Almost Eden

BS"D Parashat Sh’lach 5769

The wise man knows that the presence of the word "why" in a sentence dealing with the omnipotent Creator leads to an unfathomable intellectual abyss. Nonetheless, having been created with insatiable inquisitiveness, we continue to challenge our minds and imaginations in our never-ending quest to understand what will forever be out of our intellectual reach; with the hope that we may be able to achieve a degree of understanding that will make our limited existence in this world somewhat rational.

Follow up:

So I ask: Why did HaShem create Ya’akov and Eisav as twins? Would it not have been more dramatic had Eisav been born years before Ya’akov, and then relinquished his firstborn status to a much younger brother?

I submit that HaShem’s "intent" was to create them as twins, because Eisav’s task in the world is to mirror the actions of his twin brother Ya’akov. As Ya’akov rises in kedusha (sanctity), Eisav elevates himself in humanistic, moral terms. And as Ya’akov descends from kedusha, his twin Eisav falls into the black pit of destruction, decadence and eventually mass murder of Ya’akov's descendants.

Eisav is the personification of a leashed pitbull who is released to attack Ya’akov when he strays from the Torah.

This is in effect what their father Yitzchak told Eisav (Braisheet chap. 27: 39-40):

His father Isaac answered him, "Behold, of the fruitful places of the earth will be your dwelling and of the dew of heaven from above.
You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother.
But when you will have reason to claim that your brother has left the Torah, you will throw his yoke from off your neck."

The ancient Romans mirrored the spiritual level of the Jews at the time of the Second Temple’s destruction - the segmentation of our society into many opposing groups, each hating the other to the degree of civil war, and the Bet HaMikdash used as a tool in the struggle for political power. HaShem then unleashed the pitbull of Rome to expose us in all our iniquity to the world. The children of Eisav destroyed the Temple and scattered us to the four corners of the globe for 2000 years.

The leader of today’s Eisavistic world is the US President. He is the lead hound of the world’s pack in their chase after the miniscule Jewish State of Israel which refuses to be captured. But don’t blame this man, for he is no more than the mirror of what we are.

In the many galut communities around the world, but essentially in the United States, there exist the spiritual proteges of the biblical miraglim (spies, scouts). It was the miraglim who weakened the spirit of Am Yisrael by convincing them that life in the desert was preferable to life in the promised land.

What credence is there in our rightful claim that the land was given to the Jewish people by HaShem when many rabbis, teachers, roshei yeshiva, grand rabbis, poskim and Jewish communal leaders refuse to partake physically in the greatest miracle in 2000 years? And why do too many remain emotionally aloof to the point of antagonism to the miraculous national and religious renaissance of our people in Eretz Yisrael?

Why should Obama not believe that the Shoah is the Zionist rationale for establishing a Jewish state here, when so many of our religious leaders in the USA turn their backs on the only gift that HaShem promised Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’akov? Why should intelligent people like Obama and his advisors support the claims of the people of Medinat Yisrael that the land was given to us by the Creator, when many representatives of authentic Judaism actively convince Jews not to return home?

In the straight logic of a Harvard lawyer, he must be saying to himself: "If I, the President of the United States, would honor an outstanding citizen for his unique contribution to the country and hand him the keys to a sparkling new Bentley standing in the driveway of his home, and the man would say "No thank you. I prefer my beat up old Fiat," would it not be an affront to me and to the entire country? So if all these rabbis deny the gift of the Holy Land - and they would certainly not want to antagonize their God - the conclusion is that God did not give it to them."

But we, too, in Eretz Yisrael are not free from miraglim. The government at the time of the great miracle of the Six Day War, along with successive governments and certain religious leaders did not see the hand of God in current events. The first prerequisite of the government should have been to annex all the lands of Yehuda, Shomron, Azza and the Golan to the Medina. Then, all the Arabs of these areas should have been sent beyond the Jordan River, thereby freeing the holy cities of Shechem, Yericho, Bet Lechem and Hevron for immediate and exclusive Jewish settlement. The Temple Mount should have been declared off limits for all gentiles and a grand bet knesset built on the area which by consensus is not where the Bet HaMikdash stood and is therefore halachically permitted.

