Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Live like a zaddik, don’t wait to be buried next to one
11:47 AM | 
Posted by
Rabbi Chaim Coffman |
By Rav Moshe Sternbuch
Living martyrdom
“And Soroh died
in Kiryas Arba” (23:2)
Rashi
quotes the Medrash that Soroh’s soul departed after hearing that Yitzchok
had been prepared for slaughter and had almost been slaughtered. Why was Soroh not
relieved that in the end he did not die? Furthermore, since Chazal tell us that
Soroh was even more righteous than Avrohom, why would she not have been willing
to give up her son at Hashem’s request?
Our
forefathers and foremothers knew that they were the pillars and prototypes for
all future generations of the Jewish nation, and that their own experiences
would be replicated again and again in the lives of their descendants. When Sarah
heard about the Akeidah, in which two righteous and holy individuals had
to endure a terribly difficult trial, she realized that, in the future, even her
most righteous descendants would also have to endure extremely challenging
experiences, such as the many persecutions in fact suffered by the nation over
the succeeding millennia, and that not even the tears and supplications of the
angels could avert these events (see Rashi on 27:1). She thus began to
cry ceaselessly, wondering whether her descendants would be able to withstand
such enormous tests, until her soul departed due to her great distress.
Alternatively,
in the Maggid Meishorim it is recorded that the Beis Yosef, Rav Yosef Karo, was
promised by the maggid (angelic teacher) that he would merit dying a
martyr’s death al kiddush Hashem. Towards the end of his life, when he
was already well into his 80s, the Beis Yosef expressed his surprise to the maggid
that even though he had put into practice all the preparations taught by him
for the purpose of meriting this form of death it had not yet happened. The maggid
responded that he should not be upset since he had merited an even greater mitzvah
than a martyr's death: he had dedicated himself completely day in and day out
to fulfilling the Will of the Creator. Dying a martyr's death, as great a mitzvah
as it is, only consists of a one-time act of self-dedication, but you, he told
him, have performed endless acts of self-dedication throughout your life.
Similarly, Soroh
was distressed that her son had almost been put in a situation where he would
no longer be able to sanctify Hashem's name here on earth, and would
consequently no longer be able to achieve a higher level than he could by being
offered up on the altar.
JOY after performing mitzvos
“And Avrohom
came to eulogize Sarah and to bewail her (livkoso)” (ibid)
The kof in
livkoso is truncated to indicate that Avrohom’s
hesped was relatively subdued.
Few couples in history have been as close as Avrohom and Soroh and
anyway Chazal tell us that a wife dies "only for her husband”, i.e. he is
the most affected by her death, so how can we understand this restraint on the
part of Avrohom?
We say in birkas
hashkivenu in ma’ariv: "Remove the soton from before us
and from behind us." Before we do a mitzvah the yetzer horo attempts to convince us not to do it, and
once we have done it, he attempts to dampen the joy and enthusiasm we are
supposed to feel after performing Hashem’s Will.
Avrohom’s paramount concern in all his
endeavors was to increase kvod
shomayim and any personal emotions
were subjected to this goal. After Soroh’s death Avrohom was worried
that people would think to themselves that after displaying such unbelievable
self-sacrifice during the akeido Avrohom was "rewarded" by his
wife's death. If Avrohom would have given vent publicly to the real extent of
his emotions after Soroh’s death during his eulogy, this might have increased
the confusion people were feeling about this sad event. On the other hand, if
they would witness his self-composure that would cause a great kiddush
Hashem, because the listeners would realize that Avrohom’s intense joy and sense of
satisfaction at having withstood the greatest of the trials had not been
diminished even by Soroh’s death.
Choosing Burial plots
“Give me
burial property with you” (23:4)
The Torah expounds at some length how
Avrohom dedicated himself to finding an appropriate place to bury Soroh and to
eulogize her in order to teach us the basic article of faith that some nitzoz ("spark") of a person’s
neshomo remains with his body and his place of burial. This is the basis
for the custom to pray in the vicinity of the grave of a righteous person, and
beseech Hashem to answer our prayers in his merit.
For this reason too it is forbidden to bury a
righteous person next to a wicked one, and even people who were subject to
different types of death penalties should not be buried next to each other, but
only next to those subjected to the same type, because a person’s degree of iniquity
differs as between the different types of death penalties.
Only some two
weeks after Rav Sternbuch first arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa with a
mission to spread Torah to a largely non-observant community back in the 1980s,
he was already involved in a "scandal" that made the newspapers. Upon
visiting the local cemetery he noticed to his dismay that mechalelei Shabbos
(people who don't keep Shabbos) were being buried next to Shabbos observers.
Rav Sternbuch naturally insisted straightaway that this blatant breach of halocho
be remedied. The secular press was outraged: a new Rabbi had arrived from
Israel, they said, and not only was he persecuting living members of the
community, but he was pursuing them to their very graves! Rav Sternbuch responded
calmly by calling a meeting at his house the following Sunday. The meeting was
packed.
Rav Sternbuch
said that once the members of the community will be called before the heavenly
court and asked why they did not keep Shabbos in South Africa, and they will argue
in their defense that it was just too difficult for them, the prosecuting
counsel will note that their “neighbor” in the adjacent grave who had lived in
the same place and faced the same challenges had nevertheless managed to keep Shabbos.
This counter-argument will surely remain unanswered. I have come here to try to
help you, concluded Rav Sternbuch, and in response you tell me that I'm
persecuting you!
Those
attending this meeting were convinced by the force of this argument, and in
fact the head of the chevra kadisha (himself a mechalel Shabbos
befarhesi’a unfortunately) came up
to Rav Sternbuch straight away and told him that he now understood what this
was all about and insisted that when the time came he should be buried next to
fellow mechalelei Shabbos rather
than the "frummies”, and others joined him in his request.
