BS”D

Mishpatim – Infinity or Immorality

Dr M Bank

A Guten Erev Shabbos. This weeks parsha is parshat Mishpatim. I would like to explore the concept of infinity or immorality. Mark Twain in a famous statement once said about the jews, “World History testifies that all the greatest nations of the world have come up against us, and it seems that when they attack the Jews and try to destroy them, those very same nations self-destruct”. He said that the ancient Greeks came forward, they were filled with glitter for a moment, they lit up the skies and they disappeared. The ancient Babylonians and ancient Syrians. The ancient Egyptians and the Roman Empire which basically conquered the entire surface of the known world. Then somehow they turned on the Jews in their midst and self destructed. He asked an incredible question. He said that “it seems that all else is mortal, except the Jew. What is the secret of his immortality?” I would like to say that it is this weeks’ parsha.

This weeks’ parsha intrinsically, inherently, has the secrets of infinity. It is not just the Jews that can choose infinity. It can be all the nations of the world. Why? Because in parshas Mishpatim, the juxtaposition of this weeks parsha is dealing with civil law. At the outset it says

“These are the laws that you place before them (posukכא, א )”

Why is this immediately after Matan Torah? The answer – to teach that it is an integral foundation of Torah and civilisation. Somebody who mistreats his follow man is missing in his Avodas H’shem. He is somebody that desecrates all of Torah. Even if he is particular about all the laws between man and H’shem. We see that a prtua’s difference, cheating somebody out of one cent, one agurah, is as serious biyedei shomayim as a person eating a bacon double cheeseburger on Yom Kippur. For a person to embarrass another person, publicly and personally, it is no less than murdering the person. In all our ways we have to be very careful. Somebody once said, apropos of the two days of gorgeous snow across Jerusalem. The kids were praying very hard for it, and sof sof they got it. Kids were very happy with the weather for the last few days. Everything else shut down. “Walking through this world is like a walk in the snow…”. Sounds amazing. “…Walk gently, for every step will show”. It shows for infinity. In this world things are forgotten after a few days or months, but in shomayim it is stamped indelibly. One of the first questions they ask the Neshama when it comes up to shomayim to be evaluated as to whether it is going to Gan Eden or Gehenom, amongst the other questions – were you a good person, were you constantly waiting for Moshiach? Were you ready in case Moshiach came? The third question is, did you conduct yourself honestly in business? That is a very simple question which is probably the most difficult question of our entire lives. For instance, when we got more change than we deserved. Did we tell them that it was not correct. The second somebody short changes us, we immediately tell them its not correct. If we bought a product that is not exactly what we ordered, if it didn’t work, how fast are we to return it. But if we were mistakenly given two of the product, do we return it as fast? If we take a loan from our fellow brother, do we remember on the day that it has to be returned and return it that day. How desperate was the person to get that loan on the day that it was given, and how important it is to give it back on the day that it was requested to be returned. All these things are infinitely important. Everything else about the day to day conduct between man and man is in the eyes of H’..

I would like to explore the following as an overview. In Western Civilisation there is a dichotomy, a very clear separation between Temple and State. I would like to say the word Temple because that includes all faiths not just one particular faith as has become common nomenclature in America. It is their concept that the House of Prayer, of Avodas H’shem, and the government are two totally separate divisible entities. They have to be separate, divisible, in the American dream. By that standard it’s a great curiosity that on the dollar it is written, that nation that was so cautious that faith and government, never the two shall mix, that there are so meticulous that on every dollar it says in G-d we trust. Is there any other currency in the history of the world that in every dealing of every dollar a person is reminded that they are facing H’shem. The real challenge is how many really believe what they see on the dollar and how symbolic it is that there is a pyramid on the dollar. The one eye means that symbolically, even though H’ has no bodily form, he is all seeing. It is as if to say, even if you are making pyramids, remember that the one that is all seeing is watching you. Don’t make golden calves out of your dollars. Don’t worship the dollar almighty. Worship H’shem Almighty. He is the source of the brochos, not the dollar. Tremendously ironically, the question is being asked around the world right now, what is it that is causing the dollar to collapse? What is happening out there? So symbolically, we see that as the world is putting pressure to try to destroy Israel from blossoming into Yehuda and Shomron, and as the world is trying to divide and conquer Jerusalem, we see that all those nations that plot against H’shem and his nation, slowly ebbing away, sailing away so to speak. As they put more pressure on, more and more pressure is on them. It is a fact no less than gravity itself, that those who curse H’shem’s nation, even in their hearts, measure for measure, H’shem curses them. It is irreversible. Once the Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, there is no reverse gear, he is over the edge. But for the Grace of H’shem we go forward. B’chol Dor Vador omdim aleinu lechaloteniu, ve (rak) HaKadosh Boruch Hu Matzileinu Miyadam.

