“On the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.” (Lev. 12:3)
G-d bound the Land to the great mitzvah of milah (circumcision) by an everlasting covenant and equated milah, a mitzvah carried out right on the body, with Eretz Yisrael, which a Jew must be right inside:
“I will sustain My covenant between Me and between you and your descendants after you throughout their generations, an eternal covenant. I will be a G-d to you and to your offspring after you. To you and your offspring I will give the land where you are now living as a foreigner. The whole Land of Canaan shall be your eternal heritage, and I will be a G-d to your descendants.”
G-d then said to Abraham, “As far as you are concerned, you must keep My covenant – you and your offspring throughout their generations. This is My covenant between Me, and between you and your offspring, that you must keep. You must circumcise every male.” (Gen. 17:7-10)
Following is Bereshit Rabbah, 46:9:
R. Yuden says, There are five [conditions here]: If your offspring receive My Divinity, I shall be your G-d and patron, and if not, I will not be your G-d and patron. If they enter the Land they shall receive My Divinity, and if not, they shall not receive My Divinity. If they perform milah, they shall enter the Land... If they accept the Shabbat, they shall enter the Land...
Here, G-d decreed the connection between the Land and mitzvot. Only if Israel enter the Land do they receive G-d as their L-rd and Master. Outside the Land, they live under the nations and their harmful cultural influence. This involves Chilul Hashem, because when we live among the nations, under their rule, the nations' gods and culture enjoy superiority. Moreover, the Torah is adulterated by alien, non-Jewish ideas. G-d's becoming Israel's Master is also conditional on their accepting milah, a fundamental mitzvah, whose linkage to a Jew's actual body makes it an inseparable part of him. As our sages said of King David (Menachot 43b): Israel are beloved in that G-d surrounded them with mitzvot: tefillin on their heads and arms, tzitzit on their garments and mezuzot on their doors... When King David entered the bath house and saw himself standing naked, he said, “Woe to me that I stand naked without mitzvot.” Once he recalled the milah on his flesh, he calmed down.
G-d wished the Jew to be surrounded with mitzvot every single moment of his life, so that he would always be holy and complete. He, therefore, established a mitzvah for his body to be an essential part of the person himself. That way, he would always be accompanied by a mitzvah.
Likewise, G-d wished Israel to dwell always within a mitzvah. He, therefore, established the mitzvah of living in Eretz Yisrael. Thus, G-d tied the mitzvah of milah to Eretz Yisrael, and together, they were the first brit, or covenant, that G-d forged between Himself and Abraham, father of the nation.
G-d feared leaving the Jew free of mitzvot even a single moment. Not only would that leave him without holiness, but he would be exposed to the influence of the nations and the alien culture. G-d, therefore, affixed milah upon the Jew's flesh so that he would always be accompanied by a mitzvah.
Milah is a mitzvah which enters a Jew's body, and Eretz Yisrael is a mitzvah into which a Jew enters. Why were both necessary? So that Israel would always be set apart from the nations, and so they would thereby safeguard their holiness completely and properly. For that reason, Israel could not enter the Land until they were circumcised, because milah and Eretz Yisrael are linked to each other through their keeping the Jew separate.
G-d ordained that Jews must perform circumcision, and in practice there are two types, one applying to the foreskin, the other to the heart. Of the first it says, “Ye shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin” (Gen. 17:11), and of the second, “Circumcise the foreskin of your heart” (Deut. 10:16). Circumcision serves to soften man's pride, his physical and psychological strength, the arrogance of, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth” (Deut. 8:17). Circumcision serves to complete the Jew. As long as he is uncircumcised, he is flawed, as though missing part of his body.
This holds a great moral lesson. When a Jew gives up something of himself, that is precisely when he becomes perfect and complete. Before Abraham's circumcision, G-d said to him, “Walk before Me and you shall be perfect” (Gen. 17:1). Our sages comment (Nedarim 31b), “Great is circumcision, for with all the mitzvot Abraham performed, he was not called 'perfect' until he was circumcised.” Rashi comments, “As long as your foreskin is in place, you are flawed.” And Nedarim 31b further teaches, “Great is circumcision, for if not for it, G-d would not have created the world: “Thus says the L-rd: 'If not for My covenant [brit] day and night, I would not have set Heaven and Earth in motion' (Jeremiah 33:25)”. The reason circumcision is related to in this way is clear. It is G-d's mark that man has subjugated his body and his energies to Him. It is also clear that everything said regarding circumcision of the foreskin applies to circumcision of the heart. Both act to weaken man's arrogance and lust, suppress his passions and subjugate him to the service of G-d.
We are commanded to circumcise the hard shell that prevents man from feeling mercy, kindness and justice, for only these can bring him to humility, refinement and accepting G-d's yoke. This idea is alluded to by, “The L-rd has sought Him a man after His own heart” (I Samuel 13:14), i.e. a man with a heart like G-d's. The person who denies G-d's nature and decrees and rejects the yoke of Heaven will say, “It is my own life and my own body.” This fool does not understand that every sin he commits corrupts his soul and will ultimately lead him to hurt others through his false views. Through worshiping himself and pampering his physical cravings and desires, he will necessarily arrive at a situation in which his selfishness and arrogance dominate him, until he is enslaved to his body and his lusts.
[For him, this week's Parasha points out that asides from the mitzvah of circumcision, applying to heart and foreskin, there is also another way to achieve the humbling of the heart: suffering of the body, as seen in the example of the leper].
Solomon said: Why is this leper purified by the highest of the high and the lowest of the low – by cedar wood and hyssop? To teach that if a person elevates himself like a cedar tree, he is stricken with leprosy; and when he humbles himself like hyssop, he is healed by hyssop (Yalkut Shimoni, Vayikra 559).
Whoever suffers learns how weak and lowly he is. His arrogance and selfishness are erased, because he must lift his eyes to Heaven for salvation. Achieving humility and ridding oneself of evil conceit are one's very mission on this earth, and by such means one is spiritually magnified and exalted.
Moreover, only through one's own suffering can one understand the suffering of others and learn empathy for the sick and the needy. The more severe and painful a person's suffering, the more his own arrogance is broken down.
G-d decreed that Moses must take blood from the milu'im ram and place it on the right ear lobes, right thumbs and right big toes of Aaron and his sons [during their inauguration for service in the Tabernacle]. HaMidrash HaGadol (Lev. 8:24) asks, “Did Aaron and his sons need blood on their thumbs and toes? Rather it was done to teach them how to purify lepers.” The leper, as well, had blood placed on these same spots. Yet, why precisely here during the milu'im did G-d establish this lesson? The answer is that, also regarding the leper, we find the importance of lowliness, which is a condition for trusting in G-d. After all, leprosy struck in response to ten sins (Vayikra Rabbah 17:3), or eleven (Bamidbar Rabbah 7:5), and among them were arrogance and Chilul Hashem. Because Aaron was not humble enough to act with complete trust in G-d and self-sacrifice, and to blot out the Chilul Hashem [regarding the sin of the golden calf], G-d rendered him as if smitten with leprosy for his arrogance and the Chilul Hashem.
I said previously that the world's having been created in Hebrew (Bereishit Rabbah 31:8) means that Hebrew did not emerge by itself via a historic process like other languages. Rather, it was “ready-made”, “created” by G-d alone. Thus, every word holds secrets and allusions, and Hebrew words are tied to one another by moral themes.
Take note that mum (hebr.: blemish), and tamim (hebr.: perfect) come from the same root. Even so, they are opposites, as is G-d's way with the Hebrew language. This teaches that whoever is imperfect, spiritually blemished, will be smitten with a physical blemish. In this regard, G-d hinted to Aaron: because you were not perfect, you need the milu'im. Moreover, you must conduct yourself like the leper who has been smitten physically for not behaving with spiritual perfection.
Mum and tamim are separated only by sin. In circumcision, mum becomes tamim through the removal of the foreskin.
Israel, by circumcising themselves physically and spiritually, will merit to destroy the nations. Yalkut Shimoni (Tehillim 875, on Ps. 118:10-12) comments, “Three times it says 'they swarm around me', corresponding to the three times Gog and Magog are destined to attack Jerusalem.” Three times Gog and his men will attack Jerusalem, yet all three times, “I shall destroy them [“amilam” – hinting at milah, circumcision].” This will happen by virtue of our circumcising body and heart.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rav Meir Kahane HY”D
Monday, March 24, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
Parashat Shemini - The Meaning of Life - Rav Meir Kahane
The
sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, each took his fire pan, they put fire
in them and placed incense upon it; and they brought before Hashem an
alien fire that He had not commanded them. A fire came forth from before
Hashem and consumed them, and they died before Hashem. (Lev. 10:1-2)
Dear friend, open your mouth wide and I will fill it with a major, albeit harsh, principle from the Torah of life: Since life on this earth is only a vestibule for the banquet hall which is the World-to-Come, only an instrument of G-d whose purpose is to bring man and the world to holiness and the yoke of G-d's kingdom, and since true life occurs only in the World-to-Come, the world of truth, it follows that in order to attain this goal and teach people fundamental lessons, G-d sometimes shortens peoples' lives.
Sometimes, those who pass away are righteous, innocent persons, even children and infants, and the fools and the “dead” who move around among us see in it only cruelty, or even lack of logic, direction and Divine conduct in the world.
Life was given to man as a loan, a loan that he must pay off when the time comes, and that he is not entitled to refuse. As our sages said (Avot, end of Ch. 4):
Perforce you were formed and perforce you were born; perforce you live, perforce you shall die, and perforce you have to give a strict account before the Supreme King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He.
The two sons of R. Meir and his wife Beruriah died. Our sages describe how Beruriah acted before revealing the tragedy to her husband (Yalkut Shimoni, Mishlei 964):
Beruriah set food before R. Meir. After he had eaten she said, “Master, I have a question to ask. Someone previously gave me a deposit to take care of for him. Now he has come to reclaim it. Should I return it or not?” R. Meir replied, “Daughter, if someone has a deposit, is he not obligated to return it to its owner?” She then said, “I would not return it without your knowledge.”
