Jewish Escapism – Nitzavim-Vayeilech
כִּי הַמִּצְוָה הַזֹּאת אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם לֹא נִפְלֵאת הִוא מִמְּךָ וְלֹא רְחֹקָה הִוא. לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם הִוא לֵאמֹר מִי יַעֲלֶה לָּנוּ הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ וְנַעֲשֶׂנָּה. וְלֹא מֵעֵבֶר לַיָּם הִוא לֵאמֹר מִי יַעֲבָר לָנוּ אֶל עֵבֶר הַיָּם וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ וְנַעֲשֶׂנָּה. כִּי קָרוֹב אֵלֶיךָ הַדָּבָר מְאֹד בְּפִיךָ וּבִלְבָבְךָ לַעֲשֹׂתוֹ (דברים ל,יא-יד).
According to Chazal and the Mefarshim, the above psukkim are either talking about the mitzva of learning Torah, or the mitzva of teshuva.
In this shiur, the last parsha of תשפ"ד, a few short days before Rosh HaShana, I would like to examine how we conceptualize HKB"H and reality - how we distinguish what is real and what is not, what is true and what is false.
What makes something real?
One approach says that something is real because we can "experience" it with our senses. Take a rock for example. We can feel a rock with our hands. We can feel a rock if it drops on our toe (ouch!). We can feel a rock with our feet, under our feet, by standing on it. We can see a rock with our eyes, directly, or because of the shadow it casts (like a mountain). We can hear a rock falling (in a landslide), and so on. Therefore, a rock is real.
Our natural world is filled with things that are real – those that can be experienced with our senses (and those that cannot). The first perek in sefer Breishit, describing the six days of Creation, lists these things. Light, dark, sky, land, water, plants, birds, animals, humans. Although they are not listed here, atoms were also created during Creation, as were gamma rays, electrons, forces, radio waves, etc.
What if we cannot experience something with our senses? Does that make it "not real"? For example, human sensory organs cannot sense radio waves directly, we only know they exist because our car radio picks them up and we hear them as music, news broadcasts etc.
Radio waves are real, they exist, but our senses cannot detect them. Using scientific methods, we can prove if things are real or not, by experimentation, but this is limited by the technology we have at our disposal to study the object/phenomenon in question. Just because existing technology cannot identify/quantify something, does not make it "not real".
True science allows for the possibility of "reality" of things, even though we currently cannot fully comprehend them (an example is quantum physics).
The Torah describes other things that HKB"H created in the 6 days of Creation – angels, hell, etc. The Torah says that unlike the rest of Creation, humans were created בְּצֶלֶם אֶ-לקִים, i.e we have both a physical body and also a spiritual neshama. How do we know if these things (angels, hell, neshama, etc.) are real or not? We have no scientific technology to prove or disprove their reality.
They are based on a belief system, the belief that HKB"H exists. If you believe in the reality of HKB"H, then by association, you believe in the reality of all His creations, those we can comprehend and those we cannot.
The existence of reality (or the lack thereof) therefore hinges on a belief system. This belief system affects our perception of reality. Someone who believes HKB"H exists will perceive reality differently than someone who doesn't.
It is the only non-absolute in HKB"H's absolute world. הַכֹּל בִּידֵי שָׁמַיִם, חוּץ מִיִּרְאַת שָׁמַיִם. It is therefore impossible to convince an אֶפִּיקוֹרוֹס of the existence of concepts such as neshama, שָׂכָר וְעֹנֶשׁ, עוֹלָם הַזֶּה/הַבָּא, there is simply no common ground.
Obviously as Jews we believe that HKB"H exists and that He created everything, our world, the Torah, angels, Heaven, etc. There unfortunately are also Jews who believe the above, but do not want to believe it. We will discuss them shortly.
Judaism regards the physical world as an outward manifestation and reflection of a deeper spiritual reality. It regards the physical world as a portal through which we acquire a deeper understanding of the spiritual reality.
HKB"H designed our world as a series of "visual aids" to arouse our curiosity and prompt us to delve deeper into their secrets. The deeper we delve, the more our awareness grows of a Power greater than ourselves. HKB"H is not overtly visible in this world. If He was, that would eliminate free choice.
The Ramchal (דרך עץ החיים, יד) says that angels do not sin because HKB"H's reality is totally visible, right in front of them. If HKB"H in, our world, was similarly visible, we would have no free choice and as a result, no שָׂכָר. By virtue of our free choice and our effort in increasing our understanding of HKB"H, we accumulate שָׂכָר for Olam Habah.
This has been the collective "human experience" since the dawn of time, the realization that there is some Higher Power, beyond our human understanding. The manifestations and perceptions of this Higher Power differed between monotheistic and polytheistic/pagan faiths, but they all shared this same common thread of awareness.
Chazal tell us that Avraham Avinu, although he was born into a family of pagans, "rediscovered" HKB"H when he was aged three (Nedarim 32b), or aged forty (Breishit Rabba 95, 3). Avraham, who had an inquiring mind, developed an awareness of HKB"H, not because he was indoctrinated from birth (quite the opposite, he was indoctrinated from birth against believing in HKB"H), but because he delved deeper into what he observed in the world around him.