So we see that western civilisation differentiates very strictly between faith and state. The Torah knows no such distinction. On the contrary. All areas of life and living and indivisible and intertwined in Avodas H’shem and in the daily business activities. The holiness that derives fvrom correct business dealings is no less than the emotions that a person feels on Yom Kippur. He shouldn’t think that on Yom Kippur all is forgiven and forgotten. He should try to remember everything that may not have been perfect during the year so that he wont repeat it. Not that he can write himself a new balance sheet and start a new slate. The real essence of Yom Kippur is not to write off bad debts, but to repair bad middos, to regret, to resolve and to return to the ways of H’shem in everything. The sages teach about the one who wishes to be a chassid. A chassid is one who acts beyond the letter of the law. A tzaddik is a righteous person. A chassid that is somebody that is chessed, loving-kindness – that goes beyond the letter of the law. A chassid or a very pious person should be, right at the outset, meticulous in matters of civil and financial law (Baba Kamma 30a). In Judaism, the concept of the Temple or Synagogue and the Courtroom is one and the same. They are the same. A person who walks into a courtroom who has mishpat against him, how does he feel, having been taken to court after a car accident, heaven forbid. If he killed somebody, rachmana litzlan. The only thing for the Judge to decide is if he gets life imprisonment or goes home because it was a tragic accident. Instead of stepping on the breaks, he stepped on the gas and went over somebody crossing at the pedestrian crossing. Everything that he did or said at the moment when the police pulled him out of the car and put him in handcuffs, everything is held against him in both Courtrooms. The courtrooms of this world and the courtrooms of shomayim. If a person purposefully killed another person, he must be put to death. Anyhting less than that is a corruption and a partnership in perfidy which is kidding oneself in infinite proportions because that means that there is no justice. A person can get away with murder. They can plea bargain. They can get out there to perpetuate further murders. Just as there is a revolving door for people with blood on their hands, they have blood dripping from every other organ of their body, of the people that they plotted against, plundered and murdered. We live in a world now where darkness is called light and light is called darkness. We really are spiritually in a certain of world history where we could say that the whole world is suffering from a plague of darkness. What is that darkness? That Israel is considered the pariah of nations. How dare Israel limit the electricity to Hamas, while 250 rockets rain in on Israel. The world has a conspiracy of silence. Should one person forbid them from getting more weapons, the world is outraged to the point where there are crisis meetings in the United Nations, and the whole world is outraged, at Israel. We shouldn’t look to them. They are a thermometer of our spiritual behaviour. If we are not completely righteous and just, H’shem will make a great awe across the world. If there is something outrageous going on this side of the fence, then there is no defense. So we see, that the Temple, the Beis Knesset and the Beis Din are in fact indivisible. If a person says “wasn;t my Tefilla geschmack, wasn;t it just great, I am sure Shamayim couldn’t resist it, I prayed so nicely for everybody, for sure today the world is going to be a better place”. Maybe yes, or maybe the guy was thinking what’s happening on the stock exchange, I’ve got to go out to lunch shortly, I wish this prayer was finished. So that kind of person is somebody standing before the eternal judge, saying, I’ll give you another 5 minutes of my time before I’ve got to get out of here. Imagine the guy is standing in a life or death decision, with a wife and 7 children dependant on him. When we take our prayers, do we feel that we are pleading for life itself? If we feel that, and that we are crying out for our brothers and sisters, there is a chance. But if we go in there just to read sonnets, serenades and songs; praises that we don’t understand at all, and we are just reading it to get through the pages, then just maybe as we are flicking through the pages, He is flicking through the pages of our lives. When we are saying prayers we should really contemplate the power of it. When we are standing before a judge of flesh and blood and he says, how do you plead? The decision is on the edge of the knife. How would we cry, how would we stay up all night, how would we be able to sleep for such a thing. Of course H’shem, in his infinite Chessed, even though sometimes we don’t realise what we are doing, H’shem forgives. But if a person is purposeful, he has used up all his zchiut. From the proximity, the Sages derive that the Beis Din Hagadol of 71 members, which is the Court that is the Supreme authority on Halachic matters, has to be on Har Habayis, on the Temple Mount, next to the Beis Hamikdash itself. These are represent the 2 arms of H’shem’s service. These aren’t 2 separate worlds, they are indivisible, united, part of the same world. Both the Beis Din and the Beis Hamilkdash are expressions of the kedusha and avodas H’shem. A Shofet, a judge, who rules correctly, and is dedicated to Torah, is considered a partner in all of creation. He is like somebody that is continuing to build H’shem’s world. One who rules corruptly and goes against the laws of the Torah, is considered a destroyer of H’shem’s entire world. He testifies against H’shem and his days are numbered in both worlds. It is natural that after carrying us through the recognition of H’shem’s power, through the miracles of krias Yam Suf and the revelation of H’shem at Sinai, the Torah commences with