Tazria 5784: The Depth of Mishpat Hashem

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Shiur presented in 5781 & 5782

Part 1: Parshas Tazria: The Depth of Mishpat Hashem (5781)
Part 2: Pesach: The Purpose of Challenges (5782)

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Part 1: Parshas Tazria: The Depth of Mishpat Hashem  (5781)

The Leading Example of Hashem’s Chessed

Chazal say in masechta Eiruchin (8b),אמר רב פפא, Rav Papa says, it says צדקתך כהררי א-ל, “Your benevolence is like the mighty mountains” (Tehillim 36:7). Hashem’s tzedakos are like tall mountains. What does that refer to? The gemara says אלו נגעי אדם, these are nega’im discussed in this parshah, that come upon people. That’s צִדְקָתְךָ, amazing tzedakah. The end of the pasuk ends off with, משפטיך תהום רבה, which means, “Your judgment is like the great deep.” The gemara says this refers to negei batim. Rashi explains that negei adam are clarified – whether they’re tamei or tahor – after one week. The kohen comes and checks him out after one week, and then they know if he’s tamei or tahor. Rashi says, וצדקה גדולה היא זו, this is a big tzedakah from Hashem that in one week a person gets his response. But negei batim take three weeks. That’s the second part of the passuk. משפטיך תהום רבה, Hashem’s judgments are very deep.

Now, the obvious question on this Chazal is, couldn’t Chazal figure out a different chessed and tzedakah that Hashem does,  other than the fact that the metzora only gets quarantined for a week to see if he’s tamei or tahor? That’s the best example of Hashem’s tzidkus? It says in the passuk חסד ה’ מלאה הארץ, the chessed of Hashem fills the whole world. Hashem’s chessed has no limit. So why does it use tzara’as specifically as an example to show that the tzidkus of Hashem is amazing?

The second part of Chazal is משפטיך תהום רבה. What’s the deepest mishpat of Hashem? Nega’im that come upon houses. That’s the worse you could think of?! A nega on a house for three weeks? I’m sure we’ve all heard of worse things happening. What’s the lesson we can learn from this?

If you Insult My Children, you Insult Me

My zeida‘s rebbi was Rav Isaac Sher (1880-1952). He was the rosh yeshivah of Slabodka in Europe when his father-in-law, the Alter, went to Eretz Yisrael and opened up the Chevron Yeshivah, Slabodka in Chevron. Later on, Rav Isaac came to Eretz Yisrael and he took over as the rosh yeshivah of Slabodka. Rav Isaac was a very unique person. My grandfather told me about the time when he met him, Rav Isaac had come to America where he spoke. My grandfather was in Yeshivas Yitzchak Elchanan at the time, and he was mesmerized by him. He was completely overcome. The emes is people in his presence felt very special. He had a way of elevating people. He was a brilliant person. He understood people amazingly. He knew how to speak to each person on his own level. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz, the Mirrer Rosh Yeshivah, in his hesped on him, said an amazing statement. He said, “Whenever you were within Rav Isaac’s arbah amos you felt a ta’am Gan Eden when talking with him.” Very interesting statement. His ma’amarim that he wrote himself also are very insightful. He had great clarity.

So Rav Isaac Sher wanted to explain this gemara. He said, “First of all, let’s analyze why the aveirah of lashon hara is so serious. The gemara in Eiruchin says that lashon hara is so great it makes aveiros reach ad laShamayim. Not just stam little sins. We’re talking about aveiros which reach into the highest of heavens. The Torah was machmir on the punishment of tzara’as in a very interesting way that we don’t find with other aveiros. You have to push this guy away from the community. He has to be quarantined. He has to go into mourning. He has to tell people, ‘I’m a tamei.’ Even Miriam Haneviah, the greatest of the great, Moshe’s sister, who spoke against her brother beshogeg, accidentally, without any intent to put him down and degrade him, chas veshalom, she was punished in such a severe manner with all of Klal Yisrael knowing it.”

What would you think before I tell you Rav Isaac Sher’s sevara? Give it a moment of thought. What would you think is the reason why Hashem is so machmir about this aveirah of lashon hara? It’s not like you bloodied him. It’s not like you destroyed the person. Does anybody have a thought?

(Participant: We’re all Hashem’s children and when somebody speaks badly, he’s talking about Hashem’s children. So, when you speak badly, it reflects on Hashem. Rabbi Brog: You’re a blessed man! You’re gebentched. You’re speaking divrei chachmah and I’m very proud to hear it from you. You were mechaven to the words and the thoughts of the great Rosh Yeshivah, Rav Isaac Sher!)

