Earlier today I received an email from a friend I didn't have a chance to ask his reshut so I can't mention his name, describing the current situation in Eretz Yisrael and ruminating about it. There are many, many positive things happening in Eretz Yisrael. There's been a tremendous strengthening of emunah which manifests in many ways. Tzahal ordered 300,000 exclamation point, 300,000 pairs of the special tzitzis that soldiers wear. Many of the soldiers said Shehecheyanu because they had never worn tzitzis before. My chaver has raised money and ordered 1,600, 1 6 0 0 pairs of tefillin for soldiers who haven't worn them before. There are videos of the soldiers saying Shema and Ana Hashem hoshiana together before entering battle in Gaza. There was an interview on the radio three weeks ago of a father sitting shivah for his son who was killed on Shemini Atzeres. He's a Lubavitcher chasid from France. On the flight to Israel to bury his son, he asked his fellow travelers to put on tefillin and they refused. Then he took out a picture of his son and said, "My son won't be able to wear tefillin again. Maybe you can wear tefillin instead of him." And almost all the men on the plane put on tefillin. There's a video of the mother of the chayelet who was miraculously saved from Gaza. She was taking challah on the Friday before her daughter was released. She davens with dmaos and a few days later her daughter was freed. The country is talking about it. A female chaver Knesset gave a five minute speech from the Knesset podium where she says she's jealous of the mother's emunah and kesher with Hashem. And now that second speech is being sent around. There are many more similar examples. At the same time, literally the same time, we have hundreds of families in aveilos from the massacre in Shemini Atzeres. We've had 19 soldiers killed in the war. There are dozens of families with relatives who are hostages in Gaza. There are thousands of people who are displaced from their homes in the south for what could be a very long time. There are thousands of families whose husbands are away for an extended period and their home life is completely out of whack. Then he proceeds to ruminate a little bit about this confluence. So how do we, how do we make sense of this extraordinary confluence? So we'll read a few lines, first I'm reading from the Rav's volume Out of the Whirlwind, here and there I'm skipping words, skipping some sentences, and afterwards from the very beginning of Halakhic Mind. Faith is an experience of suffering. From the very dawn of our history with the emergence of Avraham Avinu, suffering was considered both the main challenge which the covenantal community was expected to meet heroically and the great means of realizing the meta-historical destiny of this community. Avraham as the incarnation of the knighthood of faith was a great sufferer. When we read in Bereishis dealing with the bris and Hakadosh Baruch Hu's pledge to Avraham, the Torah has as follows, the Rav quotes it in English: ויהי השמש לבוא ותרדמה נפלה על אברם והנה אימה חשכה גדולה נפלת עליו ויאמר לאברם ידע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך בארץ לא להם ועבדום וענו אתם ארבע מאות שנה.
From time immemorial, this is the opening page in Halakhic Mind. From time immemorial, whenever the identity of the individual and the community was shadowed, man encountered God. E.g. Adam, paradisiacal man after his fall, Adam Harishon after the cheit, Moshe Rabbeinu after the egel. Religious experience is born in crisis. The transcendental adventure, the flight of the alone to the Alone is precipitated by despair. Man in his chancing upon the contradictory and absurd in life apprehends the vision of a hidden God. This reality that whenever the identity of the individual and community was shadowed, and it can be shadowed by cheit, it can be shadowed by suffering, it can be shadowed by both, that man encounters Hakadosh Baruch Hu can and should be understood on at least two different levels. It should be understood exoterically, call it halakhic terms, call it religious psychological terms, and it should also be understood esoterically, in religious metaphysical categories. Before we proceed to do that, another example of what the Rav's talking about, you have lechora in the beginning of Sefer Shemos. At the end of, when does Moshe Rabbeinu first attain his unique level of nevuah? So the Rambam writes that he attains it in the beginning of Parshas Va'era. וידבר אלקים אל משה ויאמר אליו אני ה'. So Moshe Rabbeinu is receiving again unique nevuah that no one before or after him has or ever will receive. The beginning of Parshas Va'era. That's when Moshe Rabbeinu, that's the first time Moshe Rabbeinu spikes and becomes absolutely unique. ולא קם נביא בישראל כמשה עוד אשר ידעו ה' פנים אל פנים.
