Proper fear of heaven and the Meron tragedy

 

Based on droshos by Rav Moshe Sternbuch shlita, raavad of Yerushalayim. To receive these weekly divrei Torah email benipray@netvision.net.il.

 

Meron tragedy – supernatural conduct

Two of the victims of the Meron tragedy lived in Har Nof, where Rav Sternbuch lives. One of them was R. Elozor Geffner, a local cheder Rebbi. At the funeral on Motzoei Shabbos a (taped) hesped (eulogy) was delivered by Rav Sternbuch (the following also incorporates some statements made by Rav Sternbuch in his Yeshiva where he spent last Shabbos).

Rav Sternbuch said that the niftar (one who died) was a korbon tzibbur. (public sacrifice) We cannot fathom the Ways of Hashem, as it says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts”. (Yeshaya 58: 8-9). “For all His ways of justice, a G-d of truth and without iniquity just and right is He” (Devorim 32:4).

However, one thing we have to know clearly, this terrible tragedy is “the sound of a shofar from Above” calling us to be shaken and conduct an account of our actions. Chazal tell us that thunder was only created in order to straighten the crookedness of our hearts, and “the heart knows its bitterness” (Mishlei 14, 10) and everybody knows what he himself needs to work on.

It seems that the main thing we should be focusing on is the area of interpersonal relationships, since 24,000 students of Akiva died during this period because they did not behave towards each other with respect (Yevomos 62b), and only on Lag Baomer did they stop dying, after having repented. Therefore, the more we behave with respect towards each other, the more will the trait of justice be cancelled, and vice versa, G-d forbid. Hence, we should wake up now to increase love, fraternity, peace and friendship between each other. Even though Chazal have stated that just like no two faces are identical, so people’s opinions differ from each other (Brochos 58a), nevertheless, when it comes to Hashem’s honor everybody is united, so that Hashem’s honor becomes widespread throughout the world.

We have to strengthen our faith that Hashem’s conduct is beyond our comprehension, and certainly these souls have completed their tasks in this world. However, we have to become aroused to the sound of the shofar, to amend the source of the sins bein odom lechaveiro (between man and man) for which we are being held to account during this period, and not say that it is all a coincidence.

We have to know that Hashem’s conduct with us is supernatural in the positive sense and also in what appears to be not positive, as it says, “so shall we be differentiated… from all people that are upon the face of the earth” (Shmos 33:16). This means that we will always stand out from the other nations both as recipients of beneficence, and G-d forbid what appears to be otherwise. Therefore, even singular tragedies should be seen as a sign that we are connected and cleaving to Hashem, and that that is why He is conducting Himself with His nation in a special way.

We should also be contemplating the extent to which we are in Hashem’s Hands at every moment. A person is used to living in this world thinking that he still has a long time to live, but with an event like this we see how much we have to beseech Hashem for the gift of life itself, and no one can imagine that he is not in need of divine mercies, saying that all is well with him.

May He, who is merciful, forgive iniquity and not destroy, may He turn His anger away and not stir up His wrath. Hashem awaits our repentance, we have to open a small window of repentance, as Chazal have stated, “Open up for Me an opening like the eye of a needle and I will open for you an opening as large as a vestibule.” That way we will merit Hashem’s salvation, and the coming of moshiach.

 

Meron tragedy – Heavenly decree

Yesterday, a recording made by R. Gefner last year on Lag Baomer for his students was circulated by the cheder in which he taught. Israel was in lockdown at the time, and the boys were being been taught over the telephone. One of the parents retrieved a recording of that shiur and sent the relevant part to the cheder. I have heard this recording and this is a translation of what R. Gefner told his students exactly one year before he died:

“Rav Shimon Bar Yochai learnt from this an important principle. A bird can only be trapped if it has been decreed in Heaven that it is to be trapped. If it has not been so decreed, a person will not succeed in capturing the bird, no matter how many traps the hunter sets. He can shoot all the arrows that he wants, but he will not succeed. Only if there is a decree in Heaven, will the hunter trap the bird. Rav Shimon Bar Yochai learnt from this an important principle with regard to people too. No person can die unless this has been decreed in Heaven”.