He says as follows. Hakadosh Baruch Hu loves every one of His kinderlach. He loves every Jew, and even though it’s hard for us to imagine, Hashem mamash feels each one is a beloved son. Hashem gave him a neshamah. He gave him koach. Just like any father who wouldn’t rest if he saw somebody degrading and putting down his child or talking negatively about his child and he would do all efforts to protect his child, when a person, a Yid, talks badly against another Jew, you have to know Hakadosh Baruch Hu gets very upset and Hakadosh Baruch Hu demands His kavod. Even though the one saying the lashon hara is also a dear child, but through this guy’s bad words, you know what he does? He’s disattaching himself from his Father baShamayim. If a person could speak against another child of Hashem, he becomes detached from Hashem!

The gemara says in Eiruchin (15b)אמר מר עוקבא, anybody who is mesaper lashon hara, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, אין אני והוא יכולים לדור בעולם, he and I cannot live in the world together.^[i] That means Hakadosh Baruch Hu takes away the kesher from this person until he does teshuvah. You know how severe that is? That’s very serious. If you put that thought into your mind, maybe you would think twice before speaking lashon hara.

Bitten by a Snake

I saw an amazing story that Rav Aryeh Levin (1885-1969) related, which scared him from talking lashon hara. What was the story? The Chafetz Chaim once came into a shul and saw that the glass that usually covers the words שויתי ה’ לנגדי תמיד on the amud was missing there, and it was right next to the fire. The Chafetz Chaim was afraid that it would get burned. He asked somebody, “How come there is no glass?” The guy said, “That man’s the gabbai. He doesn’t want to put a glass.” The Chafetz Chaim looked like he was bitten by a snake. “Lashon hara! Lashon hara mamash!” Rav Aryeh Levin said the Chafetz Chaim gave aza shrei and showed such a reaction, he was convinced the Chafetz Chaim was bitten by a snake. The Chafetz Chaim ran out of the shul and said he’s never going back there because he doesn’t want to know the gabbai, in order that he shouldn’t be nichshal in lashon hara.

Another story. The Chafetz Chaim walked into a shul and spoke to a few of the chevra there. He noticed a lot of the siddurim had torn pages. They were still in the right place but they were torn. So he gave a whole shiur about how you have to be careful on Shabbos not to put the papers together to be able to read it because it’s a shaylah of writing. Even though there are shitos that hold it’s okay, the Chafetz Chaim was careful about it. He said that writing on Shabbos is a serious thing. You don’t want to come to write on Shabbos.

So one of the people there said, “Every shul has ripped siddurim.” The Chafetz Chaim said, “Oy vey! Oy vey iz mir! You’re telling lashon hara on all the shuls?! You’re talking lashon hara on all the shuls?! All my life I’ve been careful about lashon hara. What are you doing to me?” That’s how careful he was. You’re saying about Hashem’s kinderlach that they are nichnas into a chashash of chillul Shabbos. It’s a pelah – the sensitivity. It’s mavhil al hara’ayon.

Deep Judgment on Each Word

Rav Isaac Sher said that this is the reason why Hashem punishes someone who speaks lashon hara with tza’aras. He takes him out of the camp. He has to sit alone. He’s considered like a meis. The psak of tzara’as is the psak of misah.When Miriam got tza’aras you knowwhat Aharon came and begged Moshe? אל נא תהי כמת, don’t let her be like a dead person (Shemos 12:12). Rashi says because a metzora is chashuv kemeis. You know why Hashem gives this unique onesh to someone who speaks lashon hara? Because Hashem wants you to contemplate and think and do teshuvah, be mesaken your ways and fix yourself up and see how you can get reconnected to your Father in Shamayim.

Rav Isaac Sher says the depth of judgment you davka see from tzara’as. You know why? Generally, if you go to a person and say, “You know, you talked lashon hara,” what’s the person going to answer you? He’s going to say to you, “Listen, did I do anything to him? Did I lift a finger against him? Did I touch him? No. I just said a few words.” So people already think, “What did I do already?! I just spoke. I just said a few words.” The Torah is teaching you the depth of mishpat, of judgment. The depth of justice. That even just a small word that comes out of the speaker’s mouth can cause him to fall from his lofty post of being a dear child of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and he could get pushed away עד תהום רבה so much so that he’s going to be considered a meis. Unbelievable!