I say "rediscovered", because Avraham was not the first to discover HKB"H, Adam HaRishon was. The first words Adam uttered were מָה רַבּוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ ה', כֻּלָּם בְּחָכְמָה עָשִׂיתָ, מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ קִנְיָנֶךָ. Adam achieved his awareness of HKB"H from observing his surroundings.
However, after Adam sinned with the עֵץ הַדַּעַת, awareness of HKB"H gradually dwindled over the generations (with the exception of select individuals – Shet, Chanoch, Metushelach, Noach, Shem) until by the time of Avraham, HKB"H was all but forgotten.
How is it possible that humanity forgot HKB"H? The answer is escapism.
HKB"H is a "package deal". When you believe in HKB"H you have to accept the entire package (Torah) with 248 "do's" and 365 "don’ts". That was the covenant we signed on Har Sinai, and we did it willingly, united as one nation. From the moment we did so, we became different from any other nation on earth. We acquired a responsibility and a destiny, which we are contractually required to uphold. HKB"H will make sure we uphold this contract, regardless – by heaping blessings and miracles on us when we do and by punishing us when we don't.
It is one thing to acquire the book, however, it is another thing entirely to live according to it. On the one hand it is an extremely simple equation. Torah/life vs. sin/death. Who wants to die? Nobody! However, due to the concept of free choice, the two options have to have equal weight and that is the job of the yetzer hara, to provide balance to this equation. If not for the yetzer hara, there would be no שָׂכָר for Olam Habah.
How does the yetzer hara balance the equation? Not by saying to someone "Do as I tell you and you are going to die!", that's not going to sell very well. Instead, the yetzer hara says "The Torah is a wonderful thing - all the 248 do's and 365 don'ts, but 'all work and no play make Yankel a dull boy'! All this 'reality' at once can be a tough thing to handle. If you try, you will snap. Take a break, a breather. Sleep another 10 minutes, it will do you the world of good!"
The yetzer hara doesn't directly tell you to sin, he sells escapism instead. Sleeping another 10 minutes (or whatever minor "hook" he catches you with) is not going to kill you, but it is the first link in a chain, gradually upping the ante, step by step, until you end up doing something that will kill you (spiritually … and perhaps physically too).
When we sin, we feel guilt, it is a defense mechanism HKB"H gave us to protect us. The yetzer hara uses the guilt of not complying with the 248 do's and 365 don'ts, against us. "All that guilt, you must be feeling awful! Have a chocolate ice cream, to calm you down. You know, what you did was not so bad in the bigger picture, lots of people do it, you are not the first and you won't be the last. It is unnatural to actually even ask it of you. Bigger people than you tried and failed, what chance do you have?" The result of this is the evolution of new "religions" that reduce or eliminate the guilt, or by another name – avodah zara.
This is what happened in the generation of Enosh, intensified during the generation of the Flood, until we got to Avraham's generation, where nobody even remembered HKB"H at all.
Modern Western culture is modelled around escapism. The entertainment industry, the food industry, the pharmaceutical industry. "Take a break from all those constant shiurim and watch a great movie on Netflix to relax a little, you had a hard day, you deserve it!"
"Don't bother growing the food yourself, having to take Truma and Ma'aser yourself, baking the bread yourself and having to separate Challah yourself, cooking the food yourself and having all those dishes to clean. Here is the chicken, all pre-cleaned and portioned out in vacuum wrap, ready spiced and sauced.
Here is a frozen bagel, just 2 minutes in the microwave, all in an attractive, disposable plastic platter, no dishwashing required". "Feeling depressed that you couldn't control yourself … again? Never mind, simply pop this pill once in the morning to perk you up and have a wonderful day".
The whole culture is designed around developing addictions, that you become addicted to their product. It is designed to place barriers between you, the real world and HKB"H who created it.
HKB"H created our world for His glory, בָּרוּךְ אֱ-לקֵינוּ שֶׁבְּרָאָנוּ לִכְבודו. He intended for it to be a portal to strengthen our bond with Him. However, the danger is that the yetzer hara, with our participation, will turn this world into an "escapist trap". When that happens, instead of being a world of light and truth as HKB"H intended, it becomes a world of darkness and lies.
This is the kind of world we are currently living in, where lies replace truth, where darkness masquerades as light. A world in which most of us are trapped and don't know how to escape.
HaRav Baruch Rosenblum שליט"א, brings a fabulous mashal. "One day your neighbor knocks on your door and asks to borrow your car, as his car is in the garage being serviced and he urgently needs wheels. Since you are a good neighbor, you gladly agree.
Two hours later you see your neighbor driving around – in your car - distributing flyers and adverts for your biggest competitor. There are only two pizza stores in your neighborhood, you and the "other guy", a savvy businessman, who has taken half your clientele since he opened two months earlier and slashed your profit by forcing you to match his cutthroat prices, which he can afford, but you cannot. In your car that you kindly lent him! What do you think is going to be your response the next time that same neighbor asks to borrow your car?