Nowadays you
come across wealthy people who pay extravagant sums during their lifetime to buy
burial plots in the vicinity of gedolim and zaddikim in the hope
that this will be for the benefit of their souls after they die, but in reality
it is likely to be for their detriment, because they are presumably far removed
from the levels achieved by these people, and it is a halocho leMoshe miSinai
that only people who
we were on similar spiritual levels during their lifetime should be buried next
to each other. Burial societies who observe halocho properly are very
particular about this.
shidduchim
“She ...will
be the one whom you have determined for your servant, Yitzchok” (24:14)
The Torah expounds at
great length how Eliezer searched for and found a wife for Yitzchok in order to
emphasize the Divine Providence which is prevalent in all aspects of our daily
lives, but most obviously evident in the sphere of shidduchim. In fact the
Chazon Ish said this was one of the last remaining areas in which ordinary
people experience revealed Divine Providence.
For example, a shidduch that seems perfect does not materialize, or someone with all the right
qualities for marriage finds it difficult to find his or her partner, in
contrast to others lacking such qualities who have a much easier time. The
Brisker Rov once noted that our human efforts put into finding a partner do not
always seem to bear fruit, and are only designed to reassure ourselves that we
are doing something, whereas the real zivug (divinely ordained marriage partner) appears like a lost
object at the appropriate time.
On
the other hand, the Brisker Rov also noted
that Eliezer did not rely on the miracles he experienced on the way, such as a kefitzas haderech, in order to
determine whether this was indeed Yitzhok’s zivug. Instead, he made a point of examining thoroughly whether Rivka’s
acts of chesed and her character traits and yirash shomayim were
on a sufficiently high level for his master’s son. We too must surely examine the midos of any potential
girl as much as possible. The Chazon Ish told Rav Sternbuch that the main
quality to look for in a girl is that she should be easy going and not stubborn,
since such a character trait can cause a marriage to fail. This may be due to
the fact that stubbornness stems from pride, and a proud girl may wish to stand
out and prove herself, and such characteristics obviously do not make for a
good wife.
Satisfied with our lot
“And Hashem
blessed Avrohom with everything” (24:1)
Being in possession of many assets is not
usually the source of blessing for a person, since he is so busy looking after
his property and businesses that he has no peace of mind and is also constantly
striving to become even wealthier. Avrohom, on the other hand, was blessed with
everything that he had, because he felt Hashem's blessing in his property and
that he lacked nothing.
In a similar vein, the Shlo Hakodosh explains that it says "and they who seek Hashem shall not want
any good” as opposed to "they shall have all the good", because the
promise for the righteous is not that they shall not lack any material
possessions, but only that they will be blessed by Hashem and not feel that
they lack anything, irrespective of their actual material situation.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Convert Controversy
PROS
AND CONVERTS
A newly minted Orthodox Jew discovers the
promise and perils of blogging her religious journey.
Megan Greenwell is an Angeleno and a senior editor at ESPN The Magazine.
Dylan C. Lathrop is a designer that thought it was yesterday all day.
A decade
ago, Amanda Edwards was attending Christian youth meetings at the University of
Nebraska. Today, her name is Chaviva Galatz. She is one of the most prominent
Orthodox Jewish bloggers in the world and a recent immigrant to Israel,
alternately hailed as a poster child for conversion and vilified as a false
prophet.
A casual
reader of her blog, which includes nuanced examinations of complicated Torah
passages and critiques of people who talk in synagogue or don’t keep fully
kosher, would assume she’s been Orthodox since birth. Watching the 29-year-old
fluently recite Hebrew prayers at a Seder, even a rabbi likely wouldn’t guess
that she grew up nominally Christian and had never heard of Passover until
sophomore year of college. They’d both be wrong—a fact that illustrates a
centuries-old debate over the role of converts in the strictest branch of
Judaism. But Chaviva’s story has a 21st-century twist.
Judaism,
one of the only religions that prohibits proselytizing to nonbelievers, has
always had a fraught relationship with converts, particularly in the Orthodox
tradition. Even the Talmud itself, which is formatted as a discussion among
ancient rabbis, is inconsistent on the merits of conversion. In some sections,
the rabbis suggest converts occupy a privileged place in Judaism because they
chose a Jewish life instead of simply inheriting it from their mothers. In
others, the tone is grave: Converts are a blight on Israel. The uncertainty
lingers to this day. The conversion process can take years, and many of those
who have completed it successfully say they’re still forced to prove themselves
to born Jews suspicious of their intentions.
The rise
of social media has complicated matters further. Potential converts are no
longer reliant on religious leaders or scholars for information. A blogger
who’s only been reading about Judaism for a couple of years can become a
trusted resource for those starting the process. That enables people to build
informal support networks and ask questions they might be too intimidated to
take to a rabbi. Yet empowering lay leaders without divinity degrees or years
of experience also creates the potential for spreading false information.
And sets
the stage for a deep sense of betrayal when a blogger doesn’t want to be a role
model anymore.
Chaviva’s
path to Judaism began as a search for a new family. When she was growing up in
Missouri and Nebraska, her family lived in near-poverty. They had their car and
furniture repossessed when Chaviva was 12. She began working at fast-food
restaurants at age 14 so she could lend her parents money. When she was 17,
they asked her to sign up for a credit card because they needed to fix the
family van and couldn't get financing themselves.
Her
mother, Debbie, who had struggled with mental illness for years, buckled under
the stress. One night, the family was driving and Debbie and Robert were
fighting in the front seat. Chaviva can't remember the subject all these years
later, but she knows it was at least tangentially about her. "And my mom
turned around and looked right at me and said 'I wish you'd never been born,'
" she recounts. Sitting in her living room under a framed piece of Hebrew
calligraphy and a poster proclaiming “I love you blogs and coffee,” she tells
the story calmly, her huge brown eyes betraying no hint of pain. Sharing the
most intimate details of her life has always come naturally to her.
