Parashat Bechukosai

THOUGHTS FOR PARASHAS B'CHUKOSAI 5755
(by Rav Moishe Englander, Assistant-M'nahel of Ner Yisroel Yeshiva of Toronto)

And even with all that when they will be in the land of their enemies, I will not have degraded them, nor will I have rejected them, to annihilate them ... for I am Hashem their G_d. (26:46)

Golus is one of the most difficult concepts for people to understand. All suffering of mankind and especially B'nei Yisroel, needs rationale. However, is there any purpose in these seemingly endless wanderings? Sometimes Churban (destruction) reaches such proportions that the fear is evoked that Hashem has turned away from us. We fear, not that Hashem is smiting us too severely, but that He has abandoned us, chas v'shalom.

The fundamental concept of (direct divine supervision) is that a decree is issued by Hashem for the achievement of an ultimate purpose. Rebbi Yishmoel Kohen Gadol ascended to the heavens to inquire if the decree for the slaughter of the Ten Martyrs was indeed from Hashem. He was answered, "The decree has been issued from Me. Go and accept it." HaRav Yitzchak Hutner zt"l writes that while every individual is permitted, even required, to search his personal actions in times of trouble to ascertain the cause of Divine displeasure, this concerns each person's relationship with his own soul and his Creator. However, no human being in today's times (the era of Prophecy and Talmudic Sages being over) is able to recognize and interpret with certainty the matching lines between sin and punishment.

However, the Torah says to us: "Remember the days of yore, understand the years of every generation." (1) Klal Yisroel has seen no accidents in history. History is G-d's tool, not his master. If one wishes to comprehend an event in the history of our people one cannot look at it in the limited scope of the finite here and now; rather, one must understand the event as having a place in the historical continuum. As the Vilna Gaon explained, to understand "the years of every generation", one must first "remember the days of yore", the six days of Creation. For in those days lies the complete plan of the development of the universe and mankind. This, the Gaon taught, is the only way to completely understand historical events.

In our century we have seen the biggest Churban since the destruction of the second Bais Hamikdash. The questions that many ask: Why did it happen? How could a Merciful G-d have allowed it to happen? What can justify the brutality inflicted upon the Six Million K'doshim? In truth, one might say to them that the best we can do is to remain silent. Who are we that we may question the Divine Plan? How can we seek to probe the Almighty's plan from the six days of Creation? Nevertheless, if there is something to be learned we must not remain in the total dark. If there is a preventive medicine for the future to at least ease the pain how dare we not search for it?

Rav Meir Simcha Hakohen, the Rav of Dvinsk, wrote a most illuminating explanation on the lengthy catalog of Divine punishment twenty years before the War. His prescience is awe- inspiring as he draws a pattern of Jewish History. Jews arrive in a new land. They and their children gradually prosper and become citizens of their adopted country. They organize into communities to build and maintain their own institutions. With the passage of time, they become more deeply involved in the culture of their surroundings. Acclimation leads to assimilation, as the Jew abandons his Divine mission and his hope for spiritual salvation in favour of the seductive glitter of the non-Jewish world. After a time, the host country turns against its Jewish citizenry, and several hundred years after its founding this Jewish community is completely destroyed by the unleashed wrath of its erstwhile hosts. The survivors, impoverished and broken in spirit, once again return to Hashem and with his help escape to a more hospitable country to rebuild in an atmosphere of relative peace, until they are again subjected to harsh treatment. And with the wisdom of Torah, and the ancient rule of "The wise man is better than the prophet", R' Meir Simcha finished: Modern man thinks that Berlin is Jerusalem but the fierce storm of destruction will emanate from Berlin and leave but a scant remnant. The survivors will disperse to other countries and Torah will strike new roots and young scholars will produce undreamed of accomplishments.

Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky zt"l points out that the understanding of the purpose of golus, and its fulfillment, is dependent upon how the people suffering golus perceive their situation. If they are aware of their status as strangers, alienated from their life source, they need no further oppression to remind them of their being in golus. Thus, there was no need for the physical enslavement of the Jewish people in Egypt to begin until all of the twelve heads of the tribes had died. As long as one of them was alive, they recognized that merely being in Egypt constituted golus. After their passing, however, the succeeding generation was not as sensitive as the shevatim had been, and because of their complacency and sense of comfort in Egypt, they required some degree of oppression, so that they too, could realize that Egypt is golus.

Rav Aharon Kotler zt"l said that we have a tradition from Rav Chaim Volozhin zt"l that "America is the last golus". Let us "remember the days of yore and understand the years of every generation". The resurrection of Neo-Nazis and world terrorism is but a small reminder from Heaven. These carefully modulated measures of maintaining the Jews' awareness of their special relationship with "I am Hashem their G_d". Not despite wanderings and suffering, but because of them, does the Jewish People remain alive.

Footnotes

(1) D'vorim 32:7.