Here we are again. Rabbi Ephraim Sprecher and Ariel Natan Pasko, the independent analyst and consultant who writes The Think Tank, write about the dual nature of the Three Weeks. Is it about mourning or redemption? Plan A or Plan B? Both articles are reprinted in total here. As R' Sprecher says, "You make the call." That goes for each and every one of us.
The
Mitzva to mourn on Tisha B’Av is only temporary, (PLAN B) until it becomes a
permanent day of joy and celebration when Mashiach comes as stated in Zacharya
8. Thus, Tisha B’Av is destined to be part of our Halachic tradition, but NOT
as a day of eternal mourning.
Therefore,
in Megillat Eicha, which is read on Tisha B’Av, Yirmiyahu refers to Tisha B’Av
as a MOED – Festival (Eicha 1:15 and in 2:22). That is why we don’t say
Tachanun and Selichot on Tisha B’Av (Shulchan Aruch 559).
An
example of this idea appears in Yirmiyahu 31 “Then (in the Messianic Era) the
young women will dance joyously. Young men and elders will also dance together.
I (G-d) will turn their mourning to joy. I (G-d) will comfort them and cheer
them from their grief and sorrow.”
This
verse clearly echoes the statement expressed by Zacharya. Yirmiyahu is NOT
predicting some new, joyous celebration with no roots in the past. Rather, G-d
will turn the mourning of centuries of exile into joy and celebration when Mashiach
comes.
Why is
it that in the time of Mashiach the Fast of the 17th of Tammuz and
the Fast of Tisha B’Av commemorating the CHURBAN will become joyous festivals
and not just ordinary days? Why is it not sufficient that these fasts will just
be cancelled?
The
answer is that these tragic mournful days will assume their ORIGINAL intent.
The
17th of Tammuz was the date when G-d gave us the First Tablets of
the Ten Commandments. It was supposed to be a day of great joy, celebrating G-d’s
gift to us in His own Handwriting!
However,
that is the very day that we worshipped the Golden Calf, and Moshe smashed G-d’s
Holy Tablets. Moshe had to re-ascend Mt. Sinai and plead for G-d’s forgiveness
for the Jewish People. The Second Tablets were not given until Yom Kippur.
When
we do TESHUVA and merit the arrival of Mashiach, we will have fully rectified
the Sin of the Golden Calf. Thus, the 17th of Tammuz will assume its
ORIGINAL character, a day of festive celebration for receiving G-d’s First
Tablets.
Tisha
B’Av was also supposed to be THE day that the Jews resolved to enter the Holy
Land and conquer it. The Sin of the Spies in slandering the Land of Israel,
which took place on Tisha B’Av, prevented the Jewish People from entering the
Promised Land.
When
Mashiach comes, we will have rectified this Sin of the Spies also, and Tisha B’Av
will return to PLAN A.
Thus,
Tisha B’Av will assume its ORIGINAL intention of intense national joy of
celebrating, appreciating, and cherishing the Holy Land of Israel!
Zecharya ch. 8 tells us that Tisha B'Av will become a joyous festive Yom Tov when Mashiach comes and builds the third and final Beit Hamikdash. The prophet Yechezkel deals with the construction of the Third and Final Temple in great detail.
A
major problem is that Yechezkel’s vision of the Third Beit Hamikdash in ch. 48
describes a Sanctuary Structure of enormous, gigantic dimensions. The Third
Temple Building will be so huge that Abarbanel claims it will be even larger
than the entire Temple Mount. The structure will be so humongous that the
Malbim in Zecharya ch. 2 claims that Yechezkel’s Temple will surpass even beyond
the borders of Jerusalem!
Is
there a way to bridge the gap between Yechezkel’s Heavenly vision of a
super-enormous sanctuary and his prophecy that very much seems to depict a
physical building that exists here on earth?
The
Minchat Yitzchak compares the relationship between Yechezkel’s Heavenly Temple
and the Earthly Temple to the relationship between the human body and the soul.
Just as the body is a product of this physical world, into which the Heavenly
Soul descends, so too, the Final Temple will be built in this world by
Mashiach, and then the Spiritual Heavenly Temple will descend into it.
Now,
just as the G-dly soul is not measureable in human terms in this world, so too,
the Heavenly Temple, which is so immense in Yechezkel’s vision, may not manifest
itself in the same way here on earth.
