able to support each other and come together as one nation for our eternal benefit.

Let it not be said of us in the coming year that we remained apathetic and didn’t rise up when the occasion demanded it. Let it not be said that we didn’t fight for the truth and help it emerge from the dark clouds of golus and treachery.

Emunah and Bitachon

2009-09-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Parshas Ki Savo begins with the mitzvah of bikkurim. Through this mitzvah and the rich symbolism of the mitzvos surrounding it, we are taught how to achieve happiness.

After months of toiling in his field and orchard, a Jew takes the first fruits of his harvest and sets off for Yerushalayim. When he arrives there, he meets up with a kohein and then approaches the mizbei’ach in the Bais Hamikdosh and recites the pesukim which recall the trials that Yaakov Avinu endured, followed by our forefathers’ suffering in Mitzrayim.

He then relates how Hashem rescued us with scores of miracles and led us to the Promised Land which flows with milk and honey.

Following that, the Jew presents the first fruits of his labors to the kohein and returns home. He is then ready for the next part of the mitzvah: “Vesomachta bechol hatov.” There is an obligation to rejoice “with all the goodness that Hashem, your G-d, has given you and your household.”

The obligation to be thankful for the blessings Hashem has bestowed upon us - and to contrast that goodness with the difficult time that preceded it - appears to be the key to true happiness.

The road to happiness and fulfillment is often strewn with hardship. A Jew whose livelihood comes from working the fields is a perfect illustration of how this dynamic works.

First, he must spend countless hours toiling under the blistering sun and in the freezing cold. Then, when he finally has some fruit ready to harvest and eat or sell, he is told that he cannot use them for his personal enjoyment, but must take them to Yerushalayim as bikkurim.

The Torah instructs him to think back to the bitter days that Yaakov spent at the home of his father-in-law, Lavan, and to the period of slavery we endured in Egypt. Perhaps that is because it is only by approaching our situation in life with this perspective that we can merit happiness.

Perhaps part of the reason for the mitzvah of bikkurim is to force man to reflect on the good in his life. Too often, people concentrate on the negative; they complain about all the heartache they endure as they struggle to make a living. People fail to thank Hashem that they have a job and that they have a boss who guarantees them a salary. People don’t always appreciate that they have a plot of land on which to grow their fruit and instead complain about all the chores that they must perform in order for their orchard to produce healthy fruit.

The mitzvah of bikkurim forces one to mentally revisit the first days of the season when he planted one of his shivah minim, not knowing whether the seeds would take root or whether the trees would bear fruit. And it forces him to be thankful that, despite all the potential for ruin, in the end, Hashem helped him bring forth a good crop.

In Yerushalayim, he stands at the mizbei’ach and reflects on the mixture of hard times and good times the Jewish people have experienced throughout the ages.

As we approach Rosh Hashanah and examine our actions over the past year, we, too, must weigh the bad with the good, examining our lives with a spiritual yardstick to measure how far we’ve come in the course of time. Instead of growing despondent over all the mistakes we’ve made, we should be thankful that Hashem has given us this Elul period of reflection during which we can rectify those errors.

All of us face challenges in life. There are times when we feel as if we are backed into a corner with no means of escape. Sometimes we feel as if a conspiracy of lies has spread an impenetrable web. There are times when it appears as if all the odds are stacked against a righteous person, and conventional wisdom seems to indicate that it’s time to give up the fight.

The tendency to despair is understandable. But not every story ends in tears; there actually are some with happy endings. The mitzvah of bikkurim encourages us to never despair and to always maintain our belief in Hashem even on the dark days when the land lies fallow and an unbelieving person would give up all hope of ever growing anything.

The courage to keep up the struggle is the theme of Elul. As we reflect on how much we are lacking and on the many areas which can use improvement, we may start feeling useless. We may decide that we are so far gone that it is impossible for us to straighten ourselves out in time.

We need to maintain our faith as we experience this internal turbulence. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to us, “Pischu li pesach kefishcho shel machat, va’ani eftach lochem kefischo shel ulam.” We have to open the door, we have to plant the seed, we have to take that trip to Yerushalayim, and G-d will do the rest.

As we review this past year, we are sure to find some actions that we can point to with pride. We are reminded that there is some good inherent in us. We need not give up; we must recognize that there is room for hope.

If we teach ourselves to take our responsibilities to Hashem and our fellow man more seriously, we really can succeed in the year to come.

Living in troubled, turbulent times, we have to maintain our faith and seek to persevere and do the right thing, no matter how difficult the challenge.

In this season of introspection and retrospection, we should internalize the message of the bikkurim. As we review our failings and the unfortunate occurrences which have befallen us, we must take note of and appreciate the good as well. One sure way to merit the blessings of happiness is to recognize the nisyonos we have been able to overcome and the siyata diShmaya that has helped us do so.

We have to continue to constantly scrutinize our actions, always aiming to improve. We have to remember the arami oveid avi and the avdus in Mitzrayim in order to absorb Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s mercy and kindness in accepting our prayers and rescuing us from that awful place.

Just as He saved our fathers, He looks out for us and aids us in our daily battles and struggles if we remain staunch in our faith and do not allow setbacks to derail us.

And while we are doing that, we ponder what we can do to merit Divine intervention, deliverance from the clutches of evil, and the ultimate redemption.

This week’s parsha of Ki Savo also provides the answer to that age-old question. The Torah states (28:1) that if we will adhere to all the mitzvos which we were commanded by G-d and follow His word, we will merit to be ascendant over all the other nations.

It is interesting to note that this posuk is preceded by the one which states, “Arur asher lo yokim es divrei haTorah hazos - Cursed shall be the one who does not uphold [raise] the Torah.”

The Ramban brings the Yerushalmi in Maseches Sotah (7:4) which states that this curse is referring to people who are in a position to influence others to come closer to Torah and to support Torah but fail to do so. Anyone who shirks his responsibility is included in this arur. Even if the person is a complete tzaddik in everything he does, if he could have drawn others closer to the holiness and truth of Torah but doesn’t, he is cursed.

The Chofetz Chaim often repeated this Ramban and would strengthen the message by quoting the Gemara in Maseches Shabbos (54) which states that one who has the ability to protest against the wrongful actions of the people of his town and doesn’t do so, gets caught up in their sins. One who reproaches his fellows and brings them to the right path, thereby increasing kevod Shomayim, is showered with the brachos that were delivered in this week’s parsha on Har Gerizim.

The Chofetz Chaim would make the point that there is no better bracha than that. Thus, everyone should use whatever abilities they have to help build Torah. If Hashem blessed someone with money, then he should use it to build yeshivos for the study of Torah. If he is blessed with oratorical skills, he should use them to raise money for yeshivos and for Torah causes. He should speak out against practices that cause a weakening of our religion.

As the Yom Hadin approaches, we all seek out sources of merit and bracha to be zoche in din and be inscribed in the book of tzaddikim. The Ramban informs us that it is not sufficient to be a tzaddik gomur. We must also use our faculties to help strengthen and spread Torah.

As the world spins out of control, and as so many of acheinu Bnei Yisroel are affected by the economic downturn and our eternal enemies strengthen themselves with impunity, we realize that there is no one we can depend on to protect us other than Hashem. We seek sources of merit for ourselves and to be included with those the posuk calls “boruch,” the blessed ones.

We require extra bracha to prevent us from falling into the hands of those who are arur.

We are all blessed with different strengths and abilities which we must use for worthwhile purposes. Hashem made each of us differently, because it takes the varied capabilities of a group of individuals to build a community and strengthen a nation.

Let us all follow the admonition of the Chofetz Chaim and use our kochos to increase the study and support of Torah. Let us find more time to learn and worthy causes to support with increased generosity and wholeheartedness. Let us inspire others to do the same. Let us use the power of speech to spread leshon tov and not lashon harah. And let us also seek to do away with some of the evil which pervades our world.

Let us be ever vigilant in our behavior, remaining loyal to the Shulchan Aruch and to what we know is true and proper. Let us maintain the strength of character and purpose necessary to remain upstanding in a tipsy world. As the spotlight of the media and the authorities is focused upon us, let us be exceedingly careful not to appear to countenance any form of chicanery or unethical conduct. Let us be sure that we conduct ourselves as a mamleches kohanim vegoy kadosh, even when we think no one is watching.

May our emunah in the Borei Olam and our hakoras hatov for all He does for us, coupled with these activities, bring us abundant merit in the final weeks before Rosh Hashanah so that we earn the blessing of a year of success, good health, parnassah tovah and nachas.

You Can Do It

2009-08-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

This week’s parsha of Ki Seitzei begins with the halachos of the eishes yefas toar. Rashi quotes the Sifri which explains the reason the Torah permits an act which violates Torah norms. “Lo dibrah Torah elah keneged yeitzer harah.” This is commonly translated to mean that the Torah understood that man cannot withstand the temptation presented by this circumstance and thus permitted it. In sanctioning the eishes yefas toar, the Torah makes an allowance for the limitations of a man’s self-control in the face of great temptation.

In fact, Rashi concludes, “she’im ein Hakadosh Boruch Hu matirah yisa’enah b’issur,” if Hashem refused to allow marriage with a yefas toar, the average person would defy the Torah and marry her anyway, living a life of sin.

The problem with this explanation is obvious. Wasn’t the Torah meant to provide a moral code to govern our behavior and to empower us to tame our base desires? How is this outlook consistent with the Torah actually legalizing improper behavior due to a person’s lack of self-control? Is the argument that “people will do it anyway” a valid rationale?

An answer came to me as I reviewed the pesukim and I would like to share it with you. It may be a simple and obvious point, but I haven’t come across it in any of the commentaries and I believe it’s an important insight.

Our Torah is a Toras Chesed and a Toras Emes. It represents the ultimate truth and the epitome of justice. Its tenets were given to human beings - not angels - to faithfully uphold. Because the Torah is perfect, it contains nothing that can be dismissed as “too difficult” to observe. There is nothing in the Torah that is not attainable by mortal men.

The words of Rashi, “lo dibrah Torah elah keneged yeitzer harah,” can be understood in light of this axiom that no mitzvah in the Torah is above the reach of the average Jew. “Lo dibrah Torah elah keneged yeitzer harah,” can be understood to mean that the Torah speaks to the yeitzer harah. The Torah was given to enable us to defeat the evil inclination which seeks to entrap us daily. Thus, since Hashem determined that in the case of yefas toar man wouldn’t be able to overcome the yeitzer harah, it was permitted.

By permitting the yefas toar, the Torah is acknowledging that the yeitzer harah that tempts a person during battle is so powerful that even an extremely ehrliche Yid who is normally always able to triumph over his physical desires, is likely to surrender to them during wartime. That is the reason the Torah made an exception in its moral code and permitted the yefas toar.

Rashi therefore states that the Torah is speaking to the yeitzer harah and informing him that this single exception itself serves to highlight the obvious inference regarding all other Torah laws -that all are accessible and within the scope of a Jew’s abilities.

It also speaks to man and says to him that there are no grounds to claim that any of the Torah’s laws are too difficult for small or average people and are only applicable to tzaddikim and holy men. It is possible for us, with our limited abilities, to adhere to every single mitzvah in the Torah. If not, those that are supposedly beyond our grasp would not have been mandated.

By contrast, man-made law is not always thought-out or sensible. Many laws have been written and passed just to make a point, even though its authors were under no illusion about their applicability or relevance. Many such laws are regularly and habitually broken - generally with impunity.

Not so the laws of the Torah. Each and every one is timeless and eternally relevant. By observing them, we demonstrate our belief in the Creator Who knows and understands man thoroughly. In fact, it is from the Torah itself that we can acquire the truest understanding of human psychology.

As an example, the year is broken into seasons, because Hashem knows that people cannot maintain the same level of intensity 354 days of the year. We need a break from the continuous stress we are under. We just experienced such a restful break with summer and bein hazemanim.

How strange that it feels as if the summer just started, and yet, it’s already over. Just when we began to relax and enjoy life and all that it has to offer, it’s back to work, back to school, back to the city, and back to all that we seek to run away from during the summer.

We wait an entire year for the summer. Through those freezing cold, snowy, icy months, people keep themselves warm by looking ahead to the summer. There are entire industries built on the summer season. People buy summer homes and invest untold amounts of money planning vacations. Then, in the blink of an eye, summer ends.

And right on its heel comes Elul.

Elul closes the door on everyone’s favorite season, as if to teach us that life is not really made for summers. Life is not meant for lounging around the pool and taking it easy. That’s good for once in a while. Everyone needs a break. But as we know, life is essentially very serious business.

If the purpose of life was to have fun, Hakadosh Boruch Hu would have set up the world and the seasons of the year differently. The sun would always shine and the weather would always be spring-like and comfortable. Instead, most of the civilized world goes through seasons of cold and hot - spring, summer, fall and winter.

We are meant to live a full and varied life, a life of Torah and mitzvos, a life of challenge and accomplishment. If we spent our days uniformly in vacation-mode, nothing of importance would be accomplished. People might think that they are enjoying life to the hilt, but at the core there would be emptiness. A person would realize that he has nothing to show for his time.

When summer and vacation end so quickly, when it begins to feel as though not just days and weeks but years are passing by in a flash, we realize the fleeting nature of life itself. Just as we are thinking these sobering thoughts, Elul arrives. Just as we are reminded that there has to be a higher purpose to life, just as we come to that realization on our own, Elul arrives to help us channel those solemn thoughts properly.

Some people get depressed when vacation time is over, when the season they so longed for seems to slip through their fingers. Elul consoles us. “Don’t be depressed or upset that the summer has ended so quickly,” it says. “Use that lesson you have just learned to help you progress in life. Learn that lesson and you will be happy later on. Instead of being depressed when the summer ends, you will greet the upcoming months with a sense of purpose.”

When we internalize that lesson, we will also be on the road to a more fulfilled life, one filled with accomplishment. The joy that it will bring will not be of the transient variety, but rather the type that fills our body and soul. The joy will last much longer than the ephemeral summer months. It will last longer than the four seasons of the year. It will last us throughout our lifetime.

Elul is a month that is meant to be used to reassess our priorities. Teshuvah flows from that reassessment. Elul reminds us that the Torah was not given to malachei hashoreis, but to bosor vodom.

Parshas Ki Seitzei and Elul coincide to remind us that “lo dibrah Torah elah keneged yeitzer harah.” Our obligation in this world is to subdue the yeitzer harah and withstand the temptations that confront us daily, in innumerable ways. Parshas Ki Seitzei and Elul are here to remind us that we can be better than we are, that Hashem created us with the ability to be great people.

We were born with 248 limbs with which to carry out the 248 mitzvos asei. Far from being a random coincidence, this is a powerful testament to the Torah’s exquisite planning that matches a human being’s spiritual resources with his physical makeup.

Now that Elul is here, let us resolve to use all our resources to improve our observance of the mitzvos. Let us resolve to overcome the temptation to feel that we lack the capacity to be as pure and holy as the Torah expects us to be. With this renewed embrace of our purpose in this world, we will greet the Yom Hadin with the confident prayer for Hashem’s blessings for a year of health and happiness for ourselves, our loved ones and all of Klal Yisroel.

Vanquishing The Middas Hadin

2009-08-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Rosh Chodesh Elul is upon us. As the summer winds down, we marvel at how swiftly the days flew by, these weeks that began with so much promise. A blur of shining sun, beckoning green fields… exhilarating country air... and it’s all over.

So short-lived our summer vacation, so fleeting that wonderful wave of rejuvenation! Just as the tension of our daily schedules began to dissipate in the sunshine, news of one heart-wrenching tragedy after another struck our community, waking us up from our summer reveries. The most recent, just last week, when a precious six year old boy was, in a second, snatched away. Even at his young, tender age, he already displayed a mature understanding of Hilchos Shabbos and an appreciation for middos tovos and mitzvos appropriate for someone much older than he. A special boy with much potential, Dov Ber ben Rav Shmuel Yaakov was plucked away suddenly, without warning.

K’tzais hashemesh batzohorayim; the sun was extinguished in midday, plunging us into darkness.

And so, hearing the words ring out in shul last Shabbos, “Rosh Chodesh Elul yehiyeh beyom hachamishi uveyom hashishi”—we felt our hearts give a jolt, thinking of the Yom Hadin only a month away, and how all of life’s blessings are so precarious.