What happens at the end of Parshas Shemos? Moshe Rabbeinu sinned. למה זה שלחתני מאז באתי לדבר אל פרעה בשמך הרע לעם הזה והצל לא הצלת את עמך.
And in the aftermath of that cheit, so Moshe Rabbeinu then encounters Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the highest level. that any any human being ever has or will. What's the pshat? The chitzoniyus of life entices, distracts, and diverts. What does the chitzoniyus of life denote? What does it include? Anything and everything which doesn't either directly or indirectly connect Hakadosh Baruch Hu. One can go for a walk or a jog on a beautiful spring day and enjoy it very much, and the enjoyment is framed by a Barchi Nafshi sense of מה רבו מעשיך השם. Alternatively, one can go on a jog that day and enjoy it with no greater transcendental context. One can listen to music, enjoy the music very much and be religiously inspired by the lyrics, or one can listen to music and enjoy it, period, without it being part of something bigger. One can go to work, enjoy one's job, find it challenging and satisfying, support his family, but he's motivated by גדול הנהנה מיגיע כפו. He's motivated by כל מי שאינו מלמד בנו אומנות כאילו מלמדו ליסטות. He's motivated by the importance of being Osek Bederech Eretz. Or he can go to work and enjoy his career, period. A person can feel secure in life, which also helps foster a sense of joy, because he's financially secure, in good robust health. Or he can feel secure in life and have a tremendous Simchas Hachayim because life is good. וירא אלקים את כל אשר עשה והנה טוב מאד. It's an extraordinary Beracha from Hakadosh Baruch Hu to be alive. A person can feel secure because he feels that his fellow countrymen are decent civilized people, maybe even philo-Semites. Or he can feel secure because הנה לא ינום ולא יישן שומר ישראל. A person can feel a much-needed sense of belonging because he identifies with ostensibly moral causes and the communities that grow around those causes. He can go out and join the Black Lives Matter protests and feel a part of something bigger, ostensibly a moral cause. Or he can feel a sense of belonging as a part of the Jewish people who are bound together as Hakadosh Baruch Hu's people. The chitzoniyus of life, as mentioned, is alluring and distracting. Ostensibly it provides a home, an identity, a community, but it also separates from When in the words of the Rav, the identity of the individual and or community is shattered, shattered by chet, catastrophe or both, he encounters Hakadosh Baruch Hu because all the chitzoniyus is stripped away. The elohei chesef and elohei zahav melt away. He discovers that an inordinate number, not all, but an inordinate number of his fellow citizens are busy attending pro-Hamas demonstrations. In the wake of the catastrophe, the chitzoniyus that seemed enjoyable before becomes totally meaningless. And what's left? Ribono Shel Olam. What is a person left with? Ribono Shel Olam. The most beautiful story from Chassidus that I know concerns two brothers from the Chernobyl dynasty: Rav Yochanan Rachmistrivka and his older brother Rav Dovid'l Talner. Rav Dovid'l Talner in his day, 19th-century Ukraine—he was niftar in the 1880s—was known far and wide as a po'el yeshuos. People flocked from all over. When you needed a yeshua, that was your address. So his brother Rav Yochanan Rachmistrivka, who had his own chatzer, he was also a Rebbe, once said to him, Bameh kochacho hagadol? How are you able to, how do you do it? When people come to me, I daven with all the kavannos and all the yichudim. Doesn't go. How do you do it? So Rav Dovid'l Talner said, I'll tell you. He says, when they come to you, someone who's tzubochen, someone who's broken comes to you, so you receive him with kevod melachim. You receive him regally and you embrace him figuratively and literally with love and and you give him such a generous, bountiful, overflowing bracha. Says, when they come to