laws that seem so mundane. In actual fact these are not mundane at all. They are as much an expression of H’shem’s greatness as the first commandment, Anochi H’. This pronounces H’shem’s unity and sovereignty over the universe. Every one of these laws – down to a button torn from a person’s clothing – the person has to repair it. It is amazing that at the outset of all these laws and mishpatim, that it goes into something amazingly curious. I would imagine that you would go from the most important to the least, you would start off talking about the role of the President, of the Cohen Gadol, and as go down in responsibility. Look at how parshas mishpatim starts off. “If you buy a Jewish slave he shall work for 6 years and in the seventh year you shall set him free for no charge. If he arrives by himself he shall leave by himself. If he is the husband of a woman, his wife will elave with him. If his master gave him a woman, if he has children, the wife and children belong to the Master. He shall go out. Its incredible. To think, that the lowest rung of civilisation, when America started off, what was the lot of a slave? What was the function of a slave in America? Could he ever dream of going back home? Could he ever dream of life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness? Could he dream of being let free in the seventh year. If somebody captured him and took him to foreign soil, he wouldn’t be worked for more than 6 years. The seventh would be a parallel to a Shmitta, so to speak, the year of his release. Not only would he be released, but he would be released with fantastic presents. What is the essence of those presents. How come nobody in the world caught on? What is it that the world is telling us? It is all part of hakaras hatov. You are not the master of this man. H’shem is. The greatest token of appreciation you can do after all the kindness he has done for you is to give a tiny token of appreciation, stand him on his own feet so that he can make a contribution to civilisation, to society – you are your brother’s keeper. This is on 2 fundamental foundations of Torah – VeAhavta Lereecha Kamocha, you shall love your neighbour as yourself. If you see him as just another piece of automated machinery in the production line of the sweat shop, working 7 days, 365 days a year, then you are not better than the people that worked the slave labour camps. Ironically, its not a sin for a gentile to work 7 days a week, unless he is working for a Jew. This is an expression to the world that H’shem is the Creator, he created everything including Am Yisrael, the testimony to His sovereignty. What would be the cost of shutting down New York completely for one Shabbos, like Har Nof. Do you think it could be done? Time out, shut down. No disco, no Domin’s Pizzas, no Deli, just people free for 24 hours like Yetzias Mitzrayim – from the pyramid of the dollar. What would it cost to shut down the whole of America for one day? Through the 7 mitzvos that were given to the nations of the world, they can return to Gan Eden. Without the 7 mitzvos, Iy Efshar, it is not possible. So we see right at the outset, the imperative of ethical behaviour, even in treating a servant or a slave, is established – the essence of what he came in with and what he has to leave with. It is not a question that he has to be given the opportunity to leave. What happens if he doesn’t leave? He says – I love my master, the wife that he gave me, my children which I got through this woman. I don’t want to go free. “Then his master shall bring him to the court, to the doorpost of the door, and his master shall put a nail through his ear, and he shall serve his master forever. The Torah disgraces the slave who spurns the freedom that H’shem gave him and chooses to humiliate himself by living under the servitude of a master of flesh and blood, living with his slave companion, the woman that oculd have been his out of slavery. And the children that came through that slavery. The ceremony that extends his servitude is explained by the Sages in the light of the Shema that we say every morning, evening and before we go to sleep. H’shem is our Judge, He is the one and only Master. H’ says, the children of Israel are my servants. But this slave is so degraded, that he chooses to be the servant of a servant (Kidushin 22b). Our posuk refers to a thief, sold by the Courts. How does a person land up in slavery? Was he just walkig along the street one day when a noose was hung around his neck, he was handcuffed, schlepped off to America and then he became a slave? What does it mean – slavery. Lets understand in the Torah, biblical sense. There was a Jewish man walking along the street and he saw a diamond necklace in a store open for business. He put on his balaclava, walked in snatched it and ran for it. He tried to get away with it but he got caught. According to his theft, he is sentenced by the Court. If he doesn’t have any money, he can’t pay back the fine. He pay it back by being sold into slavery. The work is good for him. If he is a good, healthy person who can be productive for 6 or 7 years, he has achieved something, especially if his employer is a very successful businessman who can motivate him to the maximum. So this posuk refers to a thief sold by the Courts. He was meant to go out of slavery, and the doorpost was where the Jews put the blood of the goat, the gods of Egypt, when they were leaving Egypt. This caused the Angel of death to pass over the Jewish homes. Do you know what kind of bravery that was – if you can contemplate it? It would have been like in Nazi Germany, for a person to walk in Berlin with Yarmulka and a Tallis, and a mezzua on his door. What would have become of the Jews in Egypt if H’shem had not protected them. In one second it would have been total annihilation and eradication, off the surface of the earth. But for the Grace of H’shem we go forward.