It
may be that the model of a spiritually enormous entity – the Heavenly Temple - occupies,
animates, and transcends the physically limited confines of a body or a
physical building, which is being described here by Yechezkel.
Thus,
all the pieces of the Final Temple puzzle may fit together. We can integrate Yechezkel’s
prophecy with the Heavenly Jerusalem and Final Temple, and the geographic
locations of Jerusalem and the Third Sanctuary.
All
of this makes sense in a Final Temple that is physically constructed by human
beings, but infused with a Spiritual Soul Temple sent by G-d from Heaven. This
is very similar to the G-dly Soul filling up a physical body.
This profound
idea should challenge us to realize that we, too, need to transcend our
physical limitations to reach a higher and more spiritual existence.
Two Evil Forces within Bil’am Threaten the Jewish Nation Today
Albert Einstein once explained that the difference between genius and idiocy is that genius has its limitations.
On a similar note, the difference between genius and anti-Semitism, is that genius has its limitations.
Balak was under great pressure to drive the Jews out of the land of Mo’av.
He sent emissaries to the infamous Bil’am requesting his help in
removing the threat of conquest by the Jewish nation through the powers
invested in Bil’am to bless and to curse, as the pasuk says (Bamidbar
22:6)
ועתה לכה נא ארה לי את העם הזה כי עצום הוא ממני אולי אוכל נכה בו ואגרשנו מן הארץ כי ידעתי את אשר תברך מברך ואשר תאר יואר:
“Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are
too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and
drive them out of the land. For I know that whoever you bless is
blessed, and whoever you curse is cursed.”
When HaShem appeared to Bil’am asking him to explain who these
emissaries were, Bil’am replied that they were sent by Balak because in
the words of Balak…
(יא) הנה העם היצא ממצרים ויכס את עין הארץ עתה לכה קבה לי אתו אולי אוכל להלחם בו וגרשתיו:
“A people that has come out of Egypt covers the face of the
land. Now come and put a curse on them for me. Perhaps then I will be
able to fight them and drive them away.’”
Rashi quotes the Midrash that points out the discrepancy between what Balak actually requested and what Bil’am told HaShem.
Balak said: “Then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land”, meaning the land of Moav.
When Bil’am quoted Balak to HaShem, he said: “Perhaps then I will be
able to fight them and drive them away,” omitting the end of Balak’s
words “drive them out of the land.”
The Midrash and Rashi deduced that Balak hated the Jews as any goy in
good standing would do, but he also feared them for good reason. And
Balak would have been satisfied had the Jews just left his “land”.
Bil’am did not mention the “land” but intentionally misquoted Balak
saying, “ to drive them away”, meaning not only from the “land” but from
the world – in other words the Shoah, holocaust.
Balak’s anti-Semitism was immense, but it had a limit. Bil’am’s
hatred knew no limitations, only total annihilation with not one Jew to
be left in the world.
Bil’am, the man, comprised within himself the two evil forces which are threatening the Jewish nation today.
He is the murderous, sadistic Muslim who supported Paro’s suggestion
to physically enslave the entire Jewish nation. He is the cursing,
venomous voice of the United Nation’s Security Council, the United
Nation’s General Assembly, the International Court of Justice, the
United Nations Human Rights Commission and the European Union. He is the
voice of BDS, of J Street betrayers and traitors, of the
“turn-the-other-cheek” Christian Churches – the one in Rome and the
others to the East.
We, the Jewish nation in Eretz Yisrael, will overcome the Bil’ams of
the world as we have done in the past, with the help of HaShem. However,
humanity as a whole will never be able to rid itself of the Bil’am
heritage and restore that which Bil’am destroyed.
When it became apparent to Bil’am that HaShem would not curse the
Jewish people, he offered a suggestion to Balak, which in his mind would
“circumvent” any veto of the Almighty placing the initiative in Balak’s
hands.
Rashi explains that until that time, despite cultural differences
between tribes and nations, the world maintained a degree of modesty
regarding relations between men and women in the tradition of the seven
Noachide commandments.
Bil’am, by suggesting to Balak to use the Moabite and Midianite women
to seduce the Jewish men as weapons of war, pushed back the fences of
chastity never again to be returned as they were before. The gentile
women seduced the Jews first by sexual means and then brought them to
idolatry at Baal Peor; 24,000 Jews died for the sins which Bil’am had
instigated.