 

Bitochon and HIshtadlus

Both Shabbos and shmita (sabbatical year) are signs reminding us that Hashem created the world and continues to rule it with hashgocho protis. (Divine Providence)

Just after the Second World War, Rav Sternbuch met a Holocaust survivor who told him that when he was in a concentration camp, they were starved, yet still expected to work like slaves in the constant fear of imminent death should their state of health fail to satisfy their taskmasters. They had no beards or payos, (side curls) and this particular survivor had no access to tefilin, but still made a point of davening before starting work every day. Once he overheard one fellow inmate tell another that he was incapable of saying the brocho “Who has taken care of all my needs”, because he felt that this did not reflect the reality of his situation. However, the other yid, who was apparently a talmid chochom, (rabbinic scholar)  did not accept this, reasoning that everything Hashem does is for the good. Hashem is merely testing our fortitude, said the talmid chochom, and eventually He will award us a high position with the ministering angels. He then proceeded to make the brocho, and the other yid answered omen.

The survivor whom Rav Sternbuch met noted how awe-inspired he had been to witness such a faithful soldier of Hashem’s army. The Alshich Hakodosh comments on the possuk “And those who seek Hashem will lack no good”, that it does not say that they will possess everything good, but only that they will be not be lacking anything, because the righteous do not desire material possessions, which have no substance, and do not feel a lack of them. That talmid chochom in the concentration camp shows that it is possible to feel this even in the most extreme circumstances.

Most of us are not on the level of the talmid chochom in the camps. How much hishtadlus, (putting our best food forward in our actions) then, are we expected to make?

Rav Sternbuch’s mother asked Rav Elchonon Wasserman this question when she was a young widow faced with bringing up nine children. He told her that she must make at least minimal hishtadlus in accordance with her circumstances, which also required her to educate her children. He added that the main aspect of bitochon (faith and belief in G-d) is to realize that there is no “chapping” (grabbing). Whatever is set aside for us will reach us irrespective of our actions. If we spend a lot of time and effort making a living, we may see returns in the short term, but this might come at the expense of our health, long life, nachas from our children and so on in the longer term. If we do no more than absolutely necessary, we will not gain one cent less than we would by making more hishtadlus. 

For this reason the prohibition against dishonest business dealings appears in the middle of the parsha of shmita. The person who has observed shmita has seen with his own eyes that Hashem is perfectly capable of seeing to all his needs without any effort on his part at all. Such a person knows that success does not depend on his talents, business acumen, or slyness. Even when required to make hishtadlus from the eighth year onwards, he will be scrupulous in his business dealings, knowing that his earnings are predetermined and bear no relation to the extent of his efforts.

 

Sanctity of Eretz YisrOel

Speak to Bnei Yisroel and say to them, “When you come to the land which I give to you.” (25:2)

Other nations acquire a right to territories by conquering them. By contrast, Eretz Yisroel was given to us by Hashem as a conditional — not absolute — gift. By using the present tense — “which I give to you,” instead of the past tense, the possuk (verse) is emphasizing that our right to Eretz Yisroel is not dependent on any past conquest, but was rather given to us as a continuous, ongoing gift, whose validity depends on our performance of Torah and mitzvos at any given moment, as it says, “that they might keep His statutes, and observe His laws” (Tehillim 105:45).

For the inhabitants of Eretz Yisroel who are on an appropriate spiritual level, the sanctity of the land has a great impact on the quality of their Torah and mitzvos. However, the relationship between us and Eretz Yisroel is a mutual one: its sanctity is not static, but rather increases in proportion to the quantity and quality of mitzvos that we perform within it. By using the present tense instead of the future “when you will come to the land,” the possuk is telling us that the sanctity of this land is in a constant state of flux. If we would not keep the mitzvos in Eretz Yisroel, chas v’shalom, (G-d forbid) we would lose our right to exist here.