Taking his hand, she brought him up to the bedroom. She pulled back the bed sheets and he saw his two sons lying there deceased. He began to cry and said, “My sons, my sons! My teachers, my teachers! My sons in proper behavior. My teachers in that they would enlighten me with their Torah.” At that moment she said, “Master, did you not tell me that we must return a deposit to its owner? 'The L-rd gave and the L-rd has taken away. Blessed be the name of the L-rd' (Job 1:21).”
Life is nothing but a deposit from G-d. It is decreed that one should live a specific length of time, and during that time he should fulfill the mission incumbent on him. Like anyone guarding a deposit, a person must guard his life, neither damaging nor making improper use of it. When the time comes, he must return it to its owner.
Man's life on earth is exceedingly short; it passes in the blink of an eye.
On the one hand, it is qualitatively of enormous importance, for only through it can a person fulfill the duty for which he was created.
On the other hand, however, how brief and transient life is! It is compared to “the potsherd that breaks, the grass that withers, the flower that fades, the shadow that passes, the cloud that vanishes, the breeze that blows, the dust that floats, the dream that flies away” (U'Netaneh Tokef).
Our true, eternal existence is in the World-to-Come, not here on earth. As our sages said (Avot 4:16), “This world is like a vestibule before the World-to-Come. Prepare yourself in the vestibule so that you may enter the banquet hall.”
This carries both encouragement and a warning, and we must assimilate the whole message with pure acceptance of the yoke of Heaven. A person must understand his mission on earth and the idea that life was given only to fulfill that mission. He must understand how brief and transient life is and how much emptiness pervades it. Once he understands these things, he will recognize that he need not fear either the day or moment of death as long as he pursues life by accepting the yoke of Heaven and being constantly ready to sanctify G-d's name through self-sacrifice. If someone has attained immortality by doing G-d's will, what does he lose if he suddenly leaves this world? One should not delude oneself into viewing longevity as an end in itself. The main thing is life's quality: how a person lives. Does he attain true life as defined by G-d? When a person exists on this earth without accepting the yoke of Heaven and without readiness to sacrifice his life to sanctify G-d's name, that is not “life” at all, but a bestial existence.
By contrast, if someone's life was cut off in its prime through his sacrificing himself, that person was alive before, he is still alive now, and he will remain alive forever in the World-to-Come. The wise person who understands G-d's ways and Torah will thus never fear. He will always be ready to sacrifice his life to sanctify G-d's name, and precisely in this way, to continue living.
When G-d wishes to demonstrate how great, awesome and just He is, He shows no favoritism even to the righteous. He killed the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, who were righteous (and not only did He kill them, but He took their souls on the most joyous and holy day, that of the Tabernacle's dedication). What great suffering was caused to Aaron, their father, and Elisheva, their mother!
Dear reader, let us consider our grave duty to fear G-d. As explained above, G-d will sometimes take a person before his time to teach a profound idea that will sanctify His name. G-d's doing so involves no cruelty whatsoever. On the one hand, life on this earth is short and fleeting. It is not eternal. If someone dies young, as much as a tragedy it is for his relatives and friends, he is really only leaving this earth a few years before he would have anyway.
On the other hand, someone whom G-d kills to teach that person's nation and contemporaries and the world a Divine lesson that will sanctify G-d's name, thereby ascends to greatness. Our sages said (Vayikra Rabbah 2:1), “Ten things are called precious... From whence do we know that the death of the saintly is among them? It says, 'Precious in the sight of the L-rd is the death of His saints' (Ps. 116:5).” Thus, those saints who die to sanctify G-d's name are precious, and their death is precious.
G-d suffered greatly for having killed Nadab and Abihu, who were righteous. As our sages said (Bamidbar Rabbah 2:23):
“Nadab and Abihu died before the L-rd” (Num. 3:4): The Torah's mentioning their death in several places teaches that G-d was sorrowful because Aaron's sons were dear to Him. Likewise it says, “I will be sanctified through those close to Me (Lev. 10:3).
Vayikra Rabbah (20:10) says, “The death of Nadab and Abihu was twice as hard on G-d as it was on their father.” R. Eliezer HaModai says (Sifri, Pinchas 137):
Consider how dear the righteous are before G-d. Wherever it mentions their death it mentions the sin that led to it as well. Why does it go to such lengths? To avoid giving mankind the pretext to say that righteous men died because they had acted corruptly in secret. Thus, in four places it mentions the death of Aaron's sons, and in each it mentions their sin to make known that they had no sin but this.
One should be aware that in all four places where G-d mentions Nadab and Abihu's sin, He points to the strange fire that they brought in the Holy of Holies. This was their sin, as noted in previous sources.
When they saw the fire descend, they became excited and followed their own Halachah that it was a mitzvah to bring regular fire as well. They wished to stress the connection between G-d's holiness and that of man. At the root of all this was their desire to enter the Holy of Holies, to commune there with G-d, and to offer an incense that would be accepted.
Although Nadab and Abihu were righteous and wished to come close to G-d, the outcome of their deed was the diminishing of G-d's glory and of Israel's reverence for Him. Hence G-d made Nadab and Abihu an eternal example, an everlasting reminder of the crucial principle that we must demonstrate fear of G-d through reverence for the Temple: This is what G-d meant when He said, 'I will be sanctified through those close to Me, and thus glorified before all the people.' Aaron remained silent (Lev. 10:3). Besides the general reverence all are obligated to feel, there are concrete limitations on a persons' entering the Temple, depending on who he is. If he is an Israelite, his being pure or impure has a bearing, as does the type of impurity, itself. If he is an ordinary Kohen, his being physically blemished, not cutting his hair or wearing torn clothes has a bearing. If he is the Kohen Gadol, he faces other limitations when he enters the Holy of Holies once each year.
Although the reason for these limitations is the levels of holiness within these boundaries, entering in opposition to that holiness indicates a lack of fear of G-d, the levels of holiness having been fixed chiefly so man would experience that fear.
What emerges from all this is that G-d gave us life to perform a specific task, and created man to fulfill that task and bring the world holiness, purity, humility, fear of Heaven and acceptance of G-d's yoke. This being the case, when the times demand it, G-d might also remove someone from this earth to teach a specific idea. We need not mourn such a person. Rather we must stand silently as did Aaron and accept sentence. We must transcend our natural sorrow and be joyful about this exalted soul.
G-d's holy ones are likewise adored and lauded through this, for by their early deaths they complete their role on this wretched earth in holiness and acceptance of the yoke of Heaven, and there is nothing greater than that. No exit from this earth could be more exalted.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rav Meir Kahane, HY”D
Dear friend, open your mouth wide and I will fill it with a major, albeit harsh, principle from the Torah of life: Since life on this earth is only a vestibule for the banquet hall which is the World-to-Come, only an instrument of G-d whose purpose is to bring man and the world to holiness and the yoke of G-d's kingdom, and since true life occurs only in the World-to-Come, the world of truth, it follows that in order to attain this goal and teach people fundamental lessons, G-d sometimes shortens peoples' lives.
Sometimes, those who pass away are righteous, innocent persons, even children and infants, and the fools and the “dead” who move around among us see in it only cruelty, or even lack of logic, direction and Divine conduct in the world.
Life was given to man as a loan, a loan that he must pay off when the time comes, and that he is not entitled to refuse. As our sages said (Avot, end of Ch. 4):
Perforce you were formed and perforce you were born; perforce you live, perforce you shall die, and perforce you have to give a strict account before the Supreme King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He.
The two sons of R. Meir and his wife Beruriah died. Our sages describe how Beruriah acted before revealing the tragedy to her husband (Yalkut Shimoni, Mishlei 964):
Beruriah set food before R. Meir. After he had eaten she said, “Master, I have a question to ask. Someone previously gave me a deposit to take care of for him. Now he has come to reclaim it. Should I return it or not?” R. Meir replied, “Daughter, if someone has a deposit, is he not obligated to return it to its owner?” She then said, “I would not return it without your knowledge.”
Taking his hand, she brought him up to the bedroom. She pulled back the bed sheets and he saw his two sons lying there deceased. He began to cry and said, “My sons, my sons! My teachers, my teachers! My sons in proper behavior. My teachers in that they would enlighten me with their Torah.” At that moment she said, “Master, did you not tell me that we must return a deposit to its owner? 'The L-rd gave and the L-rd has taken away. Blessed be the name of the L-rd' (Job 1:21).”
Life is nothing but a deposit from G-d. It is decreed that one should live a specific length of time, and during that time he should fulfill the mission incumbent on him. Like anyone guarding a deposit, a person must guard his life, neither damaging nor making improper use of it. When the time comes, he must return it to its owner.
Man's life on earth is exceedingly short; it passes in the blink of an eye.
On the one hand, it is qualitatively of enormous importance, for only through it can a person fulfill the duty for which he was created.
On the other hand, however, how brief and transient life is! It is compared to “the potsherd that breaks, the grass that withers, the flower that fades, the shadow that passes, the cloud that vanishes, the breeze that blows, the dust that floats, the dream that flies away” (U'Netaneh Tokef).
Our true, eternal existence is in the World-to-Come, not here on earth. As our sages said (Avot 4:16), “This world is like a vestibule before the World-to-Come. Prepare yourself in the vestibule so that you may enter the banquet hall.”
This carries both encouragement and a warning, and we must assimilate the whole message with pure acceptance of the yoke of Heaven. A person must understand his mission on earth and the idea that life was given only to fulfill that mission. He must understand how brief and transient life is and how much emptiness pervades it. Once he understands these things, he will recognize that he need not fear either the day or moment of death as long as he pursues life by accepting the yoke of Heaven and being constantly ready to sanctify G-d's name through self-sacrifice. If someone has attained immortality by doing G-d's will, what does he lose if he suddenly leaves this world? One should not delude oneself into viewing longevity as an end in itself. The main thing is life's quality: how a person lives. Does he attain true life as defined by G-d? When a person exists on this earth without accepting the yoke of Heaven and without readiness to sacrifice his life to sanctify G-d's name, that is not “life” at all, but a bestial existence.