So years
later, when she learned in a Jewish history course at the University of
Nebraska that every Jew is considered a son or daughter of Abraham and Sarah,
the teachings spoke to her. An online "What Religion Are You?" quiz
she took in high school had suggested she might be Jewish at heart, but she
forgot all about it until she began exploring Judaism in college.
Jews
aren't common in Lincoln, Nebraska, and her one Jewish friend stopped
accompanying her to synagogue after a couple of trips. She marked Passover 2004
by eating matzo alone in her dorm room, having already decided to convert and
move somewhere with a larger Jewish family to join.
Because
she had always been a curious student, reading about Jewish history and
learning Hebrew were a major part of the appeal, so she sailed through the
study process with a rabbi in Lincoln and converted to Reform Judaism, the
religion’s least observant branch, in 2006.
"I
suddenly belonged, I had people, I had a history, I had a shared dream. I had a
home," she wrote later on Kvetching Editor, the blog she started around
that time to chronicle her conversion process.
I
suddenly belonged, I had people, I had a history, I had a shared dream. I had
home.
But
joining a family involves taking on its squabbles as well as its celebration
dinners, and choosing Judaism dropped Chaviva into long-running dispute over
the role of converts—especially after she decided to pursue a full Orthodox
conversion in 2008. Because Orthodox Judaism is the only denomination that
holds strictly to Talmudic principles, and because neither Orthodox rabbis nor
the Israeli government accepts Conservative or Reform conversions, the debate
over the validity of conversions is largely limited to the strictest branch of
the religion. And although technically all Jewish people are descendants of a
convert—Ruth, the great-grandmother of David—that hasn't made it much easier
for her modern-day followers seeking an Orthodox life.
Just 13
percent of American Jews identify as Orthodox, which requires dedicating one's
entire life to religious practice through 613 commandments, or mitzvot. Women
must dress modestly, forsaking pants and covering their elbows, knees, and—if
they are married—hair. Services and even parties are gender-segregated, and
people are not allowed to touch non-family members of the opposite sex—which
means couples have no physical contact until their wedding day. Keeping kosher
requires not just abstaining from pork and shellfish, but owning separate
dishes for meat and milk, buying only ingredients certified by licensed rabbis,
and not eating out at restaurants or friends' homes that don't follow the
rules. During the Sabbath, which runs from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday,
Orthodox Jews may not handle money, drive a car, ride in an elevator, or use a
computer. The rules have not changed in centuries and can make Orthodox
followers feel isolated from mainstream culture and even other Jews.
Until
2006, requirements for Orthodox converting were largely left up to individual
rabbis. That year, the Israeli Rabbinate, which controls all matters of Jewish
law throughout the world, announced a new, more restrictive standard for conversions,
calling into question thousands that had been completed and hundreds of rabbis
who had performed them. To comply with the new restrictions, the Rabbinical
Council of America mandated a new curriculum. Potential converts now must
undertake months (sometimes years) of study with a rabbi. They must appear
three times in front of a beth din, a panel of three rabbis aiming to weed out
people who aren't doing it for the right reasons or who they don't believe will
follow all the laws. (There are only 11 authorized beth dins in America.) Male
converts must be circumcised.
The
conversion process can cost hundreds of dollars—or more, for people who don't
live near an established Orthodox community. But Rabbi Barry Freundel, who
oversaw the revision of the standards as chair of the RCA’s conversion
committee, says the results have been wholly positive. “There were wildly
divergent standards, and that's not good for anybody,” he says. “Now, if
someone moves to a new community, their new rabbi knows that conversion has
been done the right way.”
The move
called into question conversions that didn’t live up to the new standards, and
upset many rabbis, who argued they were the best judges of how to convert
members of their own communities. Among many converts, a culture of fear set
in. At any moment and for any reason, they fret, the Rabbinate could invalidate
their conversions. Nobody knows if that’s a real possibility, and that’s part
of the problem—the RCA isn't known for its transparency or clarity. Whispered accusations
of breaking the rules are enough to earn a conversion candidate an
interrogation from the beth din.
As she
worked toward acceptance in the Jewish family. Chaviva had no trouble following
the rules. Around the time she started exploring her options for an Orthodox
conversion, the readership of her blog began climbing steadily. People began
asking for her advice, and Chaviva began offering more unsolicited opinions,
too. “I get all tingly and excited when I talk about my blog and how I’ve
managed to help people get through the conversion process, how I've been able
to calm fears,” she wrote.
Between
75 and 100 Americans successfully convert to Orthodox Judaism each year, so the
community is tight-knit. And when a convert—especially a prominent one—breaks
the rules, many others take it personally.
After a
little more than a year of study, Chaviva’s beth din declared her ready to
convert to Orthodox Judaism on New Year's Eve 2009. The next day, the first of
2010, she arrived at a nondescript building on Manhattan's Upper West Side to
enter the mikvah, the ritual bath that signifies purity. The years of
preparation culminated in a process that took just a few minutes. She verbally
committed to lead a Jewish life, then entered the water and dipped three times,
reciting blessings in between. And then she was an Orthodox Jew.
“I stand
firmly by the idea that my entire life I have carried within me the Jewish
neshama that has shined so brightly these past six or seven years,” she wrote.
“But standing there, looking into that mirror and later listening to the rabbi
bestow upon me my name as a Jewess, I felt different.”
Chaviva
embraced her status as a role model for aspiring converts. In May 2010, she
married a man she had met on the Jewish dating website JDate and moved to
Teaneck, a heavily Orthodox community in northern New Jersey. She earned a
master’s degree in Judaic studies from the University of Connecticut and soon
started working toward a second master’s at New York University. She wanted,
she wrote on her blog, "to throw myself into the tidy box of Orthodoxy—Get
Married, Move to a Big Orthodox Community, Have Only Orthodox Friends, Dress
the Part, Wear the Headcovering, Go to the Mikvah, Live and Breathe the Box of
Orthodoxy." She wanted to show converts that they could be just as
Orthodox as someone born in Teaneck.
