BS”D

Devarim – Tishah Be’Av or Tish Im Ha’Av?

A Guten Erev Shabbos everyone. This weeks parsha is parshas Devarim, beginning Sefer Devarim. It gets off to a very vigorous start. Basically, it is a review of all world history, packed into the first 3 - 4 sentences. From there we can explore what goes on, until today. It is a mind-boggling review of what happened for 40 years in the desert. Then it comes to the veiled rebuke. I would like to call this weeks parsha, Tishah Be’Av or Tish Im Ha Av, Avinu Shebashamayim. When you review all the generations, it is easy to say, “well those are the problems of his generation, it doesn’t have any implication for us”. Clearly Torah was given with a review of everything that ever was, is or will be. All the limud of Torah is relevant for every one of us, in every generation throughout world history. It speaks absolutely about our generation today.

So it says any generation in whose time the beis hamikdash is not rebuilt, it is as if they personally destroyed it. We cannot say\, look our ancestors did it, it was 3-4000 years ago, I can’t change it, Mah La’asot, what can be done? There is no point blaming the churbanm on people in this generation – that was that generation Are we guilty for their sins, 1000s of years later? The truth is that the sin of the spies was first cast on tishah Be’Av and what is known as the blackest day in the yearly luach comes to haunt is until Today. If we contemplate Gush Katif, and just afterwards. There were 26 Batei Knesses that were given over into the hands of the plishtim that could have been saved. 26 is the gematria of Shem H’. The number of Yeshivas, Batei Knesses and Kollelim was 48, gematria mem ches, moach. The person who gave the orders to destroy the batei mikdash mi’at, holy factories of H’, where even the bricks have kedusha. Within a few months of having desecrated H’ beautiful little home, in Gush Katif, a few weeks later his moach was desecrated. His brain was hemorrhaged. We could say it is a coincidence. This man has survived lots of miraculous wars, under very difficult conditions. He seemed to be invincible, unstoppable, a bulldozer. Within a few seconds, shamayim didn’t want him, eretz didn’t want him. He was left in acoma where he doesn’t have heaven or earth. A terrifying situation. I pray that we are never in a situation like this. A desecration of a Mikdash Mi’at.

The Sin of the spies was the blackest day in Jewish history. It was decreed that there would be crying (bechi) for generations on that day. That was in the year 3318 years ago. That is not why we mourn the sin of the spies on that day. The sin of the spies is still mourned in every generation. The sin was repeated many times. Not back there, or thousands of years ago but last year, and this year. Hey – Come on, how can that be possible? Het Hameraglim? How can we be accused of such a thing? If we don’t do something about it, it is as if we personally did the aveira, the sin of the spies, each and every one of us individually, up to this generation. We will then have to mourn – we will have to continue mourning. For instance if someone comes to Israel and says Sure, it’s a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. Everyone he met who did not inspire him as to the infinite value of Eretz Hakedosha and the Holiness of the Torah failed to inspire him, and the brother goes out with the spies to testify against him. We’ve got to inspire our brothers for the right reasons to make aliya to Torah, Eretz Yisrael and experience Olam Haba in Olam Hazeh. Otherwise we’re suffering from the same middos as the meraglim.

It wasn’t just the meraglim. It was actually a betrayal of H’ that brought them to say what they said. H said it was a good land, “if you test My words, you will surely fail”. The meraglim were sent as spies, but not having intent from the outset, with all one’s heart and all one’s resources to love H’ and to try to live up to H’s Torah. Without that fundamental Kodesh Hakodashim of one’s heart, one’s mission has failed. That is why the Birs Mila is so important. It is the first thing that happens to a little child. But when he gets to Bar Mitzva, he has a Bris Mila of his heart. The false layers across his heart are removed. That way the Tora is brought to life.