By contrast, if someone's life was cut off in its prime through his sacrificing himself, that person was alive before, he is still alive now, and he will remain alive forever in the World-to-Come. The wise person who understands G-d's ways and Torah will thus never fear. He will always be ready to sacrifice his life to sanctify G-d's name, and precisely in this way, to continue living.
When G-d wishes to demonstrate how great, awesome and just He is, He shows no favoritism even to the righteous. He killed the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, who were righteous (and not only did He kill them, but He took their souls on the most joyous and holy day, that of the Tabernacle's dedication). What great suffering was caused to Aaron, their father, and Elisheva, their mother!
Dear reader, let us consider our grave duty to fear G-d. As explained above, G-d will sometimes take a person before his time to teach a profound idea that will sanctify His name. G-d's doing so involves no cruelty whatsoever. On the one hand, life on this earth is short and fleeting. It is not eternal. If someone dies young, as much as a tragedy it is for his relatives and friends, he is really only leaving this earth a few years before he would have anyway.
On the other hand, someone whom G-d kills to teach that person's nation and contemporaries and the world a Divine lesson that will sanctify G-d's name, thereby ascends to greatness. Our sages said (Vayikra Rabbah 2:1), “Ten things are called precious... From whence do we know that the death of the saintly is among them? It says, 'Precious in the sight of the L-rd is the death of His saints' (Ps. 116:5).” Thus, those saints who die to sanctify G-d's name are precious, and their death is precious.
G-d suffered greatly for having killed Nadab and Abihu, who were righteous. As our sages said (Bamidbar Rabbah 2:23):
“Nadab and Abihu died before the L-rd” (Num. 3:4): The Torah's mentioning their death in several places teaches that G-d was sorrowful because Aaron's sons were dear to Him. Likewise it says, “I will be sanctified through those close to Me (Lev. 10:3).
Vayikra Rabbah (20:10) says, “The death of Nadab and Abihu was twice as hard on G-d as it was on their father.” R. Eliezer HaModai says (Sifri, Pinchas 137):
Consider how dear the righteous are before G-d. Wherever it mentions their death it mentions the sin that led to it as well. Why does it go to such lengths? To avoid giving mankind the pretext to say that righteous men died because they had acted corruptly in secret. Thus, in four places it mentions the death of Aaron's sons, and in each it mentions their sin to make known that they had no sin but this.
One should be aware that in all four places where G-d mentions Nadab and Abihu's sin, He points to the strange fire that they brought in the Holy of Holies. This was their sin, as noted in previous sources.
When they saw the fire descend, they became excited and followed their own Halachah that it was a mitzvah to bring regular fire as well. They wished to stress the connection between G-d's holiness and that of man. At the root of all this was their desire to enter the Holy of Holies, to commune there with G-d, and to offer an incense that would be accepted.
Although Nadab and Abihu were righteous and wished to come close to G-d, the outcome of their deed was the diminishing of G-d's glory and of Israel's reverence for Him. Hence G-d made Nadab and Abihu an eternal example, an everlasting reminder of the crucial principle that we must demonstrate fear of G-d through reverence for the Temple: This is what G-d meant when He said, 'I will be sanctified through those close to Me, and thus glorified before all the people.' Aaron remained silent (Lev. 10:3). Besides the general reverence all are obligated to feel, there are concrete limitations on a persons' entering the Temple, depending on who he is. If he is an Israelite, his being pure or impure has a bearing, as does the type of impurity, itself. If he is an ordinary Kohen, his being physically blemished, not cutting his hair or wearing torn clothes has a bearing. If he is the Kohen Gadol, he faces other limitations when he enters the Holy of Holies once each year.
Although the reason for these limitations is the levels of holiness within these boundaries, entering in opposition to that holiness indicates a lack of fear of G-d, the levels of holiness having been fixed chiefly so man would experience that fear.
What emerges from all this is that G-d gave us life to perform a specific task, and created man to fulfill that task and bring the world holiness, purity, humility, fear of Heaven and acceptance of G-d's yoke. This being the case, when the times demand it, G-d might also remove someone from this earth to teach a specific idea. We need not mourn such a person. Rather we must stand silently as did Aaron and accept sentence. We must transcend our natural sorrow and be joyful about this exalted soul.
G-d's holy ones are likewise adored and lauded through this, for by their early deaths they complete their role on this wretched earth in holiness and acceptance of the yoke of Heaven, and there is nothing greater than that. No exit from this earth could be more exalted.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rav Meir Kahane, HY”D
Monday, March 10, 2014
Shabbat Zachor - The awful sin of Amalek - Rav Meir Kahane
“Remember what Amalek did to you, on the way, when you were leaving Egypt, that he happened upon you on the way, and he struck those of you who were hindmost, all the weaklings at your rear, when you were faint and exhausted, and he did not fear G-d. It shall be that when Hashem, your G-d, gives you rest from all your enemies around, in the Land that Hashem,
your G-d, gives you as an inheritance to possess it, you shall wipe out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven – you shall not forget!”
(Deut. 25:17-19, Maftir of Shabbat Zachor)
Amalek’s sin is the great and eternal sin of those who refuse “to know Hashem” and to accept His yoke upon themselves, and who thereby desecrate His Name. The Children of Israel were on the way, and the word ba-derekh (“on the way”) appears here twice, indicating that they were both on the way out of Egypt and on the way to the Land of Israel: both of these components together prove G-d’s power and might in the eyes of the nations, so that they would accept the yoke of His sovereignty. And now Amalek, the foremost and most brazen representative of “I do not know Hashem” launches himself against Israel, in an attempt to demonstrate both to Israel and to the rest of the world that G-d has no power, and that He is not the G-d of history. (Peirush HaMaccabee, Sefer Dvarim, Chapter 25)
This is the key to understanding why G-d was more angry at Amalek than at any other nation. . This was the awful sin of Amalek, regarding which it is said (Ex. 17:16), “The hand is on G-d's throne. The L-rd shall be at war with Amalek for all generations”.
Our sages also comment (Pesikta Rabbati, Ch. 12):
“The hand is on G-d's throne”: R. Levi said in the name of R. Chama of the school of R. Chaninah, “So to speak, as long as Amalek's offspring are on earth, G-d's name is not complete [In the verse, “G-d” is represented by the short form yud-kei], neither is His throne complete [represented by kes rather than kisei]. Once Amalek's seed is uprooted, G-d's throne is complete and His name is complete”.
King David said, “Enemy! The waste places are come to an end forever, and the cities which you did uproot, their very memorial is perished” (Ps. 9:7). What follows? “But the L-rd is enthroned forever. He has established His throne for judgment.”
Amalek set out to annihilate Israel, as our sages said (Tanchuma Yashan, Yitro 4), “Why was it called 'Amalek'? Because it is am lak, 'the nation that licks'. Amalek set out to lap up Israel's blood like a dog.”
Even more than this, however, Amalek came openly to insult G-d and blot out His name. Mechilta (Ibid., Parshah 1) comments regarding (Ex. 17:8), “Amalek arrived”: “Amalek came openly. In all their other attacks they came in stealth...but not here.”
Amalek attacked G-d's throne, as our sages said (Tanchuma, Ki Tetze, 11):
One verse reads, “You must obliterate the memory of Amalek” (Deut. 25:19), and another reads, “I will totally obliterate the memory of Amalek” (Ex. 17:14). How can the two verses coexist? Until Amalek attacked G-d's throne, Israel were commanded to obliterate them. Henceforth, however, G-d said He would do so Himself. Can flesh and blood attack G-d's throne? Rather, because they destroyed Jerusalem, of which it says (Jer. 3:17), “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the L-rd”, G-d said He would obliterate them.
Amalek's sin is the waging of brazen warfare against G-d, as they did when Israel left Egypt.
Yet when any other nation, as well, curses and fights G-d, Amalek's sin clings to them and they become like Amalek.
Thus, although Amalek, the nation, did not destroy Jerusalem, our sages say that Jerusalem's destruction constituted Amalek attacking G-d's throne. This teaches that whoever attacks G-d's throne is called Amalek. We must understand and remember this principle for our own times.
Since, in the nations' eyes, Israel's weakness and lowliness, and their suffering at the nations' hands, are interpreted as G-d's weakness and inability to save His people, and that is a Chilul Hashem, it follows that Israel's power, exaltation and victory over their own enemies and the blasphemous enemies of G-d is a Kiddush Hashem.
[For illustration, this is a quote from one of Rabbi Kahane's earlier popular books, “Listen World, Listen Jew” pp. 120-122]
Do you want to know how the Name of G-d is desecrated in the eyes of the mocking and sneering nations? It is when the Jew, His people, His Chosen, is desecrated! When the Jew is beaten, G-d is profaned! When the Jew is humiliated – G-d is shamed! When the Jew is attacked – it is an assault upon the name of G-d!
What he [the non-Jewish persecutor] is really saying is: “There is no L-rd, there is no G-d of Israel and if there is, He is an impotent and helpless god. For if He truly existed as the Omnipotent and All-powerful Sovereign of the Universe, His people would not be in exile, they could not be at my mercy, they could not be beaten and shamed and humiliated by me.”
This is the desecration of G-d's name.
Every pogrom is a desecration of the Name. Every Auschwitz and expulsion and murder and rape of a Jew is the humiliation of G-d. Every time a Jew is beaten by a gentile because he is a Jew, this is the essence of Chilul Hashem.
An end to Exile – that is Kiddush Hashem.
An end to the shame and the beatings and the monuments to our murdered and our martyred. An end to Kaddish and prayers for the dead.
A shaking off of the dust of the Exile and its shame and a return to a Jewish state of our own created with the fire and the spitting of Jewish guns.
A Jewish fist in the face of an astonished gentile world that had not seen it for two millenia. This is Kiddush Hashem.
Reading angry editorials about Jewish “aggression” and “violations” rather than flowery eulogies over dead Jewish victims. That is Kiddush Hashem.
