5766: The Year of Chizuk
BS”D
I have
designated this year, 5766, “The Year of Chizuk,”--Year of Strength--at least
for myself. For, all of history comes
down to one concept, the idea of “Geulah Shlaimah,”--Final Redemption-- and
life comes down to being a partner with God in bringing it about, on whatever level
one can. It started with Adam HaRishon [the first man], continued through Dovid
HaMelech, and it will end with Moshiach Tzidkainu--Our Righteous Redeemer. (1)
To help
the process, some have thought of running for Prime Minister, but the secular
powers that be always tend to block that path, one way or another. Some have
stood their ground, holding on for dear life to their dear lives, including
their personal portions of Eretz Yisroel, but they have been made to pay dearly
for it. It is a tough time to be a Geulah-enthusiast--enthusiast for
Redemption these days, to play the part of the Torah Idealist.
Some
have taken to writing scathing criticisms of the government, but the line
between that and what the courts call “incitement” against public leaders can
be very vague, and in their favor. Furthermore, there are so many hidden
agendas in this country at these times that you can’t be sure whose toes you’re
stepping on, and what legal powers they have available at their fingertips to
make sure you never do it again—ever.
The
frustrating part, of course, is that they really have no power at all. Oh, they
believe otherwise, and try to exhibit this to their distinct advantage, but we
know very well that they can’t lift a finger if God doesn’t lift it for them.
As the Talmud states, leaders, especially secular ones, are mere puppets in the
hands of God, doing their will as a function of His.
In the
end, the joke is on them, but in the meantime, the pressure is on us. For, had
the power belonged to man only, then man can be toppled. His power is not
unlimited or close to it, and one way or another, he can be overcome.
He is
not omniscient and certainly not omnipotent, and has an Achilles heel, many of
them, in fact. No man remains a tower forever, and the scariest of leaders have
their end, sometimes an ignoble one at that.
However,
God’s power is unlimited, and He can’t be chased from it. Even the best planned
coup aint going to change a thing in the Heavenly chain-of command. Just ask the people who built the
Therefore,
the question becomes, what about appeasement?
Well, not exactly appeasement. More like, partnership, as the Vilna Gaon
revealed to his most trusted students:
The point of our work in Kibbutz Golios—the Ingathering of the Exiles—is
to set up Anshei Emes—Men of Truth—who will further the unification of both Moshiachs in
the gates of Jerusalem, for the sake of the return of the Shechinah—the Divine Presence. (2)
On a
practical level, Kibbutz Golios has always been about encouraging as many Jews
to make aliyah as possible, to increase the Jewish population here in Eretz
Yisroel. This way, the Jewish population is strengthened and so is the economy,
both which are important to the survival of the tiny state that lives in a
virtual Islamic lion’s den. Outside the country, and inside it as well.
However, according to Torah, aliyah of Jews from the Diaspora to Eretz Yisroel
is to accomplish something far more fundamental: the return of the Shechinah,
something made possible by the establishment of “Anshei Emes,” an aspect
of society sorely missing today. This, in turn, makes possible the
collaboration of both Moshiachs, Moshiach Ben Yosef and Moshiach Ben Dovid, who
only work together once the Final Redemption is in its final stages. Otherwise,
they may be forced to do their work in stages, and at times separate from one
another, prolonging the process of redemption. And, all of this is to accomplish
an even more ultimate reality: The purpose of the redemption is that there
be a true redemption and sanctification of God. According to our teacher, the
GR”A, may he rest in peace, we must participate in God’s assistance to His
giborim—strong ones—who are the two Moshiachs. We must learn well all the
aspects and tasks in order to act.
Someone
asked just this morning, “In what do you find encouragement? What gives you chizuk at these difficult
times?”
The
answer, the “Big Picture.”
In other
words, when we can fit the events of today, especially the apparently negative
ones, into a large, far more meaningful framework, then we can sense the hand
of God in what is taking place. This doesn’t help to minimize the physical pain
of those suffering, but at least it takes the randomness out of it. It is a way
of taking steps that look as if they are going backwards, and turn them into
steps still going forward instead.
“Why
would I even consider making aliyah” one person wrote after the Amona
catastrophe, “when the government is taking such a brutal approach to the
settlers, and so much more of Eretz Yisroel is slated to be jettisoned from the
main part of the country?”
“Perhaps,”
another wrote, “we are entering a very sad period of history for Torah
idealists, and therefore, we should stay away . . .”
“Or go
back to
Escape
the battle? Perhaps. Escape the FINAL battle? Stay away from the final showdown
of history that ushers in the FINAL Redemption of the Jewish people. Flee the
place destined to be the scene of great miracles and the source of great
Kiddush Hashem? Now?