In 30 days, we will face a trial which will determine the future course of our lives. Our every action and thought will come under scrutiny in this Heavenly investigation. Everything that we own and everything we hope and pray for is at stake. Our health, security and prosperity hang in the balance. The outcome of that trial will determine whether we will live in peace or in war, in luxury or as paupers.

How are we preparing ourselves for the coming Day of Judgment? An army that doesn’t properly strategize loses the war. Similarly, a person who doesn’t adequately prepare for the Yom Hadin can, chas veshalom, lose the most important case of his life—with dire consequences we would rather not contemplate.

In order to win a favorable judgment, we have to be realistic about the actions and outcomes for which we’ll be held responsible, and the obligations still left undone. We must straighten things out and get our profiles and résumés in order.

If we start out early enough, we can work on improving ourselves slowly, step by step and day by day. We can begin with the easy things and work our way up to the areas of self improvement that are more difficult. Our middos need improvement, and our davening needs to be more authentic and meaningful. We can increase the amount of time we spend learning. We can disburse more tzedakah. Our dikduk b’mitzvos can be taken up a level.

In the latest volume of the Sefer Machsheves Mussar based on the shmuessen of Maran Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach zt”l, the aveirah of chomos which sealed the gezar din of the Mabul is discussed.

The common explanation of how this cataclysm came about is that the Divine decree was sealed because the people habitually stole. Rav Shach, however, quotes a Medrash which states that they were also guilty of chomos devorim. He cites the Vilna Gaon who explains that just as it is sinful to steal less than a shava perutah, one who protests too loudly against a person who robbed him is also considered a chamson. And just as the gezar din was caused by those who were financial chamsonim, so was it caused by verbal chamsonim.

If you scream too loudly at someone, even someone who caused you a loss, and embarrass him more than he deserves to be shamed, it is considered chomos and leads to tragedy.

Tragedies have inundated us this summer. People are left bewildered, wondering what we can do to merit Divine mercy. As ma’aminim bnei ma’aminim, we know that we are to take mussar from all that occurs in this world. Especially when tragedies strike so close to home, we can’t escape the sense that these bitter events carry a specific message for us.

When we see the most honorable families suffering great misfortune, we know that they have been afflicted not as a punishment but as a means of inspiring and purifying their fellow Jews. As the posuk states, “Bikrovai ekodeish.” Through the response of these righteous people to their Divinely decreed fate, Hashem’s name will be sanctified.

But the formula works only if the klal takes these lessons to heart, if people strive to improve themselves and become closer to Hashem.

Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman recently wrote a letter addressing the many tragedies and illnesses that have struck the religious community of late.

“I’ve been trying to understand the enormity of what is happening,” Rav Shteinman said to someone. “I tell people who need a yeshuah to try and remember if they hurt the people closest to them. By closest, I’m referring to parents, friends, melamdim. A father sometimes thinks that he can slap his son, or insult his wife. He thinks it’s permitted, because, after all, they’re his to treat the way he likes. Teachers [believe they] are acting for their students’ benefit when they criticize and humiliate them. Everything is done in the name of well-meaning mussar and rebuke. Nevertheless, their actions are often unjustified.

“It’s known that in our holy Torah, there are laws bein adam laMakom as well as bein adam lachaveiro. The Aseres Hadibros are composed of halachos pertaining to the relationship between man and his Creator, and laws that prevent us from harming our fellow man.

“Ona’as devorim, the sin of hurtful speech, is more serious than the sin of harming another financially. It applies equally between a man and his wife and a woman and her husband. Ona’as devorim is even worse when said to a woman, because she tends to be more vulnerable and sensitive, being easily hurt and prone to tears. This ban includes hurtful words of any kind, especially those used to wound the feelings of a widow or orphan.

“The opposite of this conduct is chessed. The merit one can gain from it is immeasurable. The Rosh at the beginning of Maseches Pe’ah explains that Hakadosh Boruch Hu especially desires mitzvos that bring goodwill among mankind even more than mitzvos bein adam leKono.

“People are moreh heter to themselves, such as when a teacher or rov says that they have to humiliate someone to ensure discipline. But this is not correct. We can only do whatever is necessary to prove the point, but not to humiliate one another! It’s even more serious when the humiliation is done in public.

“A rov or teacher must get his point across, but in a way that doesn’t embarrass. Generally, the one who feels he is being humiliated will retaliate twice as strong. The teacher’s act of shaming the child is certainly in the category of ona’as devorim. One must be very careful with this. Parents also shouldn’t embarrass their children.

“When one causes suffering to others, he is punished in Olam Hazeh, too. Every person must pay attention to what he does and what he says so as not to hurt his fellow man. The truth is that the punishment is much worse in Olam Habah, but most people are not aroused by what they can’t see directly, so I am speaking about something that everyone understands well.

“On the mitzvah of ‘Lo sonu ish es amiso - Do not afflict pain upon someone else,’ the Sefer Hachinuch writes that even though there is no malkos for a lav she’ein bo maaseh, and thus there is no apparent punishment for this transgression, a person will get malkos from the One Who commanded this.

“One who is careful not to hurt other people will merit all the brachos of the Torah and will enjoy a pleasurable life in this world and the next.”

In his sefer Ahavas Chessed, the Chofetz Chaim explains the posuk in this week’s parsha (19:9) which states that we are to love Hashem and go in his ways - “laleches bidrochov kol hayomim.” He says that this posuk is similar to the one in Parshas Eikev (10:12) which states, “What does Hashem ask of you, but to fear Hashem, to go in His ways, to love Him, and to serve Hashem with all your heart and soul.”

The Sifri explains that the way to walk in the path of the L-rd is to be merciful and generous just as He is. “Mah Hamakom nikrah rachum vechanun, af atah hevei rachum vechanun ve’oseh matnas chinom lakol.”

The Chofetz Chaim expounds that just as there is an obligation to study Torah every day, so too there is a duty to perform acts of chessed daily. He says that by doing chessed, a person’s sins are forgiven, his life is lengthened, and he is spared from tragic incidents and the pangs of Moshiach.

He goes even further, adding that if these concepts would take root among Am Yisroel and people would rush to perform the mitzvah of gemilus chassodim, the world would become full of middas hachesed, and all tragedy and sorrow would be banished.

Perhaps the way to understand his words is by realizing that when hardship and tragedy befall good people, it is due to our sins which cause middas hadin to be unleashed in the world. The way to combat the middas hadin is by increasing the amount of chessed in the world.

“The shift from selfish and mean-spirited behavior to kindness and generosity would empower the middas hachesed to overcome the middas hadin. It follows that if all Jews would be involved in chessed, it would cause a revolution, and evil and sadness would be replaced with goodness and joy.

When we see the middas hadin running rampant, when we see the Soton score one victory after another, we have to recognize that it lies in our power to defeat the forces of evil. Through breakthroughs in our own character, we have the power to dictate the moral and spiritual climate of our environment. Collectively, our inner victory over pettiness, egotism, anger and jealousy can enable the middas harachamim to overcome the forces of destruction that r”l are striking down some of our noblest.

As we mourn the latest korbonos, and as we prepare for the awesome days of Elul, our response must be to heed the advice of the Chofetz Chaim, Rav Shach, zichronam livracha, and Rav Shteinman shlit”a. These giants strove to give us the weapons of the spirit to protect ourselves and our community from the ravages of the middas hadin. Only by training ourselves to use these tools to the fullest will we be helped from Above to merit the vanquishing of the middas hadin, along with full absolution, on the coming Yom Hadin. Amein.

Look and Listen

2009-08-13T06:32:00.000-07:00

Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Parshas Re’eh opens with Moshe Rabbeinu telling the Jewish people that he is presenting them with two divergent paths, one of blessing and one of damnation.

The parsha is named Re’eh, which means look. Moshe told the Jews, “Re’eh anochi nosein lifneichem hayom bracha uklalah - Look, I am presenting before you today blessing and curse.”

Moshe tells the Bnei Yisroel that the path of blessing is reached by following the precepts of Hashem. Those who don’t listen end up on the accursed path.

Why does Moshe use the word “look,” when essentially he is asking them to listen to what he is about to tell them? He wasn’t asking them to look; he was asking them to listen.

There are always people who feel as if the laws of the Torah confine them. They think that if they revolt against the precepts with which Hashem created heaven and earth, they will be happier and more successful. They assume that if they behave dishonestly and immorally, their lives will be satisfying.

Such people leave the path of the blessed, looking for the bounty they think this world has to offer, but all they end up with is damnation. Such people are never happy as they slither down the road of everything illicit in their elusive search for happiness.

They never find it.

Kids go astray because they feel crammed in by all the rules. They find themselves on a slippery slope of failure, and when they hit bottom, they realize that it was all for naught. They finally recognize that joy is not achieved by throwing off the obligations we have and placing themselves in a constant state of vertigo. By then, however, they are so far gone that it takes years of attentive effort for them to return to normalcy.

Moshe Rabbeinu tells the Jewish people that the path to happiness is achieved by following the word of Hashem. In case they doubted him, he said to them, “Look at the people who follow in Hashem’s way and you will undoubtedly see the joy of fulfillment on their faces. Look at the people who are scrupulous in their personal conduct and you will observe people who are content. Look at the people who hew to the path of the Torah and you will see people who are living blessed lives.

“Look at the people who cheat their way through the day, look at the people who run their businesses crookedly, and I will show you people who live rotten lives. Look at the people who throw off the manacles of decency and you will see people who live lives of misery. Look at the people who think that the laws of the Ten Commandments weren’t made for them and you will see people who spend their entire lives desperately craving for an inner peace they will never find.”

“Re’eh anochi nosein lifneichem hayom bracha uklalah.” I am setting forth for you today the word of Hashem. Look around and you will be able to see who is a follower and who isn’t, who leads a blessed life and who leads a cursed life.

The words of Moshe hold true until this very day. So often, we see people who are so unhappy, that no matter how large their house, how luxurious their car, and how extravagant a lifestyle they lead, they will always be groping for more.

The blessed life is not led by the person with the most money; it is lived by the one who uses the gifts G-d has endowed him with for the betterment of others. The person who distributes charity to the poor, supports schools and yeshivos so that they can better educate future generations, helps feed the hungry and comforts the sick is the one who achieves true fulfillment. His sense of accomplishment will never be known to the person who remains deaf to the entreaties of the needy and dedicates his fortune to his own personal aggrandizement.

Those who follow the path laid out by the Torah possess a glow that emanates from within their souls, and contentment that can only be acquired by living a life guided by eternal truths.

Total satisfaction is never achieved with the temporal. No matter how much money people have, the amount of beautiful clothing hanging in their closets, combined with the jewelry they have stashed away in their safe, will not make them happy. For money and material possessions are temporary, and just as they are temporary, so is the joy that is derived from them. A new car, watch or pin may bring a smile to your face for a day or two, but when you return to reflect on your empty life, the purposelessness, boredom, and feelings of inadequacy will return.

The Alter of Novardok said that the one person he knew who was truly happy and satisfied was Rav Yisroel Salanter. Rav Yisroel was at peace with himself. He was at peace with Hashem. His joy emanated from his inner core. Every mitzvah he did brought him added happiness. Every one of his actions brought him added satisfaction.

Moshe Rabbeinu was standing there in the Midbar telling the Bnei Yisroel that every one of them - and us - is able to attain true happiness. A life of blessing is available to every person who dedicates himself to following the words of Hashem. Nobody should feel that their financial situation in life affects their happiness and capacity to lead a blessed life.

In Parshas Va’eschanon (4:5), as well, Moshe Rabbeinu uses the word re’eh to convey to the Jewish people that if they follow the Torah, they will earn the praise of the nations of the world. Perhaps it is for the same reason that we’ve discussed. Moshe is telling the Bnei Yisroel that if they follow the chukim and mishpatim, their neighbors will recognize them for their wisdom and say, “Rak am chochom venavon hagoy hagadol hazeh.” When the Jews follow the laws of the Torah, their neighbors are able to look at them and recognize that they are a G-dly and intelligent people.

It is not by kowtowing to the constantly shifting culture of the time that we earn the respect of the people who surround us. It is not by watering down our customs so that we can blend in better that we gain the veneration of our neighbors. It is not by promoting and honoring people who have engaged in activities forbidden by the Torah that we will be admired by others. It is only by following the instructions of the immortal and timeless Torah as handed down to us from generation to generation that the nations of the world will realize what sets us apart from everyone else.

The sooner we hear that lesson, the better off we will all be.

Bring Back the Pride

2009-08-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

I recently had the distinct pleasure of spending some time with the noted and famed baal teshuvah, Rav Uri Zohar. He told me that lately, when he speaks in front of secular audiences in an attempt to be mekareiv them, he opens with the following introduction: “It is said that I am a chareidi. Well, don’t believe it. Chareidim are terrible people. They steal. They are dishonest. They all have money hidden under their floorboards. I am not chareidi, chas veshalom. I am really just a chiloni who observes the mitzvos.”

He brings the house down and is then able to open their hearts to the truth.

Chareidim are under attack. We are being vilified wherever you turn. All forms of media - secular, Jewish and religious - write and propagate about how evil the chareidim are. Spokesmen of every stripe are falling over themselves giving interviews to whoever will spell their name correctly about how there is something wrong with those chareidim. There is something wrong with their educational system. There is something wrong with the water they drink. They have gone off the deep end. They are insular. They are uneducated. They have no manners. No decency. Nothing.

And, of course, they are so different than everyone else.

And you know what? They are right. We are different than everyone else. Our chinuch is different. We do behave differently. We really do. Let’s admit it.

We don’t rob people. We don’t have guns. We are good neighbors. We don’t have all the problems that general society has. We don’t have 50% intermarriage and divorce rates. Our children, by and large, are well behaved and intelligent. They are neat, clean and raised well. They don’t cause mayhem on the block late at night drinking beer or smoking weed, with their boom boxes booming, keeping the neighborhood awake.

We live our lives for our children. We work day and night so that we can pay tuition for our children’s schooling. We seek the best for them and, of course, we spend much of our time learning with them and making sure that they will grow up to lead responsible lives.

Yes, we are different. Our lives are guided by an ancient code of laws, behavior and ethics. We try to ponder how G-d would judge our actions and we endeavor to find favor in His eyes as well as the eyes of man. After all, that is the way the sages of the Talmud taught us to live and that is the way we have been doing it for centuries. We taught the world ethics. We introduced to the world laws and jurisprudence. And though much of what we taught to various societies through the ages has been forgotten, we have never forgotten it and we have never given up on finding favor in the eyes of G-d and man.

Are we always successful? Of course not. We are human. Humans make mistakes. We have a yeitzer harah which seeks to entrap us daily. But when we do fail, we seek to learn from our errors and we pick ourselves up and become better for it.

If we are intellectually honest, which by our very nature we are, we know that our educational system has flaws and is far from perfect. But it is so far superior than to any alternative that some who have had to endure what is offered out there would even find our self-criticism to be excessive. However, while we point out the flaws and encourage more accountability in our mosdos hachinuch and improved standards of education, we must acknowledge the beautiful and unadulterated system of education that our communities are blessed with. And we should, at the same time, point out how shameful it is that some would suggest that it is our educational system - and its flaws - which produces dishonest individuals who go on to break the law.

Jews who cleave to the Torah and observe its precepts are without a doubt the most generous of any civilized people. It is in our genes. We have been giving charity ever since the Torah commanded us to. Even Jews who have strayed far from their home from Torah and have little or no connection to their religion have charity so embedded in their psyche that they rise to the top of communal giving.

There is no community which is as charitable as the Jewish community. Go anywhere in this country where there are plaques commentating generous donations; it can be a zoo, aquarium, museum, hospital, or any other non-profit entity serving the public. Look at the names and you will be amazed at the percentage of Jewish ones listed there. If those who have strayed from the Torah are so charitable, imagine how much chesed and tzedaka are performed by the people who follow the Torah. The amount of chesed that goes on in our chareidi world is unparalleled and is taken for granted. And, pardon my asking, but when was the last time you read an article anywhere about the middas hachesed so prevalent in our world?

The purpose of this column is not to sing our praises and not to whitewash the inevitable slippage. It is to put everything in perspective. It is time we all took a deep breath and said, “Hey, hold on a second. Who are you talking about? Why are you talking that way about us? Who appointed you as chief apologist for our way of life?”

Is everyone perfect? Of course not. Are there people who cheat and steal? Of course. But why is it that we permit the world out there to paint us all with the broad brush of those few rotten apples? Are we lacking in self-respect? Have we forgotten where we come from and what we are all about?