Our betrayal of H keeps the Beis Hamikdash from being built until today. Sinas Hinam destroyed the second Beis Hamikdash and is compared to the 3 sins that happened in the first Beis Hanmikdash. A combination of these three equals that one. What were the 3 original sins that caused the destruction of the First Beis Hamikdash? Shefichus Damim – Shedding blood. Murder is done, primarily for one reason, sinas hinam, unjustified hatred. If somebody did you wrong, take them to Beis Din, you have no permission to shed his blood. It is absolutely Doraisa forbidden. The second sin – Giluy Arayos – taking another man’s wife. To steal her from him is a pure act of sinas chinam, to hate the brocho that H gave to him, and in so doing, to defile his Beis Hamikdash mi’at, his home, his Bayis Neeman and to desecrate the Shem H’. Both the woman and the man that perpetrate this idolatory, must be put to death. For sure if the earthly Courts don’t do it, the heavenly courts will do it. The third one is quite an interesting one – Avoda Zora. What on earth has that got to do with sinas chinam? Where is the unwarranted hatred there? Evidently, if one thinks about Avoda Zora, he thinks, it is not 100% applicable to me. I don’t worship the golden calf and pursue my own desires, 612 mitzvos apply to me, the 613^th is not really applicable. Have you ever heard such a thing? They are totally outside the level of Torah and blessing. The ultimate level of this if the mitzvah, Ahavta Lerecha Kamocha. Love you brother like yourself. If you go after your own desires or you see your brother going after his desires and you don’t see a need to rescue him from eternal destruction, then you are no less than he is, and you destiny is bound up together in tragedy. So we are our brother’s keeper. The first time that happened was the shedding of blood with Kayin and Hevel. Kayin turned around to H and said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer to which is absolutely, yes. His brother’s blood was crying out from the ground, screaming out to H’ about the murder that had been committed. From then until today, it hasn’t been rectified. When we see someone in a run down state, going through a period of bad luck, financial difficulties, emotional difficulties, and bother ourselves to help, when we see someone who might not smell too nice, who does not look good, who doesn’t seem interesting to us, when we bother ourselves to help without saying what is in it for me, we are building the Beis Hamikdash, the Geula shleima when all Israel will come to life, we are bringing Olam Haba into Olam haze. Then we will start to appreciate the tragedy of these darkest of days. We are still even in the darkest moments. The good news is contained in the other side of Jewish History. He will take the non-positive parts of halacha and change them for good. By coming to Eretz Yisrael we reverse the Chet of the meraglim. Even just thinking about Israel is the first step to perfecting our generation. Learning Torah, spreading torah, teaching Torah, doing mitzvos, inspiring others to do mitzvos, teaching Torah to others and letting them teach others. All of this reverses the causes and effects that resulted in the destruction of the first Beis Hamikdash and the second Beis Hamikdash. The ultimate Tikun is Ahavas hinam. If you go after someone to help them, even though you do not like something about them and it is hard, you get reward for fighting against your yetzer hoira, doing hessed, inviting people to your Shabbos table that have never tasted Shabbos before. Instead of throwing stones at people driving on Shabbos, throw invites. ‘Hey stop’ – “What?” – ‘Please come home with me, I want you to taste the most delicious meal of your life, come with me quickly, please come with me, I need you to be at my Shabbos table, would you honour us with your presence?”. It happened to me one Erev Shabbos Rosh hashana. I was in Geula. I saw somebody driving and true to the community there, I shouted out “Stop driving its Shabbos” although it was actually still Rosh Hashana and not yet shabbos. The guy drove deeper and deeper into Geula. I knew he wouldn’t be going out the other side because the gates were closed. Sure enough a little while later he came whizzing past with a panicked expression. This time I got it right and said ‘get out of your car, its Rosh Hashana and almost Shabbos’. With this the guy slammed on his breaks and got out of his car. I thought, oy vey, maybe he is going to attack me now. Maybe he is angry with me. But, I am standing my ground. So he got out of his car, locked it. He came up to me and said, “OK, I’m ready to keep Shabbos, what do we do?” I got a terrible fright, I was beside myself and said, don’t you worry, just come with us, we’ll make sure your taken care of. Sure enough, he came to one of the most religious shuls in Geula, everyone in the shul was shocked to see this young guy with long hair. What happened was that in the interim, I took my hat off and gave it to him, literally taking one’s hat off to one’s brother, so at least he had a head cover. He had a white shirt on, and long hair so that it looked like he had peos, and jeans and sneakers. As we got to the shul, he put his car keys and packet of cigarettes in his bag, and put it in a concealed place in the shul. I was sure that after the service he would pick it up and leave. He said to me, what do we do. I said just follow me. We davened together, prayed together. During prayers I put the word out to the community , because I wasn’t at my own home. I asked the people I was invited but everything was jam packed and beyond and they couldn’t take him in, which I was very unhappy about, but within minutes somebody said, yes we’ll have him. Then we had to look for accommodation and somebody else said, we’ll have him over to sleep at our house. Within seconds everything was taken care of, without any preparations. Sure enough he ate with one family, we met up a bit later and chatted a bit, we enjoyed the sights and sounds of a Jewish community keeping Shabbos. He went off to sleep at the other place. In the morning he sat by the side of the road and watched all the people running off to daven and soaked in the sights. At lunchtime we chatted again and he said this is the most awesome experience of my entire life, I never dreamt there was such a world. We chatted throughout the afternoon. After Ma’ariv he went back to his car parked by the side of the road, not obstructing the traffic. Then he got down and kissed the road. I asked him what he did that for? He said – this land is holy. This spot here is where I met you. So I got down on my knees and said absolutely, this land is holy, and so is the whole of the land of Israel. I just thought about it afterwards. I asked him what he was. He told me he was very high up in CNN News. Imagine if instead of throwing an invite, I had picked up a rock and threw it through the window, and it had hit him on the head. What would have been his emotions to religious Jews for the rest of his life? Instead of throwing stones, I threw an invite. I had no right to throw that invite, I had nowhere to take him and no plans, I just knew, like krias yam suf, if we jump in H will take care of the details.