Since in our times there are unfortunately many sinners in Eretz Yisroel, we could, G-d forbid, lose the right to exist in this country, and this poses a grave danger during a time when we are surrounded by bloodthirsty enemies. We therefore have to arouse Divine mercy all the time.                          

Someone once told Rav Sternbuch that before he came to live in Eretz Yisroel, he went to ask the Rogatchover Gaon, Rav Yosef Rosen, for a brocho. The Rogatchover told him: “The sanctity of Eretz Yisroel is eternal, but its intensity is not identical in all periods. When people observe the Torah in Eretz Yisroel, its sanctity is great, but when sinners reside there, they desecrate its sanctity. When the Zionists started coming to Eretz Yisroel, they damaged its sanctity to a great extent. But on the other hand, those who learn Torah with kedushah (holiness) in Eretz Yisroel and keep the mitzvos there sanctify the country, and happy is their lot. Make sure to be part of those who sanctify Eretz Yisroel, and do not defile it, chas vesholom.”

Previous generations lived with the awareness of the power of a mitzvah performed in Eretz Yisroel, and of the potential destructive force of aveiros (trnagressions) committed here. We, however, have become so accustomed to living here, that we no longer feel the sanctity of the land.

 

Eternal investments

You shall count for yourself seven sabbatical years, seven years seven times, and it shall be for you the days (period) of the seven sabbatical years, forty-nine years. (25:8)

The Dubna Maggid relates a parable about a person who is presented with ten-thousand cents. At first, he is overjoyed at the amount of coins in his possession, but then someone points out to him that he has been blinded by the sight of all those coins, and that in reality his “fortune” amounts to no more than one hundred dollars.

Similarly, some people imagine that the world belongs to them and that they will live forever. Even a middle-aged person who thinks about his parents who lived into their eighties and nineties, or considers the current average life expectancy, and then calculates how many days, months, or even years he is likely to have left in this world, may not feel that concentrating his energies on things of eternal value is something of immediate importance. However, if he starts thinking in terms of seven-year shemittah units, he will realize that even in the far-from-certain event that all his statistical predictions will materialize, he still does not have that many time units left, and it is indeed high time to think of making suitable investments to enhance the quality of his eternal abode.

 

Beware of interest

You shall not take from him interest or increase, and you shall fear your G-d (25:36)

Rashi notes that a person’s desire is naturally attracted to taking interest, and it is difficult to stay away from it, because he rationalizes that his money is lying idle in his debtor’s hands. Therefore, the possuk says, “and you shall fear your G-d”.

This serves as a warning for future generations to beware of this prohibition. In recent generations, in particular, there has been a tendency to rely on doubtful heterim. (permissibility) Each heter and hechsher has to be investigated to ascertain whether it is satisfactory lechatchila. (at the outset)

The prohibition against taking interest is so severe that someone who breaches it does not merit techiyas hameisim, (resurrection of the dead) nor does he have a defending angel to argue his case in Heaven. Moreover, the Vilna Gaon points out that someone guilty of ribbis is considered to be committing a sin constantly, day and night, because at every moment his money is growing due to the interest being accrued. The person may be crying in shul on Yom Kippur, but the Heavenly gates are locked to his prayers because he is committing a sin at that very moment.

Why is this sin so severe? After all, the borrower pays interest of his own volition. The lender who charges interest may think he is doing a big mitzvah because he is helping out the borrower. Hence, the Torah has to prescribe the severest punishment to deter him. Usually when a person sins there is a chance he will regret it and repent, but the worst type of sin is when the sinner thinks he is committing a good deed, because then he will not repent.

Questions on ribbis issues must be addressed specifically to rabbonim who specialize in these matters, because not everybody who is competent in other areas of issur veheter is necessarily capable of ruling on the laws of ribbis, which are complex.

The Tchebiner Rov told Rav Sternbuch that in his youth, before starting to become involved in business, he first learnt hilchos ribbis in-depth, and he noted that it is almost impossible not to stumble in prohibitions relating to ribbis if one does not learn these halochos in-depth.

 

Stained soul

“And I will place My dwelling in your midst, and My soul will not abhor you” (26:11)

It seems superfluous to promise that Hashem will not abhor us when we are performing the Will of Hashem by following His statutes and observing His commandments (26:3).