This is us all standing before HKB"H on Rosh HaShana! We stand before the King of kings hoping that He will grant us a year of life, blessing, peace, parnasa, good decrees, bsorot tovot, yeshuot, nechamot, etc. etc. We pray that HKB"H will "lend" us our bodies (that He created), for another year, in good health.
But "oy va'avoy", HKB"H rebukes us "I lent you my car (your body) this last year, in good faith and what did you do with it? You used it to run around helping my biggest competitor (the yetzer hara), hurting Me with My own car! And there is the yetzer hara standing next to HKB"H, being מְקַטְרֵג – "And do you know what he did last Wednesday …", listing every little offence that you hoped went unnoticed.
Who can emerge from such a harsh דִּין?
The only way to emerge safely from the עָלְמָא דְּשִׁקְרָא of the yetzer hara, is to play the yetzer hara's tricks against him, by employing a form of "Jewish escapism".
When I was younger, I was very interested in magic, it was one of my hobbies. One of the most famous magicians to ever live was a Jewish guy by the name of Erik Weisz (aka. Harry Houdini). Houdini's magic was not performing card tricks or making ladies vanish, he was an escape artist.
They used to wrap steel chains, locked with padlocks, around him, place him in a wooden cabinet, sealed with more padlocks and then toss him, in the cabinet, into the Hudson River. He managed to successfully escape every time.
To successfully traverse life in modern society and emerge unscathed, with our neshama intact, we need to each try to be a little more like Harry Houdini. We need to work the escapism ruse of the yetzer hara, in reverse, against him.
To save ourselves from this dangerous עָלְמָא דְּשִׁקְרָא we need to escape to the true reality, the world HKB"H envisioned when He created it. When we feel overwhelmed by all the lies, the turnspeak, the deception and the death, we need to escape to the world of the אֱמֶת.
Find refuge in our Jewish "escape rooms" - our shuls and batei midrash. Escape the darkness online by watching any one of the millions of shiurim of every type, flavor and level, that abound there.
Most importantly, we need to escape the background noise of the yetzer hara that threatens to drown us in despair and depression. We need to take a time out from it all, look inward and look outward. Look inward deep into our heart and our neshama, trying to identify what is real and what is not, what is truth and what is lie.
Wake up 20 minutes earlier to hear the birds singing praises to HKB"H every morning (and be in shul earlier for Shacharit, to spend a few extra minutes saying the paragraphs of the Akeida and the Korbanot). Take a step outside and look up at the deep blue sky, the color of the כִּסֵּא הַכָּבוֹד, a color that symbolizes מִדַּת הָרַחֲמִים. Smell the exquisite aroma of the earth after it has rained.
In the evening between Mincha and Ma'ariv, instead of continuing to be glued to the TV news, take 15 minutes to walk around the neighborhood with your spouse/children, discussing the events of the day, strengthening family bonds and losing a few calories. Reconnect with the true reality.
Most importantly we need to be makpid on hearing the shofar and being mechaven for each of the sounds.
Chazal say that since the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, the שַׁעֲרֵי תְּפִלָּה remain locked to us, but that the שַׁעֲרֵי דְּמָעוֹת remain open. Our tefilot, before they get to HKB"H, have to go through a messenger – an angel – who presents them before the כִּסֵּא הַכָּבוֹד.
The shofar is the sound of us crying out, tears in our eyes, "Ribono Shel Olam, forgive us!" For these authentic, heartfelt tears there is no intermediary, they are delivered directly to HKB"H Himself and when HKB"H hears the sound of the shofar He moves from מִדַּת הַדִּין to מִדַּת הָרַחֲמִים and forgives us.
When we listen to the sounds of the shofar, they need to reverberate in the strings of our heart, our neshama and shake us to the core. If they do not bring tears to our eyes, it means we are not being mechaven enough.
We need to cry out to HKB"H and resolve in the coming year, to use his "car" for the right things, to reconnect with the true reality.
Don't say, "This is beyond me. I am already too old and too tired. I have tried every year to improve and escape the clutches of the yetzer hara and every year I fail".
It is not beyond you. It is not somewhere up in Heaven, far beyond your reach. It is not somewhere far over the sea. It is very close to you, in your tefilot and in your heart. Let this be the year that we listen to our hearts, pour out our hearts to HKB"H and ask Him to keep us safe and healthy, to return our soldiers and hostages home safe and sound, to help us vanquish our enemies, to give us parnasa בְּשֶׁפַע, to melt our hearts of stone and restore achdut in our nation, to send Mashiach already and redeem us.
To write and sign us in the Book of Life, לְאַלְתָּר לְחַיִּים טוֹבִים וּלְשָׁלוֹם.
Shabbat Shalom and Ketiva ve'Chatima Tova
Eliezer Meir Saidel
Machon Lechem Hapanim
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