The State of Israel came into being not because the Jew deserved it, but because the gentile did. It came into being not because the Jew was worthy of it but because the Name of G-d had reached its fill of humiliation and desecration. “I do this not for your sake, O House of Israel, but for Mine holy Name's sake which ye have profaned among the nations”. [...]
G-d established a principle that as long as Israel possesses a sovereign government with the power to blot out Amalek's memory, it is a mitzvah and a duty for them to do so.
For this reason our sages said (Sifri, Re'eh, 67):
Israel were commanded regarding three mitzvot for when they entered the Land: to appoint a king, build the Temple and destroy Amalek's seed. I would not know which one comes first if not for Scripture saying, “The hand is on G-d's throne. The L-rd shall be at war with Amalek for all generations” (Ex. 17:16). As long as a king sits on G-d's throne, we destroy Amalek's seed. How do we know that “G-d's throne” refers to a king? It says (I Chronicles 29:23), “Solomon sat on G-d's throne to reign”.
We must understand that today, with G-d kindly having restored our land and sovereignty, we must once more share with Him in blotting out Amalek if its existence is clear to us.
[Asides from current events like Arab attacks on Israel, Iran’s threats and other brazen attempts to delegitimize or coerce Israel, there is one more aspect of this in our times, mentioned by Rabbi Kahane in another one of his popular books, “Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews”, p. 271]:
Jewish self-respect and honor must be resurrected with an end to the humiliating obscenity of carefree political relations with the Amalek of our times, Germany. Was there a greater abomination than that of Israel establishing relations with Germany less than a decade after Auschwitz? And for money reparations, of course! Today, there is not the slightest feeling of guilt on the part of the Israelis who happily travel on business or vacation to Munich and Frankfurt and Hamburg; many of whom live there. There is no guilt on the part of a state that regularly sends youth on cultural and sports excursions to walk on the land stained with Jewish blood. There is no guilt felt when Jewish and Israeli leaders [...] travel to Germany and eat and drink with the Germans at state dinners, or when a high-ranking German official arrives in Israel and the Israeli army band plays the German national anthem, “Deutschland Uber Alles” as the new Hebrews stand at attention with respect. The Germans owe us reparations. The money does not absolve them of one sin, of one crime, of one murder. But they owe us reparations for property and we owe them nothing. Political and cultural ties will be cut with the Germans and they will be expected to fulfill, to the letter, their obligations to the Jewish people.
G-d will go forth to avenge His great name, profaned among the nations, and to avenge the Jewish People, through whose humiliation and distress at the hands of the nations His name was profaned.
The Prophet Obadiah was an Edomite convert, as our sages say (Sanhedrin 39b): “Obadiah was an Edomite convert, illustrating the adage that, 'the axe comes from the very forest.'” Rashi explains, “From the forest, itself, comes the wood for the handle of the axe that chops it down.
Such was Obadiah to Edom and David to Moab, David being descended from Ruth the Moabite.
Who, as much as Obadiah, a former non-Jew, knew the nations hatred of the Jewish People! Addressing the redemption, Obadiah prophesied (Obadiah 8-12, 15): Surely, says the L-rd, on that day I shall destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the Mount of Esau. Your mighty men, O Yemen, shall be dismayed, such that everyone from the Mount of Esau shall be cut off by slaughter. For your violence against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you and you shall be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, that strangers took his force captive and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem, you too were one of them.
You should not have looked on the day of your brother, the day of his misfortune, nor rejoiced over the children of Judah on the day of their destruction. [...] For the day of the L-rd is near upon all the nations. As you have done, so shall be done to you. Your deeds shall return upon your own head.
As long as exile and servitude were decreed for Israel, G-d restrained Himself. Hence, the fools thought He did not exist, and they mocked the Jewish people (Ps. 115:2): “Why should the nations say, 'Where is their G-d'”? Yet His silence in the face of His name being profaned was a heroic act.
G-d, despite His silence, has not forgotten the insult, there being no forgetting before His throne of glory. Revenge is concealed with Him for the future, sealed up in His treasury, and vengeance and retribution are His.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY”D, with quotes from his books “Peirush HaMaccabee, Sefer Dvarim” (translation by Daniel Pinner), “Listen World, Listen Jew” and “Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews”.
“Also the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending to you and all who despised you shall prostrate themselves at your feet.” (Isaiah 60:14)
your G-d, gives you as an inheritance to possess it, you shall wipe out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven – you shall not forget!”
(Deut. 25:17-19, Maftir of Shabbat Zachor)
Amalek’s sin is the great and eternal sin of those who refuse “to know Hashem” and to accept His yoke upon themselves, and who thereby desecrate His Name. The Children of Israel were on the way, and the word ba-derekh (“on the way”) appears here twice, indicating that they were both on the way out of Egypt and on the way to the Land of Israel: both of these components together prove G-d’s power and might in the eyes of the nations, so that they would accept the yoke of His sovereignty. And now Amalek, the foremost and most brazen representative of “I do not know Hashem” launches himself against Israel, in an attempt to demonstrate both to Israel and to the rest of the world that G-d has no power, and that He is not the G-d of history. (Peirush HaMaccabee, Sefer Dvarim, Chapter 25)
This is the key to understanding why G-d was more angry at Amalek than at any other nation. . This was the awful sin of Amalek, regarding which it is said (Ex. 17:16), “The hand is on G-d's throne. The L-rd shall be at war with Amalek for all generations”.
Our sages also comment (Pesikta Rabbati, Ch. 12):
“The hand is on G-d's throne”: R. Levi said in the name of R. Chama of the school of R. Chaninah, “So to speak, as long as Amalek's offspring are on earth, G-d's name is not complete [In the verse, “G-d” is represented by the short form yud-kei], neither is His throne complete [represented by kes rather than kisei]. Once Amalek's seed is uprooted, G-d's throne is complete and His name is complete”.
King David said, “Enemy! The waste places are come to an end forever, and the cities which you did uproot, their very memorial is perished” (Ps. 9:7). What follows? “But the L-rd is enthroned forever. He has established His throne for judgment.”
Amalek set out to annihilate Israel, as our sages said (Tanchuma Yashan, Yitro 4), “Why was it called 'Amalek'? Because it is am lak, 'the nation that licks'. Amalek set out to lap up Israel's blood like a dog.”
Even more than this, however, Amalek came openly to insult G-d and blot out His name. Mechilta (Ibid., Parshah 1) comments regarding (Ex. 17:8), “Amalek arrived”: “Amalek came openly. In all their other attacks they came in stealth...but not here.”
Amalek attacked G-d's throne, as our sages said (Tanchuma, Ki Tetze, 11):
One verse reads, “You must obliterate the memory of Amalek” (Deut. 25:19), and another reads, “I will totally obliterate the memory of Amalek” (Ex. 17:14). How can the two verses coexist? Until Amalek attacked G-d's throne, Israel were commanded to obliterate them. Henceforth, however, G-d said He would do so Himself. Can flesh and blood attack G-d's throne? Rather, because they destroyed Jerusalem, of which it says (Jer. 3:17), “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the L-rd”, G-d said He would obliterate them.
Amalek's sin is the waging of brazen warfare against G-d, as they did when Israel left Egypt.
Yet when any other nation, as well, curses and fights G-d, Amalek's sin clings to them and they become like Amalek.
Thus, although Amalek, the nation, did not destroy Jerusalem, our sages say that Jerusalem's destruction constituted Amalek attacking G-d's throne. This teaches that whoever attacks G-d's throne is called Amalek. We must understand and remember this principle for our own times.
Since, in the nations' eyes, Israel's weakness and lowliness, and their suffering at the nations' hands, are interpreted as G-d's weakness and inability to save His people, and that is a Chilul Hashem, it follows that Israel's power, exaltation and victory over their own enemies and the blasphemous enemies of G-d is a Kiddush Hashem.
[For illustration, this is a quote from one of Rabbi Kahane's earlier popular books, “Listen World, Listen Jew” pp. 120-122]
Do you want to know how the Name of G-d is desecrated in the eyes of the mocking and sneering nations? It is when the Jew, His people, His Chosen, is desecrated! When the Jew is beaten, G-d is profaned! When the Jew is humiliated – G-d is shamed! When the Jew is attacked – it is an assault upon the name of G-d!
What he [the non-Jewish persecutor] is really saying is: “There is no L-rd, there is no G-d of Israel and if there is, He is an impotent and helpless god. For if He truly existed as the Omnipotent and All-powerful Sovereign of the Universe, His people would not be in exile, they could not be at my mercy, they could not be beaten and shamed and humiliated by me.”
This is the desecration of G-d's name.
Every pogrom is a desecration of the Name. Every Auschwitz and expulsion and murder and rape of a Jew is the humiliation of G-d. Every time a Jew is beaten by a gentile because he is a Jew, this is the essence of Chilul Hashem.
An end to Exile – that is Kiddush Hashem.
An end to the shame and the beatings and the monuments to our murdered and our martyred. An end to Kaddish and prayers for the dead.
A shaking off of the dust of the Exile and its shame and a return to a Jewish state of our own created with the fire and the spitting of Jewish guns.
A Jewish fist in the face of an astonished gentile world that had not seen it for two millenia. This is Kiddush Hashem.
Reading angry editorials about Jewish “aggression” and “violations” rather than flowery eulogies over dead Jewish victims. That is Kiddush Hashem.
The State of Israel came into being not because the Jew deserved it, but because the gentile did. It came into being not because the Jew was worthy of it but because the Name of G-d had reached its fill of humiliation and desecration. “I do this not for your sake, O House of Israel, but for Mine holy Name's sake which ye have profaned among the nations”. [...]
G-d established a principle that as long as Israel possesses a sovereign government with the power to blot out Amalek's memory, it is a mitzvah and a duty for them to do so.
For this reason our sages said (Sifri, Re'eh, 67):
Israel were commanded regarding three mitzvot for when they entered the Land: to appoint a king, build the Temple and destroy Amalek's seed. I would not know which one comes first if not for Scripture saying, “The hand is on G-d's throne. The L-rd shall be at war with Amalek for all generations” (Ex. 17:16). As long as a king sits on G-d's throne, we destroy Amalek's seed. How do we know that “G-d's throne” refers to a king? It says (I Chronicles 29:23), “Solomon sat on G-d's throne to reign”.