By 2009,
Chaviva's Kvetching Editor blog was drawing several thousand visitors a month.
Bethany Mandel was one of them. She frequently emailed Chaviva with questions
about conversion and always received a response. But Chaviva also demonstrated
a stricter side, warning her, for example, that there were no exceptions to
dietary laws. "She relished in it, and she was good at it,” Mandel says.
“She was judgmental, but she knew her stuff."
Chaviva
admits she was occasionally harsh on her fellow Jews. In one post, she
confessed to thinking badly of friends who didn't uphold the strict kosher
standards she maintained in her own home or didn't dress as modestly as she
did. "I go through these phases of feeling like a horrible person because
I don't feel comfortable being around people that a year ago or even six months
ago I was completely comfortable around," she wrote. " Have I become
a monster? To look at my fellow Orthodox Jew and think, Shame on you."
In a follow-up comment, she added, " Hypocrisy in all things bothers
me in a way that nothing else bothers me."
Several
readers responded that Chaviva had crossed a line. "Who the hell are you
to judge your fellow Jew like that? This kind of attitude will be your downfall
in the Jewish community, or perhaps your ticket to ultra-Orthodoxy. You make
the call," wrote someone using the pseudonym Tamar Halivni. Three weeks
later, when Chaviva took offense at the opening of a Manhattan pork-centric
restaurant called Traif (which means non-kosher), other commenters said she had
become what she had always claimed to hate: a self-appointed judge of whether
other people were "Jewish enough."
The
accusations underscored a paradox created by the combination of the new
conversion rules and the rise of social media. Though Orthodox Judaism is
officially governed by a handful of Israeli rabbis, their secrecy empowered
Chaviva to pass judgment on what it means to be Jewish after just a few years
in the faith. ”You chose to be what you are,” one commenter wrote on her blog.
“How is it right to judge those who had no choice?
Between
75 and 100 Americans convert to Orthodox Judaism each year, so the community is
tight-knit. And when a convert - especially a prominent one - breaks the rules,
many others take it personally.
Last
fall, Chaviva asked for a divorce after just 16 months of marriage. The week
the divorce was finalized, she packed her car and drove to Denver, where she
had once spent a summer, to escape the Orthodox bubble of Teaneck. Naturally,
she blogged the entire journey, leaving out only the intimate details of her
marital problems. She moved into a sprawling apartment complex on the
decommissioned Lowry Air Force Base, where much of Denver’s small Orthodox
community lives. But unlike in Teaneck, living among Orthodox Jews in Denver
does not mean living exclusively among Orthodox Jews. Walking around Teaneck,
"there were a lot of strangers, but they were always Jewish
strangers," Chaviva says. In Denver, the strangers came in all religious
affiliations.
Including
the attractive, charming strangers. Chaviva had noticed the barista with the
spiky hair and the wire-rimmed glasses at her local Starbucks, but didn't think
much about him until he started flirting with her about a month after she moved
to town. Though that branch of the coffee shop is so popular with the Orthodox
community that it's known as "Jewbucks," it didn't take much
sleuthing for Chaviva to realize that Taylor Hibbs wasn't Jewish. But she didn't
have a ton of friends yet, and none of the 613 commandments prohibit talking to
a nice guy in a public place. Having him over for dinner, though? Kissing him?
Spending the night together? The Talmud is pretty clear on the answers to those
questions.
For
weeks, she didn't tell anybody, including her best friend in Denver, who lived
just across the parking lot from her. But the rumors didn't wait for an
official announcement, and they spread all the way to Teaneck. So, fittingly
for someone who had chronicled six years of her life on the internet, she wrote
a post titled "The Big Reveal."
"Right
now, he's perfection for me. He makes me laugh, he makes me smile, he makes me
feel okay being me," she wrote. She also confessed that she had begun
eating out at non-kosher restaurants—first, only vegetarian ones, then others
that had good vegetarian options—though she still maintained a kosher kitchen.
She would watch TV or use the elevator on the Sabbath if Hibbs pressed the
buttons.
Nobody
from her congregation back in Teaneck has gotten in touch since she moved, she
says. Just under two years after her Orthodox conversion, she removed the word
"Orthodox" from the header of her blog, relabeling herself
"Underconstructionist." "I don't want to be in a box," she
says, though she went through years of study and hardship to earn entrance to
that box just two years ago. " I've sort of seen the fluid nature of what
I believe and what I practice."
For many
of the people who had seen Chaviva as a role model for a perfect post-conversion
Orthodox life, the news hit like a bomb. In blog comments, Facebook wall posts,
and emails, people told her that her actions were chillul Hashem, a desecration
of God’s name. That she was lost and they’d pray for her to find her way back.
That she was setting a bad example. Some friends stuck up for her, but others
turned their backs. The woman she had once referred to as her “Yiddish mama,” a
friend from Teaneck, sent her an email expressing disapproval, then stopped
talking to her—except for a text message sent from Chaviva’s ex-husband’s
wedding.
Devoted
readers of her blog, including many Chaviva had helped guide through the
conversion process, were also worried. They’d heard stories of Jews whose
conversions were invalidated or questioned, and they feared a prominent
Orthodox blogger’s fall could undermine their own conversions in the eyes of
the Rabbinate. “Your actions, especially after conversion, matter,” Skylar
Curtis, who was converted by the same beth din as Chaviva, wrote on her own
blog. “We rely on each other to be good Jews and give converts a good name.
