The God Shaped Hole In Our Soul...
31 May 2026
TODAY: Yehuda ben Yaakov Avinu zt"l
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The following is from - https://dailyzohar.com/tzadikim Yehudah was the son of Yaakov (Jacob) the Patriarch and Leah the Matriarch. He is the founder of the Tribe of Yehudah. He was born on the fifteenth of Nissan, and he died at the age of 119 (Yalkut Shimoni, Shemot 162).
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Because Yehudah has imposed a ban upon himself by saying, "If I do not bring Benjamin back to you, then I will have sinned against you for all time" (Genesis 43:9), throughout the years that Israel was in the desert, Yehudah's bones rolled about in their coffin until Moshe came and prayed for mercy, in effect, absolving him of the ban, whereupon his limbs reassembled. But he was not admitted to the heavenly Yeshivah until Moshe prayed, "Bring him to his people" (Deut. 33:7). Once in the heavenly Yeshivah, Yehudah did not know how to discuss Halachah with the Sages until Moshe prayed, "His hands shall contend for him" (ibid.). Still, Yehudah's halachic (law) decisions were not legally correct, so Moshe prayed, "You shall be a help against his adversaries" (ibid.) (Sotah 7b).Rabbi Avigdor Miller zt”l on Traveling Through Life [Parshas Ba’haaloskha]
Part I. Traveling Through the Wilderness
Traveling Through the Desert
In this week’s sedrah, Moshe Rabbeinu is speaking to his father-in-law, Chovov ben Reuel HaMidyani, who had come to visit him in the Midbar, and he tells him as follows: נֹסְעִים אֲנַחְנוּ אֶל הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר אָמַר השם – We are traveling toward that place that Hashem said about it, אֹתוֹ אֶתֵּן לָכֶם – “This place I will give to you” (Bamidbar 10:29).
The Bnei Yisroel were traveling through the Midbar heading toward Eretz Yisroel, and Moshe was now offering his father-in-law an opportunity: לְכָה אִתָּנוּ – Come with us, וְהֵטַבְנוּ לָךְ – and we shall do good to you, כִּי ה’ דִּבֶּר טוֹב עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל – for Hashem has spoken good for Yisroel (ibid.). It means, Hashem has foretold good for Yisroel, and if you join us, you’ll be joined to us also in receiving that good; we’ll go into the eretz tovah u’rechavah and you’ll be there with us.
Traveling Through History
Now, pay attention, because everything in the Torah is not just the story for itself; it’s also a model for the future.
Moshe Rabbeinu is speaking to us, and he’s saying, “We, the Jewish people, are traveling through the history of the world. Throughout all the generations, נֹסְעִים אֲנַחְנוּ, we are journeying. We’ll be in the Midbar for forty years, and then we’ll be in Eretz Canaan. We’ll go to Bavel and to North Africa. We’ll go to Europe and Russia. Then we’ll go to the Americas too. We’re traveling through history until we reach our destination in Olam Haba. And you can join us on this journey if you wish.”
Now, don’t think it’s a drash what I’m saying. It’s the plain truth that you’re hearing now. Because as we travel we say, כִּי ה’ דִּבֶּר טוֹב עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל – Hashem spoke good for Yisroel. What’s the good? So the Gemara says elsewhere (Kiddushin 39b) that there’s no good in this world that’s completely good. And when Hashem says “good,” he doesn’t mean partially good — He means entirely good.
So we’re not traveling only to Eretz Yisroel. Eretz Yisroel is not the place where our final happiness is going to be; there’s sickness in Eretz Yisroel and there’s death in Eretz Yisroel. It’s not the place that’s kulo tov and kulo aroch. Eretz Yisroel is only a mashal for the great good that Hashem has spoken for us. כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל יֵשׁ לָהֶם חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא – Every Jew has a share in the World to Come (Sanhedrin 90a). Our real destination is Olam Haba. That’s why we’re traveling and that’s where we’re traveling to.
On the Back of the Wagon With the Jews
And so Moshe says to this ger, to all the potential converts in history, “Come, join us on our journey to Olam Haba if you’d like. That’s one of the reasons why we’re traveling among you, to give you a chance to join us. If you want, you can hop on our wagon, and what’s going to happen to us is going to happen to you. The good that Hashem has spoken to us — that there’s a chelek for every Yisroel in the World to Come — will be for you too.”