And the whole process of him coming back to Klal Yisrael, to the group, is a very tough process. Mamash. It’s a long tedious process. He has to bring birds. He has to get a haircut. He has to get himself sprinkled with shemen hamishchah and other things. There are whole gemaros about it. You know what this shows? It teaches us that to come back to Klal Yisrael is not just as easy as having the punishment, and then boom you’re back. 

Rav Isaac Sher said, there’s nothing like nega’im – for an aveirah that is seemingly so petty, so small. You’re not killing anybody. You’re not doing arayos. You’re not doing avodah zarah. You just say a few words. Chazal say – that’s the lesson that shows you משפטיך תהום רבה in the sharpest clearest way (i.e. we see the powerful depth of judgment from Shamayim because nega’im are such a severe punishment for a seemingly small slip up).

But at the same time, you also see the tzedakah of Hashem. When a sinner brings upon himself a nega, the fact alone that Hashem brings the nega and Hashem gives him a warning, that’s a tremendous siyata deShmaya, a tremendous hashgachah pratis. The rishonim say that when a person experiences such an experience in Eretz Yisrael – this only happens in Eretz Yisrael – the person understands that he’s living with Hashem and that what he experienced was a nes. 

Closeness to Hashem is a Treasure

And the Seforno says, tzara’as is no natural phenomenon whatsoever. Hakadosh Baruch Hu has rachmanus on His observant Jews, so He wants to bring them back close to Him, through teshuvah. He wants to arouse them, so He gives them nega’im. First, on the houses, and if they don’t get the message, He puts it on themselves.

This is all a result of Hashem showing us and guiding us. And only someone who is on a high madreigah is zocheh to this closeness – where Hashem doesn’t show any mercy. Miriam Haneviah was so close to Hashem, we can’t even begin to imagine. A little mistake, boom! And she appreciated it, because you should know that any tza’ar you have in this world will exempt you from tza’ar in the next world.

The Steipler wrote once to an adam gadol. The Steipler said that before a person has yesurim we wish him he should be healthy and not have yesurim. But after he experienced yesurim, we never wish him that halevai he should never have had them – because yesurim is such an asset! It’s such a wealth! It’s such a great asset to a person that he should never be mescharet, regret, what he went through. He’s passed the suffering, baruch Hashem.

A Twenty-Four Year Ordeal

I had a friend who suffered from multiple sclerosis for twenty four years until he passed away. It was excruciating. But he came to understand, eventually, the chessed of Hashem and he did the best he could. He slowly deteriorated until he couldn’t walk. He couldn’t turn over. He couldn’t move his hands. He could barely breathe. That’s how he died at the end. Eventually, they lose the power of the muscles needed for breathing. He once asked me, “Do you have a thought of why I’m going through this?” I said, “I do.” I said, “I believe you’re a big ben aliyah.” There was a time that he heard about the concept of Yissachar Zevulun. He wasn’t a rich man.  He said to me, “Do you think I should do it?” I said, “It’s up to you.” He said, “Do you have any ideas?” I was learning in Eretz Yisrael then, and I told him I know of an adam gadol, an adam kadosh, a tzaddik, a person whom my rebbi said, “If you’re counting on your five fingers, the five most special people, he’s definitely one of them. I don’t know if he’s the top or second, I’m not sure who the other ones are, but he’s definitely in the top five.” I told my friend “How would you like to make a Yissachar Zevulun arrangement with that person? My rebbi told me, ‘You don’t have to write out a Yissachar Zevulun. Hashem knows.’ If you have a Yissacher Zevulun arrangement, you’re in good shape.” I arranged it. He gave him $6000 a year, $500 a month. His total parnasah then was $65,000 and he had a mishpachah. I thought it was a davar gadol, big thing.

I said to him as follows: “My dear friend. You think you helped this poor Jew in Yerushalayim, this tzaddik. Let me tell you something. You stole the stock market. You bought yourself a stock that was worth more than any bitcoin is worth. Worth $100,000 a stock, a million dollars a stock. You invested a few pennies and you got the stock for that.”

“You’re going to come to the next world and you’re going to say, ‘Listen, I have a partnership.’ They’re going to say, ‘With who? You’ll say, ‘With hagaon hatzaddik hakadosh,Rav Yitzchak Nosson Kupershtok zecher tzaddik lebrachah.’ You’ll say, ‘Can I go see him? I want to see him.’ They’ll say, ‘You know who he is?’ ‘No.’ ‘He’s like miles and miles up in the highest of the highest places.’ He was a kadosh. He worshiped Hashem day and night, night and day, through yesurim noraim, through poverty.’ He was sameach bechelko. He was a person… I can’t begin to tell you. You can’t imagine unless you see him and baruch Hashem, I saw him. You’ll say, ‘But I’m a partner.’ They’ll say, ‘You have to endure a lot of Gehinom to get into shape to go see him.’