Really that is what it is all about, coming home to Israel. If a guy is nervous, what will be, I’ve got a chevrusa, I’ve got a learning program in Chutz La’Aretz, or my parnassah is there, it is reckless to throw caution to the wind, there are many reasons you can leave Israel, the truth of the matter is, there are many reasons a person can leave the garden of Eden. If a person so insists on holding on to his passport, which is a passport to continue building pyramids, but absolutely, you will not be worthy to build a Beis Hamikdash, in word or deed. We see the tragedy of what happened there in those days. We can see the importance now of throwing invites instead of throwing stones and creating another generation of hatred. Sinas Hinam – we have to reverse it. The only antidote is ahavas hinam. In spite off the pain, insults and attitude towards dedicating our lives to religious Judaism under difficult conditions, as it says, 3 things come with struggle- Torah, Eretz Yisrael and Olam Haba. It goes in that order. We can’t get to the third without the first. Sinas Hinam we have within our grasps to reverse. The torah already tells us, to love our fellow jews and prohibits us from hating them, from having hatred in our hearts, from being jealous, there are so many mitzvos along the way, if we follow the straight path along this very narrow bridge to ensure that we don’t fall off and become the tragedy instead of part of the miracle, and that we make it to the other side, to make it to Olam haba, even in this world. A person has to commit himself to Ahavta Lerecha Kemocha. It isn’t enough to say you are accepting the mitzvah. You have to live it. We have to bring it to life and inspire others to live it. If we do that, we are accomplishing brick by brick, the foundation stones of the Beis Hamikdash.