And many had the good sense to join us in eternity. Rabi Akiva came from geirim! Rus was a giyoress. She had the good sense to join us. Dovid Hamelech came from her. Many great people came from geirim. Rabi Meir came from geirim. You look through a roster of the illustrious names, they come from people that had the sense to join us on our travels through history.
That’s why we traveled to Poland, so that a certain Count Potocki could hop aboard. He was a famous ger tzedek who came from a noble family, and even though it was a time when nobody thought of embracing Judaism, he was an exceptional person and — despite the danger — he left home and joined us in secret.
Of course, that’s only a side story, that geirim might join us. We travel through history for more important reasons than geirim. Jews lived in Poland for a thousand years and so you can be sure that there were many other purposes too, besides Count Potocki. Only that as we travel we say to the gentiles, “לְכָה אִתָּנוּ – Come with us if you wish. You don’t want to? So don’t. Your hard luck. We’re traveling on anyhow to our destiny.”
Travel With Purpose
Now, you have to understand what it means that we’re traveling. We don’t travel just for the sake of travel. I once had in my shul a wealthy man, so for a vacation he traveled to the mountains. And once he was in the mountains, he decided he wanted to travel more. Maybe it’s more interesting on the other side of the ocean. So from the mountains he went on an excursion to Switzerland. That’s called journeying to nowhere.
You have to understand that the system of the Torah is different; our traveling is arranged by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Like it says in our sedrah, עַל פִּי ה’ יִסְעוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְעַל פִּי ה’ יַחֲנוּ – We journey according to His arrangement (Bamidbar 9:18). Hashem plans every stage of our journey and everything that happens is for the purpose of reaching the destination of the Next World.
Now, if we’re going to understand this subject properly, one idea must be clear to us without any question. הָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה דּוֹמֶה לִפְרוֹזְדוֹר בִּפְנֵי הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא – This world is a lobby, a vestibule before the World to Come (Avos 4:16). No matter how much you think about it or talk about it, it’s not enough, because there shouldn’t be the slightest question in our minds that right now we’re journeying — even us, as we’re sitting here right now, we’re traveling to Olam Haba. And the result of that knowledge is, הַתְקֵן עַצְמְךָ בַּפְּרוֹזְדוֹר – prepare yourself, improve yourself in the vestibule, כְּדֵי שֶׁתִּכָּנֵס לַטְּרַקְלִין – in order that you should enter the banquet hall subsequently (ibid.).
And therefore every place that they visited in the forty years was intended for the purpose of making some improvement in their character. It was a program that was set by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Sometimes He wanted them to be in one place יָמִים רַבִּים and sometimes only יָמִים מִסְפָּר. But whatever it was, it was עַל פִּי ה’ יַחֲנוּ וְעַל פִּי ה’ יִסָּעוּ, and the Bnei Yisroel knew, therefore, that they were living for a purpose.
Places of Perfection
Every place, every stage, they understood was an opportunity to get better and better. And because they understood that it was purposeful journeying, that each place intended to bring forth a different perfection, therefore they were the most successful that we ever had in our entire nation’s history. They became more and more perfect because of their travels; the nation became hammered out on the anvil of vicissitudes and they became great.
It’s like a blacksmith who is hammering on a piece of iron and making it stronger and stronger; every blow on the anvil makes the iron stronger. That’s what happened to the Bnei Yisroel as they traveled from place to place — their character became more and more purified. And the end was, אִסְפוּ לִי חֲסִידָי – Hashem says, “Gather unto Me, into the World to Come, all of My chassidim, My devoted ones” (Tehillim 50:5). That’s what Rabi Akiva says about the Dor Hamidbar (Sanhedrin 110b). They succeeded at becoming the best generation in our history because they understood that they were traveling not to Eretz Yisroel but to Olam Haba.
And so we understand now that when Moshe Rabbeinu said those famous words, נֹסְעִים אֲנַחְנוּ, he was describing not only the travels in the Midbar but the Am Yisroel’s travels through all of history. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is fully in charge of every detail that ever transpired and ever will transpire in the story of the nation. And so as we go from place to place, nothing is accidental. Hakadosh Baruch Hu has fashioned history in such a mysterious way that in every generation all the conditions of nature, all the conditions of society are so manipulated for the maximum benefit of the Am Yisroel; so that each place we find ourselves is a different opportunity.