I continued telling him: “Now, it says in the sefarim, any punishment and any suffering you suffer in this world is a billion times better than getting it in the next world. So Hashem gave you this. You’re going to come to the next world after all you’re suffering, you’re going to be purified and you’re going to enjoy the shutfus, the partnership. You’re going to walk into the Shamayim and shmei Shamayim. You’llwalk into the highest of the highest batei medrash in the Shamayim. You’re going to walk in there and you’re going to think to yourself, ‘What am I doing here?’ They’ll say, ‘No, you have a partner. You have a shutaf.’They’re going to sit you down next to the shutaf. The problem is, you’re going to be a mute. You’re going to be a cheiresh, אינו שומע ואינו מדבר.” But I said to him: “No, don’t worry about it. It says in the sefarim that when you go to the next world, they’re going to teach you the Torah from your partner. You’re going to have a chavrusa like you never had in your life. By me, it’s clear that’s what happened, of why you suffered in this world.”

Afterwards, we asked somebody who knew these things, and they said the same thing.

Yesurim are a Bargain Deal

But the pelah is when a person goes through something in this world, it’s nothing compared to getting it in the next world. You’re getting away with bargains. The way Rav Isaac expressed it, he said, when a Jewish person, who is zocheh that the shine of Hashem’s face shines upon him,  when he forgets for a moment that his friend about whom he spoke is also a dear child and a favorite son of Hakadosh Baruch Hu and then nega’im come upon him because he became disconnected from the Shechinah and His Father spit in his face, Hashem spit in his face, like it says by Miriam, still in all, he sees and he knows that it’s his father. It’s his father telling him, “You’re also a beloved son, and I want you to be restored to your proper place. And because I love you, I’m being metapel with you”. It says in the passuk את אשר יאהב ה’ יוכיח, for whom Hashem loves He gives tochachah (Mishlei 3:12).

That means to say, that while we see משפטיך תהום רבה – for the pegiah in the kavod of a son of Hashem  – from there itself,you see וצדקתך כהררי אל. For doing such a terrible, terrible thing,  in only one week’s time the person’s status of being tamei or tahor is determined – and if he does teshuvah, he’s back in Hashem’s graces.

This is what a person has to know, that whatever you experience in this world, Hashem wants to bring you closer to Him. Hashem wants you to acknowledge, there’s not one mistake.

R’ Pogremanski: “Give More”

Now, there are some people who have to suffer yesurim like you can’t imagine. Mamash you can’t imagine the yesurim some people have to suffer. There was a famous talmid from Telz, Rav Mottel Pogremanski (1903-1950). He was a tzaddik, an iluy, a very unique man. At the end of his life, he suffered terribly and if people would chap him in the room, besha’as he was in terrible pain, you know what he would say? They would hear him say, “Gib nach, gib nach, give more, give more.” He was in geferliche pain but it was klor to him that he’s not going to get one bit of pain in this world that he doesn’t deserve, and whatever he’s getting in this world is going to cleanse him for the next world, and the next world is where it counts. You have to consider this.

Hashem wants to wake us up. I’ve read about that tzaddik, I mean, the kedushah of that tzaddik. The mesiras nefesh that he did for Yiddishkeit. What he gave up to become a talmid chacham muflag is unbelievable. I’m thinking what did he do wrong already? I can’t imagine. I can’t imagine. The man was so careful in mitzvos. He was crazy medakdek in mitzvos. The fear of heaven. Whenever he ate in the summer months in Europe, he would create a circle of water around his food because maybe a small bug would cross and climb into his food without him noticing. He once got a new hat. He took the hat and he ripped out the inside. Someone said, “What are you doing?! You’re destroying the hat!” He said, “I’m not sure if it’s shatnez.” The kedushah was amazing!

He never had children but he married a very big tzadeikis. After his petirah, this tzadeikis  married a very, very chashuve chassidishe Yid, a heilegeh Yid, a Rebbe. I met the Rebbe’s son who told me that his mother told him that even though Rav Mottel Pogremanski was a Litvak, his kedushah made the great chassidishe rebbe… He had nothing to be ashamed of. He had kedushah like from the heilegeh chassidim. The prishus, the chassidus that he had, was unbelievable.