When one convert ‘goes bad,’ we all suffer for it.” Mandel says she doesn’t
care who Chaviva dates, but wishes she didn’t feel compelled to spill the
details on the internet. “You’ve been warning for years about people setting a
good example for just this reason.” The outcry prompted Chaviva to temporarily
disable her blog.
Rabbis
agree that highly public cases like Chaviva’s give the conversion process a bad
name, but they say Israel would never revoke other people's conversions based
on her reveal. They emphasize that once a conversion is completed, that person
is Jewish no matter what. “The hardest test of a convert is not when they’re
going through the classes; it’s after they convert, because then nobody's
checking up on them,” says Rabbi Chaim Coffman, an American living in Israel
who runs online classes for conversion candidates. “She’s not the first to
violate her conversion so soon after the fact, but the fact that she's this
public figure who’s still offering to help people while living off the derech
is really a problem.”
Meanwhile,
Chaviva is reconsidering her definition of family. In April, she broke up with
Hibbs—she was frustrated with his lack of career ambition and decided she
needed more time to recover from her divorce. She stopped going to synagogue
while they were dating because she felt judged. Since the breakup, she’s only
been to services a handful of times. Sitting among happily married couples and
their parents at a Passover Seder, she says, made her feel like an orphan.
So now
she's back on the Orthodox path. She’s starting to think about how to create
her own family in Jerusalem. She’s looking forward to meeting an Israeli man
and remarrying. And although she’s still blogging, her writing these days
focuses much more onA the events of her daily life than on analyzing the Torah
or other Jews’ behavior. For the moment, at least, she’s happy to leave role
modeling to the professionals.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Kiddush Hashem
By
Rav Moshe Sternbuch
Trusting Hashem
“And
Hashem said to Avram, "Go from your land” (12:1) Rashi: for
your benefit and for your good
This commandment was one of the ten
trials enumerated by Chazal with which Avrohom was tested. If Hashem
assured Avrohom that this move would be for his benefit, why was it was it
considered to be a test?
In Choron Avrohom Ovinu not
only lived in physical luxury like a king, but he and his wife also thrived on
the spiritual plane, having been successful in drawing myriads of people closer
to Hashem. It seemed to make little sense to uproot himself and emigrate to the
unknown territory of Kna’an. To believe wholeheartedly in Hashem's assurance
that this step would be for his good instead of saying: "please Hashem, I
would rather do without these benefits and stay right where I am” required
complete emuno, and
Avrohom’s unquestioning faith is therefore considered to have been one of the
ten trials.
For this reason too it says in the parsha of the akeido (the binding of Isaac) “Go [lech lecho] to the land
of Moriah”. This phrase too indicates that the instruction was for Avrohom’s
benefit and for his good, even though it seemed contrary to logical
considerations. What would happen to the promise of descendants through
Yitzchok and how could he continue to fight against child sacrifices? The akeido
was the ultimate trial, and only someone like Avrohom who had internalized the
fact that only Hashem knows what is best for us, could have withstood it.
On the possuk "And Avrom
took Sarai his wife” the Medrash says that Avrom had to convince his wife
to move with him to Kna’an. Why should she have needed to be convinced to move
together with her husband? Avrohom had received direct divine reassurance that
the requirement to move immediately would be for his benefit, but she had not
been told anything by Hashem, and so she might have thought this instruction
did not apply to her and felt that she specifically should remain in Choron and
continue her important for work of bringing people closer to Hashem. Hence she
needed to be convinced.
MOre on OUTREACH CANDIDATES
“And
you shall be a blessing” (12:2)
The
Medrash reads brocho as breicho (pool) - just as a pool (mikveh)
purifies the impure, so shall you purify those who are far removed from Hashem.
The Avnei Nezer zt”l comments
on this that not only does a mikveh purify, but it also does not receive
any tumoh. Similarly, someone engaging in outreach work must be like a mikveh:
not only must he possess the ability to bring others closer to Hashem, but he
must also be completely immune to the pernicious influences that are usually
prevalent in the environments in which he is forced to engage in this holy
activity.
It
is true that someone who sacrifices his ruchniyus for the sake of
drawing others closer to avodas Hashem will not decrease, but in fact increase,
his share in the world to come, and he will also receive His blessings in this
world (a lesson we learn learn from Avrohom Ovinu himself), this only
applies if the person’s character and own spiritual level are sufficiently high
to be impervious to any external influences. Sacrificing one’s own ruchniyus
in the sense of slowing down our spiritual growth, by reducing the amount of
time spent in accumulating Torah knowledge, for example, is one thing, but to
engage in outreach work at the cost of actual encroachments on our current level
of avodas Hashem is something that must be avoided at all costs.
DIVORCE
“Please
say that you are my sister, in order that it go well with me because of you,
and that my soul may live because of you” (12:13) Rashi: They will give
me gifts
We
know that Avrohom kept the whole of the Torah, so why did he say about his wife
that she was his sister, thereby exposing her to the danger of immorality
which, according to some opinions, even females must give up their life for rather
than transgressing it?
Before
matan Torah (the giving of the Torah) divorce was effected by a mere
expression of will on the part of the husband to separate from his wife,
followed by an act of separation. Avrohom was therefore saying that if they
would take her she should say that she was his sister. That constituted a
conditional act of divorce, and the condition was fulfilled when Soroh made
this statement and was taken away. She was therefore no longer a married woman,
but Paroh was still punished, because taking Soroh away forcibly and forcing
her to be his maidservant, constituted an act of theft.
Avrohom
was interested in obtaining the gifts subsequently, not because of a desire to
become enriched, but in order to publicise the greatness of the Creator, in
that Paroh who had intended to steal Soroh had not only been prevented by
Hashem from doing so, but had even presented Avrohom with an abundance of
gifts, and sent guards to watch over Avrohom and Soroh. This kiddush Hashem
would help
Avrohom in his efforts to draw people closer to Hashem.