Despite Amalek’s intent in the Holocaust, this nation has the audacity to return to its homeland after 2000 years. There could not have been a worse time to return – the weary, the forlorn, the leftovers from the ashes of Auschwitz, coming home to the land of Israel, then facing the barricades of the mighty British army, the quotas and the weapons, ready to finish off what the Germans couldn’t finish off. What a chutzpa that the Jews chose life. That the Jews chose the G-d of our forefathers to cry out to. What a great miracle it was at the homecoming after 2000 years. We were not menat to survive. It was meant to be a still-birth. The United Nations never dreamt in their wildest dreams that the smallest of nations would ever survive the announcement of Statehood. It was meant to be that the very surgeon that was meant to help the mother give birth, was sitting there with a scalpel to cut the baby’s head off. What a chutzpa that the baby jumped out of the doctor’s hands and ran for his life. He had the chutzpa to survive 6 or 7 other wars of a similar nature, each one a greater miracle against all odds. But H’shem guards our nation. All the other nations are at odds. Against this background, the Sages say, that the ear that heard at Sinai, the commandment, Anochi H’, I am the L-rd your G-d, the commandment not to steal, and after having stolen and been sold into slavery, having spurned the opportunity as a last resort to do Teshuva and to return to civilisation after 6 years, should that ear that heard Shema Yisrael, that heard the 10 Commandments, that heard the law of Mishpatim, that after 6 years – go free, and he rejected all that? Should that ear go unpunished? Where is it nailed? Into the doorpost. It shall be nailed with a nail. That person that chooses to be the slave of a slave, rather than pledge allegiance to the eternity, the infinity, to the one and only Master of Masters, who has rejected the lesson of the doorpost in Egypt and every Jewish home, where they say H’ Elokeinu H’ Ehad. The last letter of Shema is ע . The last letter of Ehad is ד. These two letters are enlarged as if to say that H’shem, the One and only G-d, the One who set you free, is now going to give עדות , testimony, against you because what you are actually saying if you choose to perpetuate the slavery and not go out a free man, is not H’shem Ehad but rather H’ Aher, aר instead of a ד. He is serving another god, another master, and for that he is sold forever. Therefore the nail goes into the doorpost where the Mezuza goes. He is a living testament that what he chose is not H’shem.