R’ Zonnenfeld: “Baruch Hashem It Was an Orange”

The passuk says אודך כי עֲנִיתָנִי, “I praise you for You have answered me” (Tehillim 118:21). The word ‘anisani,’ can be read ‘inisani,’ You afflicted me. I thank You, Hashem, for You have afflicted me, ותהי לי לישועה, and it was to me a salvation. After a person goes through something from Hashem and he sees the yeshuah, then he’s modeh to Hashem even for the affliction, because he understands that this affliction was what he needed to endure to bring the yeshuah. The avodah of a Yid is to thank Hashem at the time of anisani. ‘אודך ה, when I’m getting afflicted, before I see the yeshuah. That will bring me to the yeshuah.

The great Rav Chaim Zonnenfeld (1848-1932) was a tzaddik. The rav of Yerushalayim, a heilegeh kadosh and an anav not stam. He was once walking in the Old City and he saw an Arab, a young Arab. What does the Arab do? He picks up an orange and throws it straight at Rav Chaim Zonnenfeld, and it lands right on his head. He was the rav of Yerushalayim! The rav of the whole city of Yerushalayim. He said, “Ah, baruch Hashem! Baruch Hashem!” The fellow who was walking with him asked him, “What’s the baruch Hashem about?!” He said, “You have to thank Hashem for every single thing. You have to constantly find the good and the rachamim that lies in every action.” He says, “I am so thankful to Hashem for this situation. You know why? You know what the guy threw on me? An orange. I would have expected him to throw a rock. And the guy had good aim. See, it landed right on my head? And Hashem sent an orange.” He said, “Since when do these Arabs, Bnei Yishmaelim, these rotzchim, throw fruit? These low lives, they don’t throw fruit. They throw big sharp stones. If he would have thrown a stone at me, where would I be right now? It would be a sakanah gedolah. For that I’m modeh to Hashem.”

Opposite, Yet Equal

And he continued and said, “It says in the passuk שויתי ה’ לנגדי תמיד, “I place Hashem in front of me, always” (Tehillim 16:8). He said a beautiful vort. He said, lenegdi means when you see Hashem appearing to you as your neged opposition- He’s against you, you know what you have to do? Shivisi Hashem. The word שָׁוָה also means equivalent. I have to view Hashem equally in the same light even when Hashem is lenegdi, against me. You have to find the chessed of Hashem even in that situation because everything Hashem does is for tovah and for chessed. I’m very thankful to Hashem for the great tovos and the chassadim that He has done for me, and that He does for me, and that He’s doing for me. I’m thankful to Him very much. In that zechus hopefully ותהי לי לישועה.”

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Part 2: Pesach: The Purpose of Challenges (5782)

Being sameach means you feel that you accomplished something. Accomplishment brings simchah. If a person is not accomplished, he’s just existing. And if he’s just getting a stomach-ache from all the matzah he eats, that’s not an accomplishment. Accomplishment means you come out from Pesach feeling changed. To some people, it means not fighting with their wives or not getting into a fight with their families – that is a great accomplishment, but that’s not a sameachdike accomplishment. It’s very common when families get together that people misbehave. They don’t know their shortcomings. They don’t acknowledge their shortcomings, and sadly it ends up being unpleasant, with chutzpah, rebuking parents, and other issues. Rather, you should all have a chag kosher vesameach.

One of the Greatest Lessons from Yetzias Mitzrayim

Rabbeinu Bachaye in Parshas Beshalach (Shemos 13:17) shares a very interesting insight with us about yetzias Mitzrayim and the episodes that happened afterward.^[ii] He says, what did Hakadosh Baruch Hu want with every single episode? What was the purpose? There’s no episode that a person experiences in his life that’s not for an exact purpose. There’s usually a general purpose and sometimes there’s a more specific purpose. What would you say is the main purpose that Hashem gives you nisyonos?

The answer is that Hashem wants you to become strengthened in emunah and bitachon. Hashem wants you to grow and grow and grow in bitachon. Rabbeinu Bachaye writes as follows ודע, you should know, כי כל עניני ישראל ומקריהם במדבר, all the episodes that Klal Yisrael experienced when they left Mitzrayim and in the midbar,it was all a nisayon gamur, an absolute test, כדי שיגדלו נפשם השכלית במדריגת הבטחון, Hashem wanted them to develop their seichel, their inner soul in levels of bitachon which is the shoresh of emunah. You know why? Because that was what was required in order to be mekabel Torah.