We must understand that today, with G-d kindly having restored our land and sovereignty, we must once more share with Him in blotting out Amalek if its existence is clear to us.
[Asides from current events like Arab attacks on Israel, Iran’s threats and other brazen attempts to delegitimize or coerce Israel, there is one more aspect of this in our times, mentioned by Rabbi Kahane in another one of his popular books, “Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews”, p. 271]:
Jewish self-respect and honor must be resurrected with an end to the humiliating obscenity of carefree political relations with the Amalek of our times, Germany. Was there a greater abomination than that of Israel establishing relations with Germany less than a decade after Auschwitz? And for money reparations, of course! Today, there is not the slightest feeling of guilt on the part of the Israelis who happily travel on business or vacation to Munich and Frankfurt and Hamburg; many of whom live there. There is no guilt on the part of a state that regularly sends youth on cultural and sports excursions to walk on the land stained with Jewish blood. There is no guilt felt when Jewish and Israeli leaders [...] travel to Germany and eat and drink with the Germans at state dinners, or when a high-ranking German official arrives in Israel and the Israeli army band plays the German national anthem, “Deutschland Uber Alles” as the new Hebrews stand at attention with respect. The Germans owe us reparations. The money does not absolve them of one sin, of one crime, of one murder. But they owe us reparations for property and we owe them nothing. Political and cultural ties will be cut with the Germans and they will be expected to fulfill, to the letter, their obligations to the Jewish people.
G-d will go forth to avenge His great name, profaned among the nations, and to avenge the Jewish People, through whose humiliation and distress at the hands of the nations His name was profaned.
The Prophet Obadiah was an Edomite convert, as our sages say (Sanhedrin 39b): “Obadiah was an Edomite convert, illustrating the adage that, 'the axe comes from the very forest.'” Rashi explains, “From the forest, itself, comes the wood for the handle of the axe that chops it down.
Such was Obadiah to Edom and David to Moab, David being descended from Ruth the Moabite.
Who, as much as Obadiah, a former non-Jew, knew the nations hatred of the Jewish People! Addressing the redemption, Obadiah prophesied (Obadiah 8-12, 15): Surely, says the L-rd, on that day I shall destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the Mount of Esau. Your mighty men, O Yemen, shall be dismayed, such that everyone from the Mount of Esau shall be cut off by slaughter. For your violence against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you and you shall be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, that strangers took his force captive and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem, you too were one of them.
You should not have looked on the day of your brother, the day of his misfortune, nor rejoiced over the children of Judah on the day of their destruction. [...] For the day of the L-rd is near upon all the nations. As you have done, so shall be done to you. Your deeds shall return upon your own head.
As long as exile and servitude were decreed for Israel, G-d restrained Himself. Hence, the fools thought He did not exist, and they mocked the Jewish people (Ps. 115:2): “Why should the nations say, 'Where is their G-d'”? Yet His silence in the face of His name being profaned was a heroic act.
G-d, despite His silence, has not forgotten the insult, there being no forgetting before His throne of glory. Revenge is concealed with Him for the future, sealed up in His treasury, and vengeance and retribution are His.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY”D, with quotes from his books “Peirush HaMaccabee, Sefer Dvarim” (translation by Daniel Pinner), “Listen World, Listen Jew” and “Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews”.
“Also the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending to you and all who despised you shall prostrate themselves at your feet.” (Isaiah 60:14)
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Parashat Vayikra - Burn your pride! - Rav Meir Kahane
When you offer a meal offering that is baked in an oven, it shall be of fine flour: unleavened loaves [matzot] mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers [matzot] smeared with oil. If your offering is a meal offering on the pan, it shall be of fine flour mixed with oil, it shall be unleavened [matza]. (Parashat Vayikra, Lev. 2:4-5).Chametz and other forms of leaven symbolize the evil impulse and arrogance,
for yeast inflates dough and turns it into chametz. Se'or [a type of
leaven or yeast] derives from sa'ar, storm, for it agitates dough and
makes it rise.
Just so, the evil impulse and arrogance inflate humble man to visions of grandeur, power and pride: “May the L-rd cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks proud things!... 'For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise,' says the L-rd; I will save them from him who inflates himself” (Psalms 12:4,6. The haughty person who talks grandly, “inflates himself”.
Theft and wickedness, conceived in arrogance, are called chometz, which means vinegar: “Seek justice, support the victim of theft [chamotz]” (Isaiah 1:17); and “Rescue me out of the hand of the wicked, out of the grasp of the unrighteous and ruthless [chometz] man” (Psalms 71:4. Clearly, chomes/chamsan [robber, oppressor] derives from chometz, as well. This is because chometz connotes that which is spoiled, just as wine vinegar is made from spoiled wine. In the same way, our sages called the evildoer whose father was righteous, “vinegar [chometz], son of wine.”
It must be added that while chametz is a symbol of haughtiness, chametz's opposite, matza [unleavened bread], is called in Scripture “lechem oni” - bread of hardship (Deut. 16:3). On the one hand, Rashi explains “oni” as being related to aniyut (poverty) and inui (affliction): “Bread reminiscent of the poverty suffered in Egypt.” This jibes with the verses, “I have indeed seen the suffering of My people” (Ex. 3:7) and “You saw the affliction of our ancestors in Egypt” (Nehemia 9:9), and surely “oni” and “inui” derive from the same root.
Together with this, however, there is another meaning. Matza comes in opposition to chametz. Chametz symbolizes the bread of the wealthy man with his haughty dream of attaining wealth and honor, whereas matza symbolizes the bread of the lowly, modest man. Thus “lechem oni”, rendered above as the “bread of hardship”, can mean “the bread of the humble man” (anav).
Another mitzvah was given to Israel as an everlasting reminder against arrogance and conceit, namely, the prohibition against consuming non-kosher fat:
“All the fat is the L-rd's. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings, that you shall eat neither fat nor blood.” (Parashat Vayikra, Lev. 3:16-17).
The fact that “all the fat is the L-rd's” is a clear hint that wealth and honor are befitting only for G-d, fat symbolizing these. Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I will give you the good of the land of Egypt and you shall eat the fat of the land.” (Gen. 45:18).
Moreover, Ibn Ezra comments that in “all the chelev of the oil and all the chelev of the wine and the corn” (Num. 18:12), chelev connotes “the choicest and the best”. Fatness symbolizes health and strength, as in Pharaoh's dream [of the seven fat and seven gaunt cows].
Thus, the wealth, honor, beauty and splendor symbolized by chelev belong only to G-d. They are becoming only to Him, because all these traits are His.
Even beyond this, however, chelev, fatness here on earth, is nothing but a symbol of conceit and the pursuit of pleasure, wealth and honor: “Their obese hearts have they shut tight, their mouths speak proudly” (Psalms 17:10); “Their eyes protrude from obesity , they are gone beyond the imaginations of their heart” (Ibid., 73:7); and “Their heart is gross like fat, but I delight in Your law” (Ibid., 119:70).
[See also] Rambam (Issurei HaMizbeach 7:11):
Whoever wishes merit should suppress his evil impulse and show generosity by bringing his offering from the choicest of the species in question. The Torah says, “And Abel also offered some of the firstborn of his flock, from the fattest ones [chelbehen]. And the L-rd paid heed to Abel and his offering”(Gen. 4:4).
Chelev connotes the choicest, plumpest, richest animal specimen. It thus symbolizes the human pride which compels man toward wealth, honor and the cravings of this world. Hence, we are not only obligated to sacrifice the choicest animal specimen but to take its fat, the symbol of pride and what is best and most desirable, and give it to G-d.
Through our readiness to donate to G-d the most important part, we rid ourselves of pride, proclaiming, “All the fat is the L-rd's!”
It follows that both chametz and chelev are symbols of pride.
Still, there is a difference between them.
Chametz symbolizes the egotism which entices a person toward the haughty pursuit of wealth and honor. Since it symbolizes the root and source of evil, it has no place on G-d's altar, the symbol of holiness, free of all arrogance.
By contrast, chelev symbolizes wealth and honor that a person has already attained and through which he is liable to become haughty. Therefore, a man is obligated to demonstrate the suppression of his evil impulse through his willingness to donate this symbol of pride and burn it.
It is true that G-d does not reject wealth. Like everything else G-d made, man can use it for good or evil, and it is certainly possible to direct wealth toward good ends. Certainly wealth is not evil per se, despite those false religions that wax pious in their condemnation of it. Money is neither good nor bad. If we use it to build the Temple and to do mitzvot, it is good.
If, however, it is put in service of arrogance and lust, nothing could be worse. Not only does man's egotism drive him to pursue wealth, but that wealth turns him into an even more conceited evildoer. It is a vicious cycle.
One of our most important principles is: “To the L-rd belongs the earth and everything in it.” (Ps. 24:1). Everything belongs to G-d, and nothing that ostensibly belongs to man is really his. Rather, it is only given to him to use. The concept of holiness provides a concrete example to help us understand the essence of property here on earth – that it belongs exclusively to G-d, and not to man.
What does Scripture say of him who makes unwarranted use of Temple property?
He shall bring as his guilt-offering to the L-rd, a [two-year-old] unblemished ram with a prescribed value of [at least] two silver shekels, according to the sanctuary standard. He must make restitution for taking something that was holy and shall add a fifth. (Parashat Vayikra, Lev. 5:15-16).
The reason he must add precisely a fifth is that it fits the crime.
This person was obligated to give up to a fifth of “his” property, as it were, to charity: “In giving charity, one should lavish no more than a fifth of his wealth” (Ketuvot 67b). In doing so, he would have demonstrated G-d's ownership over his property.
Instead, he stole Temple property. Hence, he must pay a fifth as he should have done of his “own” property, so to speak.
Among the nations and the alien culture, all sorts of outlooks have been formed regarding property, and despite the superficial differences between them, all are based on the perception that the world and property belong to man.