The Judge is called Elohim because he carries out the will of H’shem. H’shem’s presence rests upon the Judges. The judge should constantly feel the sword of the Malach HaMaves next to his throat. If he utters a false judgement the Angel of Death has shlitta (control) upon him, it has the koach (potential) to finish him off. So we see the awesome responsibility, the terrifying responsibility of a human judge that is the closest physical entity to H’shem in this world.

One who is not careful with somebody else’s property is like a person who purposefully desecrates the Shabbos or Kashrus. The Torah encompases all aspects of life, Bein Adam Lehavero, and Bein Adam LeMakom. H’shem is beyond space, H’shem created the world of physically and reality. I can’t walk through it or break it easily and there are things infinitely more powerful than that i.e. the creator of this world. The Creator put the power of death into something as simple as 1 second – before the Shabbos candles are lit and when they are lit. A person who lights the Shabbos candles on time and extinguishes them any time during the next 24 hours does so at the risk of their own lives. Something as simple as a candle. For the rest of the week, they can light and extinguish candles as they want. That is not part of the mitzvah. Bringing the radiance of Shabbos into the home, the Soul and the heart, remains for Eternity.

The Torah embraces all areas of life and the Torah is indivisible, whether it is civil law, or the laws of serving H’shem in the spiritual domain. The prophet Isaiah says (1,27), after warning of impending destruction and Exile, that eventually Zion will be redeemed through justice, and the captains of Israel through Tzedek, righteousness. Those that are captured will have to be righteous before we can return. An incredible insight. Through honest behaviour and business that we do, this is not less than a person taking on all the chumras and mehudarim of a spiritual mitzvah. If he gets up first thing in the morning, goes to the mikvah, davens for hours, learns all day, it is not less important that when he buys his meal, he pays correctly, he doesn’t accept more than the right amount of change and that all his dealings are with the same integrity of behaviour. So it says, asher asim lifneihem, which you will place before them. Moses was commanded not only to teach the laws, but also the underlying concepts and reasons, so that the people would understand them. What doe it mean ‘You shall have honest scales and balances”? It is an incredible thing that a person could have 2 sets of weights and measures. For a rich person he doubles the weight, and for a poor person, he goes back to normal. Is that fair business? He sees what he can get away with – haggling the price up or down. There is no sense of what is fair – everything depends on the currency at any particular moment. There is no definite line of ethical behaviour or conduct. There is no stability. This breeds a mentality that you can do whatever you can get away with. Worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we may be judged, but not today. These honest weights and scales apply to every one of our business dealings. The law must be set before the people as a table fully laid for a meal (Rashi).

A person that refuses to learn torah, that refuses to accept the Shulchan Aruch may end up going to the wrong restaurant, eating escargot, snails, and eventually that table will be a Shulchan Hafuch. It will be a table that will be reversed, turned upside down. It will come crashing on his head and afterwards, the snails will eat him. It says that for each and every aveira, the maggots and worms eat up the flesh and bones after a person leaves this world. The neshama in the next world goes through tremendous agony, seeing the body that was a protective shell in this world, self-destructing because of all of those aveiras collected over the years. We see the strikes that go on outside from the garbage collectors. What happens? A tremendous build up of garbage. If it is one or two days, it is not a big deal because it is taken out of our vision. It goes of to some distant place we don’t know and we never see it again. What if we take our garbage out every day and we see it pilling up. It becomes a small mountain, a bigger mountain and eventually, an insurmountable mountain, then all of a sudden it dawns on us that this is a serious problem. What do we do? We call in the ultimate garbage collector, to rescue us form the garbage that is burying us. So in spiritual terms, that garbage that is starting to rot and smell, is the aveiras. Even a person doing mitzvos, the aveiras are not cancelled by mitzvos. Its not like a person can bribe his way out. Its not like saying I have a million Shekels of debt, but I have a million stuck away in a secret account. Let me cancel that account with that account. It does not work like that. The reward is paid in this world, and only if he does Teshuva will he be paid in the next world. We should not know anything but asset in the world to come, be’Ezras H’shem.