A kulturkampf has been fought for the past one hundred years in Eretz Yisroel. The secularists have had the upper hand most of the time and have won many of the battles. Despite all the attempts to destroy it, the religious community has continued to thrive. This drives the anti-Torah forces crazy and they never miss an opportunity to mock and deride us as well as attempt to curtail our growth and minimize our power and effectiveness. But nothing they try works, and despite all their best efforts, they realize that they are losing and we are gaining.

Many years ago, I met Ariel Sharon and interviewed him for this newspaper. He told me of the time he went to meet a rebbe as part of the coalition building process. The rebbe’s office was located upstairs of a bais medrash. Mr. Sharon arrived for his morning meeting after he had woken at 4 a.m. to see his son off to his army base, in the driving rain. As he walked in to the building, he saw the chassidim assembling to daven. No one was in a particular rush, he said.

He recounted that he was furious. “My son had to wake up at 4 a.m. to go train for war, and these young people were able to live freely, seemingly without a care in the world.

“But then I thought to myself, you know the difference between me and them? They all know that their grandchildren will be Jews. I don’t.”

And with that he forgave them.

The man who gave his life for the Zionist dream realized that it was the religious folk who would guarantee the Jewish future of the land. He didn’t have the courage to mend his ways and return to the G-d of his forefathers in the city of Brisk, but somewhere in his conscience, he knew the truth. And he’s not the only one.

Different people of his ilk deal with the truth differently. Some harbor a modicum of respect for the chareidim and for the lives they lead, while others build up hatred for all that the religious people represent. It is as if they lie in wait for the minute a religious Jew is accused of doing something wrong. They pounce on the perpetrator and, as true racists and bigots, convict all religious Jews of aberrant behavior. If one religious Jew is indicted for a crime, immediately every religious Jew in the world is accused of the same misdeed.

And we let them get away with it. We don’t respond that we are bnei Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov. We don’t respond that we have a common creed which predisposes us to an unassuming, law-abiding way of life. We don’t respond that we are the Am Hanivchar and that one yungerman living bemesiras nefesh and learning in Lakewood is worth more to us than all the educated crafty spokesmen who pour oil on the anti-chareidi fire with their erudite, pedantic, pithy soundbites.

When they use the sorry situation of a couple of out-of-control teenagers to besmirch masses of fine young frum boys, we don’t analyze the numbers and show how many thousands of boys travel thousands of miles away from home to grow in Torah and become better Jews and better men.

Since the time Jews have been driven into exile, there haven’t been as many people learning Torah as there are now, there hasn’t been as much money given away for hachzokas haTorah, there haven’t been as many families dedicated to the values of Torah, and there haven’t been as many children following in their parents’ ways as there are today.

The yeitzer harah can’t take it. He can’t stand to watch all this go on. He fights mightily to ensnare us and our children. Despite all that he has thrown at us, the Torah world continues to strengthen. Now he has drafted the media in a way we were unprepared for. They contribute a lot more than we think to the way other people view us and the way some of us have begun to view ourselves.

It’s about time we stood up and proclaimed that we have had enough of this. Stop lecturing us. Stop judging us by the alleged actions of a tiny percentage of our people. Stop ignoring all the good, and concentrating on the bad.

Let us do all we can to return the shine to our lives. Let us work harder on improving ourselves and separating ourselves from all types of thievery and heresy. Let us cleave yet stronger to the words of the Torah, ki heim chayeinu ve’orech yomeinu.

It’s all nothing new. The novi Yeshayahu [66, 5] said over two thousand years ago, Listen to the words of Hashem you who are chareidim to his message, your wicked brothers who despise you and seek to shunt you aside, tell you that they are closer to G-d than you are and He likes their actions and the way they conduct themselves more than He favors the actions of the chareidim, for in the end you the righteous ones will be blissfully exultant while the evil ones will fade away in embarrassment. May it come to pass speedily in our day.

Modern Day Eichah

2009-07-29T08:08:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Sometimes all you can do is ask, “Eichah? How could it happen?” Sometimes there are no answers and there is nothing to say. Sometimes the news is so sad that we are left speechless upon hearing the goings-on. Sometimes things take place in this world which defy reaction. “Vayidom Aharon.” When Aharon Hakohein’s two sons were taken on the day of the chanukas haMishkan, the posuk relates that Aharon accepted their fate with dignified silence.

You can’t go anywhere in the Jewish world without seeing people shrugging their shoulders and shaking their heads as they speak in hushed tones about the tragedy which affected our brothers in Brooklyn and New Jersey last week.

People attempt - in vain - to make sense of the tragedy and wonder how it could happen. Can a son of a dynasty sink so far that he entraps the most respected members of his community in an ugly scheme just to shave years off his own jail sentence? How can it be that the middah of tzedakah that a community is renowned for is turned upon them, tripping up their leaders in such a vulgar fashion?

What words of comfort can be offered to the grieving families of all involved? Our hearts and prayers go out to them as we pray that their loved ones are proven innocent without much more senseless embarrassment.

In the merit of all that they have done for the community, we pray that those who have been shamed and enveloped in tears be restored to their proper positions as paragons of virtue and sincerity when they are absolved of the accusations against them.

Once again, the asher korchah power of our ancient foe Amaleik has reared his ugly head and cast a pall of disgrace upon Torah. In recent weeks, he has had several victories as he has successfully portrayed the Torah community as an uncaring, anti-social, riotous, violent, unlawful group. We stand pained and humiliated as the world media tars us week after week with articles and photos maligning us and turning even our people against us.

The novi Yirmiyahu, in a harbinger of events to be recycled through the murky sewer of golus, said it all: “All your enemies have opened their mouths wide against you; they hissed and gnashed their teeth [and] said, ‘We have engulfed [her]! Indeed, this is the day we longed for; we have found it; we have seen it!’” (Eichah 2:16).

Their mouths have been opened wide against us and now, instead of religious Jews being perceived as a group which dedicates itself to studying and following the word of G-d and living responsible, selfless and moral lives, we are viewed as just the opposite.

Amaleik has utilized the media to paint a derisive picture of us, using the regrettable actions of a minority to taint the silent majority of law-abiding fine people. Hopefully, with his latest gambit he has overreached.

We have to go back many years to find a story which equals this one in its level of betrayal and humiliation, as we pray that it is the fanciful imagination of over-eager prosecutors entrapping gentle and kind people in a bid to prove an international conspiracy which defies belief. The age-old canard of Jews being money laundering loan sharks who rip off pounds of flesh from their gentile neighbors has once again been resuscitated and we bury our faces in shame. Any defense we can offer is thrown back in our faces by the awful stories propagated as fact.

It stretches the imagination to believe that an 87-year-old icon was running an international money laundering scheme. If it wasn’t so sad, it would be comical. Yet people believe it. Our community possesses so many good and selfless people, outstanding rabbis, fastidious lawyers and exacting accountants, yet we are portrayed as shylocks. There is no place to hide from the shame and embarrassment.

Everyone among us is left bewildered as to how something like this can happen in today’s enlightened world and what lessons there are for us in what has transpired.

The dust has not yet settled and the facts are not really known. Let us not fall into the trap of sensationalism and gossip. Let not a communal tragedy become a pretext for further defilement. Let us use our time to study Shulchan Aruch and sifrei halacha so that we can be better and more complete frum Yidden.

It is important to keep in mind that the first reports from the battlefield are almost always false. The circumstances are not known, the facts are skewed, and the story is told in a way that produces the most sensational headlines. Until the truth emerges, we are inundated with innumerable bogus versions of what “really” happened, but many of these assumptions may turn out to be incorrect. Let us not fall prey to the temptation to exaggerate and embellish the most lurid and shocking aspects of anything under discussion or investigation. Let us employ the necessary self-control, realizing the fruitless nature of endless and often erroneous analysis. Let us pray that the scandal is not as deep as the over-eager media purports it to be.

We need to channel our feelings at this time into something positive. As we reflect and engage in a period of introspection, we need to rise above the failures and work to achieve a more perfect state of affairs. When events such as these take place, we struggle, on a personal and communal level, to place it in the appropriate context. It is true that we don’t know why these events occur. But, as always, in the aftermath of such happenings, we must utilize such a tragic occurrence as an opportunity to take spiritual stock of where we are and how we can better ourselves in our eternal quest to be doveik baHashem.

In the future, if we are approached with a request that seems incongruous, or suspicious, we must probe for an explanation. There is no shame in asking questions repeatedly until we feel safe and secure that what we are doing is proper and just. We have to take the way we conduct our Yiddishkeit in golus seriously and be sure we are acting properly. As observant Jews, we must ensure that we don’t act erratically and foolishly and that we never fall into complacency or smugness.

Part of the curse of golus is that we have no novi who can interpret for us the actions of Hashem, who can help us correct our ways and explain to us the reasons behind disturbing events. Thus, we are left in the dark, broken and despondent. Ein lonu novi, v’ein lonu chozeh, v’ein lonu shiur rak haTorah hazos.

We must be thankful that we live in an enlightened democratic country that accepts us and lets us live, worship and work in peace. Jews are not only tolerated, but are treated well and supported in this country. Jews have risen to the highest levels of power in this land, and that is not in jeopardy. We may be in for hard times, but let’s keep it all in perspective and remember that it is up to us and our maasim tovim to determine the outcome of this trying historic period.

We have grown too comfortable in this golus. We are too complacent about all that goes on around us and we believe that this country is our natural home and that we belong here. We have forgotten that we are in exile from our land and are foreigners in a strange country. Instead of viewing ourselves as refugees pining for our return to the homeland we have been evicted from, we parade about as lords of the castle.

Not that long ago, Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky zt”l would tell people to be careful to observe the admonition of the Magein Avrohom not to wear a tallis on top of their clothing as they walk the streets on Shabbos. Instead, we parade down the streets as if they were the streets of Yerushalayim. We arouse the anger of our neighbors by attempting to treat them as the interlopers, when it is we who are the ones who don’t really belong here.

We forget that one hundred years ago, we were treated as pariahs in most of the countries in which we lived. We were taxed into poverty, forced to live only in certain areas, and banned from many professions. Jewish children were regularly snatched from their families and placed in the Czar’s army for periods of up to 25 years. To be a Jew meant a life of poverty; deprivation and indignation.

Thankfully, that has all changed, primarily due to the way this malchus shel chesed has reached out and accepted us as equal citizens. We have grown lax in our personal conduct and perhaps taken advantage of the kindness of our host country.

Regardless of the presumed innocence of the revered people whom it seems were set up to appear as members of some phantom international conspiracy, the very fact that such an incident can transpire and cause so many people so much anguish and bewilderment should be a wake-up call to us. As obvious as it may seem that respected people were set up for downfall by a desperate, selfish, crooked person, the fact that such a colossal chillul Hashem could transpire has to have lessons for us.

Since the destruction of the Bais Hamikdosh, 1940 years ago this week, the vestige of holiness resides in our yeshivos, botei medrash and botei knesses under the leadership of rabbonim, roshei yeshivos and morei derech. We must constantly be on guard as the power of Amaleik and the ugly forces of golus seek to erode the respect of our hallowed institutions and people. His mission is to cynically tarnish the way we view Torah, gedolei Torah and bnei Torah. We must always be alert to those attempts and not permit anything or anyone to diminish our devotion to Torah, halacha and the success of yeshivos.

We have to realize that every yeshiva, shul, and chesed organization is now suspect and must be doubly sure not to tolerate even the semblance of indiscretion. As painful as it is for us to admit, religious Jews are now viewed with great suspicion and we must all conduct ourselves in a manner in which, if exposed, will only earn praise and not condemnation.

We have to seek to cause the spotlight to return its focus on the many acts of kindness and charity performed in the religious community, which dedicates itself to fidelity to religious and civil law and conducts itself as true patriots of a welcoming country.

Whether in the realm of speech, actions or financial integrity, we have to look at the larger picture when we act. We have to ensure that all our actions are designed to find favor in the eyes of G-d and our fellow man and are in consonance with halacha and the law.

The Rambam writes in Hilchos Teshuvah (7:5) that all the neviim commanded Klal Yisroel to do teshuvah. He adds that “Yisroel will only be redeemed through doing teshuvah. And the Torah has already promised that in the end of days, Yisroel will do teshuvah and will be immediately redeemed.”

Let’s try to cheer the sad, restore hope to those who have lost theirs, rejuvenate those who have become bitter and depressed, and train ourselves to be better rachmanim, bayshonim and gomlei chassodim.

The first solution to any dilemma is to recognize the problem. If we examine Jewish history in exile, we find that after an uncomfortable period following immigration into yet a new country, Hashem causes the Jews to find favor in the eyes of the host nation. We become successful financially and accrue much power. Torah grows and flourishes and we believe we have found the Promised Land. And then, the cycle turns on us and anti-Semitism strengthens. The tide of the country begins turning against us. People who had forgotten that they were in exile and ceased to desperately await the arrival of Moshiach and the reconstruction of the Bais Hamikdosh are given awful reminders and are awakened from their obsequiousness.

The self-assurance is punctured. The serene, amiable tranquility is shown to be a facade. Jews who had faded away begin returning to their heritage and those who have remained loyal to the religion of their fathers are coaxed to be cognizant of the fact that the only dependable ally they possess is the G-d of their forbears.

Eichah. And so it has come to pass in our day. Yoshvah badad. Only if we take heed of the messages being sent to us and recognize that we are in golus can we begin to do all we can to cause the arrival of Moshiach Tzidkeinu speedily in our day. It is only then that the power of Amaleik will be vanquished and we will finally be able to dwell comfortably in our own land. It is only then that we will have all our questions answered and all the pain assuaged.

Real Ahavas Yisroel

2009-07-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

My column last week about the Yerushalmi demonstrations elicited varied responses. It was painful to realize how many people think so little of our chareidi brethren that they believe whatever they read which denigrates religious people. It is painful to be attacked for writing a sensible article laying out the facts and defending people for trying to exercise commonly held freedoms of expression and assembly.

The entire Israeli media was engaged in a conspiracy once again to paint the religious community as a bunch of backward infidels who are an embarrassment to their religion. It is no wonder that the anti-religious groups readily gobble it up, but it hurt to note that their reports were oft-repeated by religious people and believed by almost everyone.

Since that article was published, another spate of demonstrations broke out over the arrest of a loving Yerushalmi mother for allegedly starving her child. Without any examination or proof, the health system, police and media diagnosed her as being mentally ill and suffering from an ailment which forced her to starve her sick child. In the fifth month of pregnancy, she was dragged away, chained hand and foot, sent to the jail in Ramle, which is reserved for the most dangerous of criminals. She was held under inhumane conditions, sleeping on a concrete bed in a cell she shared with an Arab woman accused of murder.

Is that the way a civilized country treats anyone? A separate article in this week’s paper highlights the inconsistencies with the case and presents the other side of the story as documented by people in Yerushalayim who, for quite some time, have been involved with the medical issues facing this family. There are witnesses who can testify that the child lay in the hospital for months with a standing order not to feed him anything other than what he received from his feeding tubes. It was only after the mother was dragged off that they began force-feeding the child in a bid for him to gain weight.

Of all the people, the mayor of Yerushalayim, elected because the religious community could not organize around a candidate, found the perfect way to respond to the riots. He called off all garbage collection and municipal services to the areas which the shababnikim damaged. So, not only do the parents suffer by having such children, not only does the community suffer by having fires burning under their noses, but the benevolent mayor decrees that there will be no more garbage pickup. Thankfully, his tactic was overturned by the courts.

Mayor Nir Barkat also targeted Americans as scapegoats, blaming them for the violence, with no evidence. Of course, the people inclined to mock yeshivos and yeshiva bochurim cheered him on, without bothering to ascertain how many bochurim, if any, were involved in anti-social behavior they could not have learned at home or school.

Typical of the reaction to all this was an article posted by Rabbi Asher Lopatin on a secular Jewish media site, as well as a religious one. The Chicago rabbi, who stood with those who castigated the Rubashkins and their Agriprocessors Corporation which supplied much of the United States with affordable kosher meat, is now advising the members of Yerushalayim’s yishuv on how to handle their affairs.

Back then, he said that “there seems to be a pattern of Jews, and especially Orthodox Jews, not knowing how to relate to gentiles. We have a history of really trying to survive as Jews and having to protect ourselves constantly, but now we are in a different reality. If you want to stay in the Brooklyn ghetto, maybe that’s okay. But if you want to go out into the rest of world and get involved in real business, you can’t just have the same paradigm we had in Europe or the Middle East.”