A person who does not have his emunah and bitachon down cannot learn Torah, cannot be mekabel Torah. He’s missing the necessary requirements. And that’s why Hashem made krias Yam Suf as they came into it and not in one shot. And when they came out of the Yam Suf to the midbar,they came to a place called Marah where the sweet water had turned bitter. Then they put a piece of wood in there and it turned back into sweet water. All a nisayon gamur. The whole milchamah of Amalek – nisayon gamur. The whole mann falling down was all for a test. They became weak in Torah at some point and as a result Amalek came. Tzaros come as a result of bitul Torah. And all of these inyanim, he says, were because Hashem wanted to implant inside of their souls the middah of bitachon.

Like the passuk says in Mishlei (22:19) להיות בה’ מִבְטַחֶךָ, “that you have your bitachon in Hashem,” הוֹדַעְתִּיךָ היום אף אתה; that means to say, that which I told you in the sefer of Mishlei, mussar and mashalim, it was all for your benefit, to help you rise up in your middah of bitachon.

This is one of the great lessons that you have to come out of Mitzrayim with.

Handle the Test with Bitachon

Now, we have to realize, the tests of bitachon occur daily. I personally was tested yesterday with a test that I think most people would consider a pretty rough test. You see,  our plan for this upcoming Pesach was not to be at home. We were leaving early. There was no need for us to clean out the house. Just to get rid of the chametz gamur and then close the house and come back after Pesach. Cleaning for Pesach, everybody knows, is not an easy thing. We were going to be spared from the challenge of having to clean for Pesach. In addition, our first granddaughter just became engaged and we felt they wanted us there and we wanted to be part and parcel of that simchah. So we decided we’re going to go to Eretz Yisrael. Hashem arranged for us to travel in style. Not the economy. Not the economy plus. But to be able to travel at no cost in the best possible manner. Hashem provided for us the right times when I wanted to go. The right time of the day, evening. Hashem arranged for us, He provided a place to stay in Eretz Yisrael, nice accommodations. Hashem arranged a car for me at a very reasonable rate. I had already rented the car. They told me you had to rent it starting two days ago. We rented it from then. I was set to go. I had arranged my matzos. I had Brisker matzos waiting for me over there, as many as I could possibly need which is not an easy thing to come by. It’s not easy to get Brisker matzos in Eretz Yisrael. There is a shortage. They give you a few matzos. They don’t give you an abundance. But Hashem provided for us the matzos that we needed. I already was picturing being in Eretz Yisrael and enjoying it in Eretz Yisrael, enjoying the shuls in the neighborhood. I was looking forward to being in a beis medrash that I found last summer there which I really enjoyed. I was looking forward to enjoying being together with my mishpachah and with Hashem in Eretz Yisrael.

The big day came and we had to pack. Packing is another one of the challenges of going to Eretz Yisrael, or anywhere for that matter, for a few weeks. You have to pack and you have to make a cheshbon to take everything you need and everything you don’t need right now. The suitcases were packed. Baruch Hashem. We sent our stuff to the cleaners. We were ready to go. I arranged a ride to the airport. Everything was taken care of. We were all set.

As we were getting ready to bring the suitcases to the front door, something came up, nothing major, but we couldn’t go. We could have gone but… It came up as a shaylah to go or not to go. My wife said to me, “If you really want to, if you really want to go then we’ll go.” I went into my study and I gave it some thought. I said to myself, “What’s going on over here?” It wasn’t like some accident happened or some medical emergency happened. It was just that somebody had a hergesh, “I don’t want to go.” I sat down in my study and I thought, “Hakadosh Baruch Hu, what do You want me to do? You prepared the trip first class. Not stam.You laid everything out. At the last minute, You put a little ikuv in the way.” Again, I could have gone if I would have pushed, and I said to myself, “I know what I want to do but why did Hashem do that? I think Hashem doesn’t want me to go.”

So somebody asked me, “Are you very, very, very disappointed?” “No. I accepted it. I accepted it. I know it’s from Hashem and it’s for the best. If Hashem wanted us to go now to Eretz Yisrael He could have put in everybody’s minds – ‘We want to go. We should go.’” I knew it was a test. Many years ago, I don’t think I would have been so calm about it. We had made the whole plan…My children in Eretz Yisrael said, “Ta, you didn’t force the issue? You don’t want to be in Eretz Yisrael?” I said, “I do. I think Hashem doesn’t want me to be in Eretz Yisrael, for whatever reason. So you have to accept it. I was even bringing my dear talmid, Yosef, from Gateshead to Eretz Yisrael together with his sister so my children would have to host them. I told Yosef, “I’m very sorry.” Im yertzeh Hashem he’s going to be learning in Eretz Yisrael by Rav Tzvi, im yertzeh Hashem. I wanted to spend time with them in Eretz Yisrael also, but it’s not what Hashem had in mind.

