Deadly Gamble | Geulah Brachamim Program – By Pinchas Winston
YOU WOULD THINK that a nation which has seen how bad it can get for their people would become concerned if they saw even a HINT of the same kind of danger. Even a Jew who doesn’t believe in Torah, even a Jew who doesn’t believe in God, should still recall that THE enemies of the Jewish people rarely distinguish between believers and disbelievers.
Few Jews ever deny the Holocaust. Many, however, deny that it could happen again. As civilized as the Germans may have been, they still had a unique potential to become Nazis. They are very nationalistic and proud, a deadly combination, as the world has seen, in the hands of a demagogue.
Most Jews today however live in Western countries. As bad as anti-Semitism can be there, it will never match what it was in Europe. A deadly dictator would NEVER come to power in the West. The people would never allow it.
One-hundred percent GUARANTEED?
Of course not. No one knows for certain how a country will develop and history will unfold. If the Jews of Europe had believed for a moment that a Holocaust was coming, they would have left there in any way possible. They FEARED for the worst. They just did not know how BAD the worst could be.
Neither do we.
We’ve had a good run of it. For over half a century Jews have enjoyed more equality and prosperity among the gentiles than probably ever before. But, does it ever last? Has the world become so advanced, so civilized and selfless that we can rest assured that our “rights” will remain protected in spite of growing anti-Semitism? Is this answer a hope or a fact?
This ends the discussion for the person who does NOT believe in Hashgochah Pratis—Divine Providence. For the person who DOES, there is more. A LOT more. Everyone may know WHAT anti-Semitism is, but they may not understand WHY it is. For THAT, they have to believe in God and Divine Providence, for whereas racism picks on those with differences, anti-Semitism endangers even those who are the same.
This is learned from the story of Ya’akov Avinu. After successfully taking Eisav’s blessing, he was forced to run for his life. He fled to Mesopotamia and moved in with his mother’s brother, Lavan. It was Lavan’s daughters Rachel and Leah whom he married, and from whom he fathered eight of his 12 sons.
Ya’akov never wanted to be outside of Eretz Yisroel, and he never stopped yearning to return home. But, he had to wait 20 years before the time came to do that, at which time he left so fast that he didn’t even say goodbye to his father-in-law. He just left with everything that was his.
The question is, why did Ya’akov Avinu not leave for 20 years, and how did he decide that it was time to go home?
The most obvious answer is this:
After Rachel gave birth to Yosef, Ya’akov said to Lavan, “Let me leave so I may go to my place and to my land.” (Bereishis 30:25)
Once the adversary of Eisav was born . . . Once Yosef was born, Ya’akov trusted in The Holy One, Blessed is He, and desired to return. (Rashi)
Apparently the birth of Yosef, who was somehow the adversary of Eisav, was Ya’akov Avinu’s “sign” that it was time to leave the relative safety of Lavan’s home and return back home to Eretz Yisroel—and Eisav. And THAT didn’t happen until 14 years after Ya’akov first arrived at Lavan’s house.
After only 14 years Yosef was born? But Ya’akov stayed with Lavan for 20 years altogether! This means that Ya’akov didn’t leave Lavan for another SIX years AFTER the birth of Yosef! If so, then how did Ya’akov Avinu know to leave THEN?
Anti-Semitism.
It’s subtle, but it’s there:
[Ya’akov] heard Lavan’s sons say, “Ya’akov has taken everything that belonged to our father. From our father he has gained so much.” When Ya’akov saw Lavan in person, he didn’t behave with him as before. (Bereishis 31:1)
What Ya’akov heard was a blood libel. His brothers-in-law, who knew that they owed their existence to him, wrongly accused Ya’akov of taking that which belonged to their father. They had an agreement, which Ya’akov stuck to completely and Lavan never did. And yet they had the chutzpah to accuse Ya’akov of embezzlement!
That was bad enough. When he later met up with Lavan himself however, he saw that their father shared the same sentiment. It’s not that Lavan had ever proven himself to be trustworthy, but he had even become worse. Ya’akov understood that the situation would only worsen, and knew then that it was time to “get while the going was still good.”