Stopover in Babylon
There is a certain perfection that we gained in Bavel. Bavel was a great opportunity. The Jews lived in Bavel for a thousand years. Were they failures because they weren’t in Eretz Yisroel? Chas v’shalom. The Talmud Bavli is a result of their success. The great yeshivas of Bavel, everybody knows. All the Amoraim in Bavel, from Rav, all the way down to after Rav Ashi, the Rabanan Savorai and the Geonim. Hundreds of thousands of Sages in Bavel. Bavel was a huge success.
The Jews in Bavel were even better than the Jews in Eretz Yisroel. You have to know that. אֵין מִינִים בִּנְהַרְדְּעָא – There were no apikorsim in Bavel (Pesachim 56a). In Eretz Yisroel, there were apikorsim always. We had the Misyavnim in Eretz Yisroel. We had the Tzedukim. Then we had the Christians. But in Bavel it was always אֵין מִינִים. Always frum Jews in Bavel; always nothing but frum Jews. It was a success.
Then we went to North Africa. The Rif! We went to Germany. Rashi! Rashi became a success in Germany davka. Others, too. There were Gedolei Yisroel in Vermeiza, in Shpira, in Magentza. And the “plain” people too; in all the generations they became great in Germany. Some turned out to be failures but by and large they passed the test.
Stopping Off in Spain
Then they went to Spain. Spain was a different opportunity for perfection. It was ruled by the Moorish Arabs and the Jews lived in wealth and with a rich culture. Poetry, even grammar, flourished in Spain. Every facet of Jewish living was enriched in Spain!
Of course, the Torah and the Gedolei Yisroel flourished. All the great Rishonim, almost all of them were composed in Spain. The Ritva and the Rashba and the Ran; even the Rosh who came from Germany settled in Spain. All the great ones! Rabi Yehuda HaLevi; and the Rambam came from Spain originally. Spain was a glorious place, a cradle for Jewish culture, for Torah. Spain was a place of great success.
It’s true there were some failures too. There are always some who don’t realize where they’re traveling and they get lost; they go off the right path and go lost. Eventually, it was too much, and that’s why they were kicked out of Spain. Hakadosh Baruch Hu made them move; they journeyed to a new opportunity. But for many years, Spain was the test; the succeeders succeeded and the failures failed.
The Wandering Jew
Then they went to Poland. They went to Russia, to Lithuania. They went to England and to America. I say “they went,” but they were taken – עַל פִּי ה’ יִסְעוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְעַל פִּי ה’ יַחֲנוּ. We think, “Well, it’s because the goyim drove us out, geirush Shpanya, there were gezeiros, so we had to leave.” No. It’s all done by the Plan of Hashem for our perfection.
That’s Jewish history — traveling. The Jews were on the East Side and then from there they traveled to Brownsville. וַיִּסְעוּ וַיַּחֲנוּ – And then from Brownsville to Crown Heights, and from Crown Heights to East Flatbush. And then to Flatbush. וַיִּסְעוּ וַיַּחֲנוּ, וַיִּסְעוּ וַיַּחֲנוּ — Hashem is moving us through history, and every place where we lived had a certain contribution to our history, certain tests and opportunities.
Like we moved from our old neighborhood in East Flatbush, Rugby, to here. That was arranged by Hashem. It’s a different opportunity we have now. We’re near the Mirrer Yeshiva and we’re among the Sefardim now, the Syrians.
The Successful Wanderer
And it will continue like that. We’ll keep moving along to wherever Hashem takes us. And we’ll succeed because we know the secret of history that wherever the nation is, it’s the מָקוֹם אֲשֶׁר אָמַר ה’. That’s why very many people gained great success. Hundreds of thousands of Jews, millions of men and women lived frum lives throughout all these generations and brought up children and they’re all in Olam Haba today.
They came to the place that Hashem promised them and they’re there right now, enjoying the great happiness that He foretold for them.
Source: https://torasavigdor.org/parshah-booklets/47668/
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My Addendum:
Just like wherever a Jew is in Chu”l when he/she davens, we face toward the Makom, Mt Moriah in Yerushalayim……
As we wander thru life and the diaspora, we are always headed to Mt. Moriah in Yerushalayim…..
For there is where all our prayers rise and enter Shamayim……
So too we are to end our wandering by entering Eretz HaKodesh,
”the Land of Israel and Yerushalayim as "a Land which Hashem, your God, looks after, on which Hashem, your God, always keeps an eye, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year."