Disappointments in life and challenges are not made so that you should push and demand and get your way. You have to be boteach in Hashem that Hashem directs all traffic. If Hashem, even though He arranged the whole story, didn’t give it His final blessing, you could have your suitcases in your hand, and you go back home. And you don’t sit shivah and you don’t isolate anybody and you don’t not talk to anybody. You’ve got to go on as if nothing happened. I should always be zocheh to be able to pass the challenge like I did this time.

Even Little Details Line Up

Somebody called me today. I got a bunch of calls, “Is it true you’re not going to Eretz Yisrael?! What? What happened?” I said, “Nothing much. A small issue.” “For that you push! You put your foot down and say we’re going to Eretz Yisrael.” I said, “It wasn’t a chiyuv.”It wasn’t a question of eating matzah on Pesach or not eating matzah on Pesach. So now we have to clean the house and im yertzeh Hashem by the time Pesach comes, we’ll be ready for Pesach.

Galus to Geulah is Bitachon Training

You have to understand that when Hashem trained us as a nation during the time of Yetzias Mitzrayim, He wanted to awaken and arouse us. Klal Yisrael in galus is compared to Klal Yisrael sleeping and when a person is ‘sleeping’ spiritually, it is as if he’s mixed with the goyim. He’s exposed to their hashkafos, to their kefirah, to their ta’avah and they rely on their own strength. That’s the opposite of a person’s purpose in this world, which is to be constantly relying on Hashem and being boteach in Hashem and to distance himself from all the goyishe attitudes and all the hashpa’ah and impressions that the goyim offer us. That’s why in Shir Hashirim,the galus is referred to as a situation of sheinah, of sleeping. We’re called yesheinim. We’re asleep. Hakadosh Baruch Hu He woke us up. You know what He did? He performed nekamah on Pharaoh and his entire nation.

You have to know one of the things that Hashem wants us to believe is: don’t think the goyim are getting away with it. The goyim are not getting away with it. Every goy who did something wrong will pay the price.

Hashem Arranged Vengeance: The Accident

I just read a story yesterday, an amazing story. I’ll share it with you. There was a couple living in an apartment rental in someone’s house. They lived there for seventeen years. One day the balebus comes to notify him that he’s selling the house and the new owner is going to knock it down and build up a big apartment house. “I’m giving you a heads up to start looking around.” So the guy started looking around. One he’s driving home from shul, and he’s on his phone speaking to a realtor. He asks, “Did you hear about any apartments for rent?” The guy was talking on his phone. He’s a little caught up and suddenly he sees the light turn red so he slams on his brakes but the car, instead of stopping, starts to do a little wiggle and waggle. It danced a little bit and before he knew it he couldn’t stop the car. Suddenly he looks up and he sees right in front of him an elderly couple and his car is going straight for them! Bam! He hits them straight head on, like two bowling pins. A strike. They’re both dead. Understandably, the guy feels like dirt and lower than dirt.

At first, the cops let him go. A few days later, they came back to him and they gave him some charges of “vehicular manslaughter,” because a witness came forward and said that he saw this fellow going into that red light not stopping. You slammed on the brakes a little too late so that means to say you were discombobulated. You weren’t focusing so you caused this death. Then they started a whole court case. The prosecutor laid out the case very, very well. He established the facts, what happened, and he made the guy look very guilty. He couldn’t lie to the judge. He couldn’t say I wasn’t playing on my phone. I couldn’t do this. I wasn’t right. I had things on my head and I didn’t realize. Then his lawyer got up and his lawyer said there’s some information you don’t know about and that is that a few days ago, there was a truck that had a big oil spill right on that corner and it’s not cleaned up yet. You can go there and you can see it. This guy hit that oil patch. So it wasn’t that he didn’t try to stop. It wasn’t his fault. The fact that there was an oil patch there was beyond his control. He wasn’t responsible for the oil patch. The judge heard the case and they acquitted him totally!