When he stood beside liberal union groups seeking to unionize a Chicago hotel owned by religious people, he said, “I remember the ads defending Agriprocessors - talking about how it’s this modern, clean factory. People were just deluding themselves. That’s the impression I have here, as well.”

Anyone who visited Agri had to be impressed by the high level of cleanliness evidenced in the USDA inspected plant. That was never in doubt. Yet this rabbi was able say anything with impunity, for he was talking about a plant owned and operated by old-style religious Jews. Who would go after him for playing up the centuries-old canard that religious Jews are dirty and slimy? He can freely posture for the media and the liberals who write him up in glowing terms.

Though he is Orthodox, he does seem to have an agenda against the black-hatted Jews. It is to be expected that the secular media would play him up. What hurts even more is when the Orthodox media quotes him and publishes his missives, such as his recent one against Yerushalmi Yidden.

He writes, “Rather than rioting against what seems to be saving of a child’s life - piku’ach nefesh - didn’t you question for a moment what is going on? What are the names of chareidi organizations that protect children - and spouses - from abuse? The chareidi community in America has such organizations which serve the entire Jewish community - have you set up yours? I haven’t seen them involved or consulted. No, instead of blaming Hadassah hospital, the doctors and the media of a conspiracy, maybe you should begin a process of coming clean and accepting that domestic abuse occurs in all types of communities - from the most religious to the most secular, Jewish and non-Jewish. And that sometimes the police and the authorities have to be brought in to protect children and spouses. That would be the appropriate response, one that would be a kiddush Hashem, which would win the respect of Jews and non-Jews for Torah and for Judaism.”

Rabbi Lopatin continues:
“My brothers and sisters in the chareidi community: G-d’s name is not sanctified by you showing how much political muscle you have to close parking lots, to maintain the ‘status quo,’ or to show that you can do whatever you like to your kids without the authorities intervening: that’s not the way to sanctify G-d’s name, or even your name. The way to kiddush Hashem is for all of us to place G-d and G-d’s kindness above our own agendas, and to show that we are willing to sacrifice even your own serenity on Shabbat, our own control over our families, in order to protect the weak and make G-d’s name something beautiful and desirable, not something which people cannot run away from fast enough.”

Without bothering to find out what the facts are, much as was the case in his campaign against Rubashkin, Lopatin bought the media story, lock stock and barrel. And why not? After all, it is those same backward, insular people who have no concept of law, order and hygiene.

He didn’t speak to anyone who was at the so-called riot, because if he had, he would have found out that thousands of religious Jews congregating to protest the treatment of one of their own does not constitute a riot. He didn’t speak to any spokesmen for the Toldos Aharon chassidim. Had he, he would have heard their categorical denouncement of any violence. He would have found out that the protests were peaceful. He would have discovered that troublemakers, known as shababnikim, were responsible for the burning of trash bins and creating other mayhem after the masses of protesters had gone home.

Shame on him and shame on those like him who accept as fact whatever they read in condemnation of religious Jews, and anyone else for that matter. Shame on him and those like him who post such drivel and contribute to the increasing hatred of religious people and our causes. Shame on people who seek to divide the Jewish people, rather than bring us together. Shame on people who are ready to denigrate and dispense self-righteous advice to Jews who hew to an ancient and hallowed way of life.

Walk down Rechov Meah Shearim and observe the Reb Arelach, as the Toldos Aharon chasidim are affectionately referred to, as they go about their daily lives. They are the most unpretentious and humble of people. All they ask for is to be left alone so they can serve Hashem. They don’t seek material pleasure and always seem to be so happy. Their children are picturesque epitomes of simple beauty and chein. They obey all laws and exhibit no anti-social behavior. To accuse them of being rioting baby killers is nothing short of a modern-day blood libel and lynching.

I invite Lopatin and the rabbi who wrote in The Jerusalem Post to join me for a visit to Meah Shearim. Let’s go visit the stores and places of business of the Reb Aralach – yes they do work – and see how they conduct themselves. Let’s visit their homes and see how they live. Let’s follow them to the Beis Medrash and observe them davening and learning. We’ll go to the rebbe and you can ask him all your questions. We’ll visit Ben Zion Oiring and watch a one-man chesed operation in action. We’ll talk to Uri Zohar and hear what he has to say. We will pay a visit to Rav Dovid Soloveitchik and you can ask him why he publicly referred to the sorry story as a blood libel. We can just stand at Kikar Shabbos and watch how these loving lovely people go about their daily affairs. If, G-d forbid there should be a need for another hafganah we can attend and watch how Yerushalmi yidden peacefully express their pain and how they are treated by the police. And we can stay till the bitter end and watch how the rif-raf comes and destroys the place. And then we can review together what we have seen and determine whether a re-evaluation is in order.

As we enter the month of Av, it would behoove us to seek to bring Jews together and create a kiddush Hashem wherever and whenever possible. Though the response to my column last week on the Shabbos demonstrations hasn’t been what we expected, neither has the outpouring of support we have been receiving for our campaigns on behalf of two chassidishe Yidden, Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin of Postville, Iowa, and Ben Tzion Oiring of Yerushalayim ihr hakodesh. Good Jews were touched when reading about their financial situations and wrote out checks for people they don’t know. That is real ahavas Yisroel of the type that is mekareiv the geulah. Ahavas Yisroel doesn’t mean writing articles in the Jewish Journal, Jerusalem Post, or on various websites and blogs slamming frum yidden. Ahavas Yisroel means to give a Torah Jew the benefit of the doubt and to examine the story before rushing to judgment and engaging in the castigation of good people who are under attack.

May we merit welcoming Eliyahu Hanovi in enough time to declare Tisha B’Av a Yom Tov.

The Tuition Conundrum

2009-07-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Yeshivos are in crisis. With the economy in decline, parents are strapped, barely making ends meet, and steadily falling behind in their tuition payments. With donations and financial support drying up, today’s yeshivos, many of which have been struggling for years, are in a worse financial bind than ever.

Torah chinuch is the very lifeblood of the Jewish people. To continue flourishing in this country, we must find a way to maintain our yeshivos. Far from existing in a vacuum, these challenges are tied to the broader picture of where this country is heading under the present administration.

End Of A Golden Era?

Could it be that we are seeing the end of the golden era for Jews in America? It’s been a very comfortable golus in the country by and large, and many of us have become complacent. We’ve taken many things for granted. We assumed that the U.S. government would always support Israel and that it would always protect its citizens’ best interests. We began to take for granted that we would always be afforded the maximum opportunity to become, through hard work and siyata dishmaya, an American success story.

Today, as the economy of this blessed country teeters, the present administration appears determined to overhaul the dynamics that have enabled the country to prosper for so many years.

The new policies do not auger well for the nation or its citizens. Many of our businesses and incomes depend on a healthy competitive private sector. If the administration presses ahead with its agenda of imposing heavy new taxes, not only will it set back the economy’s revival, but more of our incomes will be siphoned off to finance an ever-expanding government.

As incomes shrink, we’ll find it increasingly difficult to maintain our present lifestyle and standard of living, even things which we consider imperative to our lives. For the Torah community, that includes the support of yeshivos.

Some have estimated that a family living in the New York area requires a minimum income of $250,000 just to break even, and that is no exaggeration. What are people to do? It is not uncommon for people to have tuition bills in the $40-60,000 range. What percentage of our community earns $250,000? How can people be expected to come up with that kind of money without going into serious debt?

An Irreplaceable Partnership

In better times, our elementary schools relied heavily on their parent bodies for financing. Fundraising efforts, from dinners to teas and Chinese Auctions, primarily targeted the parent body. Most schools didn’t invest time and effort in cultivating friends outside the yeshiva for larger donations, unless there was a building campaign underway. With parents capable of covering the lion’s share of yeshiva budgets, there was little outreach to the broader Jewish community.

Unfortunately, schools began taking parents for granted and became less responsive to their needs. Because of the overflow of students, administrations did not feel the need to accommodate parents, to work with them as a team, or to include them in important educational decisions. At times an adversarial relationship developed. People who expressed dissatisfaction with any aspect of their child’s education were advised to go elsewhere.

As long as times were good and the money was flowing, the system worked more or less effectively in yeshivos and day schools on the east coast. Today, the status quo has changed. With parents falling behind in tuition, and income from dinners and Chinese Auctions drying up, yeshivos are operating at huge deficits. Both sides are paying the price for years of mistrust.

Parents are critical of schools that they perceive to be operating like mini-fiefdoms and dictatorships, with no regard for the wishes and needs of the parent body. They feel no obligation to schools that are run in this manner. They have no compunctions about shirking responsibility when it comes to supporting this kind of school.

When the tuition bill arrives, it is brushed aside, or else parents seek to bargain down the price because they don’t view the school as their representative in educating their child. The schools, desperate for funds, are not interested in negotiation. They squeeze the parents for additional money, even threatening to send home their children unless full payment is received. This policy has further alienated and embittered many parents.

The constant drip-drip of oft-repeated lashon horah and tales of machlokes involving some schools have had a deep impact, leading to an overall erosion of trust in these schools and tainting the reputation of their leaders.

This sad state of affairs has all but obscured some very fundamental truths. To begin with, the job of teaching children Torah ideally rests with parents. The job of chinuch is one of a Jewish parent’s most sacred responsibilities. Schools are at best shluchim—honorable agents whose duty is to fulfill parental obligations.

In essence, parents and mechanchim are intended to be partners in raising healthy, intelligent children who will develop into responsible, caring, observant Torah Jews.

Before any of the problems confronting our schools can be tackled, a sense of partnership must be returned to the education system, whereby each side exercises their obligation to the other, with the student’s welfare always the foremost consideration.

If we don’t arrive at a solution to the pressing problems facing us, they are bound to worsen. Rabbeim and Moros won’t be paid, and no one in their right mind will go into chinuch. Yeshivos will crumble under mounting piles of debt.

No Magic Answers

Several years ago I had the occasion to speak to Binyomin Netanyahu. I asked him what he viewed as the solution to the Arab-Israeli problem and how he proposed to bring an end to the decades-long state of war between Israel and its enemies.

His response had a great deal of truth to it—and is indeed applicable to many of life’s dilemmas. He answered that not every problem has a solution. He didn’t have any magic answers to the Middle East conundrum; he said that sometimes you have to wait years for things to realign themselves in a way that would enable a viable solution to take place.

Granted there are no pat, immediate solutions to many of the problems we face in our community. But perhaps it is time that we at least begin to call the problems by their actual names. For too long we have been getting away with avoiding the real issues. We have avoided saying the truth because we couldn’t bear the thought of slaying anyone’s sacred cows. We have all played along for fear of rocking the boat and being ostracized.

When a society can’t honestly face its problems and manages to keep the status quo by scaring its members into submission, it is a sure sign that moral rot has set in. Unless stopped, the decay will eventually undermine the society’s very foundations.

We must ensure that such a fate doesn’t befall our community. We posses the collective intelligence and ability to honestly analyze where we are going wrong, and to figure out how to rectify and remedy our ills. We know that self-delusion and skewed thinking are the tools of the weak.

Support Vouchers!

On a practical and political level, there is much we can do. People in our communities should be conditioned to vote only for political candidates who promise to work for the legalization of vouchers which can be used towards paying yeshiva tuition. When will we ever learn that voting Democrat is against our best interests? When will people realize that if they vote for the tax-and-spend party, that choice will backfire in their faces? It will end up draining their own pockets of money intended for their family’s upkeep, and for the education of their children.

People have to be educated not to fall for the lies politicians tell during the election season. Papers such as ours should publish report cards on incumbents, based on how they voted on issues directly affecting our way of life. People who promise one thing and deliver another should be voted out of office, in favor of principled supporters of private education, tax breaks, and a decent moral climate.

A summit should be convened of the best frum minds in the country to analyze where we are and where we are headed and to try to come up with rational, reliable solutions to the vexing problem facing us.

To raise esteem for our institutions, a massive public relations campaign should be undertaken to explain the basis of the schools and the reasons they ought to command our respect. Recalling the heroic work Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz began when he campaigned to convince people of the need of Hebrew Day Schools in the 1940s, a similar battle cry is needed today. People have to be reminded of the obviously vital role Torah schools serve in guaranteeing the Jewish future.

Executive Directors should cultivate support for their schools among the broader Jewish community, much as was done in the early nascent days of the Day School movement.

If we truly appreciated the priceless value of Torah education, our schools wouldn’t be in a financial hole today. Shalom Torah centers wouldn’t be gasping for breath. Shuvu wouldn’t be on the verge of closing down six schools engaged in educating the next generation of Israeli youth.

The confused value system that relegates our children’s chinuch to a low rung on our order of priorities must be changed. Instead of being treated as an unwelcome burden or an afterthought, the support of our children’s yeshivos, and of yeshivos educating other Jewish children, must be our supreme concern.

Torah is the Jewish people’s oxygen. Chinuch is our very essence. Let us stretch our material and spiritual resources to the utmost and if possible, make the necessary sacrifices. For the sake of our beloved children, let us rally our forces for change before it is too late.

“Shabbos, Shabbos"

2009-07-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Before there were religious newspapers, the Jewish media world was owned by the maskilim. It took some time before religious Jewry realized the awesome power these papers wielded over the Jewish masses, in particular, the youth. They hastened the alienation from Torah and the embrace of non-Jewish culture that was rampant at the time. It was to stem that awful tide and to fight the wholesale distortion of truth that gedolim established newspapers and fought to obtain subscribers and financing.

To those who are skeptical of the manipulative power of the press 100 years ago, a close look at the skewed reporting that prevails in our own day regarding recent events in Yerushalayim provides a cogent reality check. In many ways we are still fighting the same battle.

Thanks to the power of persistent “drip-drip” journalism, the common perception of Chareidi Jews as a mass of vulgar rabble-rousers has taken deep root.

Demonizing the Chilul Shabbos Protesters

Let’s take a look at the demonstrations going on against the increased chillul Shabbos in Yerushalayim. Based on media reports, many of you are probably under the impression that mobs of fanatically religious Jews converged near City Hall to burn garbage pails and stone policemen. You’ve either read this fallacious reporting yourself in the media, or got it second or third hand from others who did.

This is not to deny or condone the actions of a handful of miscreants who carried out these reprehensible actions. But the fact is, they are lone exceptions, certainly not the rule. Their actions are being exploited by irresponsible editors who seek to tar the entire Chareidi community with one brush.

Students of history can cite dozens of hafganos which were called to stop autopsies, disturbing of ancient cemeteries, chillul Shabbos, giyus banos, yaldei teheran and the like. They can show you pictures of police beating religious Jews; of police shooting water cannons at women. They can give you the facts about the times choshuveh people such as Rav Yisroel Grossman were locked up in jail for participating in protests.

I can offer my own personal testimony as well. Many years ago, I lived in the Ezras Torah section of Yerushalayim, where it was alleged at the time that the parents of today’s Shabbos rock-throwers would gather to stone policemen and cars traveling on K’vish Ramot. What actually happened was that some weeks, a few people would walk in from Meah Shearim to scream “Shabbos!” alongside the recently opened highway. Other weeks, no one showed up.

From my porch, I had a bird’s eye view of the action—or more often, the lack of it. I never saw anyone do anything other than holler “Shabbos.” A single police car was stationed there to maintain order lest the multitudes arrive. Yet, every Motzoei Shabbos after Havdalah, turning on the radio to catch the headlines, I would hear how once again, the chareidim converged at K’vish Ramot, throwing stones and assaulting police!

This was a blatant, deliberately fabricated urban legend. Not surprisingly, the masses in Israel bought it. Religious people became synonymous with crazed fundamentalists who embraced terror tactics on what was supposed to be a holy day of rest.

Police Brutality Has A Long History

Back then, the battle over Shabbos already had a sordid, decades-old history, with pious Jews being beaten and persecuted for their efforts to preserve kedushas Shabbos in Yerushalayim, Bnei Brak and many other cities in Eretz Yisroel.

I vividly remember passing by hafganos during the time I learned in Yerushalayim, witnessing the police brutally charging after people as they fled for their lives. Those hapless souls who were caught were mercilessly beaten.

There were times when police barged into botei medrash and grabbed hold of anyone not fast enough to escape. The police beat those poor souls to a pulp, then arrested them for assaulting police. Far from being isolated incidents of police brutality, these outrages were common occurrences. Anyone who has ever witnessed a hafgana demonstration can attest to that.