Just to review the first few sentences of this weeks parsha – its fantastic. “These are the words, eleh haDevarim, that Moses spoke to all Israel, on the other side of the Jordan, concerning the Wilderness, concerning the Aravah, opposite the Sea of Reeds, between Paran and Tophel, Lavan and Hatzerot and DiZahav. Eleven days from Horev by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea”. This is world history. How do we come to such a conclusion? The Sages say that Devarim is also known as Mishna Torah, commonly translated as a repetition or review of the whole Torah, an explanation of all the Torah. All the commandments were given to Moshe at Mount Sinai, the question remained on what basis do the commandments in Sefer Devarim bring new life to the whole of the Torah and o living in Eretz Yisrael. Once Bnei Yisrael cross the Jordan, the people would no longer see the open miracles of H’, present daily miracles. They would now need to plant, harvest, and once in 7 years, completely sever themselves from the land, let go of it and in the merit of the Shemitta, which is coming very soon. On Rosh Hashana H blesses a 3-fold blessing, just before Rosh Hashana that a man can be released from the burdens of this world. So that is an added madrega of being supernatural. They will establish Courts and Governments. They will forge social relationships to provide for them protecting the needy and helpless in the nation. They would need strong faith and steel discipline to avoid the traps and temptations of the neighbours and false prophets around them. To stress this, sefer Devarim is the essence, so to speak, the last lap, like a person that has done a major marathon and run thousands of kilometers, and he is coming into the last lap as he enters the stadium. The roar of the crowds, as he is coming closer and closer to the finish line. Will he break that record that was never broken before. Will he get to the ticker tape. Will he accomplish his mission in this world in the nick of time, or go down in history as having failed to reach the record. As the time gets closer and begins to run out, this is the remez of world history. Sefer Devarim is not just a review of the earlier four previous sefarim. Of the 100 laws in Devraim, 70 are completely new. This was Moshe Reabbeinu giving and reviewing all the laws of the Torah, an entire History of Am Yisrael. This book records the paths of his teaching that were most relevant for Am Yisrael to channel into for its new life in a new land. We need a big celebration, and adrenaline surge, to make it to the next year. To make it to the next madrega of serving H’. Not one word, one letter or one ot is unnecessary. Every word. So what is it in these first three sentences of Sefer Devarim that cover all of world history? First of all it says el kol Yisrael – to all Israel. The commentaries say (Rashi) he gathered together the whole people. If only part were present, those absent could have said, had we been there, we would have refuted him. We would have told him off. What is he saying. So Moses spoke in the presence of everyone and challenged them – “is there anybody who doubts what I am saying?” There was nobody who challenged him because everybody knew everything Moshe said was perfectly needed by everyone in that generation before the came into the land. To Kadesh barnea. Rashi and Unkelos say that the names are code words for sins. The Ramban explains, it is unlikely they were all locations where Moshe spoke to the people, because otherwise the Torah would be giving “more signs and wonders than one who sell as a field”. Bamidbar – Shortly after leaving Egypt, Bamidbar Sin, the people claimed they had been led into the desert to starve (Shemos 16, 1-3). Concerning the Aravah – this refers to the plain where many Jews were seduced by the Midianites (Bamidbar 25, 1-9), tragically. Mul Suf – opposite the Sea of Reeds when they were hemmed in, trapped, between the Egyptians and the Sea, the Jews complained “Were there not enough graves in Egypt?” (Shemos 14:11), what was it that Moshe Rabbeinu took them out for? They accused Moshe Rabbeinu on the grounds that they were being brought to the Midbar so that the Egyptians could finish them off. When they miraculously came out of the Reed Sea, after it had split, they complained once again that the Egyptians had probably escaped, and they would meet them on the other side. Therefore H showed them by throwing up the bodies of each and every Egyptian on the other side of the Yam Suf so that Am Yisroel could see that the Egyptians would never pursue them again. Bein Paran – The spies were sent from the wilderness of Paran (Bamidbar 13-14). This was the whole tragedy of the spies. The whole chapter speaks about the spies in just the words ‘Bein Paran’. Uven Tofel veLavan. Rashi cites R Yochanan who notes that there is no such place mentioned. Rather these words relate to the complaints about the miraculous man that came to the world (Bamidbar 10, 12 an 11, 6). Tofel can be rendered a false and malicious statement, tiflus, and lavan, white, the colour of the man (Shemos 16, 34). The man was like frost. They rolled it up and had their coriander seed dough which tasted like honey doughnuts, or anything else that a person so desired. It was perfect miraculous food, they didn’t need to go the bathroom for 40 years, their clothing did not disintegrate and there was no sickness. It was supernatural. As Rashi puts it, the brocho for that food was Chamotzi lechem min hashamayim. They were eating Angel-food. They were living like Angels for the 40 years in the desert. What was the response of the ingrates who didn’t appreciate it? “What is this insubstantial, irrelevant food that is eating out our insides (because they weren’t going to the bathroom)”. Those who appreciated the man were zoche to say hamotzi lechem min haaretz and most importantly, the after brocho, “veachalta, vesavata uverachta al haaretz hatova asher natan lach“. You’ve eaten and your satisfied. Bless H for the good land, not even the food, because that is the source of all your brochos. Living Torah in the Land. Hatzerot- Korach’s rebellion took place near Hatzerot and/or Miriam was stricken there for slandering Moshe but the nation did not get the message which was have saved them from slandering themselves. Then it says, Di-zahav, literally an abundance of gold. H blessed Bnei Yisrael during the plague of darkness with an abundance of gold. The Egyptians poured out the gold and treasures of Egypt to Am Yisrael. What was their response? They used it to make a golden calf. That is tragedy. Since the time of the second Beis Hamkidash there has been nobody able to give rebuke.