In this regard, there is no difference between what the non-Jews call “Capitalism”, “Socialism” or “Communism”. Whether a non-Jew argues that property is a private possession or argues that it belongs to society, he means that it is the property of man.
Not so G-d, Whose Torah states that everything belongs to Him, and that property and possessions were given to mankind only for use. Thus, when G-d decrees that we must give tzedakah, it is our duty to do so. Tzedakah does not at all come from the property of the wealthy man. He has no ownership whatsoever over what is given him by Heaven. Such is our sages' intent in Avot 3:7 :
“Give to G-d of His own, for you and yours are His”.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rav Meir Kahane HY”D
Just so, the evil impulse and arrogance inflate humble man to visions of grandeur, power and pride: “May the L-rd cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks proud things!... 'For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise,' says the L-rd; I will save them from him who inflates himself” (Psalms 12:4,6. The haughty person who talks grandly, “inflates himself”.
Theft and wickedness, conceived in arrogance, are called chometz, which means vinegar: “Seek justice, support the victim of theft [chamotz]” (Isaiah 1:17); and “Rescue me out of the hand of the wicked, out of the grasp of the unrighteous and ruthless [chometz] man” (Psalms 71:4. Clearly, chomes/chamsan [robber, oppressor] derives from chometz, as well. This is because chometz connotes that which is spoiled, just as wine vinegar is made from spoiled wine. In the same way, our sages called the evildoer whose father was righteous, “vinegar [chometz], son of wine.”
It must be added that while chametz is a symbol of haughtiness, chametz's opposite, matza [unleavened bread], is called in Scripture “lechem oni” - bread of hardship (Deut. 16:3). On the one hand, Rashi explains “oni” as being related to aniyut (poverty) and inui (affliction): “Bread reminiscent of the poverty suffered in Egypt.” This jibes with the verses, “I have indeed seen the suffering of My people” (Ex. 3:7) and “You saw the affliction of our ancestors in Egypt” (Nehemia 9:9), and surely “oni” and “inui” derive from the same root.
Together with this, however, there is another meaning. Matza comes in opposition to chametz. Chametz symbolizes the bread of the wealthy man with his haughty dream of attaining wealth and honor, whereas matza symbolizes the bread of the lowly, modest man. Thus “lechem oni”, rendered above as the “bread of hardship”, can mean “the bread of the humble man” (anav).
Another mitzvah was given to Israel as an everlasting reminder against arrogance and conceit, namely, the prohibition against consuming non-kosher fat:
“All the fat is the L-rd's. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings, that you shall eat neither fat nor blood.” (Parashat Vayikra, Lev. 3:16-17).
The fact that “all the fat is the L-rd's” is a clear hint that wealth and honor are befitting only for G-d, fat symbolizing these. Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I will give you the good of the land of Egypt and you shall eat the fat of the land.” (Gen. 45:18).
Moreover, Ibn Ezra comments that in “all the chelev of the oil and all the chelev of the wine and the corn” (Num. 18:12), chelev connotes “the choicest and the best”. Fatness symbolizes health and strength, as in Pharaoh's dream [of the seven fat and seven gaunt cows].
Thus, the wealth, honor, beauty and splendor symbolized by chelev belong only to G-d. They are becoming only to Him, because all these traits are His.
Even beyond this, however, chelev, fatness here on earth, is nothing but a symbol of conceit and the pursuit of pleasure, wealth and honor: “Their obese hearts have they shut tight, their mouths speak proudly” (Psalms 17:10); “Their eyes protrude from obesity , they are gone beyond the imaginations of their heart” (Ibid., 73:7); and “Their heart is gross like fat, but I delight in Your law” (Ibid., 119:70).
[See also] Rambam (Issurei HaMizbeach 7:11):
Whoever wishes merit should suppress his evil impulse and show generosity by bringing his offering from the choicest of the species in question. The Torah says, “And Abel also offered some of the firstborn of his flock, from the fattest ones [chelbehen]. And the L-rd paid heed to Abel and his offering”(Gen. 4:4).
Chelev connotes the choicest, plumpest, richest animal specimen. It thus symbolizes the human pride which compels man toward wealth, honor and the cravings of this world. Hence, we are not only obligated to sacrifice the choicest animal specimen but to take its fat, the symbol of pride and what is best and most desirable, and give it to G-d.
Through our readiness to donate to G-d the most important part, we rid ourselves of pride, proclaiming, “All the fat is the L-rd's!”
It follows that both chametz and chelev are symbols of pride.
Still, there is a difference between them.
Chametz symbolizes the egotism which entices a person toward the haughty pursuit of wealth and honor. Since it symbolizes the root and source of evil, it has no place on G-d's altar, the symbol of holiness, free of all arrogance.
By contrast, chelev symbolizes wealth and honor that a person has already attained and through which he is liable to become haughty. Therefore, a man is obligated to demonstrate the suppression of his evil impulse through his willingness to donate this symbol of pride and burn it.
It is true that G-d does not reject wealth. Like everything else G-d made, man can use it for good or evil, and it is certainly possible to direct wealth toward good ends. Certainly wealth is not evil per se, despite those false religions that wax pious in their condemnation of it. Money is neither good nor bad. If we use it to build the Temple and to do mitzvot, it is good.
If, however, it is put in service of arrogance and lust, nothing could be worse. Not only does man's egotism drive him to pursue wealth, but that wealth turns him into an even more conceited evildoer. It is a vicious cycle.
One of our most important principles is: “To the L-rd belongs the earth and everything in it.” (Ps. 24:1). Everything belongs to G-d, and nothing that ostensibly belongs to man is really his. Rather, it is only given to him to use. The concept of holiness provides a concrete example to help us understand the essence of property here on earth – that it belongs exclusively to G-d, and not to man.
What does Scripture say of him who makes unwarranted use of Temple property?
He shall bring as his guilt-offering to the L-rd, a [two-year-old] unblemished ram with a prescribed value of [at least] two silver shekels, according to the sanctuary standard. He must make restitution for taking something that was holy and shall add a fifth. (Parashat Vayikra, Lev. 5:15-16).
The reason he must add precisely a fifth is that it fits the crime.
This person was obligated to give up to a fifth of “his” property, as it were, to charity: “In giving charity, one should lavish no more than a fifth of his wealth” (Ketuvot 67b). In doing so, he would have demonstrated G-d's ownership over his property.
Instead, he stole Temple property. Hence, he must pay a fifth as he should have done of his “own” property, so to speak.
Among the nations and the alien culture, all sorts of outlooks have been formed regarding property, and despite the superficial differences between them, all are based on the perception that the world and property belong to man.
In this regard, there is no difference between what the non-Jews call “Capitalism”, “Socialism” or “Communism”. Whether a non-Jew argues that property is a private possession or argues that it belongs to society, he means that it is the property of man.
Not so G-d, Whose Torah states that everything belongs to Him, and that property and possessions were given to mankind only for use. Thus, when G-d decrees that we must give tzedakah, it is our duty to do so. Tzedakah does not at all come from the property of the wealthy man. He has no ownership whatsoever over what is given him by Heaven. Such is our sages' intent in Avot 3:7 :
“Give to G-d of His own, for you and yours are His”.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rav Meir Kahane HY”D
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei - In the Twilight of Shabbat and Redemption - Rav Meir Kahane
[This year, the Parashot Vayakhel and Pekudei are read on separate Shabbatot - this Parasha text will therefore remain for the next two weeks]
On six days, work may be done, but the seventh day shall be holy for you, a day of complete rest for Hashem... (Ex. 35:2)
In Yoma 81b, our sages said regarding Yom Kippur:
«You must afflict your souls on the ninth of the month» (Lev. 23:32): I might think one should start fasting on the ninth day. It therefore says «in the evening» (Ibid.). If «in the evening», I might think he should start after it gets dark. It therefore, says, «on the ninth». How does this work? We start fasting while it is yet day. From here we learn that we add from the non-holy [the day before] onto the holy... I only know that this applies regarding Yom Kippur. How do I know it applies also regarding the Sabbath? The verse adds, «You must celebrate Sabbath [תשבתו]» (Ibid.)
We, likewise, find in Mechilta (Yitro, Mesechta DeBachodesh, 7):
The Torah says «Remember the Sabbath day to make it holy» (Ex. 20:8) and then, «Keep the Sabbath day to make it holy» (Deut. 5:12). We must remember it from before [its onset] and we must keep it until after [its completion]. From here they learned that we add from the non-holy onto the holy.
All the Rishonim ruled this way (except for Rambam), and R. Yosef Caro ruled this way as well (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, 261:2).
I believe a profound principle can be derived here. Consider that G-d, rather than letting day move to night suddenly, created twilight [בין השמשות — ben hashemashot], a time of questionable status, and included this in the Sabbath. By His very doing so, He already established a sort of addition to the Sabbath besides the Rabbinic one mentioned above.
The Poskim argue over when twilight occurs. According to Rambam and Rif, the Gaonim and Gra, it begins immediatley after sunset and continues the time it takes towalk three fourths of a mil [approximately 960 meters], after which begins night.
Yet Rabbenu Tam has another view, which Ramban and Rashba, Rosh and Ran agree to, that from sunset until nightfall lasts the time it takes to walk four mil 9Pesachim 94a), and that there are two sunsets: The first lasts the time it takes to walk three and a quarter mil, and then it is still daytime. The second sunset begins then and lasts the time it talkes to walk three quarters of a mil, and that span is twilight.
Actually, according to either view, one is obligated to add some amount of time even before twilight, such that before what is for sure Sabbath, there is not only twilight, the questionable time, but a period of unquestionable weekday added on. R. Yosef Caro (who ruled like Rabbenu Tam and his group), wrote (Ibid.), «If someone wishes to make an absolute addition to the Sabbath, he may do so... He need only add some amount of unquestionable daytime, thereby adding from the non-holy to the Holy.» Rema commented: «And if he wishes to accept upon himself teh onset of the Shabbat as early as plag haminchah [one and a quarter halachic hours before nightfall], he may do so» (yet, whoever starts before then has done nothing).