Just two weeks ago, the ugly pattern repeated itself. Following a Shabbos protest, police charged into the dormitory of Yeshiva Kol Torah in Bayit Vegan. They dragged sleeping boys out of bed and identified them as rock throwers who had participated in an unruly demonstration hours earlier. It was only after the Roshei yeshiva vouched for the integrity and innocence of the boys that they were released from jail. Police captains later apologized to the Roshei Yeshiva and promised to take disciplinary action against the patrolmen who invaded the dormitory.

In another incident, an American boy who happened to be in the area of a recent demonstration at Kikar Shabbos was arrested and locked up in the Migrash Harussim jail. Police accused him of throwing stones at them. After being held in jail without bail for two weeks, witnesses who had been walking with him came forth and testified that he neither threw stones nor engaged in any anti-social behavior.

Charges were reduced to illegal assembly, impeding the flow of traffic and other less serious charges. The youth was freed from jail but banished for Yerushalayim for two months until his upcoming trial.

How can one understand the flood of false arrests and the habitual police brutality in a democratic state where citizens supposedly enjoy freedom of speech and freedom of assembly? How can the government get away with tactics associated with tyrannical dictatorships or totalitarian states?

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

First of all, it might come as a surprise to many that in Israel, unlike America, it is illegal for more than three people to congregate without permission. Thus, every protester is regarded as a lawbreaker. Additionally, unlike in America, one is not assumed innocent until proven guilty. There it is just the opposite; you are guilty until proven innocent and treated that way. Religious people are automatically singled out for special treatment.

What generally happens is that ehrliche people who are bothered by some injustice or new breach in the holiness of the city gather to protest. The police arrive and begin taunting and baiting them. Other police then arrive in riot gear and on horseback and charge into the crowd, seeking maximum damage and injury. When the people fight back, they are arrested and thrown in jail. Innocent bystanders, often times Americans, who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time are rounded up and jailed as well.

After the crowd disperses and everyone goes home, miscreants seize the opportunity to “throw the last punch.” They set fire to garbage pails which they roll into the street to create maximum mayhem.

Jews Brutalizing Jews

Anyone who has witnessed a hafgana and the police reaction is traumatized by the sight of Jews brutalizing fellow Jews. And this in the Jewish state, in the twenty-first century! How frightful that this has been going on ever since the founding of the State of Israel. The peaceful Shabbos atmosphere that reigns over religious neighborhoods on Shabbos came at a high price. It was achieved only after years of struggle and countless demonstrations similar to those taking place now.

Yet, the news trickles down to us the way the secular media presents it, so when we think of hafganos, we conjure up images of wild lunatics burning garbage pails, of stones flying, and of crime-fighting heroes being spat upon. We don’t think of ehrliche people crying out for Shabbos. We don’t feel the pain of Shabbos being trampled upon by cheap politicians. We don’t feel the pain of dignified Jews with long beards being stomped on by horses. We don’t feel the pain of Jews in the Holy Land protesting the desecration of the most basic tenets of the Torah, which grants the people of Israel the right to their land.

We don’t realize how far we have sunk as a people that the sight of Jews beating other Jews has become the norm. We forget the cruel irony that most of the grandparents of those baton-wielding policemen wore beards and payos themselves. Just one generation later, their children are being used by a corrupt government to stamp out the kedushas Shabbos that the grandparents would have sacrificed their lives to protect!

We let the secular media skew our perception of the facts. We permit then to demonize kind, law-abiding, peaceful, charitable people as a pack of Neanderthal wild men. In an outrageous reversal, pious people who are exquisitely careful in how they treat others, are painted as wild-eyed, ruthless lowlifes.

Religious Apologists

The problem is compounded when religious people who ought to know better get swept up in the propaganda. People who have never witnessed a protest over the desecration of Shabbos allow themselves to be manipulated by media hype. They encourage other frum Jews to write letters to the secular media decrying the objectionable behavior of their fellow chareidim. They rush to express sympathy for secular Israelis who are lobbying for a new parking lot—right opposite the walls of Yerushalayim.

Rabbis who ought to know better feed the media one-liners against the violent extremists, as if they constitute a sizeable camp. They issue sharp indictments which reinforce the stereotype of Orthodox Jews as an archaic, intolerant bunch of people.

Should Jews be engaging in violence? Of course not. Do we believe that burning garbage pails is the way to return Jews to their heritage? Of course not. But think of the media coverage splashed over these few incidents compared with the manner in which public protests in, let’s say, Iran, are treated by the world press.

How many articles have you read condemning freedom-lovers for beating Tehran police? How many newspapers have featured pictures of Iranians setting fire to trash in their coverage of the election protests? Not one.

Why is it that burning garbage pails in Iran are ignored and those in Yerushalayim are blown up and highlighted? Is it because only the former captures world sympathy? Is it because the media seeks to glorify the Iranian protesters while reserving its disgust for Jews who want only to protect what is sacred to them?

Most disturbing, why is it that the religious media falls into the trap of accepting wholesale misrepresentation of the truth?

Are there better ways to fight the battle for kedushas Shabbos? Most certainly. There is no excuse for violence and vandalism. But let’s consider the protests themselves, that are cleverly manipulated by authorities into turning violent. With politicians, the courts and public opinion all stacked against the religious community, what choice do those who anguish over chilul Shabbos have?

In fact, it is only thanks to the ranks of idealistic protesters, who knowingly risked life and limb, that forced autopsies in Israel were halted, that giyus banos was dropped, and that there is no Shabbos traffic on Kikar Shabbos.

Throw Lifelines, Not Stones

It is indeed tragic that so many of our brethren remain ignorant about Shabbos observance. Due to the present global financial crunch, organizations in Israel that have succeeded in returning so many thousands to the religion of their forefathers are forced to cut back on their activities. It costs money to run effective kiruv organizations and the latter are millions of dollars in debt.

Without good people digging into their pockets to help fight the battle bedarchei noam, the soldiers of Lev L’Achim, Shuvu, Chinuch Atzmai and all the rest can’t accomplish as much as they have in the past. They need our financial assistance in order to educate more Jews and to turn the tide of public opinion in favor of appreciating and safeguarding kedushas Shabbos.

Let us all resolve to increase the honor of Shabbos in our personal lives and support those who open a window for their fellow Jews to the beauty and richness of Shabbos. Let us support those organizations that have demonstrated the ability to reach out to Jews from all walks of life who have been robbed of their birthright. Let us display more Ahavas Yisroel. Let us cast lifelines, not stones.

And let’s not jump to conclusions about our heartbroken brothers who cry out, “Shabbos, Shabbos!” They are not only following the dictates of their conscience with their protests; they are also doing our job—yours and mine.

For the Love of Money

2009-07-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Every year, as the months of Tammuz and Av approach, we are reminded of how far we are from where we need to be. Thanks to the material comforts we enjoy, we grow comfortable in the exile, and lose the sense Jews once had of being painfully distant from our real home and our leaders of yore.

Sixty years after we, as a people, were almost exterminated, we have staged a miraculous comeback. Despite whatever hardships we are experiencing due to global financial and political turmoil, we enjoy unprecedented wealth, comfort and political influence.

Yet we have short memories. We forget the terrible poverty and hardships Jews suffered for centuries in “the old country” and romanticize about the alter heim as if it were the Promised Land.

I was recently reading an interview with Reb Yankel Finkelstein in a new book entitled “Shimchah Lo Shachachnu,” which recounts the experiences of bnei yeshiva before and during World War II.

Reb Yankel Finkelstein discusses the poverty that was rampant in the pre-war shtetel. He speaks of how he went barefoot and hungry, and how many young people left the fold because they couldn’t cope with a life of such impoverishment. He reminisces about the time a dignitary arrived in town from Warsaw and held a melava malka for ten local askanim. Reb Yankel was a youngster at the time and was sent to purchase a can of sardines for the feast. The can was opened and each guest was given one sardine to eat. One sardine! He savored the treat so much, the memory of its succulence remained vivid even decades later.

We are blessed with so much that we can’t fathom that people lived under such conditions not so very long ago. As difficult as our situation may be, we aren’t facing starvation. We aren’t forced to make do with one sardine as a delicacy, or to quiet an empty, churning stomach with crusts of bread. We take everything for granted and don’t seem to really appreciate our blessings.

This is not to minimize the financial difficulties afflicting many people today due to the economic downturn. Some people don’t have money for the basics. Tuition goes unpaid and many parents can no longer afford to send their children to camp. It cost so much to maintain the American lifestyle. Without significant income, many people are strapped and don’t know where to turn.

Our brothers in Eretz Yisroel are suffering as well. Although families there always lived on lower economic levels, with large families crowded into small, two-bedroom apartments, people were content with what they had. The mothers and girls had one Shabbos dress apiece and the fathers and boys possessed one Shabbos suit, yet they didn’t feel deprived. Now, with the economy in free-fall and government safety-nets pulled, things have worsened for thousands of our brothers in Eretz Yisroel. Their grinding poverty recalls Reb Yankel Finkelstein’s generation, when people went to bed hungry.

We meet many people from these unfortunate families on this side of the ocean as they work their way through our neighborhoods, knocking on doors and asking for a handout. We view them as intruding shnorrers. Perhaps some of them fit that description, but if we were to stop and speak to these people before handing them a dollar, we would find many wonderful geshmake individuals who simply have no place to turn. By the time they have joined the circuit of door-to-door begging, they are way past their last dollar, heavily in debt. Unemployment is rampant—there are simply no jobs. As a desperate last resort, they take out another loan and buy a plane ticket to New York.

They come here and travel from shul to shul and house to house, some with sad eyes and some with hearts full of bitachon and simcha. They trudge about waiting to find good Jews who will have rachmanus on them and treat them like human beings, not unwanted outcasts.

We are jaded. There are so many of them, it seems, that we can’t possibly treat them all with kindness and patience. Do we ever stop to imagine ourselves in their place? Do we ever stop to contemplate the fact that if not for the hashgacha that caused us to be born and raised in this land of plenty, we might easily be them?

In essence, we are them! We are in a place we don’t belong, knocking ourselves out to feed our families and meet our obligations. Though we don’t feel it as much as they do, we are dependent upon the mercy of our Father to find favor in the eyes of people we meet and those with whom we do business. We are fortunate that He showers kindness upon us and gives us what we need—sometimes even more, to enable us to lend a helping hand to relatives, friends, neighbors and Yidden from around the world who need assistance.

In order for us to begin the march out of golus, we have to begin rectifying the way we view each other. It is not just the way we view people who come looking for a handout, but the way we treat the guy next door and the fellow we meet in the bais medrash. Until we treat other people the way we would like to be treated, we are doomed to remain in golus—far from our true home.

If, through our skewed way of dealing with fellow Jews, we rob others of their dignity, and mock those who do good and mean well, we will not merit the rebuilding of the Bais Hamikdosh. As a splintered nation, with individuals and factions acting on their own and without having the greater good in mind, we delay the arrival of our final redemption. If we live life in attack mode, undermining true leadership and seeking to destroy those who are trying to make our world a better place, we are in effect consigning ourselves to continued golus.

Chazal remind us that hateful and spiteful behavior between Jews is the one force that holds back the geulah more than any other. In the days when Reb Yankel Finkelstein thought a sardine was a treat, Jews appreciated each other and didn’t seek to take advantage of one another. During the Holocaust period, when Jewish blood was made cheap, Jews knew to value one another. There were always internecine squabbles, but not to the degree that we experience today in our period of plenty.

Hakadosh Boruch Hu has blessed us with abundance. We have risen so miraculously from the ashes of the Holocaust that we don’t fathom the miraculous nature of our revival. Nor have we sustained that love and appreciation for a fellow Jews that survivors and victims felt.

The Talmud Yerushalmi teaches the following message about sinas chinom: (Yoma 1:1): “We find that the first Bais Hamikdosh was destroyed because there were those who were ovdei avodah zarah, megalei arayos and shofchei domim. We know that the Jews during the period of the second Bais Hamikdosh studied Torah and observed the mitzvos, were punctilious in giving maaser, and had proper middos. Yet they loved their money and hated each other for no reason, and sinas chinom is as great a sin as the three cardinal aveiros.” The Bavli in Yoma (9a) contains a similar narrative.

The Vilna Gaon explains that the severity of sinas chinom stems from the fact that at the root of the hatred and jealousy lies lack of trust in Hashem.

Those who are jealous and those who resent other people’s success in essence deny that Hashem runs the world, and decides what each person should receive. People who are consumed with accumulating wealth attribute their gains to their own talents. They don’t believe that Hashem decrees how much people earn. Anyone who surpasses them in business, career, talent, status or popularity becomes the object of their jealousy, resentment and hatred. When they see the size of another person’s house, they are overcome with anger. When they see someone else make money, they hate them. “How dare they! Who do they think they are?!” Were they to believe that all a person has comes from Hashem, they wouldn’t be so filled with jealousy and hatred.

That is the explanation of the words of the Yerushalmi. The Jews of the generation of the bayis shaini loved their money and they therefore hated others with sinas chinom.

Since the Bais Hamkidosh has not been returned to us, it is an indication that we have still not overcome the sins of sinas chinom caused by jealousy. We are still consumed by these dark forces. We can’t stand to see other people succeed, and when they do, we endeavor to rip them down. We are constantly judging others negatively. We have our fingers on the trigger waiting to catch someone making a mistake so we can embarrass them and destroy them.

The Mishnah states that the epitome of strength is embodied by the person who controls his yeitzer. The truly rich person is he who is happy with his lot. The Maharal comments on this Mishnah that if one can defeat others, it is not necessarily because of his own personal strength; it may be because of his opponent’s weakness. However, if he triumphs over the evil inclination which seeks to entrap him, that is the true yardstick of strength. He is not strong because his opponent is weak; he is strong because he has beaten a strong opponent.

In the same vein, if one considers himself wealthy because of his holdings, then his wealth is determined by outside factors and is never secure. On the other hand, if a person is content with whatever Hashem assigns him, that kind of “merchandise” can never be diminished by outside circumstances, and is thus the only real, enduring wealth.

We all seek wealth, comfort and happiness. We long for an end to our suffering and pray for the golus to end. Those blessings are contingent on one thing; our determination to defeat the urge to believe in our own abilities and deny the Hand of Hashem.

Since sinas chinom ultimately flows from jealousy and jealousy is a product of egotism, we have to work on the antidote: strengthening our trust and belief in Hashem, as well as our love of our fellow Jews. We must work on treating everyone with the dignity, respect and compassion with which we ourselves want to be treated.

In that merit, may we all be zoche to celebrate Tisha B’Av as a Yom Tov in Yerushalayim Habenuyah this year.

Bringing the Joy Back to Tammuz

2009-06-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Ask any Western diplomat what he considers to be the greatest threat to peace and democracy in the world. Most would undoubtedly agree that it is militant Islam, which is fast approaching nuclear capability. In other words, the current government of Iran is the greatest threat to world democracy.

Ruled by hardline clerics since 1979, Iran is headed by a supreme ayatollah and ostensibly governed by elected officials. The person in command these days is a crafty lunatic bent on procuring nuclear weapons with which to terrorize the West. He has repeatedly threatened to bomb Israel to utter destruction. Experts take his threats very seriously.

The specter of a nuclear Iran hangs over the Mideast and Eretz Yisroel, overshadowing all other dangers, including the conflict with the Palestinians. In fact, previous Israeli governments going back to 1990 agreed to desperate concessions with the Palestinians, hoping that by resolving the Palestinian problem, Israel would be in a better position to deal with Iran.

Iran menaces not only Israel, but the entire Middle East. Exporting its brand of terror to other countries is one of Teheran’s key objectives. Through its many proxies, including Hezbollah and Hamas, it seeks to impose radical Islam on all countries in the region.

Given this grave danger and Iran’s pivotal role in the “Axis of Evil,” one would expect world leaders to make it their foremost priority to overthrow the current regime. However, this is far from the case. An endless round of ineffective negotiations, embargos and tough-talking but toothless pronouncements by successive world leaders have failed to halt Iran’s march toward nuclear power.

Rumors abound about Israel preparing to bomb Iran in order to halt its race towards nuclear capability, but for now this appears to be little more than talk.

America, too, remains undecided, with opposing political camps hotly divided on how to deal with the threat. The new president naively believes that through negotiation he can convince the radical mullahs to give up their quest for nuclear weaponry, the key to military ascendancy in the region.