Shortly after, God confirmed his decision:
God said to Ya’akov, “Return to the land of your fathers, to your birthplace, and I will be with you.” (Be-reishis 31:2)
Anti-Semitism is Heaven’s way of signaling to the Jewish people that the time to move on has arrived, because, and this is the really CRUCIAL part, God Himself is moving on. Survival and success in exile is through God, but only while He is there with us. If He “leaves” an exile and Jews remain behind, they are on their own, so-to-speak.
Anti-Semitism is NOT a Divinely-induced hatred toward Jews by otherwise civil gentile populations. It is the result of the cessation of a SUPERNATURAL respect and civility that God imposed on host nations while it satisfied the purpose of exile. It is only “natural,” the Midrash says, for Jews to be disliked by the nations of the world. When God pulls out, so does the civility toward the Jews.
Ya’akov understood this. He knew who he was dealing with. The entire 20 years that Ya’akov lived with Lavan, he never thought for a moment that, if and when Lavan was civil toward him, it was from the goodness of his heart. Ya’akov knew that God “compelled” Lavan to treat him well, so that he could go about his business until it was time to leave.
Therefore, when that civility began to dissolve, Ya’akov knew that it could only mean one thing: God was already on His way OUT. Ya’akov also knew what that meant, that his exile was at an end. And THAT is when Ya’akov decided to leave, and as soon as he could. He was NOT going to stay longer in exile than the Divine Presence, and take his chances with Lavan.
This is one of the most important lessons in the Torah about exile, and tragically one of the least known. Those who have understood the true nature of anti-Semitism have responded to it safely. The vast majority of the Jewish people have not, leaving them terribly vulnerable to its effects. They gambled that the situation would get better, not worse. They lost.
IT IS NOT difficult to convince rational people that anti-Semitism is real. Just research the topic. Read the information. Learn history. Anti-Semitism shows up all over the place and throughout history. A person would have to be delusional to deny it.
It IS however very difficult to convince them that anti-Semitism is not simply racism. For the most part, it seems to be the same. This is why Jews have a history of UNSUCCESSFULLY waiting out anti-Semitism. They thought it was only racism, and that it would pass. They did not see it as a Divine message to pick up and move on.
It is important to recall that the Jewish people are a nation with a mandate, a specific historical purpose. Whereas most peoples are only concerned about survival, the Jewish people have to also be concerned about fulfilling, at ALL times, the mandate of God for Creation. The Jewish people may take “breaks,” but the purpose of Creation does not.
So, though the average Jew is really only concerned about day-to-day life, God is concerned about how their day-to-day life is contributing to the overall destiny of the Jewish people. It was not the Jews of Europe that initiated the end of the European exile. It was their national destiny, which has often had to rely upon anti-Semitism to make it happen.
This is particularly important to keep in mind at this late stage of history. There is not much time left to complete that destiny. Once upon a time, just moving on to another country in the Diaspora may have been enough. Having already gone to the four corners of the world, and being so close to Messianic times, it would seem that the NEXT move is meant to be the LAST one.
A person who does not believe in Torah does not believe in Kibbutz Golios. Not much can be done about that, at least in the meantime. They will have to wait for history to change their point of view. Until then, they can’t see it as a gamble
A person who DOES believe in Kibbutz Golios knows that it is an eventual reality. It is inevitable. They may not know how inevitable, but they know it is coming. They have to decide for themselves if rising levels of anti-Semitism worldwide mean that it is coming sooner than later. They have to decide if it is worth the gamble to ignore the message, and remain in the Diaspora.
PERHAPS WE ARE doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. Maybe it will always only be INDIVIDUALS who read the writing on the wall, and then respond accordingly. The masses, it seems from the past, just get caught up in their local lives and miss the opportunity to avoid disaster. It IS our history.
It is hard. It is VERY hard. It is only natural to settle into a foreign land after a while. Families have to plant roots. Communities have to grow. Businesses have to develop. The next generation builds upon the successes of the previous generation. How can it not be that over time all sense of transience will disappear, and permanence becomes the norm?
It would have been wise for community leaders to have made a point of keeping their members on the right spiritual track. It would have been smart to have instilled a sense of mission in their people that goes BEYOND personal lives, and then to have maintained it. That would have allowed a sense of transience to remain in the national consciousness while in exile, as it had for Ya’akov Avinu.