Ma’aser
“And
he gave him a tithe from all” (14:20)
Rashi
cites the Medrash that Avrohom gave Malkizedek a tithe from all the
spoils that he had taken, because he was a priest. He probably did so because he
did not want to benefit from the property of the wicked, since no success comes
from such assets. The Ohr Hachayim Hakodosh zt”l comments that although Avrohom
was entitled to waive his right to the spoils of the war in favor of the King
of Sedom, as soon as someone gains possession of property, the obligation to
separate ma’aser in favour of the poor comes into play, and the ma’aser
acquires a quasi-hekdesh quality, which is incapable of being “renounced”
by the owner of the property: even if he returns the property to the original
owner, he must still separate the ma'aser¸ because it has been acquired
by the poor.
Although
it is forbidden to give a present or return a lost object to an akum, the
Rambam rules that is it is permitted to return it if his intention is to create
a sanctification of the divine name, and since Avrohom intended to publicize
the fact that he had not waged war for the purpose of monetary gain but only to
save lives, it was permitted, and in fact a mitzvah, to return the
spoils.
Cost of miracles
“Fear
not, Avrom; I am your Shield; your reward is exceedingly great” (15:1)
Chazal say that Avrohom was worried about
losing part of his portion in the world to come. This seems surprising since he
had already demonstrated self-sacrifice and been the beneficiary of miracles, for
example in the fiery furnace in Ur Kasdim. However, when Hashem changes the
course of nature and reveals Himself through open miracles, this calls for
correspondingly superior behaviour on the part of the beneficiaries of such
miracles, and, in the absence of such behavior, the punishment can be very
severe.
That was also the motive of the meraglim
who did not want to enter Eretz Yisroel: they knew from personal
experience that Hashem was perfectly capable of performing any miracle to
ensure their continued survival even in the most hostile surroundings, but were
worried that the nation was not on a level to live up to the standards required
of the beneficiaries of the miracles that would occur, were they to enter Eretz
Yisroel.
Countering Yishmoel
“And
Yishmoel his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised of the flesh
of his foreskin” (17:25)
The descendants of Yishmoel continue to practice milo (albeit without perioh) and the Zohar notes that the merit of
this act is sufficient to provide them with the right to dwell in Eretz
Yisroel for a long time, and gives them the ability to persecute us in the
last generations before moshiach.
Since their power
stems from
the bris milo we are able to counteract their influence by observing our
own bris, by guarding our eyes and keeping away from printed or
electronic media, which purvey immorality. Strengthening the sanctity of the os
bris provides us with the ability to weaken the power of Yishmoel’s
descendants, and even if other nations join them to wage war against us, we will
be in position to subjugate them. May it happen speedily in our days.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Living for Others
By Rav Moshe Sternbuch
Types of greatness
“Noach
was a righteous man” (6:9).
Rashi quotes the gemoro (Sanhedrin
108a) that some people interpret this phrase as a tribute to Noach, and in a
generation of righteous people he would have been on an even higher level
whereas others argue that it is derogatory, because in the generation of
Avrohom he would not have been considered righteous. Since the Torah testifies again
below that Hashem said: "For you I have seen righteous before me in this
generation” (7:1) how can we understand the view which maintains that the
phrase at the beginning of the parsha is derogatory contrary both to its
plain meaning and that possuk below?
In truth, according to
both opinions Noach was righteous because he withstood trials on a daily basis
surrounded as he was everywhere only by wicked people, and this alone entitled him
to be awarded the title of a righteous person, and if he would have had the
opportunity to engage in avodas Hashem in a generation which did not
require him to constantly withstand tests, he would have been even more
righteous, whereas those who say that he would not have been considered to be a
person of stature had he lived in the generation of Avrohom contend that
although he was righteous in his generation specifically because he exercised tremendous
dedication, determination and self-discipline by refraining from sinning in
such a challenging environment, if he would not have had to face such
challenges he may not have attained such high levels. It therefore turns out
that both opinions praise Noach for his actual behavior during his lifetime.
Moreover, according to
the latter opinion, since Noach did not engage in chesed with his fellow
human beings by beseeching Hashem to save them (see more on this below), he
would not have been considered of any importance in the generation of Avrohom,
who dedicated himself to the spiritual and material well-being of the members
of his generation. We conclude the first brocho of the shmona esrei with mogen Avrohom,
in order to emphasize the fundamental importance of this trait, and that when we excel in it, we are entitled to ask
Hashem to reciprocate by activating His middo of chesed in our favor.
Outreach candidates
“Noach
walked with Hashem” (ibid).
Rashi: Noach required Hashem’s support to uphold him, but Avrohom strengthened
himself and walked in his righteousness by himself
Noach
may have required Hashem’s support because he was only righteous for himself,
and did not get involved in the affairs of his fellow human beings, as opposed
to Avrohom, who attained his faith through intellectual enquiry. Although
Noach’s righteousness prevented him from becoming enticed into participating in
the wicked deeds of his contemporaries, it was not sufficient to attract them
to follow the righteous path. Avrohom, on the other hand, who understood the
internal wisdom of the Torah was capable of influencing others to follow his
path.
We
have often emphasized the importance of simple unquestioning faith, but someone
who has a thorough grasp of the fundamental principles of Judaism, having
delved and enquired into them, and who possesses the talent for disseminating them,
may be more successful in doing outreach work. A person who combines a deep
inner faith independent of intellectual enquiries, who has nevertheless
undertaken such studies, would make the ideal candidate for outreach work.
the power of REPENTANCE
“And
the rain was upon the earth for forty days and forty nights” (7:12). Rashi:
He brought them down with mercy, so that if they would repent, they would be
rains of blessing
Noach’s
contemporaries committed all the cardinal sins, and (unlike the generation that
built the migdal Bovel) even their character traits were totally corrupt,
and yet Hashem still waited 120 years to see if they would repent. Had they
done so, they would have been forgiven, and the rains would also have turned
into rains of blessing, even though the repentance would only have been motivated
by fear of an impending deluge. How much more so is the power of teshuva
me’ahavo, when a person repents out of love of Hashem and a desire to do
His will. When that happens Hashem showers us with unlimited blessings.