The world’s inaction and fear has clearly emboldened Teheran.

To many of us, the true nature of Iran’s “mullahtocracy” has been long obvious. The clerics posture as divine advocates of peace and love, but their real ambition is clear: controlling the reins of power. The current election chaos in Iran has shattered their pretensions. The unleashing of a murderous militia on Iranians who protested a stolen vote has unmasked the true nature and agenda of Iran’s leadership.

This exposure was compounded last Friday, when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the “Supreme Leader” of Iran, warned of “bloodshed and chaos” to follow if the protesters don’t back down and recognize Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the legitimate winner of the election. Remarkably, the Supreme Leader’s previously unquestioned leadership was suddenly challenged. Seeing his true colors, the people defied him.

No longer will he be viewed by the Iranian people as an omnipotent moral leader, driven by his concern and love for them. His own actions have exposed him as a power-hungry hypocrite, far more interested in maintaining his grip on power than in carrying out his obligations to Allah and the Iranian people.

In the face of these public revelations, the response of the leaders of the free world has been bitterly disappointing. While millions of rank-and-file citizens of the West are cheering on the throngs of Iranians who are prepared to sacrifice their lives for the cause of freedom, the leaders of the “free world” are fumbling about, uncertain how to respond to this unexpected Divine windfall.

Contemplate the amazing twist of events. While world leaders wring their hands over how to deter Ahmadinejad from his nuclear pursuits, the madman of Teheran comes closer and closer to reaching his goal. Seemingly out of nowhere, the people of Iran suddenly rise up to throw off the shackles of Islamic tyranny. Night after night and day after day, hundreds of thousands confront religious policemen who carry guns and steel batons. And not one Western leader has the courage to stand alongside them and proclaim what everyone knows to be true! Not one Western leader spoke forcefully in favor of the revolution to protest the election fraud and human rights abuses on the streets of Iran, perpetrated in view of the entire world. As dozens are killed and thousands are beaten and hauled off to jail, world leaders have contented themselves with mouthing feeble platitudes.

Not one has the moral courage and leadership to identify a murderer and a madman by his true name.

The same champions of morality who condemn Israel for not granting full rights to people who seek their destruction, the very same officials who strut about on the world stage condemning Israel’s leaders for enacting measures to protect the lives of their citizens, fall silent in the face of wanton brutality in Iran. They portray the hypocrisy of their positions by their double standard when it comes to Jews. They proclaim the presence of a few trailers as impediments to world peace. But when presented with an opportunity to actually spread democracy, or to advocate for the forces of freedom, they tiptoe around the truth, mumbling diplomatic nonsense.

As the Ayatollah maintains control by unleashing Iranian Revolutionary Guard units who shoot into the crowds, the international community remains silent. Meanwhile, the ongoing protests delay the talks that President Barack Obama has been waiting for since he began campaigning for the presidency. With each passing day, Teheran marches closer to its goal, while the window of opportunity for halting the fateful process is quickly closing.

Former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mir Hussein Mousavi are trying to prevent an apocalyptic ending to the Iranian republic, but no one in the West is reaching out to support them. Dissidents post videotapes of the mullah’s goons killing innocent young people, but President Obama fails to condemn the savagery, refusing to take sides. Shouldn’t the most powerful leader of the free world be boosting the morale of the freedom fighters? What is the rationale behind Obama’s silence?

Some say that he fears meddling in what he refers to as an internal Iranian problem, because he doesn’t want to burn his bridges with Ahmadinejad. They say that Obama has deluded himself into believing that Ahmadinejad and Khamenei, while resisting the pressure of the masses who oppose them, will not be able to resist the American president’s charisma and superior statesmanship. Why waste oratorical talent on behalf of the struggling revolutionaries, when he can earn world approval for winning over the madman who threatens the free world?

Obama may well prefer to keep Ahmadinejad in power, because only then can Obama establish himself as a world hero by neutralizing a world menace, thus saving civilization.

This kind of egotistic rationalization is unfortunately not limited to Obama. It exists as well in our own insular world. And it is the reason that evil continues to fester.

Not to compare people in our world with an evil maniac like Ahmadinejad, but there are times when we know we should take action but do not, because we make cheshbonos. When confronted with evil, and corrupt and depraved behavior, we are afraid to stand up and denounce it. We examine the issue from all sides, weighing the pros and cons of clear-cut opposition. We equivocate and try to figure out what’s in it for us personally, instead of considering the greater good.

When people prey on the weak, and we are hesitant to confront and expose them because we don’t want to appear as baalei machlokes, we are enabling evil to flourish. When we accept money and honor from people we know to be corrupt, we are encouraging these people to grow in power and influence. When we permit people we don’t respect to speak in our name and represent us simply because we don’t want to rock the boat, we are strengthening the hand of individuals who are incompetent to lead. When we permit others to publicly humiliate good people who have attempted to improve the public welfare, we are contributing to the moral pollution of our world.

Abused people cannot fight alone. Victims cannot be expected to have the moral stamina to fight off those who harmed them. By doing nothing to hold the guilty to account, we are as guilty as the perpetrators. The only way evil can flourish is if people of good will remain silent, either out of fear or self-interest.

We have to dedicate ourselves fully to the truth, while maintaining determination to courageously battle on its behalf. We must remain loyal to the good people among us when they come under attack. It is only with selfless and focused perseverance, coupled with courage, that we can survive as bnei Torah in the image of our forefathers. They had the fortitude to withstand the many obstacles thrown their way, maintaining their indomitable spirit and faith in times of darkness. In a world that has lost its moral compass, we must pray for the wisdom and strength to cling to our ideals and beliefs.

This week, we ushered in the month of Tammuz, one of the saddest months in the Jewish calendar. If we want to infuse joy into this month, we have to strengthen our abhorrence of sheker. It isn’t enough to posture. Standing on the sidelines trying to gauge winners and losers won’t accomplish anything. We don’t have the luxury of confining our concern to our own families. In the troubling times in which we live, it is the few courageous ones who have the ability to save the rest of us. We all have that strength within us waiting to be tapped. Let us rise to the challenge to be among those select few who can prepare the world for the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu bekarov.

The Tent of Torah

2009-06-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Ever since the Reagan years, the American people have been blessed primarily with presidents who befriended Israel. Although there were times when not everything went according to the way friends of Israel hoped, an open dialogue prevailed between the two countries, marked by a mutual understanding of the historic relationship between them. This was the status quo for many years.

Diplomatic jargon falsely equating Palestinian difficulties caused by Israeli security clampdowns with the suffering of the Jews in the Holocaust had yet to become part of political parlance.

The election of Barack Obama changed all this. His recent Cairo address to the Muslim world put his policy shift on clear display. His speech was notable in its obvious efforts to curry favor with Muslims and its significant omissions that offer a roadmap into his true mindset about the Jewish people and Eretz Yisroel.

In addition to highlighting his ethnic brotherhood with Muslims by proudly referring to his middle name, Hussein, Obama engaged in an unprecedented twisting of historical facts, leading to erroneous and dangerous conclusions.

Having chosen to deliver this address in Egypt, Obama blithely ignored that his host state is run by a dictator, much as is every other Muslim state, with little or no tolerance of dissent. He decried Israel’s “humiliation” of Palestinians, ignoring the fact that the Palestinian reign of terror, which has cost the lives of thousands of innocent civilians, has made tough security measures a life-and-death necessity.

The president actually said that Israel should be negotiating with Hamas, the terror group dedicated to destroying the Jewish state. The fact that Hamas won control of Gaza following Israel’s cowardly flight from the region has apparently legitimized this terror group in the president’s eyes.

Not wanting to offend Muslim sensibilities, Obama carefully avoided all mention of the word “terror” or “terrorism.” Instead of denouncing radical Islam for promoting global terrorism, Obama spoke only about Islam’s “proud tradition of tolerance.” Tolerance? What tolerance for religious differences of any kind exists in Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia or any of the other Islamic states?

In the course of his speech, Obama also opined that Iran is entitled to nuclear power!

Notwithstanding the president’s weak-kneed address, he later rushed to attribute partial credit for an electoral revolution against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and a near political defeat of Ahmadinejad in Iran, to his speech filled with flattery and appeasement!

Offering his bona fides as a student of history, Obama then proceeded to falsify history. He claimed that modern civilization owes a great debt to Islam because it paved the way for the renaissance in Europe, by demonstrating the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.

Exactly as intended, this fallacious rendition of history jacked up the president’s approval ratings with his hosts and the worldwide Muslim community.

His speech made no mention of Israel’s historical claim to its land. It implied that the Jewish people’s right to Eretz Yisroel is based purely on Jewish suffering during the Holocaust, which justified their request for a homeland. Pulling out the equivalency argument, he went on to extol the Palestinians for surviving their own [so-called] victimhood at the hands of the Israelis, suggesting that they, too, have thereby earned their right to an independent state.

How frustrating to hear someone in a position of great leadership and responsibility deliberately fudge the truth and prattle nonsense!

Israel, we all know, has been victimized by Arab terror and war mongering for decades. It has done all in its power to foster a peaceful existence, only to be spurned. If only the Arabs would have Gaza, they would accept Israel, the argument went. If only the Arabs had the West Bank, they would then accept Israel in their midst, the pundits now insist.

What of the fact that the Arabs did have the West Bank when, in 1967, they tried to wipe Israel off the map, provoking the war that led to Israel’s liberation of those territories? What of the fact that there really is no such a thing as an Arab indigenous population of that territory? And let’s not forget that there are dozens of expansive Islamic countries with the ability to absorb the Palestinian refugees, but who deliberately choose not to, in order to continuously stoke the flames of hatred and violence.

Obama, an ardent spokesman of the liberal left, is stuck, along with his advisors, in a moral equivalency trap. There is nothing that will convince people blinded by a false ideology of the truth.

Binyomin Netanyahu can call for immediate peace talks and volunteer to travel anywhere to undertake that mission. Yet, the world will refer to him as the hardline hawk who seeks war and not peace, confrontation and not a solution. The countries of the world slam him for having the temerity to insist that the Arabs and Palestinians recognize the existence of Israel, reinforcing the pattern of chopping down every olive branch Israel has ever extended to its foes.

Bibi can lay out the truth of the history of the West Bank and the peace process - the Arab regimes continuously seeking to drive Israel into the sea and their refusal to recognize the Jewish people’s right to an independent country in their historical homeland. He can call upon the Palestinians to forsake war and terror and finally recognize Israel’s right to live in peace on the land of Eretz Yisroel. Everything else, he stated, would then fall into place.

None of this will alter the mindset of Israel’s enemies, or of the Palestinians’ apologists. Obama, Clinton, Jimmy Carter and all the pro-Arab voices will continue to single out Netanyahu as the primary impediment to peace in the Middle East.

The willful blindness to history and to current realities in that region is also reflected in the administration’s tendency to hide from important truths affecting the economic situation here in the United States.

Instead of freeing up capital for people to invest and spend, the president sees fit to raise taxes and engage in other activities that reduce the amount of money available for private citizens to spend to get the economy going again.

Instead of strengthening the capitalist underpinnings which have made this country great, they are engaging in socialist prescriptions which have been discredited wherever they have been previously tried.

Part of their plan is to revamp the vaunted American health care system to resemble that of countries that practice nationalized health care to disastrous consequences. They refuse to recognize the simple fact that their trillion dollar boondoggle will not only drain more money from the pockets of hardworking Americans, but it will also rob them of the quality healthcare they now enjoy.

Many of their other initiatives are doomed to failure even as they throw the country into unprecedented deficits and looming inflation. Yet they persist, ignoring the facts and spewing propaganda in the face of obvious truths.

Many of us stand by and watch these developments, wondering what, if anything, we can do to restore traditional American foreign and national policies.

Rather than despair over the negative way things seem to be going, let us remind ourselves that our job is to leave the running of world affairs to the Creator, and to focus on our purpose in this world: to use all our resources to grow in Torah and to spread the light of Torah.

I had the pleasure of attending a parlor meeting Sunday night in a tent behind the home of Mr. and Mrs. Rocky Stefansky in Lakewood. The evening was a fundraiser on behalf of the Cherry Hill Community Kollel. The setting was beautiful, the audience a mix of concerned Lakewood people and fifty individuals from the Cherry Hill community.

Rabbi Yissocher Frand began the program with a grand slam performance. He touched all the bases and drove home the point of how important it is for a town to have a center from where Torah and kedushah emanate and which invigorates the local residents.

Scanning the audience, one could see so many nice, fine Jews and appreciate that thanks to the dedication of Lakewood kollel yungeleit, they had been drawn to the Shechinah

The hartizgeh Yehuda Green began to sing, tugging at heartstrings. Before you knew it, black-hatted Lake-wooders were dancing in the aisles, arm in arm with kipah serugah members of the Cherry Hill Kollel community. What a stirring testimony to the power of Torah in uniting Jews of different backgrounds! The scene demonstrated the love and reverence that flow between Jews of all stripes when they are united under the banner of Torah.

A distinguished and successful-looking individual addressed the gathering, telling the audience that prior to meeting the kollel people, he considered himself a good Jew, though he had never heard of Hashem. Thanks to the kollel, he began learning Torah and putting on tefillin, and eventually became observant. He said that now the study of Torah is the greatest thrill in his life. Such is the draw of Torah! Such is the power of kollel families to affect a town.

In his remarks, Rabbi Frand spoke about momentous opportunities to be marbeh kevod Shomayim that often knock at one’s door. He stressed the obligation to seize the moment and turn it into something worthwhile and eternal. So many searching Jews await an opportunity to discover Hashem and His Torah. It seems obvious that this is our calling at this unique juncture in history.

When everything is crumbling all around us, when people are ready to give up hope for the future, when madmen threaten the entire world with nuclear weapons and no solution is seen on the horizon, our only recourse is to strengthen the knowledge of Hashem in our immediate environs, as well as throughout the world.

When people grope in confusion for a moral and spiritual anchor, it is time to create more oases of Torah and kedushah to chase away the forces of darkness. This will bring us closer to the day the neviim prophesized about when “umala kol ha’aretz deah es Hashem,” the world will recognize the greatness of Hashem, laying the groundwork for the arrival of Moshiach. As long as we remain in golus, the powers of evil will fester, with darkness constantly battling to extinguish the light.

When policy changes in the administration frighten us, when the threats of an Iranian president set off alarms, when the economic downturn gives us sleepless nights, we have to remind ourselves that our only salvation is to strengthen the forces of Torah and seek to bring more people into its tent.

We say Kinos on Tisha B’Av and cry out, “Ein lanu shiyur rak haTorah hazos - We have nothing left but Torah.” We have lost so much and so many, but we still have the Torah. We must do whatever we can to help strengthen Torah during these difficult times.

The more Torah is studied, the more of our fellow Jews will be brought into the Torah’s tent, and the closer we will be to the day that truth will finally triumph over falsehood with the final redemption, may it happen speedily in our day.

Getting Dirty

2009-06-10T13:27:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Look around you at the people who have used their lives to make an enduring difference. Examine some of the people who have really made the world a better place and see what is different about them. Taking a careful look, you will often discover an ordinary person, with one difference: he stuck his neck out and worked to right wrongs. He saw a vacuum and sought to fill it.

With dogged determination and persistence, he fought off the urge to pull back and give up. He ignored the nagging voices that said it couldn’t be done and dug deep into the recesses of his soul to find the strength and succor to accomplish his mission.

People like this refuse to be discouraged by those who advise them that their goals are impossible to attain.

We often hear such an individual being praised for “accomplishing the impossible,” almost as if he pulled off something supernatural, against the natural order. The truth is that the person may have indeed gone far beyond the norm in dedication, sacrifice and commitment.

But even that is not what brought him success. He tasted success only because the Divine Hand enabled him to do so, or else it truly would have been impossible to achieve what he did.

Anyone who walks this earth with his eyes open is aware of the Yad Hashem that touches us every moment of our lives. We see siyata diShmaya constantly. We work hard to accomplish our goal and then Hashem takes over.

Every person was created to carry out a mission in life. Those who succeed are the ones who don’t let anything deter them for long. With faith in the One Above, they ignore the difficulties that would throw off lesser men. They continue their hishtadlus with the knowledge that Hashem will assist them and take over for them at the proper time.