That is
what we are talking about. The events of today are not about local politics, or
about making peace with people who clearly don’t understand what it entails, and
who are unwilling to find out. Something much bigger is going on, and unless a
Jew realizes this, he is going to misunderstand how to respond, and what to
feel.
This is
what the GR”A has done: he has put our situation into a much greater context,
giving the battle of today far more historical significance than the players
themselves know about, or even care to consider. To be plugged into the Geulah
consciousness is to know and believe otherwise.
We also
have to know what is at stake by not working to change the status quo of exile:
Chillul Hashem—Profanation of God’s holy Name. For, as long as Jews remain in
exile, it appears as if God is not with His people, Chas v’Shalom, giving
history a certain feel of randomness. Even when we are forced to be in the
Diaspora as a result of Divine Providence, the Chillul Hashem is not completely
avoided, if at all.
After
all, we did not end up in Chutz L’Aretz because we fulfilled the Torah, but
because we neglected it. The only difference between the first generation to be
sent from Eretz Yisroel and later generations is that we were born in
exile. However, it remains to be exile
nevertheless, the Diaspora just the same, and a Chillul Hashem just as
before—especially if there is no compelling reason to stay there. Thus,
Yechezkel speaks of God ending the exile just to end the Chillul Hashem. (3)
The GR”A
continued:
In all
generations, the major tasks of the two Moshiachs together, Moshiach Ben
Yosef and Moshiach Ben Dovid, are defense and to wage war against the three
heads of the Klipos: Eisav, Yishmael, and the Erev Rav. This IS the Big Picture.
We see faces and hear names that may only be sixty years old, but the souls and
spirits driving them may go back millennia, if not to the beginning of Creation itself.
The battles may seem contemporary when in fact they are Biblical in nature, even if
the people waging them have no idea of the role they are playing. Did Pharaoh,
at the time, know how he would be portrayed throughout history by standing up
against the God of the Jewish people and His messenger at that time, Moshe
Rabbeinu?
Klipos
are spiritual realities that interfere with our being able to relate properly
to God. They result in misguided perspectives, and mistaken attitudes towards
life. They confuse man, and even imbue him with a false sense of confidence,
and immoral drives. They have the ability to make a God-filled world seem like
a Godless reality, creating the catastrophic impression that it is okay to live
a spiritually meaningless life. As long
as the Klipos are allowed to exist, the redemption is delayed.
Therefore:
The
specific task of Moshiach Ben Yosef is to counter Eisav, the left klipah.
The
specific task of Moshiach Ben Dovid is against Yishmael, the right klipah.
The two
Moshiachs together are against Eisav and Yishmael, who are compared to the ox
and a donkey of impurity.
This is
a VERY significant piece of information, subtle as it may be. This was written
hundreds of years ago, long before the reality of a return to the land was even
a dream, let alone reality. Yet, we are being told that, once the main battle
turns from being against
After
Holocaust, it seems historically, the role of chief antagonist was passed from
Eisav to Yishmael. For, today, even when Eisav is involved in persecuting Jews,
especially Eretz Yisroel, it is due to direct or indirect pressure from the
Islamic world. Just the need for oil alone makes the Western world dance in all
kinds of directions, usually at a cost to the Jewish people.
If so,
has Moshiach Ben Yosef already come . . . and gone? Or is he still here, about
to be revealed? According to the GR”A, we are much further ahead in the
redemption-process than most would assume at this point, making who we are, and
where we are, of great, immediate importance. This is a great source of chizuk
for those living with the Big Picture.
However,
there is one more very important factor we have yet to consider, and it is most
relevant today:
The
pairing of Eisav with Yishmael is the work of Armilus, the minister of the Erev
Rav, and this could destroy Israel and the entire world, He should have mercy
upon us. The Erev Rav, that formidable stranger amongst us, was originally brought into the
Jewish people for their good, but in the end, to our detriment. According to
Kabbalah, though their role was marginalized throughout the last couple of
millennia, it is destined to become far too prominent at the End-of-Days, as
its proponents work insidiously towards the quiet destruction of the Jewish
people.
Revealed
the GR”A:
The main
drive of the Erev Rav is to join Eisav and Yishmael, and to separate the two
Moshiachs. Our main work is to counter this, to break and destroy the might of
the Erev Rav, the klipah of the evil Armilus, amongst
The
greatest coup of recent history?
How the
“outside forces” that led to the reversal of the Jewish settling of holy land
became internal forces, speeding up the process of reducing the Jewish presence
in Eretz Yisroel, either by giving away land we had come to possess, or by
furthering the cause of hedonism amongst secular Israelis. Either way, the
“Jewish” presence has been reduced here in Eretz Yisroel.
Unlike
with respect to
The
klipah of the Erev Rav operates through deception and in an indirect manner.