Noach’s ATonement
“Come
out of the ark” (8:16)
The
Zohar contrasts Noach’s conduct with that of Moshe Rabbeinu, who asked Hashem to delete him from His Book
rather than found a new great nation. Noach too after having been
told about the forthcoming mabul should have pleaded for his
contemporaries to remain alive until they repent, instead of thinking only of
himself and his family.
Hashem could have found another way to keep the
animal world alive other than the ark, but it was a way for Noach to achieve atonement for his sinful conduct
in the period leading up to the mabul.
Hashem was telling Noach: “You wanted to live a solitary life, and did
not care enough for your fellow men, now you will be forced to live for an
extended period on your own with your family in ‘solitary confinement’ from the
rest of the world. Moreover, you refused to act with kindness to your fellow
men, now you will be forced to perform ceaseless acts of chesed for an
entire year for all the animals”.
Noach
suffered terribly in the ark, from the stifling heat (the water outside was boiling
and there was no ventilation inside the ark), from the stench emanating from
the animals, from the attack by the lion and so on. This suffering facilitated
the process of atonement. However, since the period he was to spend inside the
ark was a punishment to atone for his previous behaviour, Noach was not permitted
to leave it until commanded to do so, so that he could be sure that his sin had
been forgiven.
UNJUSTIFIED MOdestY
“And
he took of all the clean animals and of all the clean fowl and brought up burnt
offerings [olos] on the mizbeach” (8:20)
Once
he had left the ark, Noach offered up olo offerings. This type of korbon atones for sinful thoughts, and in this
case Noach, after having witnessed all the destruction, regretted not having
prayed for his generation, having deemed himself to be unworthy of affecting
the divine decree. Modesty in and of itself is one of the most important
character traits to develop, but we see here the disastrous effects of failing
to act or to pray on behalf of others due to unwarranted modesty. Only once it
was too late did Noach realize his mistaken attitude, and wished to atone for
it through these korbonos.
FAith
“But
your blood, of your souls, I will demand” (9:5)
It is
forbidden to murder someone else in order to shorten their suffering or even to
commit suicide in order to shorten one's own suffering.
In the Warsaw ghetto the rabbonim
that still remained issued a proclamation that our wicked
enemies had made us despise this world, but they could not deprive us of the
world to come, and someone who committed suicide would not have a share in the
world to come. According to reliable witnesses the vast majority, being imbued
with complete faith, withstood the test and did not commit suicide.
Rav
Yaakov Yechiel Weinberg, the Seridei Esh zt”l, told Rav Sternbuch that it was a common
phenomenon in the Warsaw ghetto for people to get married in the afternoon, in
the full knowledge that they might be taken to their deaths before the day was
over. They refused to let their circumstances deter them from performing mitzvos as much as they could.
The emuno of those people, who
almost went out of their minds due to the suffering they had to endure, was astounding,
all the more so since these events took place not many centuries ago, but very
close to our own times. May they inspire us to withstand the more mundane trials
of our own generation.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Partners with Hashem
By
Rav Moshe Sternbuch
HERESY
“In
the beginning G-d created” (1:1)
The
gemara (Masseches Megila 9a) says that in the Septuagint (the targum
hashiv’im when 70 Sages were forced to translate the Torah by the Greeks)
the words bereishis boro elokim were rendered as elokim boro
bereishis in Greek lest anyone should think that bereishis is one
divine power who created another one called elokim (see Rashi ibid).
Why,
in fact, did the Torah at the very beginning use an ambiguous phrase, which
seems to leave open the possibility of a heretical interpretation?
Someone
who used to be religious once met Rav Chaim Brisker zt”l and told him that he had various questions about Hashem's
conduct in this world. Rav Chaim answered him that if he had questions, he
would be willing to answer them, but he suspected that these so-called
questions were not genuine ones but rather excuses to justify his own conduct
and lifestyle, and for such excuses he had no answers.
In
other words, heretics do not usually become what they are because of
intellectual or theological doubts. It is rather a matter of character traits.
Preferring to live an unbridled lifestyle without the yoke of Torah, they come
up with supposed problems in order to justify their neglect or abandonment of
religion.
MIDDAS HADIN
“In
the beginning G-d [Elokim] created” (1:1)
Hashem
created the world using the trait of strict justice symbolized by Elokim,
but was "forced" to join the trait of mercy to the trait of justice
in order to ensure the continued existence of the world. The question is why
Hashem did not do this at the outset, since He obviously has no need to
"experiment".
Rabi
Akiva wanted to be judged according to the strict trait of justice only, and
that was why he was killed in such a terrible manner. Although few people can
follow in his footsteps Hashem wanted to leave open the possibility for select
individuals to be judged solely by the strict trait of justice untempered by rachamim,
and also to teach those who cannot
reach such heights to at least strive for perfection in other more feasible areas
based on their specific levels.
Divine image
“Let
us make man in our image” (1:26); Rashi: Even though they [the angels] did not assist Him in
His creation, and there is an opportunity for the heretics to rebel (to
misconstrue the plural as a basis for their heresies), the possuk did not refrain
from teaching proper conduct and the trait of humility, that a great person
should consult with and receive permission from a smaller one”.
Hashem
is speaking to the angels, who were created on the second day (see Targum
Yonoson), since they had a personal interest, so to speak, in the creation of
man, because the status of the upper worlds, including that of the angels,
depends on the actions of man in this world. Of course, Hashem does not need to
hear the opinions of any being, but wished to teach us that even people less
important than us must be consulted concerning any matter in which they have a
personal interest.