This week’s parsha of Beha’aloscha offers a paradigm of how man’s wholehearted efforts to be mekadeish sheim Shomayim, elicit Divine favor. The parsha discusses the mitzvah of lighting the menorah. The first Rashi on the parsha explains why this mitzvah follows the recitation of the korbanos that the nesiim of the shevatim brought to inaugurate the Mishkan in Parshas Naso.

Aharon Hakohein was upset that he had no part in the chanukas haMishkan. Hakadosh Brouch Hu told him, “Shel’cha gedolah mishelahem - Your share is greater than that of the nesi’im, she’atah madlik umeitiv es haneiros - because you set up and light the wicks of the menorah.”

The second Rashi explains that the word beha’aloscha indicates that the kohein kindles the wick until the fire rises by itself - “ad shetehei shalheves olah mei’eileha.”

The kohein is commanded to clean out the vessel and light the menorah, but he is told that in the end, it will light by itself. It is his duty to be meitiv, which also can be translated to mean doing good with others. Indeed, Aharon Hakohein was an oheiv shalom verodeif shalom. A kohein who is meitiv, a kohen who is prepared to reach in and do the dirty work, will merit that G-d will help him and the light will be lit by itself, if he just carries out the initial steps of lighting it.

The kohein is told that if he does the initial hishtadlus; gets his hands dirty and has the requisite belief and commitment to actualize his shlichus, he is promised that the task will be completed by Hashem.

Shel’cha gedolah mishel-ahem. Thus, the act of kindling the menorah is greater than the korbanos that the nesi’im brought for the chanukas haMishkan. The avodas hahakrovah was not even done by them.

Such a donation to the Mishkan does not have the same everlasting impact as the hadlokah and hatovah performed by the kohein himself, as he was waiting for the shalheves to be oleh mei’eileha.

In last week’s parsha (7:9), we learned that the Bnei Kehos weren’t given wagons to assist them in carrying the keilim of the Mishkan throughout the Midbar as were the Bnei Gershon and Bnei Merori. The posuk states regarding the Bnei Kehos, “Avodas hakodesh aleihem bakoseif yiso’uh.” Since they were given the job of carrying the aron, mizbei’ach, shulchan and menorah, they had to carry them on their shoulders, as the sanctity of these objects did not permit them to be placed in wagons for transport.

Chazal say that “aron nosei es nosav,” the aron carried those who carried it. Thus, even though the Bnei Kehos place the aron on their shoulders to transport it, carrying it did not require more than the initial effort of lifting. Following that initial exertion, they were in fact assisted by Hashem; the heavy keilim they shouldered actually carried them.

Those who endeavor to accomplish and spread holiness in this world and are prepared to do the heavy lifting are granted Heavenly assistance to complete the task.

The fact is that although our efforts contribute very little to the actual results, there is a factor we do control. Our mesiras nefesh plays a major role in evoking siyata diShmaya.

The only limits to what we can accomplish are those which we set by ourselves. If we let the forces of negativity and cynicism get to us, we will achieve as little as those who cultivate the negative forces. If we ignore the chorus of naysayers and nitpickers, there is no limit to what we can achieve to benefit our generation and generations to come.

Let us set out to be madlik and meitiv to the best of our abilities and then watch as the shalheves is olah mei’eileha. Our children and neighbors will bless us and our cheilek will be with Aharon Hakohein.

The News and Us

2009-06-03T12:35:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

A parade of frightening news has been emanating from Washington and state capitals over the past months, yet we sit by apathetically and involve ourselves with trivialities.

In Eretz Yisroel, the Olmert and Kadima gang are finally out of power, yet the peace charade continues. The young American president presses on with the discredited peace agenda, and together with his secretary of state, chief of staff and other minions seeks to force the new Israeli prime minister into suicidal concessions.

Five years ago, President Bush laid out his plan for peace in Israel. The first US president to call for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, he called on “the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror.” He said, “I call upon them to build a practicing democracy, based on tolerance and liberty.” Of course, he added that the “Palestinian state will never be created by terror - it will be built through reform. And reform must be more than cosmetic change, or veiled attempts to preserve the status quo.”

And his lofty visions and inspiring words made it even worse.

Ariel Sharon pulled Israel out of Gaza, saying that it would bring the hoped-for peace with the Palestinian people. His legacy was carried forward by Ehud Olmert, a man blinded by ambition and hubris.

Just as we and many others predicted, the Gaza withdrawal accomplished little more than to provide terrorists with a new platform from which to launch a jihad against Israel.

As per the instruction of Bush and then Secretary of State Rice, democratic elections were held in “Palestine” and Hamas was permitted to run, though it had not forsworn violence and refused to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. Israel didn’t think Hamas would win anyway - another intelligence failure - and Rice posited that even if they did win, governing would force them to act responsibly and come around to the American position.

Needless to say, they were all wrong.

The Arabs don’t like PA President Mahmoud Abbas much more than the Israelis do. He is a farcical character, a useful idiot, used to foment the lie that there is a Palestinian peace partner. A lackey of Arafat, he did nothing to move his people towards peace and moderation. PA textbooks are still full of incitement to hatred. His government is corrupt and inept. All his negotiations with Israel are and were a charade.

No one asks the obvious question of why Israel should make peace with a nation sworn to its destruction and which rejects peace deals signed by so-called leaders who don’t represent anyone.

And now that Bush is gone and there is another president in his place, expect the pressure on Israel to get even stronger. He is reversing long-standing US policy and abrogating promises that were made to then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon by President George W Bush in writing in 2004. As the US abrogates its previous understandings, it demands that Israel honor obligations it made predicated upon those understandings and Arab reciprocity, which of course never happened.

Obama may actually believe the leftist propaganda and think that by negotiating with America’s enemies, a new day will dawn when the sun will always shine and murderers will put down their tools of terror.

As these lines are being written, Obama is preparing for a speech to be delivered in Cairo in which he will stretch out a hand of friendship to the Muslim world where dictators keep their subjects poor and backward as they blame the Jews for their troubles. It is all the fault of Israel, they say. The tiny country of a few million surrounded by hundreds of millions of Arabs in countries all across the horizon, is the cause of all the world’s problems. If only Israel would carve away some of its limited land and give it to a nomadic people sworn to its destruction, peace would rein in the Middle East, long-term calm would result, the world-wide recession would come to a crashing halt, and global warming would cease to threaten the future of mankind.

Last week, while we were celebrating Shavuos, there was another manifestation of the Chazal which teaches that the mountain on which the Torah was given is named Sinai, because when the Torah was delivered to Am Yisroel, a sinah of the Jewish people descended upon the world along with it. An inexplicable animosity began that day, and despite all the progress the world has made since then, the primitive detestation of The Chosen People is as strong as ever.

Hosting the unrepentant terrorist Abbas, whose poll numbers are even lower than New York Governor David Paterson’s, the president made sure to say that he is insisting that Israel stop the settlements, dismantle the outposts and work to alleviate the hardships that the Palestinians are forced to endure due to Israel’s security concerns.

Netanyahu was here last week and promised to move ahead with a three-track peace process as soon as Abbas would recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish country. Abbas refuses to do that. But he wants peace. He really does. Emboldened by Obama’s talk, Abbas now says that he will not talk to Netanyahu until the settlements stop. The Washington Post reported that Abbas is counting on the new US administration to pressure Netanyahu to the point that his government falls and Livni takes over to hand him what he desires.

We read this and we wonder, what is going on here? How can it be that people who are supposed to be so smart act so foolishly? How is it that a candidate who promised to be Israel’s best friend, who raked in Jewish money and votes, is going down this failed road?

Our concern is not just about the Mid-East peace process, it is also in regards to Iran, which threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Does Obama really think that he can sweet talk them into forsaking their genocidal ambitions?

The world that first defeated fascism and then communism is now threatened by Islamic totalitarianism. This has a special message for us as Jews.

To the extent that we recognize that all that transpires is by Divine decree and plan, Hashem watches over and protects us. The sefer Chovos Halevavos states, at the beginning of Shaar Habitachon, that Hashem removes his protection from one who puts his faith in others and only protects those who place their faith in Him.

In Shaar Cheshbon Hanefesh, the Chovos Halevavos states that one who puts his faith in Hashem is rewarded. Hashem “opens his gates of understanding, reveals to him secrets of His chochmah, places an eye on him to guide him and will not abandon him only to his own powers and abilities.”

The Rambam in Hilchos Taanis writes that it is a mitzvas asei to cry out and blow shofros for every tzarah which befalls the Jewish community. This is one of the paths to teshuvah. When a tragedy befalls the community, everyone must acknowledge that it is due to their sins. However, if instead of crying out they ascribe the threat facing the community to “the way the world works,” such an attitude is an outgrowth of the middah of achzorius and ends up deepening and multiplying the tragedy.

The entire purpose of tragedy is to inspire us to do teshuvah.

The Ramban at the end of Parshas Bo writes that the purpose of creation was for man to acknowledge that Hashem created the world and to serve Him wholeheartedly. This is also the purpose of raising our voice in prayer, the purpose of botei kneisiyos, and the reason for the zechus of tefillah b’tzibbur - to enable people to publicly gather and acknowledge their Creator.

We must realize, says the Ramban, the foundation of the Torah is that everything which occurs in this world is a miracle, brought about by Hashem. Nothing happens at random. Nothing can be attributed to the forces of nature or “the way the world works.”

Someone who doesn’t believe this has no share in Toras Moshe, the Ramban affirms. People who observe the mitzvos will succeed, and those who don’t will be punished with destruction.

He also teaches that the hidden miracles that occur daily are more evident when you examine the actions that affect the entire community. As the posuk says (Devorim, 29:23-24), “And the nations of the world will say, why did Hashem do this to the Holy Land? And they will answer, because the Jews let go of the covenant that was made with Hashem, the G-d of their forefathers.”

Says the Ramban, this is foretelling that the destruction of Eretz Yisroel will be understood by the nations as a punishment for the Jews forsaking the Torah.

We have often cited the words of Rav Chaim Vital in his peirush on sefer Tehillim, where he writes that the final golus will be golus Yishmoel. The exile that will take place under the Yishmoelim will be worse than any previous golus. The Yishmoelim will go from being tent-dwelling desert nomads to ruling over the entire world and Israel, and they will cause us unprecedented grief. They will seek to wipe us off the face of the earth, and without Divine intervention, they would be able to implement their murderous designs.

At that time, we will cry out to Hashem and He will hear our cries and prayers. Hence the name Yishmoel, composed of two words, Yishma and Keil, meaning Hashem will hear, according to the Pirkei D’Rabi Eliezer (32).

What is happening now with the offspring of Yishmoel is preordained. In order for us to prevail over Yishmoel, we must raise our voices in prayer. His name does not hint that if we are strong and battle him with chivalry, we will defeat him. His name does not hint that if we engage him in diplomacy, we will outwit him. His name proclaims that the only way to defeat him is through tefillah.

We can sit and pontificate all day about what Obama is doing wrong and how he misses the boat, and it won’t make any difference. Everything that happens is from Hashem, especially when dealing with Eretz Yisroel, about which the posuk (Devorim 11:12) states, “Eretz asher Hashem Elokecha doreish osah tomid einei Hashem Elokecha boh meireishis hashanah ve’ad acharis shanah.”

The Gemara in Avodah Zarah (2b) states that at the end of time, when Moshiach comes, the nations of the world will stand up and protest the punishment they are about to receive for their treatment of the Jews. They will all proclaim that everything they did was only to benefit the Jews and their service of G-d and Torah.

The Gemara says that Poras, Persia, will cry out that everything they did was to help the Jews. “We built many bridges, conquered many towns and waged war,” they will say, “to enable the Jews to learn Torah.”

We understand the grounds for claiming that they built bridges and other infrastructure to enable the study of Torah, but how does waging war help the Jews learn Torah?

Perhaps this can be understood to mean that they waged war in order to scare the Jews into doing teshuvah and returning to Torah study.

Poras, Persia, is the present day state of Iran. When the ruler of that country rises up and repeatedly proclaims, publicly, to the entire world that he intends to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, who in their right mind would doubt that he means to do just that? When he continues his maniacally feverish race to arm himself with nuclear weapons to carry out his bloody intentions, the world stands by and pretends to engage in a process to curtail his ambitions. Yet, he continues on, every day getting closer to attaining his goal.

We must raise our voices in passionate prayer that Hashem spare us from his evil intents.

We should use every opportunity to study more Torah, better ourselves and do more for the downtrodden to create more zechuyos for our people.

We have written previously about the problems of abuse and the empathy we must display for the poor victims who, through no fault of their own, suffer lives of pain and anguish. The slew of letters to the editor since the publishing of a landmark column on that topic rip at our hearts and minds when we realize the levels of distress prevalent in our very own community.

We must open our hearts to all who suffer and seek to aid by assisting them any way we can.

There are so many causes we can involve ourselves in. The economic recession has affected so many people we know. Countless families are without a breadwinner and cannot pay their bills. Once proud people are barely hanging on. Rabbeim and moros are not being paid. We should be doing more to bring our resources together to aid people who don’t know where the next dollar will come from.

To improve the world we live in, we must do more to ensure a certain level of morality in the society that surrounds us. We cannot assume that the laws of the land and its mores won’t affect us; they all have an insipient way of creeping in and spreading the rot to us. We’ve seen it with feminism and the creeping affect it is having upon Orthodoxy. Years ago we were told to ignore it, because it won’t affect us, but tragically, we have found the reverse to be true. And now, as it gets closer and closer, we still see no one rising up to say that enough is enough.

As society goes down the tubes, as politicians promote their radical agendas, we cannot ignore what is happening. We must let them know that we cannot support candidates who vote for judges who don’t hew to the constitution and do all they can to supplant the Judeo-Christian moral standards that this country was founded upon.

Most of all, we must arm ourselves with the weapons of the spirit bequeathed to us by Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov.

Mea Culpa

2009-05-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

On Shavuos we read Megillas Rus. Many commentators speak of the connection of this megillah to the days that commemorate the receiving of the Torah. Based on an unfortunate experience this past week, I thought of a new explanation.

The megillah opens with the words, “Vayehi b’yimei shefot hashoftim - And it happened during the period that the shoftim ruled over the bnei Yisroel.” We are all familiar with the way the words of the posuk are juxtaposed to portray the period of time in which the story with Naomi and Rus took place. “It was in the days that people judged their judges.” It was a period of a certain sense of anarchy because people in those days were cynical about their leaders and mocked their decisions.

Chazal are teaching us that cynicism is not a middah consonant with kabbolas haTorah. Chazal are hinting that because the people didn’t respect the shoftim of the day, and because they mocked them and were negative and cynical, they suffered hunger and pestilence and had to move about in order to seek improvement in their income and status.

A message in Megillas Rus - and one of the reasons we read it on Shavuos - is to teach us that a prerequisite for becoming a ben Torah is to be non-judgmental about leaders. Ikrei emunah, as well, are not matters to mock through derisive sarcasm.

Our generation is blessed in many ways. The Olam HaTorah is growing by leaps and bounds. More people than ever have dedicated their lives to Torah study. Mitzvos which once required mesiras nefesh are now easily observable, and difficulties in matters of kashrus and shemiras Shabbos are things of the past.

But there are still aspects of our lives which can use some improvement. Foremost among them are the levels of cynicism and negativity which are too prevalent. The way we treat each other at times leaves much to be desired.

When we approach kabbolas haTorah and wonder what we can do to become true bnei Torah, it would seem that we should be working on our bein adam lachaveiro and the lens of leitzunus through which we view our world.

A negative aspect of cynicism and mockery was brought home when an advertisement unfortunately slipped through our system and appeared in the paper last week. Some things are just beyond the pale, and that ad was beyond the pale. Basic sacred concepts such as naaseh venishmah are not to be profaned with leitzunus. An ad which does that should not have been printed.

When Chazal teach that middos are a prerequisite to learning Torah, it is not just a nice drasha. Cynicism and mockery of Torah are not acceptable and should not be tolerated. An advertisement which utilizes such methods to sell a product has no place in our paper.

This paper began a lonely journey twenty-one years ago, and with many doses of mesiras nefesh, under the guidance of gedolim, set the standard which, for all practical purposes, changed what we bring into our homes. Publications which were considered to be the ‘norm’ are now non-entities. Ideas which crept into our machaneh are now kept out. And by and large, you can depend on the Yated to provide you with a magnificent variety of divrei Torah, musar and hashkafah thoughts, combined with a high level of news coverage on an intelligent level and free from the pollution which engulfs our world.