We are now witnessing a continuation of the Bil’am syndrome
of reducing the world’s moral level on a grand scale. It is being
performed by the Supreme Court of the United States, by declaring
same-sex marriages to be recognized in all the 50 states of their
country. By this legal recognition of perversity, the hands of the clock
to gentile obliteration have edged one minute closer to midnight.
As the world edges closer to suicidal psychopathy, at least we the
Jewish nation will know that there is an island of kedusha, sanity and
morality here in Eretz Yisrael.
Excerpt from the book “With AllYour Might” on Parashat Balak
Balak of old, the King of Moav, was a great deal smarter than the evil men we have to deal with today.
Balak knew that militarily there was no way he could defeat the
Jewish people, so he sought to upgrade the level of engagement from the
physical to the metaphysical.
Towards this end, he had to bring in the only man in his time who was
connected to the source of the metaphysical — and this was the prophet
Bil’am.
Rabbi Yochanan (Sanhedrin 105b) reveals the workings of the
malevolent mind of this arch anti-Semite, Bil’am. Behind the impressive
rhetoric were the most menacing and forbidding thoughts against God’s
chosen people.
Bil’am looked out over the Israelite camp and said:
מה טבו אהליך יעקב משכנתיך ישראל:
כנחלים נטיו כגנת עלי נהר כאהלים נטע ה’ כארזים עלי מים:
יזל מים מדליו וזרעו במים רבים וירם מאגג מלכו ותנשא מלכתו:
אל מוציאו ממצרים כתועפת ראם לו יאכל גוים צריו ועצמתיהם יגרם וחציו ימחץ:
(ט( כרע שכב כארי וכלביא מי יקימנו מברכיך ברוך וארריך ארור:
How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O
Israel! Like valleys they spread out, like gardens beside a river, like
aloes planted by the LORD, like cedars beside the waters.
Water will flow from their buckets; their seed will have abundant water. Their king will be greater than Agag; their kingdom will be exalted.
Like a lion they crouch and lie down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse them?
“May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed!”
And Rabbi Yochanan explains what Bil’am really meant:
“How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel! “
(May they not have synagogues and the Divine Presence should not dwell among them)
“Like valleys they spread out, like gardens beside a river, like aloes planted by the LORD, like cedars beside the waters.”
(May their monarchy not extend, and may they not have olives nor vineyards, and may their kings not be prominent)
“Water will flow from their buckets; their seed will have abundant water.”
(May they not have succession of kings, and may their kings not rule over other peoples)
“Their king will be greater than Agag; their kingdom will be exalted. “
(May their kings be weak and their enemies unafraid of them)
“Like a lion they crouch and lie down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse them? May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed!”
(May they never be confident as a lion, and may those who curse them be blessed)
If we consider all of Bil’am’s curses together, they create a
definite pattern. He wanted to see the Jewish people and our leaders as
being meaningless, sordid, cowardly, irrelevant, immaterial,
inconsequential, insignificant, nonessential, peripheral, and pointless.
Hashem reversed his curses and blessed us to be a great, monumental and historic nation — the soul and conscience of humanity.
Notwithstanding these blessings, Bil’am’s curses have had an impact on us, as R. Aba bar Kahana says in Sanhedrin 105b:
אמר רבי אבא בר כהנא: כולם חזרו לקללה, חוץ מבתי כנסיות ומבתי מדרשות.
They all returned to be curses, except the curse to abolish our synagogues and yeshivot
But I am not sure that this is an accurate assessment of today’s reality.
It would not be far-off to say that even our houses of prayer and
yeshivot are infected with the curse of mediocrity — if not worse.
The curse was that the people of Israel will not have the desire to
be anything more than irrelevant. The innate desire for greatness, which
Hashem placed in every Jew when we received the Torah, and the energy
to rise above the mundane and achieve greatness, have dissipated into
mediocrity.
The energy to achieve more than mere existence is lacking in most
Jews today. We have all seen photos of Jews in the shtetls with the
peddlers selling herring in the marketplace, and the cart pushers
rushing to their destinations. They were satisfied with the life they
led. Each had his little shack, a little income, his shtiebel to daven
in three times a day — what was missing? If the day passed without being
beaten by the local Gentiles, it was a blessed day.