Instead, just the opposite occurred. Everyone just settled down. Then they assimilated, some only materially, others spiritually as well. National redemption, for the most part is a DEAD concept. Masses of Jews remain unaffiliated. The rest remain disconnected. No wonder few people see signs of redemption in what is happening in the world today.
It is a REAL problem, because the Torah provides another CRUCIAL insight into the Divine purpose of anti-Semitism. Another one, unfortunately, that is dangerously overlooked.
It says:
He named the place “Massah” and “Merivah,” because of the quarrel of the Children of Israel and because they tested God, saying, “Is God among us or not?” Amalek came and fought with the Jewish people in Rephidim. (Bereishis 17:7-8)
It doesn’t really flow. The last verse about Amalek is an abrupt end to the previous ones about what happened in Massah and Merivah. Therefore, Rashi explains:
The Torah places this section [about Amalek’s attack] immediately after this verse [“Is God among us or not?”] to say: “I am always with you and ready for everything you need, and yet you say, ‘Is God among us or not?’ By your lives, that dog [Amalek] will come and ‘bite’ you, and you will cry for Me and then you will know where I am!” (Rashi, Shemos 17:8)
Is God among us or not? What did the Jewish people mean with these words? They knew that God made Creation. They knew that God runs history. They understood that something only exists as long as God wills it to exist. It was clear to them that God was EVERYWHERE at ALL times. So, what were they REALLY asking?
They were asking about their Hashgochah Pratis.
The Jewish people at that time had witnessed the Ten Plagues in Egypt. They had been part of the un-imaginable miracle of the splitting of the sea. They had just seen bread fall from the sky to feed them. A miraculous well followed them around in the desert. Special clouds protected them during the day and a pillar of fire led them at night. And yet they asked, “Is God among us or not?”
There are really only two modes in life. A person either believes that God is behind EVERYTHING, or they believe that God is behind NOTHING. We learn this from the following:
The hand is on God’s—Yud-Heh—throne . . . (Shemos 17:16)
The hand of The Holy One, Blessed is He, was raised to swear by His throne to be at war and [have] hatred against Amalek for eternity . . . Why is the [four-letter] Name [of God] divided in two? . . . The Holy One, Blessed is He, swore that His Name will not be complete and His throne will not be complete until the name of Amalek is completely obliterated. (Ra-shi, Shemos 17:16)
As long as Amalek exists, the Torah indicates, God’s throne is not complete. HOW does the verse tell us this? Because, as Rashi explains, instead of writing “kisay,” which means “throne,” with all three letters—Chof-Samech-Aleph—it only writes the first two. The Aleph is missing from the word.
This is reminiscent of another MISSING Aleph, or at least partially missing ALEPH. The first word of Sefer Vayikra is “vayikra,” except that the Aleph at the end of the word is raised and smaller than the rest of the letters. This prompts Rashi to comment:
A calling preceded all statements and commandments. It is an expression of love, an expression that the Ministering Angels use, as it says, “One called to the other” (Yeshayahu 6:3). However, to the gentile prophets He revealed Himself with an expression of happenstance and uncleanness, as it says, “God chanced—vayikar—upon Bilaam” (Bamidbar 23:4, 16). (Rashi, Vayikra 1:1: )
Without the Aleph, the word “vayikra” becomes “vayikar,” which means “happenstance.” In short, life is random. With the Aleph, the word is “vayikra,” which implies a very close and quite conscious connection to God. Everything is Hashgochah Pratis.
One letter.
Two extremes.
The letter Aleph itself indicates this. Aside from equalling the number one, and therefore alluding to THE One of Creation, the letter is also comprised of two Yuds and a Vav, the total gematria of which is 26. This is the same gematria as God’s four-letter Name—when spelled with the two letters that Amalek’s existence “conceals.”
Believing in God and Torah is only one part of what it means to be a complete Jew. Believing, both intellectually AND emotionally, that EVERYTHING is Hashgochah Pratis and NOTHING is random in life, is the other part. If our lives, in any way, suggest a lack of belief in Hashgochah Pratis, then they ask the question: Is God among us or not. When that happens, expect Amalek, in whatever form he will take in any given generation, to attack.