So we see something incredible at this stage. Disputes between human beings must be brought before the Courts. Which Courts? Jewish Courts. Before judges learned in Torah who will rule according to the rules of H’shem. If a person chooses to go before a secular Court, even if the law is exactly the same in this matter, this is a total desecration of H’shem’s name. It is tantamount to a declaration that secular is the same or even superior to Torah, has vehalila. If a Court judges against Torah, it is a part of the destruction on the level of Sedom and Amora. We go to the Dead Sea plain today, we see the desolation of a Court system rotten to the core. All civilisation in the whole are was earmarked for total destruction. There is a famous story in the Gemora where Eliezer, the servant of Avraham Avinu, went to visit Lot. Some men cam e up to him and beat him up severely, causing him to bleed profusely. Then he was dragged off to Court. In the Courtroom he was accused of not paying his account. So he asked what account he was accused of dishonouring. The Judge said, the person who let your blood is a blood letter, a doctor, and you will have to pay him. So he went up to the Judge and said something to the effect of “Excuse me your honour” and hit the Judge in the face. He collapsed and bled profusely from his nose. He said, “Your honour I am also a blood letter. I give you my account, he gives me his account, you can settle my account with him”. With that he left the Court room. This shows the level of corruption and wickedness of a Court system that has no limits to its evil. It was earmarked for total destruction. It was against what H’shem wants in this world.

Reflecting on all that is done during the week, when Shabbos arrives, although the work bench may be piled high, the master of slaves free this person in the seventh year, without charging him for his freedom. Even though the purchase was a big investment for the boss, the purchase is valid for six years only, just as the working week is limited to 6 days. If he has the choice of a Jewish or gentile slave, he should buy the Jewish slave even if this would be more expensive. If a fellow Jew is in such financial distress that he must sell his services, hi brethren are morally obligated to help him to prop him up. There are 2 ways in which a Jew can become a slave. He can either sell himself, to escape from extreme poverty. Or, he may be a thief or guilty of a crime and sold by the Court to pay his victims. When he goes free his master is required to give him substantial gifts (Devarim 15,14) so that he has a chance to rebuild his life. Imagine the prisons of the world, when a person finishes his sentence what is the most likely thing he is going to find work in when he leaves prison? The most likely way of finding work is with criminals. Who would want to hire such a guy? Would you trust a person convicted of fraud with your cheque book, your assets? Who would invite him to work for them? The Mafia. They say to him, you’ve got a good track record, we want you. What is the likelihood of such a guy not relapsing into the very same system that got him into jail in the first place? The Torah gives the antidote which is – give him an opportunity. Give him something so that he can survive and he can go out and start earning a living honestly. He can set up his own operation or do menial work for people. He can have the safety net of some money to carry him through, until he has a stable parnassah. So, we see the wisdom of Torah and its infinite ability to rehabilitate. All the laws of slaves found in this parsha and elsewhere are examples the kindness and the mercy that the Torah shows and demands of us, even though they may be the least desirable of society, to take care of them. It is the antithesis of man’s natural nature. We have to defy our intrinsic behaviour.

As we go further in the parsha, we see some incredible insights that talks about death caused by animals. Even animals aren’t beyond the court. A naturally goring bull, would have to be put to death, if it is not the first time. If the owner was warned, he may also be severely punished for the behaviour. Different types of damages. What the Gemora does is it goes through all these different levels and analyses what is the envelope of the reality. Anything less than that definitely falls within the gevul. We see from these examples, almost to the breaking point, that all things are considered. Many Nobel prizes have been won by Jews from Torah concepts that have been instituted. It is no coincidence that the Jews who, as Mark Twain put it, represent a drop in the ocean of humanity, and the fact testifies for themselves, that the infinitesimally tiny nation has received 17% of the Nobel prizes given out. It is not that we are smarter or more ingenious, more innovative or more inventive. When we walk in H’shem’s ways, we are the most blessed of nations, we are a light to the world. This carries an achrayus, a responsibility, to continue to walk in H’shem’s ways all the days of our life.