There were great religious leaders who called for these actions, but their voices had the same impact as those of Yehoshua Bin Nun and Calev ben Yefuneh drowned out by the cacophonous outcries of the hysterical people clamoring to return to Egypt.

Obama and his ilk are the mirror of who we are. Listen as he orders the government of Israel to refrain from even so little as enclosing a porch in any Jewish home in our own country, and you will hear the echo of Jews in the galut whose interest in Eretz Yisrael does not reach the emotional level of a baseball game.

This is not the time to point out the many faults we have picked up along the 2000-year journey in galut. But parashat Sh’lach in Eretz Yisrael and next week in the galut - on the background of our noses being rubbed in the mud - is certainly a time for introspection. Are we really the righteous Jewish sons and daughters of HaShem that we think we are?

Are our religious leaders better than the miraglim of old? Do they encourage us to go up to the land or do they assuage our consciences with nice divrei Torah and "vairtlich" by telling us how we must wait for a call from Heaven that the Holy Land is now ready to receive us?

These are not easy words, but these are not easy times. Were I a religious leader in the galut, I would throw down the paper on which these lines are written and accuse the writer of unadulterated chutzpah for questioning my sanctity and religious leadership. Aren’t the 500 students in my yeshiva, or the 500 families of my congregation, or the many followers of my chassidic sect sufficient proof that I am a great spiritual person? Who is this Kahana to accuse me of being a miragel?

Obviously, no leader in the galut owes me an explanation, but he will have a weighty problem after 120 years when called to answer before the heavenly court.

A short but impacting incident from my youth:

I was 16 or 17, when I arrived late to the shiur on Yom Ha’atzmaut in Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yaakov Yosef. The rabbi, who I respected very much, asked me in front of the class for my tardiness. I explained that being Yom Ha’atzmaut, my father’s shul said Hallel and celebrated with a festive breakfast. The rabbi, with eyes bulging, screamed at me: "Hallel? You should be saying Kinos [lamentations recited on Tisha Be’av]." I was taken aback and replied in shock: "But Rebbe, they saved Jewish lives!" And he screamed back: "They killed Jewish lives."

At that point, I realized that there was something very sick in this man’s mind.

Eventually, I learned that this sickness was not confined to him alone. There was a very substantial contingent of Israel haters in America's yeshiva circles.

At this sensitive juncture in history, shortly before calamity befalls the Jews in the galut, my message to the religious leadership is to use their authority and respect - which, I am sure, they deserve - and lead their people. The task of a rabbi is to be active in the spiritual lives of his followers, but there are times when a rabbi also has great influence over their physical survival. It occurred in the past, when rabbis told their followers to either leave their residences or suggested that they stay. The rabbi was the lifeline of the community to Torah law and Da’at Torah.

The time has come, if not a bit late, for the rabbis in the galut to encourage full communities to come home. The open spaces of the Galil and Negev are perfect for transferring large yeshiva campuses. The major cities of our land, especially Yerushalayim, stand in wait for Rachel’s children (Yirmiyahu 31); and the next stage in our redemption awaits the ingathering of those who are not yet here.

To be a rabbi is not a prize for the many years one invests in achieving this goal. To serve as a rabbi or rosh yeshiva is a gift from HaShem, but a gift which carries huge responsibilities.

Act now while the doors of opportunity are still open. The military draft is not yet upon your sons and daughters, real estate is yet marketable and money can still be withdrawn from the USA. But these things can change dramatically and very quickly.

The rabbinical leaders in the galut have it in their power to change the word miragel (spy or scout) to oleh regel - to come up to Yerushalayim. I pray they encourage this change. May it not be too late!

Shabbat Shalom
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 2009 Nachman Kahana