If you read these sentences, they sound like a conducted tour through the desert, but it is anything but that. Eleven days from Horev – this was the journey to Har Sinai which, according to the Ramban, is located in the greater area known as Horev. H told them that the time had come to enter Eretz Yisroel and instructed them to use the route that goes around Mount Seir. Normally it would have been an 11 day journey to Kadesh Barnea. But H was so keen for Am Yisrael to enter the land quickly, that he miraculously brought them there in only 3 days. This should have been more than adequate proof that H was guiding Am Yisrael supernaturally, yet the people wanted spies, to reassure themselves and then, they believed the calamitous reports about the land and all the other journeys that they had been on. They were tragically afflicted with the wrong assessment. When we contemplate these different stopping stations, these different tachanot, where Bnei Yisrael dwelled in the dessert, each one had its own lesson. Only those who were above it survived it and graduated. Then we have to go to the next level of Sefer Devarim, and that is to contemplate, if we continue to write Sefer Devarim with a veiled mussar, rebuke, what would we have said next? Coming into Israel with all the different cities. Coming to Shilo, which means they had a Sheila. They eventually came to “Yerusha-Shalem” but it seemed as though even thought the Yerusha was Shalem, appreciation wasn’t shalem. 410 years later, the destruction of the first Temple, and in the seventh year of exile, in the hands of Achashverosh, which means that he had a headache and Am Yisrael had a headache. In what they thought was the 70^th year they had a seuda with the keilim of the Beis Hamikdash, and invited Bnei Yisrael to the seuda to prove that H didn’t care about them at all (Has VeShalom). Mordechai, true to form, rose to the occasion and pleaded with them not to go to the seuda. At the epicentre of that seuda, they were celebrating that Bnei Yisrael were doomed to eternal destruction, Has VeHalila, and Haman HaAmaleki was waiting in the wings to get the first opportunity to get approval from the King that all the Jews in the world could be Yeharog, Yehabed, Vehashmad. He had a three pronged attack, that he wanted to reverse everything by shmad – missionising and leading the Jews to idolatry, for which nations throughout history paid the supreme price, for trying to lead Am Yisrael astray. If that didn’t succeed he planned to murder them by the sword (R”l). Then there is the third level which is a continuity of the first two, leabed. This is the unique hatred. Shmad is the way of Hatzileini MiAchi, save me form my brother. The missionary Esav who tried to turn away the heart of Bnei Yisrael. The second is Yishmael, leharog. He will be against the world with his sword, and the world will be against him with theirs. So, it turns out that Esav and Yishmael were brought out to challenge Israel in these two different ways. Leabed was a unique quality, set out in Mein Kampf where he said that his war was to annihilate the last of Am Yisrael. The Final Solution. We see that that solution had its own solution. That the very people who started complaining about H and His nation, caused the tragedy but the real Holocaust was upon them.