me, he says, first of all, they have to wait four months before I let them in. And during those four months, they sleep on the hard, cold bench in the Beis Medrash. When finally their turn to come in and talk to me comes, so before they go in, the gabbai goes over to them and warns them, you have two minutes with the Rebbe, and don't you dare even think about overstaying those two minutes. At this point, when he finally comes in, he's so nervous, the first thirty seconds he can't even talk. Finally, he begins to talk, to tell me what he wants to talk about, the gabbai comes barging in and yells at him, one minute mechutzaf, just one minute left. He can't even talk. At the end of this two-minute audience, I say something very ambiguous. He leaves my room, he's even more tzubochen than when he came in, and he gives a krechtz. He thinks to himself, this was the last address, this was my last hope. He's supposed to be the— I have no one other than you. In Shamayim, the Rav said, they're waiting for that krechtz. Whenever the identity of the individual and community was shattered, man encounters Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Emes is that the Rav, the Rav says the same point as this story. What happens at the beginning of Sefer Shmuel? What prompts Chana’s tefilla which Hakadosh Baruch Hu answers? She goes up with Aliya L'regel with Elkanah and again she's very tzubochen about that that she's an akara, that she's childless. And Elkanah says to Chana, Lamma Sifkee? V'lamma Yerrah L'vavech? Why are you crying? Why are you so despondent? הלא אנכי טוב לך מעשרה בנים. No, the love that I shower upon you isn't that that surpasses the love you'd have from from ten children. So says the Rav, so until this point, Chana thought there was one person in the room, one person in the world who at least understood her pain, that she wasn't entirely alone, who shared in her suffering. And then she sees it's not true. She sees that her husband doesn't get it either. And what happens? She davens. Not for the first time, but she davens like she never davened before and Hakadosh Baruch Hu answers. Whenever the identity of the individual and community was shattered, man encountered Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The esoteric perspective, the metaphysical perspective. Tzarich Leida Ne'emana, says the Baal HaTanya. כי אף מי שדעתו קצרה בידיעת השם ואין לו לב להבין בגדולת אין סוף ברוך הוא להוליד ממנו דחילו ורחימו
yira v'ahava. Skipping a few words, אף על פי כן קרוב אליו הדבר מאד. Even such an individual, dato ketzara, אין לו לב להבין בגדולת אין סוף. Even such an individual karov eilav, quoting the pasuk in Sefer Devarim, כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאד בפיך ובלבבך. אף על פי כן קרוב אליו הדבר מאד לשמור ולעשות כל מצוות התורה ותלמוד תורה כנגד כולם
b'piv uvilvavo mamash me'umka d'libba b'emes l'amito bidchilu u'rechimo, שהיא אהבה מסותרת שבלב כללות ישראל. There's an ahava, there's a hidden ahava inside the Jewish heart שהיא ירושה לנו מאבותינו. And the next perek, ולכן נקראת אהבה זו בנפש האלוקית שרצונה וחפצה לדבק בהשם חיי החיים ברוך הוא.
It's נקראת בשם אהבה מסותרת because כי היא מסותרת ומכוסה בלבוש שק דקליפה. Ach, skipping several lines. Listen to this. This is eerie. This is eerie. כשבואם לידי נסיון בדבר אמונה, something happens which is a challenge to emuna. Ach keshebo'am, and referring even, Rachmana litzlan, to people, the Baal HaTanya is talking even about poshei Yisrael who perhaps bear responsibility for that. And even them, but על אחת כמה וכמה those who simply don't know any better. אך כשבואם לידי נסיון בדבר אמונה שהיא למעלה מהדעת, אז הנה אורה ונוגה עד הנפש, אז אזי הנה אורה,
the nefesh is awakened mishnaso ופועלת פעולתה בכוח השם המלובש בה. Keshebo'am, skipping a few lines, this is mamash, it's כשבואם לידי נסיון בדבר אמונה בהשם אחד, היא בחינת חכמה שבנפש האלוקית שבה מלובש אור אין סוף ברוך הוא הרי כל הקליפות בטלים ומבוטלים והיו כלא היו ממש לפני השם.