I would like to reflect on something incredible – its amazing how way back when, at the beginning of creation, H’shem told us – posuk 23,20, “Behold I send an angel before you on the way, to bring you to the place that I have made ready et ha Tov, asher natan lach” the good land. Beware, hearken to his voice, do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive you willful sin. If you do something bemezid, on purpose, the angel has no ability to deviate by one letter form the absolute letter of the law. Then the reality of why Moshe Rabbeinu cried out so desperately to H’shem, is that if H’shem doesn’t lead us, when we cry out for Rachamim, if He is not there, the likelihood of reaching our destination is also not there. “For my name is with him” it says in the posuk. If you hearken to his voice and carry out all that I shall speak, then I shall be the enemy of your enemies and the persecutor of your persecutors. So we see, exactly what the Torah says, and how this works throughout history. The tinniest, weakest of nations, and how the mightiest nations attacked us either covertly or overtly. Either the Hamans or the Hitlers, how they have been reduced to the History books. How the smallest and weakest nation of world history seems to go forward showing no signs of infirmary. “For my Angel shall go before you and bring you to the land and I will annihilate those enemies from before you”. What H’shem said back then remains relevant for us today. Do not bow yourselves to their gods. Do not worship them and do not act according to their practices. Rather, you shall tear them apart and smash their pillars of worship. You shall worship H’, you G-d. He shall bless your bread and water your water and remove illness from your midst. This is incredible. Hear what it is saying carefully. You shall worship H’shem your G-d. What does it say about Yetzias Mitzrayim? At the end of Shema Yisrael, the end of the third perek. Lihyos Lahem L-Elokim. How was it that H’shem couldn’t be for us G-d in Egypt? He did the Eser Makos and the miracle of miracles, krias yam suf and took us through the Midbar. But Am Yisrael had to be in the land for H’shem to be G-d to us. What exactly does this mean? It is something more than we can even comprehend. On the most basic level, 2/3 of Torah cannot be performed even by the most religious Jew, outside of Eretz HaKodesh. There is no Shmitta, there is no Temple, everything is something of a temporary nature, where we are threatened with the sword of the nations that we are hosted by, so to speak. Galut is a punishment – exile, in place of death. The reality is, that if you look statistically over the last 2000 years, 8/10 in each generation don’t survive it. Only here in Israel do almost 100% survive form generation to generation, dor le dor. We see the gadlus, the miracle of an inverted pyramid, but all of a sudden this nation blossoms to the top. The whole world is in absolute amazement that in the last 40-50-60 years, the dessert has started to blossom again, just as the prophets predicted. Just as the nations of the world tried for 2000 years to inhabit this land and declare it as their own. Every generation it came to an end and they could not make a goal of it. This land only gives of its milk and honey to its own beloved people. H’shem watches this people and this land from the beginning o the year to the end of the year, ready to bestow brachos of unprecedented proportions, to the point that even in the Shmitta year, those farmers that are Shmitta observant, the bananas and tomatoes were not devastated in the recent frost. For those that weren’t careful to guard the Shmitta, their crops were devastated. Once again, we see 60/70 years ago, a Kibbutz that was keeping Shmitta – there was a tremendous locus swarm across Israel that year except in Kibbutz Komemius which is about 30 mins outside Jerusalem. They continue the same practice today and its going from strength to strength. A farmer from Iran had a small plot 60/70 years ago and decided that whatever little land he has , he would observe Shmitta and leave it fallow. The first year the land was worth a few hundred shekels. The next Shmitta, a thousand shekels. The third Shmitta more. In terms of yearly parnassah it now represents 10 million dollars of produce. He is one of the biggest producers of Esrogim today, he has massive orchards, farms and land. I spoke to him a little while ago and he said, nobody is working, they are going to learn Torah this Shmitta and he is funding it. So we see, but for the grace of H’shem, who is above and beyond nature. There shall be no woman who loses her young, or is infertile in your land. I shall fill the number of your days. I shall send my fear before you and confound the entire people against who you come. I shall make all your enemies turn their back to you and flee. I shall send the hornet swarms before you and they shall drive away the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites from before you. I will not drive them away from you in a single year, lest the land become desolate and the wildlife overtake you. Little by little I will drive them away from you, until you become fruitful and make the land your heritage. I will set you borders from the sea of reeds to the sea of the Plishtim, from the wilderness until the river. I shall deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hands. You shall drive them away from before you. You shall not seal a covenant with them or their gods. See how desperate the world is to get rid of the little we have achieved. The Olso Convention, the Road Map, all these plots against H’shem and his nation. We see measure for measure, all those people who were against us even covertly, H’shem delivers them blow after blow, overtly.