We see here once again that the Torah is not
concerned with potential misconstructions on the part of heretics. Similarly,
we do not "dress up" the Torah for the sake of finding favor in the
eyes of the non-religious. This forbidden method has been tried in recent
generations and has invariably failed in its aim of increasing religious
observance amongst our skeptical brethren. Moreover, the advocates of
compromises or unwarranted leniencies, or at least their descendants,
eventually departed from the path of the Torah themselves.
However, the main message of this possuk is that
we are partners together with Hashem in creating ourselves. The Zohar explains
that the food of the neshomo is Torah and its clothing are mitzvos and
good deeds. Hence, each one of us creates the form of our neshomos on a
daily basis, together with Hashem. Just like no two individuals have identical
faces, even though billions of inhabitants currently populate the planet, so
too do each of our neshomos look different in accordance with the Torah
and mitzvos which become an eternal part of them. The Arizal had
the ability to discern a person's spiritual form and could perceive the effects
of even seemingly insignificant mitzvos or transgressions on a person’s spiritual form. We too will
possess this ability in the future.
Quality before quantity
“It
is not good that man is alone” (2:18)
This
phrase seems to imply that although it was not an ideal state for man to be on
his own, the alternative was nevertheless a possibility. That being so, what purpose
would there have been to creation if Odom had remained alone and lived forever?
We
see from this possuk that since a righteous person is the foundation of
the world (Mishlei 10:25) we might have thought that it would have been
worthwhile for Hashem to create the whole universe for the sake of one zaddik
who subjugates all his desires to serve Hashem on his own. Although this possuk
makes it clear that it is better to lead a married existence and to procreate,
the fact that the Torah finds it necessary to clarify this teaches us the
importance of quality as opposed to quantity. The Chazon Ish zt”l explained that quality can eventually result in quantity too, but
quality cannot result from quantity alone.
the evil inclination
“The
serpent was cunning”
(1:3)
How
can we understand that the snake once walked and talked like a human being?
In
order to maintain the balance of free choice, the greater a person is, the
greater must be the forces inciting him to evil. Odom Horishon (the
first man) before the sin was so great that he needed an external persuasive
being to incite him away from holiness to the path of evil.
The nochosh (snake) argued that
it would be worthwhile to eat from the forbidden fruit because that way Adam
and his wife would attain hitherto unobtainable divine levels. He claimed that
Hashem had only warned them against eating from the spiritual fruit, because it
would be too difficult to live on such a high spiritual level, but they should
do so anyway. It was an argument clothed in the guise of leshem shomayim.
To this day, the yetzer horo still sometimes attempts to incite us
into aspiring towards levels totally beyond our capabilities in the hope of
causing our downfall. Furthermore, the technique of disguising prohibitions as mitzvos
is also still prevalent.
Once
he failed this test, Adom’s greatness declined and he no longer had the spiritual
power necessary to overcome the nochosh in its original form. Instead, Hashem
created the yetzer horo in its current form
of a spiritual power inside us inciting us to evil, and our task is to overcome
it. We are assisted in this task by the very fact of our mortality, which was
decreed at the same time, since the thought that we are destined to end up as
dust serves as a deterrent to sin.
Kayin and Hevel
“Kayin
rose up against Hevel his brother and slew him” (4:8)
Why
was Kayin jealous of his brother and how did he descend to the level of killing
him?
Kayin
and Hevel had different outlooks as to what a person's duty was in this world.
Kayin thought that since this was a material world, it made sense to enjoy it
and subsequently thank Hashem for His goodness, as it says: “It came to pass at
the end of days, that Kayin brought of the fruit of the soil an offering to Hashem”,
“the end of days” meaning that only after he had enjoyed the food did he bring an
offering, and specifically one from vegetables, to show that even the most
basic food essential for the body’s health is a present from Heaven. Hevel, on
the other hand, thought that the spiritual could not be separated from the
material, and everything in this material world had to be used for the sake of
heaven. He therefore brought an offering before enjoying the products of this
world from the "firstborn of his flocks and of their fattest” and not only
"at the end of days" like Kayin.
Kayin
killed Hevel in the belief that his brother's place was anyway in the upper
worlds which was completely spiritual, so that he had not harmed him. Perhaps
that is why he responded, "Am I my brother's keeper", meaning is it my
job to ensure that he stays in the lower than Gan Eden, as opposed to partaking
of the greater pleasures of the upper Gan Eden. Hashem responded that this
material world does not tolerate murder, and as a punishment the soil would not
continue to give its strength to him, and he would be forced to live without
agricultural work, which was of such crucial importance according to his
outlook. He would become a wanderer and an exile, and would therefore be forced
to constantly pray to Hashem for his very subsistence. This was Hashem's way of
demonstrating to Kayin that Hevel had been right, and that even material
actions such as eating and physical enjoyments are like sacrifices and must be
connected to spirituality. All our actions must be for the sake of Heaven, and
we must constantly beseech Hashem for our livelihood and all our requirements.
Repentance
“And
he was building a city, and called the city after the name of his son, Chanoch” (4:17)
Why
does the Torah find it necessary to mention the fact that Kayin built a city?
Moreover, this Chanoch, the son of Kayin, was wicked, so why would his father
have wanted to name the city after him? Does it not say "the name of the
wicked shall rot"?
One
of the best forms of repentance is to benefit others, and therefore Kayin
wanted to build a city for others to live in, especially as he had sinned by
killing his brother Hevel, thereby limiting population growth. That is also why
it says "and he was building" (in the present tense) to show that by
the very act of building he hoped to make amends for his sin. He called the
city in the name of his son in the hope that Chanoch would continue in his path
and busy himself with increasing the population and settlement of the world.
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