But we are not perfect. We are human. We all make mistakes. Regretfully, something was printed which shouldn’t have been. That doesn’t mean we have changed our standards and it doesn’t mean we are for sale. It means that though we are all working for the same cause, something slipped through. Regrettably, when involved in such a mammoth undertaking, there are oversights. Everyone makes mistakes, except those who do nothing.

As an am kadosh, we are commanded to behave differently than the ‘Yosef bashukah.’ As recipients and bearers of the Toras Emes and Toras Chesed, we have to cleave to the values that have helped us endure the dark exile surrounded by the ‘Yosefs bashukah.’

The words of Rav Yosef recounted in the Gemara Pesachim (68b), are often quoted to convey the extraordinary spiritual power of the day. On Shavuos, Rav Yosef would partake of a meal consisting of the finest meat. He explained that, “Ih lav hai yomah dekagarim kama Yosef ika b’shuka - If not for this day, there would be no difference between me and all the other Joes in the street.”

Rav Yosef was saying that the study of Torah is not just an intellectual pursuit. It transforms those who absorb its lessons and strive to make themselves into better and holier people.

The greatness of this day is that it celebrates this transformative force of the Torah on all aspects of our lives. If we remain with the same personality we possessed prior to our study, then we are just another Joe. If our limud haTorah falls short of changing us and does nothing for us, the day’s gifts have been wasted.

Torah is a Divine gift given to man, but it contains myriad obligations. The holiday and the accompanying joy are reserved for those who conduct themselves as Rav Yosef did, channeling their lives into a steady upward incline of elevated performance and accomplishments.

The posuk recounts that when Hashem appeared to the Bnei Yisroel and offered them the Torah, they responded in unison, “Naaseh venishmah - We will do and we will hear.” The Gemara in Shabbos (88a) cites Rav Simai’s teaching that when they answered thus, placing naaseh before nishmah, angels descended from Heaven and fastened two crowns on the head of each Jew, one for naaseh and one for nishmah. Rabi Elazar says that a bas kol rang out, stating, “Who taught my children this secret, which is used by the angels?”

Many commentators question what was so extraordinary about the words naaseh venishmah that the Jews were so richly praised for stating them. Many different answers are offered. Perhaps we can understand that the greatness of the response was that they understood that acting is of greater importance than listening. By placing naaseh ahead of nishmah, they demonstrated their understanding that Torah is not just an esoteric theoretical pursuit. They were stating that they understood that they had to make the performance of the Torah’s dictates their highest priority.

In addition, of course, they committed themselves to heeding the teachings of the Torah, poring over them and toiling to understand them. Torah study will be their most important pursuit in life; the nishmah will take precedence over all other occupations. But it will all be ancillary to the naaseh. The primary purpose of the Torah is for us to carry out its chukim and mishpatim. Other intellectual pursuits do not necessarily change the behavior of the person who engages in them. Their study does not improve a person’s character and make a better man. But the study of Torah must have a positive effect upon us.

When we proclaimed naaseh venishmah, we were saying that we were prepared to act like himmeldiker mentchen. We were prepared to act as people suffused with Torah and kedushah. We were prepared to obligate ourselves lilmod ulelameid lishmor vela’asos ulekayeim. We were prepared to be serious about Torah and our obligations.

Thus, the Jews were found deserving of receiving the Torah and declared to be on the level of angels who follow G-d’s word with steadfast devotion, without deviation or question.

At times, we lose sight of what our goals should be. We get so caught up with the difficulty inherent in the study and observance of Torah that we forget to apply its lessons to our daily lives and to become more cognizant of the others around us. We expect everyone to conform to our wishes, mimic our actions, and think exactly as we do. We become intolerant of other people’s feelings.

It is only when Hashem’s nation - the people who remain loyal to Him and his mitzvos - put their internecine squabbles and differences aside that we are worthy of being G-d’s nation. It is only when we stand together as one that we achieve our greatness and are able to overcome all who seek to drive us from the Tree of Life. It is only when we are mature enough and dedicated enough to own up to our mistakes and learn from them that we can attempt to achieve perfection.

If we recognize the greatness in each other, we can cross pollinate and enrich each other as Jews and as people. We grow, as we respect and learn from others.

Let’s treat all people the way we want to be treated, as Hillel the Elder told the man who asked him to teach him the whole Torah al regel achas. We are all familiar with Hillel’s response: “Mah de’aloch senei lechavroch lo sa’avid, v’iduch zil gemor - Don’t do to unto others what you don’t want done to you. As for the rest, go study.”

What was Hillel telling him? Is the Torah really only about ve’ohavta lereiachah kamocha?

Perhaps Hillel was teaching that the Torah is all about “talmud hameivi lidei maaseh,” Torah study which alters the way we behave, affecting positively the way we act. The basis of Torah is to know that its study has to affect our actions and the way we treat our fellow people. It is only after we accept this premise that we can set about learning. “Mah de’aloch senei lechavroch lo sa’avid, v’iduch zil gemor.”

This is what is meant by the Toras Kohanim at the beginning of Parshas Bechukosai. The posuk states, “Im bechukosai teileichu v’es mitzvosai tishmiru.” Hashem says that if we follow his chukim and mitzvos, all will be good. The Toras Kohanim, which is brought by Rashi, explains that the words v’es mitzvosai tishmiru mean that Hashem will bless us if we will toil in Torah in order to be able to follow its commandments. Ameilus baTorah is not sufficient if it is not animated by the intention to heed the Torah’s mandates.

During the Sefirah period, we have climbed the ladder of the 48 ways in which Torah is acquired. Most of the 48 requirements for having Torah listed in Pirkei Avos involve our actions bein adam lachaveiro.

Let us strive to seriously inculcate those attributes so that we can be zoche to kabbolas haTorah.

Chag Sameach. Ah gutten Yom Tov.

An Orderly Count

2009-05-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

This week’s parsha of Bamidbar begins a new sefer in the Torah. The parsha discusses the commandment to count the Bnei Yisroel and the order of their encampments as they made their way to the Promised Land.

Chazal pre-ordained that parshas Bamidbar should always be read the Shabbos before Shavuos. Perhaps this is because of the unique lessons inherent in the mitzvah to count Bnei Yisroel that are particularly relevant as we prepare to culminate the Sefirah counting.

As Rashi writes on the first posuk, Hakadosh Boruch Hu counts the Jews because he loves and treasures them, much the way a person tends to count and constantly monitor his money and other valuable possessions.

The Gemara in Maseches Bava Metziah 21b, commenting on this universal tendency, writes that if you find money in the street, you can assume that the owner has already recognized his loss and given up hope of ever getting his money back. This is based on the principle that since a person values his money, he regularly taps his pocket to make sure he hasn’t lost his wallet. Rarely does it happen that an object as valuable as a wallet or checkbook goes missing without its owner instantly realizing it.

We don’t lose sight of things that are important to us.

While there are many millions of Jews, every person is special in his own right and this is why each and every individual is counted. No Jew should ever feel that there are enough Jews in the world without him and he is therefore superfluous. No one should ever feel as if he is a faceless statistic of no importance. No Jew should ever be made to feel as if the world would be better off without him.

Every person should be treated the way we would want others to treat us, because we are all created in the image of G-d and are all precious in the eyes of Hashem.

People tend to be quick to condemn without knowing all the facts and without taking other people’s feelings into account. One of the steps we must climb during this period of Sefirah is the one that demands that every person be treated with proper respect. This lesson is implicit in Hashem’s command to regularly count the Jewish people to make known their love and importance to their Creator.

Rabi Akiva had 24,000 students. The magnitude of their ranks might have been responsible for why these students didn’t feel an obligation to treat each talmid as indispensable. Since there were so many of them, their chashivus in each other’s eyes was diminished. Thus, they didn’t treat each other with the maximum respect.

Just a few short decades ago, our people were almost decimated, r”l. Now that we have been blessed with remarkable growth, we must still value our fellow Jews the way Jews cherished one another during those awful day of persecution.

Not many years ago, yeshivos went begging for students. Just because schools are now bursting with talmidim and talmidos doesn’t mean that we should take them for granted.

The parsha also discusses the order in which the Jews traveled and rested in the desert: “Ish al machaneihu, ve’ish al diglo…” If everyone stayed in their appointed areas and didn’t stray into territory where they didn’t belong, they would be blessed. “VehaLeviim yachanu soviv leMishkan Ha’eidus, velo yehei ketzef.” There will be no cause for Divine anger upon the Bnei Yisroel if the Leviim remain encamped around the Mishkan.

The ability to recognize your proper position in the constellation of Am Yisroel is vital to achieving greatness and Divine assistance. Every shevet and every person in the shevet had to line up in their designated areas. There was no room for deviation - for a person to imagine that he could do better for himself if assumed a position somewhere other than where his shevet and lineage dictated.

There is often the temptation to step out of bounds, to think that if we were only in the place occupied by Bnei Levi, we would be able to accomplish more. We would be able to explain to them where they are misguided, what they should really be doing and how they could do it most effectively. So we jump out of line and out of order, ultimately helping no one and dooming ourselves to failure.

What causes such a lapse of judgment? It appears to come from a lack of humility and an overabundance of hubris; our self-importance gives rise to delusions that we belong where we don’t.

The ability to maintain proper order in our personal and communal lives is vital to being able to accomplish our own personal mission in life. This is one of the lessons of Sefirah. Counting the days during the Sefirah period provides us with the opportunity to inject proper order in our lives in preparation of Shavuos. Much as Rosh Hashanah is preceded by Elul, Shavuos is preceded by Sefirah, when we are given the opportunity to work on refining ourselves for the great day.

The day the Torah is given anew each year is rapidly approaching. Ever since the second day of Pesach, we have been marking off each day that passed since we sat at the Seder celebrating Yetzias Mitzrayim. The departure from Mitzrayim was the first step of the redemption process which culminates with Shavuos.

As we approach Shavuos, we need to assess how we measure up to the goals of Sefirah as spelled out for us by Chazal. Have we grown spiritually over this period? Have we improved our middos and the way we conduct ourselves in our dealings with our fellow Jews? Have we made ourselves worthy of accepting the Torah anew?

Sefirah is meant to be a process of growth and spiritual elevation. It is a reminder of the continuous opportunity for strengthening and deepening our yiras Shomayim and commitment to Torah, as we move along the path, one day at a time, from Yetzias Mitzrayim towards Kabbolas HaTorah.

True greatness is not something anyone is born with. It is acquired through hard work, dedication, unceasing study, review and practice. That is true of any pursuit, and certainly with regard to Torah. Before one can accept the Torah, before one can understand the Torah, he must attain a certain level of accomplishment in knowledge, in purity of thought and intention, and in his actual deeds.

Forty-nine rungs must be ascended, forty-nine gates of knowledge entered, and forty-nine days of Sefirah must have made their impact on one’s mind and heart before the journey’s summit is climaxed on Mount Sinai.

As the Am Hanivchar, we have to rise above the decadence, arrogance and falsehood that surrounds us. We have to work on purifying ourselves of the human failings that entrap us.

Before we can accept the Torah, we have to improve the way we deal with our fellow man and our relationships with family members, neighbors, employees and business acquaintances. We have to suppress our egos and physical drives; we have to properly organize ourselves on the personal and communal level. That is what sets us apart from the rest of humanity.

The summons to kedushah is forever before us. In countless ways, through every single day of the year, but never more explicitly than during the days leading up to Kabbolas HaTorah, the Torah is always calling upon us to heed our better nature, to perfect ourselves, so that we can ascend the mountain.

Let us demonstrate, with our personal behavior, that we have learned from what transpired to the talmidim of Rabi Akiva, that we have improved in the crucial areas in which they failed. From the kindness, respect and humility with which we treat each other, we can show that we are truly deserving of the Torah and are prepared to accept it.

Let us all make ourselves worthy, with Hashem’s help, of complete acceptance of the Torah and usher in the yemos haMoshiach, bimeheirah biyomeinu.

Keeping Hope Alive

2009-05-13T13:24:00.000-07:00

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

People expect to find quick and easy solutions to problems. They think that success can be won by sitting back and taking the easy way out. But it doesn’t work. There are no shortcuts. You can’t just sit down lackadaisically in front of a Gemara and expect to become a talmid chochom. You can’t accomplish something worthwhile unless you invest everything you are capable of into the challenge. Successful people have invariably worked long and hard and merited huge doses of siyata diShmaya to reach their pinnacle. Nobody who has made it in life has done so by being lazy.

That is the message of this week’s parsha of Bechukosai. The words, “Im bechukosai teileichu,” are illuminated by the immortal, oft-quoted words of Rashi: “Shetihiyu ameilim baTorah - That you shall study the words of the Torah with intensity.” Hashem tells us that if we want to earn his blessings, we have to work hard to study the Torah and follow its mitzvos.

When it comes to learning Torah, there are certainly no shortcuts to the goal of understanding G-d’s word. It takes intense effort and all-consuming involvement until the Torah touches your soul and enables you to become a true shomer Torah umitzvos and to merit the brachos hakesuvos baTorah.

This week, we celebrated Lag Ba’omer. In Eretz Yisroel, hundreds of thousands traveled to the kever of Rabi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron to daven at that holy site together with so many other good Jews. Those who didn’t make the trek built a neighborhood fire, which they danced around as they sang songs dedicated to Rabi Shimon bar Yochai and Rabi Akiva. The festivities injected a spiritual energy into the day.

Lag Ba’omer interrupted our mourning period. We took haircuts, shaved, trimmed our beards and allowed music to pump into our psyches once again. It’s almost as if, on a certain level, the mourning of the Sefirah period is over.

Why is it that the customs of mourning in commemoration of the passing of the talmidim of Rabi Akiva have so taken over Sefirah? Why is it that Lag Ba’omer has become a day widely celebrated, though it is in no sense a holiday?

Rabi Akiva was the greatest sage of his generation. It is said that he was the shoresh of Torah Shebaal Peh. The line of transmission of the Torah from Sinai to future generations ran through him and his students. When his 24,000 students were wiped out, it was a major cause of depression. How would the chain continue? Who would provide the light of Torah to future generations? How could they ever be replaced? How could a grieving people on the run from Roman persecution be consoled on the loss of so many great men so crucial to the spiritual survival of the nation?

The urge to say it’s all over must have been overwhelming. The less faithful and more pessimistic among them must have been ready to give up. But Rabi Akiva recovered from his devastating loss to transmit the Torah through a new group of five students. It was on Lag Ba’omer that Rabi Akiva began teaching Torah to these new talmidim. The seeds he planted that day, which ultimately produced the massive rejuvenation of Torah, are what we celebrate on Lag Ba’omer.

On this day we commemorate the renewal. We celebrate the determination. We cheer the cessation of the plague. We foresee the future bright with hope and determination.
As the centuries pass, and as the Romans of every period seek our destruction and annihilation, we look towards Rabi Akiva and Rabi Shimon bar Yochai for inspiration. We note how they looked the enemy in the face and persevered, thus ensuring that our nation and our Torah are alive and flourishing to this very day. In the wake of a tragedy which would have felled lesser people, Rabi Akiva strengthened himself and set about ensuring that the chain remains unbroken.

As the golus continues and our situation becomes more and more precarious, as enemies surround us within and without, we must not weaken in our devotion to Torah. Noting how many giants our people have lost over the past decade, we hear voices stating that we can never recoup the losses. We are doomed to mediocrity, they proclaim.

Lag Ba’omer rejects that hopelessness. It stands as a beacon and proclaims to one and all to never give up hope, to never allow the chain of greatness to break. The fires of Lag Ba’omer burn bright and call out to us that the future will burn brightly, the mesorah will continue uninterrupted, and our people can and will be great once again. Never give up and never despair.
The more our exile is prolonged, the more we turn to days like Lag Ba’omer for inspiration and encouragement, and the more popular their observance becomes.

But it is not enough to just light a fire; it is not enough to sing and dance. We have to be prepared to work as hard as Rabi Akiva did. We have to be prepared for the deprivation suffered by Rabi Shimon bar Yochai and his son Rabi Elazar. We have to be ameilim baTorah if we want to merit the blessings of rebirth and redemption.

Those fires have to burn through our surface laziness and morose feelings and spark within our souls a flame of holiness and dedication to the mesorah and to Torah. That way we will merit the realization of the prophecies discussed in the works of Rabi Shimon bar Yochai with the arrival of Moshiach Tzidkeinu, b’meheirah b’yomeinu. Amein.