But the guy came home and the guy still felt terrible. Lema’aseh he took two lives. He was happy he wasn’t in jail, but he caused the death of two older people! He was very not in a good frame of mind. He decided he’s going to write Rav Chaim a letter. He wrote Rav Chaim a letter. Rav Chaim betzidkuso writes back one word. Rav Chaim used to answer approximately up to three hundred letters a day. Short and sweet. Anyway, he sends this guy a letter and he writes on the letter ayin mem lamed kuf. The guy is trying to figure out what in the world does Rav Chaim mean? Ayin mem lamed kuf, what’s the answer? I should feel bad? I should feel good? He went to his rav. He went to others. Could you tell me? He wanted to see what Rav Chaim was writing. He had no idea what he was talking about.

A little while later, he had to get out of the apartment. His real estate agent calls him up. “There’s an apartment available that came up. A decent apartment. I want you to come.” The realtor shows him the apartment. He’s looking around and he sees a picture on the wall. He looks at the picture again and it looks like the guy whom he ran over. The guy sits down by the desk and he pulls out the drawer and he sees right there a younger version of that guy in an army uniform – but it wasn’t an American uniform. It was a Nazi uniform. On the bottom it said, “Treblinka 1942.” Most of this Yid’s own family was destroyed in Treblinka!

Rav Chaim wrote one word, “Amalek.” He was telling him, “Don’t feel bad. You did a mitzvah. You got rid of Amalek.” Now, how did Rav Chaim know? It’s mind blowing. Rav Chaim was definitely a tzaddik who did not have two feet in this world. He definitely had one foot in this world and one foot in the upper world, and there’s no question that Rav Chaim was aware of things that most of us don’t know of.

I once told you a story about a person who died in an accident and then he went to Shamayim and it ended up being a near death experience. He saw himself being judged in the next world. He was judged by two tzaddikim who were still alive in the world. He went to them afterwards. They said, “Don’t ever say to anybody what you witnessed! Don’t ever repeat that! It’s very, very private information.” The guy pashut was judged in the next world by a rav that was living in this world! Can you imagine that? Rav Chaim definitely could have been like that.

You have to know the world is not hefkeirus. Just because you’re living among goyim, there’s nothing hefker. Every single thing is exact. Yesterday’s terrorist attack turned out to be five, not four. Hashem is upping the ante. We’re sleeping. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu wakes us up. One of the ways He did that in Mitzrayim was by performing vengeance on the goyim. Pharaoh had to let the Yidden stop working. Then Hashem took them out. And Hashem kept on going and going and going to lead us to bitachon. And Hashem does that with every single one of us and if you accept it and you trust Hashem and you have emunah in Hashem and you have bitachon in Hashem, then you will be able to focus on the job that you have to do in this world and then you’ll be gebentchte people. You’ll be very matzliach. 

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^[i] ואמר רב חסדא אמר מר עוקבא כל המספר לשון הרע אמר הקב”ה אין אני והוא יכולין לדור בעולם שנאמר (תהלים קא, ה) מלשני בסתר רעהו אותו אצמית גבה עינים ורחב לבב אותו לא אוכל אל תיקרי אותו לא אוכל אלא אתו לא אוכל ואיכא דמתני לה על גסי הרוח.

^[ii] ודע כי כל עניני ישראל ומקריהם במדבר הכל היה נסיון גמור כדי שיגדלו נפשם השכלית במדרגות הבטחון שהוא שרש האמונה כדי שיהיו ראוים לקבל התורה ולסבה זו קרע להם את הים מדי עברם לתוכו ולא בבת אחת גם אחרי צאתם מים סוף אל מדבר שור ובאו למרה והיו המים מתוקים חזרו ונמררו ועל ידי העץ חזרו למתיקותם וכל זה נסיון גמור וכענין שכתוב (שמות טו) ושם נסהו גם ירידת המן דבר יום ביומו ולא לימים רבים הכל נסיון גמור כענין שכתוב (שם טז) ולקטו דבר יום ביומו למען אנסנו, גם אחרי היותם ברפידים ורפו ידיהם מן התורה שקבלו במרה ובעונש זה בא עמלק ונלחם בהם, כי בעון בטול תורה הצרות באות לעולם, כל הענינים האלה היו נסיון גמור כדי לקבוע בנפשותם מדת הבטחון, ועל זה אמר שלמה המע”ה (משלי כ״ב:י״ט) להיות בה’ מבטחך הודעתיך היום אף אתה, יאמר מה שהודעתיך עד היום בספר הזה מן המוסרים והמשלים הכל היה לתועלתך ולהגיע אותך אל שלמות מדת הבטחון כמו שהגעתי אני אליה זהו שאמר אף אתה, באר לנו כי מדת הבטחון עקר גדול ויסוד התורה והמצוה.