It is one
thing to fight for one’s life, it is something altogether more dangerous to not
even know that you have to.
Therefore
the war against the Erev Rav is the most difficult and bitter of all, and we
must wage war against them, and overpower them with all our strength.
Anyone who
does not join in the war against the Erev Rav ends up becoming a partner of the
klipah of the Erev Rav, and is better off not having been born. Talk about a
bitter pill to swallow! But, in Judaism there is no neutral ground, only going
up, or going down. Even taking a rest, or going on a vacation, has to be for
the purpose of recharging one’s spiritual or physical batteries to come back
fighting in the ring of personal and national fulfillment. Thus, if you’re not
weakening the Erev Rav, then you are strengthening them. If what you are doing
is slowing down the process of Geulah, even just a little, even if you are
living a Torah life otherwise, then that little bit is feeding the spiritual
reality of the Erev Rav. That will, eventually, have a physical manifestation
as well.
We have
to get with the program. If only we Jews the world over, Torah-abiding Jews
(5), understood what certain actions, or the lack of them, do to strengthen the
Erev Rav. Or, more importantly, what we CAN do to weaken them, not by going to
battle against them physically (6), but by going to battle against them
spiritually. We can do that anywhere in the world, anywhere in the land, just
by being mechazek ourselves, and those around us.
And,
just by fulfilling the posuk:
You will
arise and show Tzion mercy, for the time to favor her, for the appointed time
will have come. For Your servants have cherished her stones and favor her dust.
(Tehillim 102:14-15)
Making aliyah
for ideological reasons: to express a desire to be closer to God, to actualize
the potential of Eretz Yisroel to greatly increase one’s reward in the
World-to-Come, to unify with other Jews who have come from different parts of
the world—to sanctify the Name of God by being drawn to the great, Divine gift
that Eretz Yisroel is meant to be, is an ideal form of this chizuk. To remain
in the Diaspora, but with a yearning to be able to fulfill all of the
aforementioned, is a great level, but second best.
However,
to have NOTHING to do with this posuk, and leave Eretz Yisroel— and the people
devoted to her ultimate spiritual state—in the past or for the future, is to,
well, capitulate to the Erev Rav. For, as the GR”A ended this teaching:
The main
power of the Erev Rav is at the gates of
Just
exactly what this refers to is unclear. However, what IS clear is that the
battle with the Erev Rav at the End-of-Days is over control of Eretz Yisroel,
and it is against not only those who actually live in the land, but against all
those who care not to.
Think
about it. Historically, in every generation, there has been a different test
for the people of that time. The test of one generation has rarely been the
test of another. For one generation, the struggle may have been in the realm of
one particular mitzvah, whereas for another, it was in the area of another
mitzvah.
Hence,
one may ask, and should ask: The struggle, the mitzvah of difficulty for the
Final Generation?
Just
take a look. Which mitzvah is the most controversial, and not amongst secular
Jews, but amongst the Torah-observant? The fact that it has yet to be decided
by history to make it relevant on a Torah-level once again is irrelevant in
this respect, just as it was for the spies of Moshe Rabbeinu’s time, whose
rejection of the land was at a time that it had yet to even become a mitzvah.
And, as the Arizal revealed, the souls of the final generation of Jews will be
theirs. (8)
It is an
important question to ask, and to answer. And, to do so with extreme honesty.
For, as the GR”A has warned, failing to answer it correctly can land a person
in the wrong ideological camp, just as the final pages of history and freewill
are being written. Perhaps we are far closer to the end than we know, and
knowing and accepting this is great chizuk, for those looking for redemption.
Footnotes:
1 The
name “Adam” alludes to all three: Aleph is for Adam, Dalet is for Dovid, and
Mem is for Moshiach.
2 This
entire quote is from
3
Yechezkel,
4 “And
it was, when Rachel had given birth to Yosef, Ya’akov said to Lavan, “Grant me
leave that I may go to my place and to my land” (Bereishis 30:25): Once the
adversary of Eisav was born, as it says, “The house of Ya’akov will be fire,
the house of Yosef a flame, and the
house of Eisav straw; and they will ignite them and devour them. (Ovadiah
1:18). Fire without a flame is powerless from a distance, and thus once Yosef
was born, Ya’akov trusted in The Holy One, Blessed is He, and desired to
return. (Rashi)
5 As we
learn from the story of Chizkiah HaMelech, from Heaven’s point of view, it is
only the opinion of Torah-observant Jews that counts in deciding the course of
action, especially during times of crisis. Thus, they also bear the
responsibility for the course of action taken.
6 For,
as the Talmud says, when evil is strong, it is a mistake to physically stand in
its path unless one is completely righteous.
7 Sha’ar
HaGilgulim,
8
Sanhedrin 111a.