Even though we haven’t seen the end of days, and please G-d may we all survive it by doing teshuva through tzedoko, and may we rise up to doing all of Torah beAhava ubesimcha, shalom vereus, that we will see olam haba in olam haze. It turns out, ironically, that if we use these stopping stations throughout world history, after 70 years Achashverosh’s legacy had a much greater headache on his hands. Haman in his generation. He ended up hanging and America repeated that act 2000 years later, on Shmini Atzeres when they took 10 of the generals, top people captured from the Nazi army. The eleventh was saved from the hangman’s noose by committing suicide. It turned out that Goering was in a way like Haman’s daughter that jumped from the building. They both committed suicide. His persuasion was that he was not interested in women. His tendencies were those of the members of the Gay Parade. They paraded him all the way to his grave. The other ten – when Streicher was sent to his death, said, you Americans are giving the Jews their Purim fest. This was on Sukkos, Shemini Atzeres, the other side of the year. What he understood was a link and a secret. Just as Esther had appealed to the King, please do to them tomorrow as you did to them today, so Haman and his sons perished in future generations too. We saw that unlike America had ever done before, they put them to death by hanging them. They would always use a firing squad or the electric chair. It was unheard of to use hanging as a death sentence, except for that one time. The chief executioner was Mr John Wood. They were all hung on a tree. The gallows were made from a tree that was chopped down and Haman and his 10 sons were once again hung. It turns out that world history is a journey from stopping station to stopping station. Imagine what would have been in the Dark Ages with the inquisition in Spain, with the pogroms across Europe for 2000 years, when we look at the History books about where Jews have been throughout the ages, Jews didn’t last long in any particular city in Galus. Even when they were tolerated, it seems somehow that the graveyards were eventually plowed under. We see, everything had its own story until eventually the beast was let loose, he plowed down everything Jewish and took what was left of the Nation’s possessions. See what a miracle it is coming to this juncture in time where for the first time in 2000 years we are coming back to Torah, we are coming back to Eretz Yisrael, we are coming back to a sense of Olam Haba Be’Olam Haze. In spite of all the trouble facing us inside the country and outside the country, on the borders, the Shivim Zevim, 70 wolves, sharpening their knives and forks, waiting to annihilate what is left of this, the weakest of nations, not knowing that the Shephard, Avinu Shebashamayim, is going to have them, those that plot against Eretz Yisrael, as his Seudas Leviyasan. He will annihilate his enemies, both inside and outside the camp. At that stage we will be zoche, instead of mourning on Tisha Be’Av, the destruction of H’s home, the Beis HaBechira, as we say on Pesach.

We will celebrate the return of the Beis Habechira. Just as it was destroyed by the esh of sina, we will return through the Eish of Torah. We are experiencing in our generation something unprecedented in previous generations, the Tsunami of spirituality. That there is a spiritual wave that the generation is catching. It is unstoppable. It has epicenters throughout the world, right here in Dvar Yerushalayim, from Yeshivas that are outreaching to people who had a zero prognosis in every other generation, somehow the gates of mercy are opening up. Just like Moshiach will go through the Gates of Mercy to the Beis Hamikdash, so too H is letting us, everyone of his chosen nation, come through these gates of mercy, to return to Torah, to return to Eretz Yisrael, to rebuild the Beis Hamikdash, to the Geula Shleima, Moshiach Tzidkeinu, Tehias Hameisim and the ultimate redemption.