And he describes, הנה אור השם אין סוף ברוך הוא המלובש בחכמה שבנפש גדול ועצום כוחו כל כך לגרש ולדחות הסטרא אחרא והקליפות שלא יוכלו יגעו אפילו בלבושיו שהם מחשבה דיבור ומעשה של אמונת השם אחד, דהיינו לעמוד בנסיון למסור נפשו, וזה נקרא דחילו הנכלל ברחימו שהיא אהבה הטבעית שבנפש האלוקית שבכלל ישראל.
That's what those videos of שמע ישראל השם אלוקינו השם אחד Hashamayim are showing. That's what the אנא השם הושיעה נא Hashamayim is showing. This is what the Baal HaTanya is describing. So we have a perspective on this dialectical confluence of aveilus and hisorerus and aveilus precipitated by a catastrophe that is impossible to adequately describe. So what is a person feeling when seeing the shiva houses across the country, and most recently with the death of chayalim, for eighteen-year-olds, nineteen-year-olds, and twenty-year-olds, but also seeing this incredible hisorerus? So it's important to understand maybe a paradigm is provided by the Rambam in Yesodei HaTorah. The Rambam's talking about the dual mitzvos of Ahavas Hashem and Yiras Hashem. So the Rambam פרק ב הלכה ב as you know writes והיאך היא הדרך לאהבתו ויראתו בשעה שיתבונן האדם במעשיו ובברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים.
When a person reflects on Hakadosh Baruch Hu's great wondrous handiwork and creations ויראה מהן חכמתו שאין לה ערך ולא קץ, he sees the inestimable infinite chochma. מיד הוא אוהב ומשבח ומפאר. So immediately he takes the first step in terms of ahava, he praises, he glorifies Hakadosh Baruch Hu ומתאוה תאוה גדולה לידע השם הגדול. And there's this irresistible attraction, he's drawn magnetically to Hakadosh Baruch Hu ומתאוה תאוה גדולה לידע השם הגדול כמו שאמר דוד צמאה נפשי לאלוקים לקל חי.
Dovid HaMelech he thirsts for Hakadosh Baruch Hu, his soul thirsts for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Says the Rambam וכשמחשב בדברים האלו עצמן. But when he then reflects on this same, the same מעשיו ובברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים, the same reflection, מיד הוא נרתע לאחוריו. He recoils Veyira Veyifchad. He's terrified וידע שהוא בריה קטנה שפלה אפלה and he realizes how tiny and puny and inconsequential he is. So maybe logically these two reactions, if you just sort of think about it logically, maybe they're contradictory. But the reality is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu arouses within a person both of those simultaneously. And whether they're logically compatible or not, I don't know, but in terms of human experience they coexist. But even in midas ha'olam sometimes contradictory emotions coexist. I don't know, when you see people on a roller coaster. So they're screaming and the screaming clearly is that they're terrified and exhilarated simultaneously. They're screaming because they're terrified but they're also, I don't know, they get some kind of some kind of high out of it. So the teva of a person is that when we experience something which simultaneously elicits what perhaps logically are contradictory states of being, of mind, they coexist within us and we experience both simultaneously. What's our reaction? We should be crying and grieving. We should be desperately davening for the welfare of each and every chayal. If only Klal Yisrael will do teshuvah and daven the way we need to, not a single chayal has to die. Not a single chayal has to die. Ribono Shel Olam can figure out how to destroy evil without there being korbanos. So we cry, we grieve, we desperately daven and simultaneously we are warmed. There's a sense of warmth, there's a glow by the reality of גם כי אלך בגיא צלמות לא אירא רע. Ki ata imadi. Shivtecha, what's shivtecha? שבטך ומשענתך המה ינחמוני. What's shivtecha? כי יכה איש את עבדו או את אמתו בשבט, which you use to hit someone. So shivtecha, heima yenachamuni. Is it contradictory? Yeah, it is contradictory. But that's the essence of life and that's again the reality but also the potential in the current matzav.