Previously [in other places], I have explained that G-d can bring redemption early on various pretexts, even when Israel have not merited redemption «in haste». I believe that the two additions, namely (1) G-d's creation of a twilight period between day and night and its natural inclusion in the Sabbath that follows; and, (2) the mitzvah of adding weekday time onto the Sabbath, serve to reward Israel in the Messianic era if we are otherwise undeserving. G-d is hinting at this. The week is composed of six weekdays followed by a Sabbath, and we are obligated to add from the sixth day to bring the Sabbath earlier. In the same way, the world's entire existence is six thousand years, followed by a seventh, called «a day that is all Sabbath».
Hence, as part of our cries to hasten redemption, it is a great mitzvah for us to bring the Sabbath as early as we can. That way, we can merit early redemption as just recompense. How many blessings will befall the Jew who steadfastly brings the Sabbath early each week! By this merit, he will hasten also the coming of the eternal Sabbath to the world.
This may be why R. Yochanan said in the name of R. Shimon bar Yochai (Shabbat 118b): «If Israel kept only two Sabbaths accroding to their laws [כהלכתן — kehilchatan], we would immediately be redeemed.» In other words, if we fulfill all the laws of the Sabbath, including adding from the non-holy to the holy, corresponding to the Messianic era, then G-d Himself will add from the non-holy and hasten the eternal Sabbath.
[No compilation - this is Rav Meir Kahane's «The Jewish Idea», Chapter 37 «Twilight» directly from the book.]
Monday, February 10, 2014
Parashat Ki Tisa - For My Name's sake - Rav Meir Kahane
Moses
pleaded before Hashem, his G-d, and said, “Why, Hashem, should Your
anger flare up against Your people, whom You have taken out of the land
of Egypt, with great power and a strong hand? Why should Egypt say the
following: 'With evil intent did He take them out, to kill them in the
mountains and to annihilate them from the face of the earth' ? Relent
from Your flaring anger and reconsider regarding the evil against Your
people. (Ex. 32:11,12)
Hashem reconsidered regarding the evil that He declared He would do to His people. (Ex. 32:14)
[similarly, we find in Ezekiel 20:5, 21-22]:
But the children rebelled against Me. They walked not in My statutes nor kept My ordinances which if a man do, he shall live by them. [...] I said I would pour out My wrath on them, to spend My anger on them in the wilderness. Yet I withdrew My hand and acted for My Name's sake, lest it be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I brought them forth.
This last quotation, regarding Israel's sins in the wilderness and G-d's decision not to destroy them lest His Name be profaned, relates to the sins of the golden calf and of the spies.
The golden calf was an unbearably grave sin, and part of its punishment attaches itself to every single punishment brought upon the Jewish People, as our sages said (Sanhedrin 102a):
There is no punishment that comes to the world which does not contain a minuscule portion of the [punishment for the] golden calf, as it says (Ex. 32:34), “On the day I visit, I will take this sin of theirs into account.”G-d was furious at a nation which, less than forty days after He revealed Himself at Sinai and they said they would first fulfill the Torah and only then seek explanations, exchanged their glory “for the likeness of an ox that eats grass” (Ps. 106:20). G-d decided to destroy this sinful nation, as it says (Ex. 32:10 ), “Now do not try to stop Me when I unleash My wrath against them to destroy them” and (Deut. 9:14), “Leave Me alone and I will destroy them, obliterating their name from under the heavens.” Moses, in his infinite love for the Jewish People, prostrated himself in prayer and entreaty for forty days and forty nights to tear up the evil decree, and none of his arguments had any effect – except for one!
It says (Deut. 9:25-29):
Because the L-rd said He would destroy you, I threw myself down before Him for forty days and forty nights. My prayer to the L-rd was, “L-rd G-d! Do not destroy Your nation and heritage, which You liberated with Your greatness and which You brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Pay not attention to the stubbornness of this nation or to their wickedness and sin. Do not let the land from which You took them say, 'The L-rd brought them out to kill them in the desert, because He hated them and was powerless to bring them to the land He promised them.' After all, they are Your people and Your heritage. You brought them out with Your great power and Your outstretched arm.”
“Powerless!” Moses, the faithful shepherd who sacrificed himself for his love of Israel, entreated G-d on behalf of his people and cried out his last argument: “What will the nations say, in ridicule and mockery? Surely they will curse and blaspheme G-d , scornfully claiming that He is 'powerless'”.
Israel were the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, chosen to be G-d's holy treasure, His special nation. Their destruction would have constituted G-d's reneging on His covenant due to inability to fulfill it.
For this reason alone, “G-d refrained from doing the evil that He planned for His people” (Ex. 32:14).
[About 1400 years later,] R. Yishmael ben Elisha was the last Kohen Gadol before the destruction of the Second Temple. It was clear to R. Yishmael in his holiness and divine inspiration that G-d was about to pour out His wrath on His nation, His land and His Temple.
[See] Berachot 7 a:
One time I entered the Holy of Holies to bring the incense, and there I saw Akatriel Y-H, the L-rd of Hosts, sitting on a high and lofty throne. He said to me, “Yishmael, My son, bless me!” and I said to Him, “May it be Your will that Your mercy should conquer and override Your anger, and You should treat Your children with mercy, going beyond the letter of the law,” and He nodded His head to me.
These words are hard to understand [...]. Does G-d need a blessing from mortal man on Yom Kippur, when He judges and rules over the whole world? Even stranger is R. Ishmael's blessing. How did he know that G-d would find it favorable?
R. Yishmael knew that G-d was about to destroy His Temple and exile His children, which would lead to terrible Chilul Hashem. The nations' derisive question, “Where is their G-d?” would deprive G-d of His sovereignty, and He, too, would be in exile and servitude, so to speak.
R. Yishmael understood that in this “zero hour”, G-d desired a solution that would spare His having to profane His name through the exile of His children and destruction of His Temple.
[We learn from this that for the sanctification of His Name G-d is even willing to forgo strict justice.
But if so to speak, G-d can overcome himself and bridle His anger for His Name's sake, this must be reciprocated by us overcoming ourselves, even our love for others and our personal values, for His Name's sake and His eternal values]
When Moses saw the terrible Chilul Hashem of the golden calf episode, in which “they exchanged their glory for the likeness of an ox that consumes grass” (Ps. 106:20), he immediately understood that only self-sacrifice and Kiddush Hashem would save Israel from G-d's ire.
It therefore says (Ex. 32:26-27, 29):
[Moses] announced, “Whoever is for the L-rd, join me!” All the Leviim gathered around him. He said to them, “This is what the L-rd G-d of Israel says: Let each man put on his sword ... Let each one kill [all those involved in the idolatry], even his own brother, close friend or relative”... Moses said, “Today you shall be spiritually completed as a tribe dedicated to th L-rd, with a special blessing. Men have been willing to kill even their own sons and brothers [at G-d's command].”
Because of the self-sacrifice and Kiddush Hashem of the Leviim, which demonstrated their complete trust in G-d, G-d replaced the firstborn, chosen originally to be G-d's priests, with Leviim: “I have now taken the Leviim in place of all the firstborn Israelites” (Num. 8:18) G-d did this only because they had reached the pinnacle of self-sacrifice and Kiddush Hashem, when they were ready to kill their relatives and parents. This act demonstrated that their love of G-d superseded even their love for their most cherished relative.
Following is Ramban (Ibid., v. 26):
Seeing that the people were an object of ridicule in their neighbor's eyes, this being a Chilul Hashem, he stood at the gates of the camp and cried out, “Whoever is for the L-rd, join me!” (Ex. 332:26). He publicly killed all those who worshiped the calf, so that Israel's enemies should hear and the Name of Heaven should be sanctified through them, instead of the Chilul Hashem they had perpetrated.
Or HaChaim (Ex. 32:29) relates to the killing of Israelites:
We might think that someone who did such a thing was spiritually flawed, possessing cruelty associated with wickedness. Moses therefore said, “Today you shall be spiritually completed” (Ex. 32:29). This is not a command, but an announcement that this day their spiritual powers would be made complete. Their deed was not a sign of any spiritual flaw. Quite the contrary, their “willingness to kill even their own sons” (Ibid) signified their approaching spiritual perfection.
The pinnacle of bitachon, sacrificing oneself for Kiddush Hashem, involves being ready to elevate one's love of G-d above one's love of people.
[Similarly] G-d commanded us regarding the apostate city. If we hear of a city led astray by evildoers, such that its inhabitants went and worshiped idols, we must destroy that city and all its inhabitants with their property, until it remains an eternal ruin.
Kill all the inhabitants of the city by the sword... Burn the city along with all its goods, entirely, to the L-rd your G-d... The L-rd will then have mercy on you, and in His mercy he will make you flourish... (Deut. 13, 16-18)
No mitzvah in the Torah is harder for the Jew than to destroy an entire Jewish city, and his whole nature rebels against this command. [If this goes even for a Jewish city, please understand its implications regarding non-Jewish entities in the Land of Israel!] If, all the same, he overcomes his selfishness and suppresses his evil impulse via this mitzvah, how great shall be his reward! How fully has he brought G-d, the Supreme King, to reign over him and accepted G-d's yoke. It is truly as if he has fulfilled all the mitzvot.
Imagine how hard it is, how cruel it is for a person to obey G-d with such self-sacrifice as this!
Yet, only in this way will G-d sanctify His Name and bring the redemption.
Our sages, likewise, said (Pesikta Rabbati, 31):
“If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand lose its cunning” (Ps. 137:5): R. Elazar HaKapar envisioned G-d saying: “My Torah is in your hands and the end of days is in My hands, and we both need each other. Just as you need Me to bring the end, I need you to keep My Torah, to hasten the rebuilding of My house and of Jerusalem. Just as I cannot possibly forget the end, as it says, 'Let My right hand lose its cunning,' so have you no right to forget the Torah, which stated, 'From His right hand went out a fiery law for them' (Deut. 33:2).”
