Reb Neuberger: Bamidbar – Shavuos – Who Was Dovid HaMelech?

  

 WHO WAS DOVID HA MELECH?

Now we have climbed all the way up from mem-tes Shaarei tumah. We listened to the voice of Moshe Rabbeinu. We trekked through the barren desert for seven weeks, each day discarding encrustations still clinging to us from Mitzraim. We have arrived at Har Sinai. We understand that we are permitted here in Hashem’s Presence only because we have removed the barriers between us. If we want to accept the Torah, then we have to be “k’ish echad b’lev echad … like one man with one heart,” a unified nation ready to accept the Torah.

 

Shavuos is the Day of Dovid ha Melech, the day he was born and the day he died.

 

Why is he so connected with Shavuos?

 

Dovid Hamelech is so real! He lived every pain and every triumph. Only Dovid could say both “I am a worm and not a man,” and “With You Hashem, I smash a troop and with my G-d I leap over a wall.” Only Dovid could say, “You reduce man to pulp and You say, ‘Repent, Oh sons of man … Gladden us according to the day You afflicted us.”

 

Our joy is directly connected with our affliction.

 

Who suffered more than Dovid?

 

“Dovid … was the mightiest of kings, the most pious of the pious, wisest among the wise, humble among the modest and the most glorious of poets who sang praise before G-d. Notwithstanding all this, no one suffered as much anguish in his life as Dovid. From birth he suffered anguish and affliction, which did not leave him until his very last day, when his son Shlomo succeeded him. It was only then that the world came to recognize his greatness … and his enemies were finally silenced.” (Book of Our Heritage)

 

Dovid’s afflictions and yissurim elevated him to the highest madreiga. Maybe that is why Shavuos is his day. When we suffer yissurim we run to Hashem because we understand that there is no other yeshua.

 

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said in a Baraisa, “Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave three good gifts to Israel, and He gave all of them only through suffering. They are, Torah, the Land of Israel and the World to Come.” (Berachos 5a)

 

My friends, the Galil is in turmoil today because of our enemies. But listen to the words of Torah. “In the period which will precede the coming of Moshiach … the Galilee will be [attacked] … and the people who dwell on the borders will wander from town to town ….” (Sota 49b with thanks to Reb Aryeh Lipka) This is our exact situation today, but it is a sign of Moshiach!

 

We are all suffering now, every one of us. Whether it is a child off the derech, shidduch difficulties, loss of a child, physical or mental sickness or any of the endless types of pain that exist in this world, we are all suffering. We know a young soldier who lost three limbs in Gaza. Can you imagine! Do you think he is the only one? But his family is overjoyed that he is alive! Everyone I know here in Israel has children or grandchildren in the army. If not the physical army, then it is the spiritual army, those who labor in Torah to enable us all to live. We all feel immersed in tzouris, and if we don’t feel it, there is something wrong with us, which is also tzouris.

 

We say Erev Shabbos, “Oh Hashem, like rivers they raised their voice. Like rivers they shall raise their destructiveness.” (Tehillim 93) Radak says this refers to the enemies of Israel roaring against Israel like raging rivers. (Artscroll) Do we not hear the roar of our enemies all over the world? But the Psalm continues, “More than the roars of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, You are mighty on high, Hashem.” We say this erev Shabbos, when the light of Hashem is about to engulf the world. So it is now, when the light of Moshiach is about to burst above the horizon.

 

The agony of our times afflicts every Yid. I just heard from a man in New Zealand who sees my videos. New Zealand! Hashem! We are united by our pain across arba kanfos haaretz! We are united by our hope for Your salvation! In the merit of our worldwide unity, I beg You, please send immediately the descendant of Dovid ha Melech – the man whose life was filled with yissurim – to save us and turn the world upside down.

 

Yes, when Moshiach comes, the world will turn upside down. Normalcy will rule. Torah will rule. Sanity will rule. Decency will rule. Purity will rule. Simcha will rule. Morality will rule. Kindness will rule.

 

“When Hashem will reign, the world will rejoice … the heavens will be glad …. the sea and its fullness will roar, the field and everything in it will exult. Then all the trees of the forest will sing with joy before Hashem, for He will have arrived … He will judge the world with righteousness and peoples with His truth.” (Tehillim 97, 96)

 

The world will be cleansed. “Those who devoured you will be cast far off.” All tears will be wiped away. On that day, Hashem will once again give the Torah to His People “in the presence of all the living.” But this time it will be forever, and the Children will return, never to be uprooted!

 

Good Shabbos and welcome to Zman Torasainu!

 

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Dear Readers: There will be no newsletter next week.

We will B”H resume during the week of Parshas Bahaalosecha.

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Tower of David

The Galil

New Zealand

GLOSSARY

Dovid ha Melech: King David

Hakadosh Baruch Hu: Hashem, G-d

Madreiga: level in spirituality

Mem Tes Shaarei Tumah: the 49^th level of impurity, the spiritual bottom

Tzouris: pain, trouble

Yeshua: redemption

Yissurim: troubles

Zman Torasainu: the Season of Torah, Shavuos