So, If we contemplate them and their gods. They shall not dwell in your land lest they cause you to sin. This what we are dealing with today. These are the soul catchers. The same ones that were ready to take young children during the shoah to worship their gods, to idolatry to try to conquer H’shem and his nation. It could cause you to sin against me or to worship their gods, which is a trap.

So we see that until today, how hard the enemies of shalom are working, the enemies of H’shem are working, and we see that despite their worst efforts, this nation continues to blossom in Torah. That you see that just through keeping honest business, just having the sensitivity to help one’s brother and to be a light unto the nations. When they see the honesty and integral dealings, they can’t help but praise haKadosh B”H and the Torah. Bush came to see the Jerusalem he had seen many years ago. He was in absolute amazing to see the new structures almost all over Jerusalem. He simply could not imagine that the simple crane is working day and night except Shabbos for the rush orders to complete the development which H’shem is hsoering upon this generation, kein ein hora. Until this week there was almost no rain in Israel. The situation was desperate. The Kineret was rapidly approaching the irreversible red line. What happened in the last few days? H’shem showered this nation with snow and rain. In the desert, lest we forget, 100 years ago, walking through these hills was like a walk on the moon. We see the incredible nature of H’shem’s blessings, how, when we walk with H’shem, H’shem leads us.

Just like everything in this parsha, it is modeled under the category of bein adam lehaveiro, and that is as important to H’ as bein adam leMakom. So really, the ultimate thing that a child can do for a father is to take care of the other sons and daughters. There can be no greater happiness for a father than to see one son bringing home another son to Eretz Hakodesh, to Torah and Olam Haba beOlam Hazeh. To this Yeshiva, Dvar Yerushalayim, to such a place, with the Rosh Yeshiva and all the Rabbi’s involved in the hizuk of every one of us has a great Helek in Olan Haba, This is nothing less than saving a slave from his own slavery. The Zohar provides a wonderful insight. The monetary laws are in fact the laws of reincarnation. Just by doing honest business. If a person loses money unjustly in a Court case by losing documents, lacking witnesses or because he does not want to take an oath, he should realise that he owed a debt from a previous life and perhaps his purpose of being there was to repay that debt. How important is our honest business? If a master gives him a wife and he bears children, the wife and children shall belong to the master. The Zohar says that this is a parable. The master represents H’shem. When one praises the wife dedicated to him and only to him, she and the children will belong to the Master – H’shem and only Him. If a person takes a wife whom he desires and whom he feels fit, without asking H’shem and without praising H’shem, she might be a woman not designated for him. The man may fail to fulfil his purpose in this world and be forced to come back once gain and find the real woman.

The sages in Brochus (8b) for this very upright man to pray to you H’shem, at the time of finding the woman that he believes is his, it says, he who finds a wife has found good. He has found his home in this world and the next.

May H’shem bless us with our bayis ne’eman, that we may all be zoche to H’s Makom in this world, and like it says, Am Yisrael was the kalla, Har Sinai is the chuppa, Eretz Yisrael is the Bayis Neeman that we may make our Master, Adon Olam happy that we may serve him, in everything and every day. That we may be a Kiddush H’shem in all our ways and all His ways. That the world will see the light, that we were brought into this world to bear. May we all experience Moshiach Tzidkeinu, the Geula Shleima, and a great Shabbos to kol AM Yisrael and the whole world.