Reb Sones: Mountain of the Dead....and the Death of Pride REPOST
Idolatry, coercion, and the forces demanding total conformity
Read:
https://jewishhome.news/the-sodomite-bed-at-the-dead-sea-pride-land-and-the-modern-war-on-reality/
Rabbi Weissman: ....Divine Truth
The Sefer Habris on frum kefira, and a fudamental class
There are many kofrim posing as religious Jews who believe Chazal were, at most, highly intelligent people working with the primitive knowledge of the times and outdated scientific beliefs. They did their best with the information available to them (a backhanded compliment), but they got a lot wrong, and their expertise doesn’t extend beyond halacha — if we can fully rely on them even there.
Frum kofrim enjoy nothing more than trying to demonstrate that Chazal got something wrong, or, nebach, didn’t know something we know today. They believe Chazal would be the ones learning from them if they were here. At most, it would be a fair exchange of knowledge.
Frum kofrim will not accept much of what Chazal said as objectively true unless it is supported by an archaeological or scientific discovery. That they fully trust. Chazal, not so much.
There is so much of that going around within the frum world, and it’s very insidious. Their seemingly innocent critiques of Chazal on “benign” matters, with feigned respect and an absence of awe and reverence, belie sinister beliefs and intentions. The Sefer Habris makes this point on page 197, in reference to those who challenge Chazal’s statements about the existence of sheidim, demons:
Those who delight in finding a man among men, a respected person to rely upon to deny the words of the sages of the Talmud in this matter [the existence of sheidim], it is only because they desire to deny them afterwards in a greater matter.
The Sefer Habris also writes the following on page 45 (English translation):
I am amazed by men who are wise in their own eyes, the maskilim together with the [self-styled] researchers. [They will] not [be able to] withhold their mouths; they will sharpen their tongues like a serpent; they will mock and laugh at them, if they find a perplexing statement of our Sages of blessed memory. They will open wide their mouths and say each one to his fellow “See what I found! The author of this statement did not know between his right and his left, and spoke of something in a matter whose substance he does not know at all; and his words are not spoken with wisdom.”
And they speak about our Sages of blessed memory with insults and revilements, mocking and aggrandizing themselves against the people of the Lord of Hosts; and the sages of our people are thought of as fools in their eyes.
If one says to them that there is in that statement a hidden riddle or a wondrous secret, a wisdom that is far and exalted, they will not desire understanding, they will hate knowledge, but they will scorn and revile the soldiers of the living G–D, and a foolish man despises his people, and against the Lord he is a blasphemer.
However, if they find in the books of the philosophers a perplexing thing, a wondrous opinion or a foreign matter, in the words of Aristotle, Pythagoras, Plato, and the like, they will say, “How great is his wisdom! How deep are his thoughts! In this saying it is deep — beyond reach of any finder; we cannot fathom it, on account of the weakness of our intellect and the deficiency of our knowledge! And we are not able to grasp it and to stand upon the nuances of the matter, for it is great!”
They turned their hearts to hate their own people, they have turned into strangers. They say of evil “good” and of good “evil”; they put darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter; and they push aside the [way of] honesty — instead of perfume, rottenness…
If you’ve ever learned Chullin, or Nidda, or Bechoros, you should be amazed by how much Chazal knew about science and nature, deep wisdom that would put your local doctor to shame. If you’ve ever learned anything, you should be humbled by how much they knew about human psychology and all areas of knowledge.
Does that mean they would know how to perform certain types of surgery, or that all of their personal beliefs were objectively true? Not necessarily. But I’m certainly not going to critique Chazal — let alone with hubris. If we can’t necessarily apply their medicinal advice, we should certainly not discount it as outdated or completely false. We are in no place to judge what they knew or didn’t know — certainly not with an air of superiority.
This brings us to last week’s Torah class.
Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta conducted an experiment with ants to test what Shlomo Hamelech stated about them. The results seemed positive, but turned out to be inconclusive. What gave him the right to test a divine teaching with a scientific experiment, and what are the ramifications?
Shlomo Hamelech stated in Mishlei that it is better to have a simple meal in good company than a fancy meal in poor company. Do we really need him to tell us this? Is this nothing more than the opinion of a wise man, or his own personal experience, codified in a holy book?
Rabbi Chiya bar Rabba and Rabbi Shimon bar Rebbi double checked that they didn’t leave anything behind when they traveled. Do we really need Chazal to teach us this, as if it’s a brilliant idea, and bring a proof from the Torah to support it, too?
We addressed these questions and more, shedding light on common sense, the ways of wisdom, and divine truth. The class is embedded above and on Rumble here.
This week’s class has been rescheduled from Thursday to Monday at 8 PM Israel time, and we will study another chapter of navi. The link to register for the live classes is here.
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