Listen well, O Israel! G-d, Himself, decrees His dependency upon Israel, so to speak, our “both needing each other.” Had our sages not said this, who could have dared express it? Yet, once they did say it, how can we continue our rebellion against G-d, a rebellion rendered foolish and inane in light of these words? After all, G-d admits, so to speak, that in order to hasten the building of Jerusalem and the Temple, in order to return once more as King, thereby sanctifying His Name and eliminating the terrible Chilul Hashem, He needs Israel. That is, it is enough if Israel resume Torah observance, and then, for His own sake, to sanctify His Name, He will return to Eretz Israel and bring the redemption. Thus, G-d is “dependent” on us, and why should we not understand this?
One might ask: Why does G-d enable flesh and blood to dictate decrees to Him?
The answer is simple:
G-d fiercely longs to sanctify His Name, profaned daily by the nations, but He demands that Israel sanctify His Name first through complete and perfect faith and trust in G-d. They must take hold of the dangerous, frightening mitzvot which leave them isolated and alone with the nations opposing them, for only this can prove their real trust in Him.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rav Meir Kahane HY”D
Hashem reconsidered regarding the evil that He declared He would do to His people. (Ex. 32:14)
[similarly, we find in Ezekiel 20:5, 21-22]:
But the children rebelled against Me. They walked not in My statutes nor kept My ordinances which if a man do, he shall live by them. [...] I said I would pour out My wrath on them, to spend My anger on them in the wilderness. Yet I withdrew My hand and acted for My Name's sake, lest it be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I brought them forth.
This last quotation, regarding Israel's sins in the wilderness and G-d's decision not to destroy them lest His Name be profaned, relates to the sins of the golden calf and of the spies.
The golden calf was an unbearably grave sin, and part of its punishment attaches itself to every single punishment brought upon the Jewish People, as our sages said (Sanhedrin 102a):
There is no punishment that comes to the world which does not contain a minuscule portion of the [punishment for the] golden calf, as it says (Ex. 32:34), “On the day I visit, I will take this sin of theirs into account.”G-d was furious at a nation which, less than forty days after He revealed Himself at Sinai and they said they would first fulfill the Torah and only then seek explanations, exchanged their glory “for the likeness of an ox that eats grass” (Ps. 106:20). G-d decided to destroy this sinful nation, as it says (Ex. 32:10 ), “Now do not try to stop Me when I unleash My wrath against them to destroy them” and (Deut. 9:14), “Leave Me alone and I will destroy them, obliterating their name from under the heavens.” Moses, in his infinite love for the Jewish People, prostrated himself in prayer and entreaty for forty days and forty nights to tear up the evil decree, and none of his arguments had any effect – except for one!
It says (Deut. 9:25-29):
Because the L-rd said He would destroy you, I threw myself down before Him for forty days and forty nights. My prayer to the L-rd was, “L-rd G-d! Do not destroy Your nation and heritage, which You liberated with Your greatness and which You brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Pay not attention to the stubbornness of this nation or to their wickedness and sin. Do not let the land from which You took them say, 'The L-rd brought them out to kill them in the desert, because He hated them and was powerless to bring them to the land He promised them.' After all, they are Your people and Your heritage. You brought them out with Your great power and Your outstretched arm.”
“Powerless!” Moses, the faithful shepherd who sacrificed himself for his love of Israel, entreated G-d on behalf of his people and cried out his last argument: “What will the nations say, in ridicule and mockery? Surely they will curse and blaspheme G-d , scornfully claiming that He is 'powerless'”.
Israel were the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, chosen to be G-d's holy treasure, His special nation. Their destruction would have constituted G-d's reneging on His covenant due to inability to fulfill it.
For this reason alone, “G-d refrained from doing the evil that He planned for His people” (Ex. 32:14).
[About 1400 years later,] R. Yishmael ben Elisha was the last Kohen Gadol before the destruction of the Second Temple. It was clear to R. Yishmael in his holiness and divine inspiration that G-d was about to pour out His wrath on His nation, His land and His Temple.
[See] Berachot 7 a:
One time I entered the Holy of Holies to bring the incense, and there I saw Akatriel Y-H, the L-rd of Hosts, sitting on a high and lofty throne. He said to me, “Yishmael, My son, bless me!” and I said to Him, “May it be Your will that Your mercy should conquer and override Your anger, and You should treat Your children with mercy, going beyond the letter of the law,” and He nodded His head to me.
These words are hard to understand [...]. Does G-d need a blessing from mortal man on Yom Kippur, when He judges and rules over the whole world? Even stranger is R. Ishmael's blessing. How did he know that G-d would find it favorable?
R. Yishmael knew that G-d was about to destroy His Temple and exile His children, which would lead to terrible Chilul Hashem. The nations' derisive question, “Where is their G-d?” would deprive G-d of His sovereignty, and He, too, would be in exile and servitude, so to speak.
R. Yishmael understood that in this “zero hour”, G-d desired a solution that would spare His having to profane His name through the exile of His children and destruction of His Temple.
[We learn from this that for the sanctification of His Name G-d is even willing to forgo strict justice.
But if so to speak, G-d can overcome himself and bridle His anger for His Name's sake, this must be reciprocated by us overcoming ourselves, even our love for others and our personal values, for His Name's sake and His eternal values]
When Moses saw the terrible Chilul Hashem of the golden calf episode, in which “they exchanged their glory for the likeness of an ox that consumes grass” (Ps. 106:20), he immediately understood that only self-sacrifice and Kiddush Hashem would save Israel from G-d's ire.
It therefore says (Ex. 32:26-27, 29):
[Moses] announced, “Whoever is for the L-rd, join me!” All the Leviim gathered around him. He said to them, “This is what the L-rd G-d of Israel says: Let each man put on his sword ... Let each one kill [all those involved in the idolatry], even his own brother, close friend or relative”... Moses said, “Today you shall be spiritually completed as a tribe dedicated to th L-rd, with a special blessing. Men have been willing to kill even their own sons and brothers [at G-d's command].”
Because of the self-sacrifice and Kiddush Hashem of the Leviim, which demonstrated their complete trust in G-d, G-d replaced the firstborn, chosen originally to be G-d's priests, with Leviim: “I have now taken the Leviim in place of all the firstborn Israelites” (Num. 8:18) G-d did this only because they had reached the pinnacle of self-sacrifice and Kiddush Hashem, when they were ready to kill their relatives and parents. This act demonstrated that their love of G-d superseded even their love for their most cherished relative.
Following is Ramban (Ibid., v. 26):
Seeing that the people were an object of ridicule in their neighbor's eyes, this being a Chilul Hashem, he stood at the gates of the camp and cried out, “Whoever is for the L-rd, join me!” (Ex. 332:26). He publicly killed all those who worshiped the calf, so that Israel's enemies should hear and the Name of Heaven should be sanctified through them, instead of the Chilul Hashem they had perpetrated.
Or HaChaim (Ex. 32:29) relates to the killing of Israelites:
We might think that someone who did such a thing was spiritually flawed, possessing cruelty associated with wickedness. Moses therefore said, “Today you shall be spiritually completed” (Ex. 32:29). This is not a command, but an announcement that this day their spiritual powers would be made complete. Their deed was not a sign of any spiritual flaw. Quite the contrary, their “willingness to kill even their own sons” (Ibid) signified their approaching spiritual perfection.
The pinnacle of bitachon, sacrificing oneself for Kiddush Hashem, involves being ready to elevate one's love of G-d above one's love of people.
[Similarly] G-d commanded us regarding the apostate city. If we hear of a city led astray by evildoers, such that its inhabitants went and worshiped idols, we must destroy that city and all its inhabitants with their property, until it remains an eternal ruin.
Kill all the inhabitants of the city by the sword... Burn the city along with all its goods, entirely, to the L-rd your G-d... The L-rd will then have mercy on you, and in His mercy he will make you flourish... (Deut. 13, 16-18)
No mitzvah in the Torah is harder for the Jew than to destroy an entire Jewish city, and his whole nature rebels against this command. [If this goes even for a Jewish city, please understand its implications regarding non-Jewish entities in the Land of Israel!] If, all the same, he overcomes his selfishness and suppresses his evil impulse via this mitzvah, how great shall be his reward! How fully has he brought G-d, the Supreme King, to reign over him and accepted G-d's yoke. It is truly as if he has fulfilled all the mitzvot.
Imagine how hard it is, how cruel it is for a person to obey G-d with such self-sacrifice as this!
Yet, only in this way will G-d sanctify His Name and bring the redemption.
Our sages, likewise, said (Pesikta Rabbati, 31):
“If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand lose its cunning” (Ps. 137:5): R. Elazar HaKapar envisioned G-d saying: “My Torah is in your hands and the end of days is in My hands, and we both need each other. Just as you need Me to bring the end, I need you to keep My Torah, to hasten the rebuilding of My house and of Jerusalem. Just as I cannot possibly forget the end, as it says, 'Let My right hand lose its cunning,' so have you no right to forget the Torah, which stated, 'From His right hand went out a fiery law for them' (Deut. 33:2).”
Listen well, O Israel! G-d, Himself, decrees His dependency upon Israel, so to speak, our “both needing each other.” Had our sages not said this, who could have dared express it? Yet, once they did say it, how can we continue our rebellion against G-d, a rebellion rendered foolish and inane in light of these words? After all, G-d admits, so to speak, that in order to hasten the building of Jerusalem and the Temple, in order to return once more as King, thereby sanctifying His Name and eliminating the terrible Chilul Hashem, He needs Israel. That is, it is enough if Israel resume Torah observance, and then, for His own sake, to sanctify His Name, He will return to Eretz Israel and bring the redemption. Thus, G-d is “dependent” on us, and why should we not understand this?
One might ask: Why does G-d enable flesh and blood to dictate decrees to Him?
The answer is simple:
G-d fiercely longs to sanctify His Name, profaned daily by the nations, but He demands that Israel sanctify His Name first through complete and perfect faith and trust in G-d. They must take hold of the dangerous, frightening mitzvot which leave them isolated and alone with the nations opposing them, for only this can prove their real trust in Him.
Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from “The Jewish Idea” of Rav Meir Kahane HY”D
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