Parshiot Vayakhel and Pekudai 5783
by HaRav Nachman Kahana
The first order of business – right to the point: Why are people worried about what is happening in our beautiful Medinat Yisrael? I answer with a short parable:
A plane was experiencing dramatic turbulence. The passengers were frightened to death except for one young girl who sat very serenely. After the plane stabilized, they asked her why she was not frightened. And she replied: “My father is the pilot”.
In Eretz Yisrael our Father in Heaven is the “skipper”, the captain, the pilot, the master of all. There is a purpose, a direction, a goal which is being implemented by HaShem to draw us closer to Him in preparation for the final ascent to the peak of our Jewish Mount Everest – the restoration of our former greatness as the spiritual center connecting heaven and earth. The method HaShem is using is social and religious centrifugation. Centrifugation is separation through sedimentation – meaning that when centrifugal force is applied, the denser particles sink to the bottom of the container, while the more lightweight particles remain suspended.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642, an Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer) stated: “Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe.”
Perhaps he was inspired by what Rambam stated in the Laws of Tshuva, chap. 3:
כל אחד ואחד מבני האדם יש לו זכיות ועונות, מי שזכיותיו יתירות על עונותיו צדיק, ומי שעונותיו יתירות על זכיותיו רשע, מחצה למחצה בינוני, וכן המדינה אם היו זכיות כל יושביה מרובות על עונותיהן הרי זו צדקת, ואם היו עונותיהם מרובין הרי זו רשעה, וכן כל העולם כולו.
Every individual has merits and demerits. One whose merits outnumber his demerits is catalogued a tzadik, but one whose demerits are more is a rasha. So it is with a nation and with all humanity (numbers determine the fate of individuals and nations).
Rambam continues to explain that HaShem’s reckoning is not calculated only on the basis of the number of merits and sins but takes into account their magnitude. There are some merits which outweigh many sins and in contrast, a sin may outweigh many merits.
It is no secret that we are experiencing a traumatic social period. Good-meaning people are endeavoring to unite the extremes in order to find a modus vivendi, but with little success. Why?
Answer: Another allegory: A man was down on all fours searching for a lost object. A by-passer inquired:
Q: What did you lose?
A: My wallet
Q: Where?
A: On the next street.
Q: So why are you looking for it here?
A: There it’s dark, here there’s a streetlight.
The peacemakers are looking in the wrong direction. They view the controversy as a political one where the losers are refusing to accept the outcome of the democratically held elections. This is partly correct but not correct enough to produce a solution.
We are experiencing a social challenge that’s been waiting 75 years to happen; and it appears that the time has come. It is a repeat of Jewish history where Torah loyal people are pitted against rejectionist Jews who wish to throw off the yoke placed upon our national collective shoulders at Mount Sinai.
It is a replay of those who danced in a frenzy around the Golden Calf while the Levites fought to protect the Torah we had just received from the Creator Himself.
This present episode is a time bomb long waiting to explode, as predicted in the Torah in Vayikra 20:22-24.
(כב) וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת כָּל חֻקֹּתַי וְאֶת כָּל מִשְׁפָּטַי וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם וְלֹא תָקִיא אֶתְכֶם הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי מֵבִיא אֶתְכֶם שָׁמָּה לָשֶׁבֶת בָּהּ: (כג) וְלֹא תֵלְכוּ בְּחֻקֹּת הַגּוֹי אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי מְשַׁלֵּחַ מִפְּנֵיכֶם כִּי אֶת כָּל אֵלֶּה עָשׂוּ וָאָקֻץ בָּם: (כד) וָאֹמַר לָכֶם אַתֶּם תִּירְשׁוּ אֶת אַדְמָתָם וַאֲנִי אֶתְּנֶנָּה לָכֶם לָרֶשֶׁת אֹתָהּ אֶרֶץ זָבַת חָלָב וּדְבָשׁ אֲנִי ה’ אֱלֹהֵיכֶם אֲשֶׁר הִבְדַּלְתִּי אֶתְכֶם מִן הָעַמִּים:
22 You shall keep all my statutes and all my ordinances and observe them, so that the land to which I bring you to settle in will not regurgitate (expel) you. 23 You shall not follow the practices of the nation that I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. 24 But I have said to you, you shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who has separated you from the gentile nations.
HaShem built into the fabric of nature that the land of Israel cannot suffer iniquities (sins), and eventually regurgitates the deniers of Torah from the land.
Seculars claim that:Their religious involvement is a private affair; so, if they choose to eat a cheeseburger on Yom Kippur day no one is harmed! False!
If consenting adults want to indulge in Torah-prohibited relations, it harms no one. False!
They have the right to live like a goy in Israel’s democratic society, no one is harmed. False!
False, false, so what is true?
A basic principle in Judaism is that HaShem instills in all people the physical and mental ability to sin, but not the halachic right to sin. A driver’s license awards one the legal permissibility to drive, but not the right to drive recklessly.
This principle is more serious in the land sanctified by HaShem where every sin affects not only the perpetrator but the population at large.
I recall several years ago a Shabbat guest rose from the table to go to the bathroom. After a few moments the smell of cigarette smoke emerged from the bathroom. The gentleman who smoked in my house on Shabbat was a well-known rabbi in New York.
I was in a quandary about what to do when he returned to the table. It’s one thing when a Jew violates the Shabbat in the street, but when he intrudes into my sanctuary to desecrate the values that I hold holy, my first reaction was to throw him out from our home.
Eretz Yisrael is HaShem’s sanctuary in this world. When one sins, the regurgitation process begins, first by demonstrating against the Torah, followed by transferring one’s money abroad, and then the land expels him and his family.
Three months ago, the citizens of Israel went to the election booths to decide which ideology would define the State of Israel for the foreseeable future. The majority voted for parties which were conservative, pro-Judaism and pro Eretz Yisrael, rejecting the central and left parties that desire freedom to decide one’s gender, freedom from our time-tested values and mores, freedom to reject G-d and the traditional values and social way of life as defined by the Torah. In short pro HaShem vs. the antis.
In the end it will play out that the rejectionists will either return to the Torah or they will not be here.
This is HaShem’s method of social and political centrifugation to separate the deniers from the believers.
The Winds of Anti-Semitism
I believed that I was up-to-date on current events, however, I received a phone call from a trusted friend (R.O.) informing me of the severity of the increasing anti-Semitic wave filling the hollow spaces in American society. Things that I was not aware of, having been in Israel over 60 years and not having visited the US for over 25.
Perhaps this is HaShem’s way of bringing G-d fearing Jews here prepared to sacrifice for the privilege of defending and building the land.
Every day the demographic balance in the county changes to the good of Torah, with the large birthrate of religious people and the very small birthright among the secular. The demonstrators see the writing on the wall, but they cannot erase it with all their shouting.
It appears that HaShem has changed gears and we are accelerating toward the configuration necessary for the final redemption of Am Yisrael.
No one promised us a smooth ride. There are people who won’t pay to take a pleasant walk, but pay to try the Pendulum ride, Roller coaster and Ferris wheel, because it makes them feel alive. The rebuilding of the Jewish State in our ancient holy land is what makes us feel alive as we implement the promises of our holy prophets.
Shabbat Shalom
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5783/2023 Nachman Kahana
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