The commentators explain that “My soul” refers to the holy neshomo implanted inside every one of us, and the possuk is conveying the message that only if a Jew keeps the mitzvos will the soul remain inside the body, but if he commits aveiros the neshomo will abhor the body and flee, because the holy neshomo finds it abhorrent to remain within a body contaminated by sin. In such a situation a person has to pray to Hashem to cleanse the stain of sin. After repenting and becoming a different person, the stain is removed and the soul returns to dwell inside him.

 

Tochacho addressing everybody

And if you treat Me as happenstance (keri), and you do not wish to listen to Me (26:21). Rashi: Chazal said that keri means temporary, by chance, something that happens only sometimes

Rav Moshe Schneider would cry when reading this possuk, noting that we assume that the curses in the parsha are addressing wicked people, whereas in reality they refer to observant Jews who study Torah but do not subject themselves to Torah and mitzvos at all times, and instead only learn at certain times spending the rest of the time on newspapers and so on, thereby treating the Torah as “temporary” as noted by the Rashi above and leaving themselves liable to the punishments outlined in the parshah.

He called on bochurim to intensify their omol haTorah (depth of learning Torah) and feel joy at being Hashem’s sons and servants and know that Hashem is always willing to accept us as His servants.

Rav Schneider said that those who – like himself – had been privileged to spend a lot of time with the Chofetz Chaim did not need to learn musar because the Chofetz Chaim was himself a “living musar sefer” whom one simply had to emulate. For example, he lived every moment with an account, no second was wasted.

 

Chilul ShabBos in Eretz Yisroel

Rav Sternbuch notes that Rav Schneider himself was a “living musar sefer” suffused with yiras shomayim. (fear of heaven) One time Rav Schneider came into the beis hamedrash very early one morning and told Rav Sternbuch that he had been up all night crying because a Jew from Eretz Yisroel had told him that in the Old City in Yerushalayim there were people walking around without a yarmulke. “Can you imagine this, Moshe?” he told his talmid tearfully. Another time he burst out crying when he heard about how Shabbos was being publicly desecrated in Yerushalayim. “The King’s Palace is being denigrated” he said. “If I had the strength I would go to Eretz Yisroel and shout ‘Shabbos’ in the streets!”

In Eretz Yisroel Shabbos is being desecrated on an unprecedented scale to the point that it is being treated like a complete weekday. In former times this situation would have pained the observant public terribly, and both Jews here and overseas should be protesting for the sake of Hashem’s honor. Hashem is likely to hold each and every one of us, both in Eretz Yisroel and overseas, responsible for not protesting public chilul Shabbos and the horrifying breach of our covenant with Him.

 

Background no obstacle

“And they will then confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, in their treachery which they committed against Me” (26:40)

 

                We would have thought that a confession of one’s own iniquity and the iniquity of one’s fathers is a worthy thing. Why does it appear in the middle of a list of sins?

                Some baalei teshuva, or potential ones, are under the mistaken impression that they cannot rid themselves of the shackles of their background. They reason that since their parents are not believing or observant Jews, they cannot be better than them. This is totally incorrect. Avrohom Ovinu’s father served idols, but this did not prevent him from recognizing Hashem using his own intellect.

                A person cannot become a complete baal teshuva until he takes responsibility for his own actions. The possuk here calls a person to account for blaming his own way of life and outlook on the iniquities of his father.

 

Tzedoko consistency

                “Every valuation shall be made according to the holy shekel” (27:25)

                Sometimes wealthy people excuse themselves from their zedoko obligations by claiming that their business is going through a difficult period. To determine whether such a claim is legitimate and they are being consistent, they have to examine whether they have made cutbacks to their own private expenses, or whether they are still living a life of luxury. If the latter is the case, they have no reason to cut back on their charitable donations.

                This possuk may be taken as hinting at this idea. If a person wants to cut back on the “holy shekel” (tzedoko) he should only do so if he simultaneously cuts back “every valuation”, meaning all his other needs.