THERE IS MORE, if Kabbalah holds any weight. For some, it does not, even if they learn Torah. The mainstream yeshivos do not learn Sod per se, which speaks of matters foreign even to the average religious Jew. It is to the Torah world what Quantum Physics is to the world of science.
The analogy holds true on two levels. Like Quantum Physics, Kabbalah is “out there.” It’s not for everyone apparently, and takes a certain kind of mind to relate to it. Some can’t start learning Kabbalah while others can’t stop.
And, just as Quantum Physics is the basis of everyday life, Kabbalah is even more so. The fact that a person doesn’t understand or relate to Kabbalah does not change the fact that it is what gives them existence and keeps them going from second-to-second. They may not understand Kabbalah at all, but Kabbalah understands THEM perfectly.
Kabbalistically, anti-Semitism is about “tzimtzum,” the constriction of God’s light. EVERYTHING is made of God’s light, but the more of it there is in Creation, the more good triumphs over evil. Truth wins out. Evil is suppressed, and eventually, destroyed. It is the amount of Divine light in Creation that determines when the Messianic Era will begin.
When the flow of Divine light is reduced significantly, a spiritual void results. Intellectual confusion results, which is why the gematria of “Amalek” is the same as “suffek,” the Hebrew word for “doubt.” Evil increases in influence and good seems powerless to stop it. Anti-Semitism is inevitable.
Anti-Semitism specifically. Racism too, but anti-Semitism SPECIFICALLY. When the Jewish people received Torah, their souls were enhanced to be able to fulfill it. It takes extra spiritual energy to perform all the mitzvos incumbent on the Jewish people. When we said, “We will do and we will understand,” we also said, in effect, “We will receive.”
This makes a Jewish soul a high-functioning spiritual conduit for Divine light. Since the Klipos, the spiritual representatives of evil in this world, feed off a Divine light as well, they are specifically attracted to the Jewish people, like “bees to honey.”
It won’t appear like that to the eyes, though. Instead, it will appear either as that which pulls Jews away from their Torah and world responsibilities, resulting in assimilation, or as anti-Semitism. Either way, the negative interaction with the Jewish people will have the effect of “feeding” the wrong side of the spiritual realm.
THERE IS ANOTHER aspect to this as well. If anti-Semitism signals the departure of the Divine Presence from a particular exile, and with it, Divine protection, then it makes Jews vulnerable in another way as well. It means that even Jews who remain loyal to Torah can “feed” the Klipos as well, THROUGH the learning and performance of mitzvos.
Every time someone performs a mitzvah, it generates holiness. Every time they learn Torah, they draw Divine light into the world. But as halachah states, not every place is fitting for this because of the impurity associated with the place. We do not learn Torah in the bathroom.
It is not only a matter of respect. It is a matter of protecting the holiness from feeding the “other side,” something that becomes more of an issue when learning in impure lands. The right thing in the wrong place has the wrong effect.
The Divine Presence accompanies the Jewish people into exile to protect them, and the holiness they generate through their learning of Torah and their performance of mitzvos. This way, the Klipos remain limited in how much they can feed off the Torah and mitzvos of the Jewish people while in exile.
This all changes once the Shechinah, the Divine Presence, leaves exile. The Jewish people may continue to learn Torah and perform mitzvos in exile, but the Shechinah is longer there to prevent the Klipos from feeding off of them. Instead of growing weaker, the Klipos grow stronger, and the Holocaust was just one recent example of what can happen when THAT occurs:
Even though synagogues and places of Torah study in the Diaspora are holy . . . nevertheless all that takes place in them . . . has to pass through the Klipos to get to their proper place in Heaven. This feeds the Klipos and strengthens the hand of impurity. (Tuv HaAretz, Introduction)
This is a foreign, hard-to-believe idea for many. How can something as holy as Torah and mitzvos, performed with all the right intentions, lead to spiritual disaster? How can people who mean so well be responsible for causing such “bad”?
It is not a question for Kabbalah. Understanding the spiritual make-up of Creation, and the rules by which it runs, it is frighteningly logical. It’s why, as the Midrash says, anti-Semitism is built right into Creation, and why treating it only like racism is the greatest gamble a Jew can ever make. That’s not theory, or only Kabbalah. That is HISTORICAL fact.