Did they ever dream that the Divine prediction of the prophets would
be realized, and that the Jewish nation would return to our ancient
homeland? Where were the dreams of the Beit HaMikdash rebuilt anew on
the Temple Mount; the Sanhedrin in the Lishkat Hagazit and the
restoration of the Davidic monarchy? The Jews of the shtetl could not
break out of the limited ambitions imposed on them by the galut.
The Jewish energy was depleted in the security of the shtetlekh.
But are we any different? The homes we own in the galut are not the
shacks of the shtetlekh, but the mindset is the same. Millions of Jews
are seduced by the security of their four walls, a little nest egg in
the bank and a 9-to-5 job. Where are the big dreams of God’s Chosen
People?
Are the yeshivot educating their thousands of students to dream the
great dream? Are they being taught the details of the Beit Hamikdash and
its service? Do they know the history and geography of God’s holy land?
Are the yeshivot preparing their students for the day when we will have
to take over the leadership of this land?
Bil’am succeeded more than he could ever have hoped. By staying in
the galut, the Jew is renouncing and abdicating the great energy of
holiness which is his God-given gift.
You are no more than the desires of your heart, just as everything else in the world.
Where do your desires take you — to be part of God’s greatest miracle
since the Exodus, or to cling to the mediocrity of your lives in the
exile?
BONUS: Here's an insight based on these two divrei Torah as to how Balak and Bil'am come together in this parashah: Balak's name hints (בלק, from ללקק l'lakek) that his part is to lick the blood of Am Yisrael, and Bil'am's name (בלעם, from לבלוע livlo'a) hints that he comes to swallow the People.
MAY THEIR INTENTIONS BE ERASED, AND MAY THE LION OF ISRAEL RISE UP FOR LIFE ETERNAL!!!!!
Rabbi Sprecher shares with us a rarely discussed issue: The effectiveness of the Para Aduma sprinkling, and the difference between this and mikveh immersion.
“He (the defiled person) shall
purify himself (with the Red Cow ashes) on the third and on the seventh day,
then he will become pure.” ….(Bamidbar 19:12)
The classic example of a CHOK (a
Mitzva beyond human understanding), is the Red Cow, whose ashes are used to
purify a person from defilement by a dead body. As Rashi notes, immersion in a MIKVEH
is insufficient to remove the tumah conveyed by a dead body, even though MIKVEH
is effective for many other types of TUMAH.
As our verse describes, the
purification process of the Red Cow ashes takes place on the third and the seventh
day, when these ashes are mixed with water and sprinkled on the impure person.
The Rambam (Para Aduma 12) rules that it is sufficient for the ashes to be sprinkled
even just on the tip of one finger. This reminds me of the old Brylcreem commercial
which said “A Little Dab Will Do Ya.” Even one drop of Para Aduma ashes causes
purification to take full effect.
Despite being a CHOK, Rav Pam
explains that Para Aduma contains a fascinating practical insight to everyday
life. When the Torah requires immersion in a MIKVEH to remove impurity, EACH
and EVERY part of the person’s body must be immersed. Even if just one hair is
not covered by the MIKVEH water, the entire immersion is invalid and must be
repeated.
Yet, regarding the ashes of the Red
Cow (called Waters of Purification), even if a tiny part of the body, like the
fingernail is sprinkled, it is sufficient for the person to attain total purification.
Why is there a difference between the power of the Para Aduma ashes to purify,
as opposed to TOTAL immersion in a MIKVEH to become pure?
Rav Pam clarifies the difference
between the purification of the Red Cow ashes verses the MIKVEH. Tuma is a symbol
of sin and purification is a symbol of TSHUVA. Ideally, a person should strive
to become a complete Baal Tshuva for ALL his sins. Nevertheless, for the
majority of people this can be extremely difficult, if not almost impossible.
Thus, instead of becoming
discouraged and giving up altogether, one should at least attempt the lesser
method of purification, symbolized by the Red Cow ashes. Let us attempt to
improve in at least ONE aspect of our Mitzva observance and to correct at least
one character deficiency.
This method will be one huge step
in the right direction, as the Mishna in Avot states, “One Mitzva brings along
another Mitzva.” With G-d’s help, one will STEP BY STEP bring significant
changes in his Divine Service and Mitzva Performance.
