going home ... to yerushalayim: Reb Neuberger

27 December 2024

Reb Neuberger – Mikeitz - Chanukah

WHEN ARE WE GOING TO UNDERSTAND?

Here is Rabbi Dovid Feinstein zt”l on last week’s Haftara: “The brothers had no legitimate reason to hate Yosef, but they did, and as a result they and their offspring were exiled in Egypt for 210 years.” (Kol Dodi on the Haftaros, Artscroll/Mesorah)

Every golus in our long history, every tragedy, originated with the hatred of the brothers.

My friends, when are we going to understand?

I mean, this hatred among the brothers was 3500 years ago! We read it in the Torah every year. Even secular Jews know about Shibud Mitzraim. Every Jew knows there were people named Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov whose children became slaves in Egypt. Everyone knows there is a Yom Tov called “Pesach” which commemorates our freedom from a torturous slavery. And everyone knows there is a Holiday called “Chanukah” which commemorates our liberation from subjugation to the Greek worldview, whose entire basis was antithetical to everything we hold to be sacred and true.

OK, maybe not “everyone,” but most people.

I have to be truthful and tell you that I grew up not knowing these things.

But that is also not true, because the same malach who taught everyone else in the womb also taught me! (See Niddah 30b) Why else – if not for that – did my childhood seem to me like Gehenom, and why did I need to search for Hashem relentlessly in the midst of the “American Dream?”

Please hear the following earth-shaking words from Rav Elazar Menachem Man Schach zt”l: “In spite of [the fact that … everyone’s neshama … was breathed into him by Hashem Himself, and] in spite of overwhelming evidence from miracles of nature that offer incontestable testimony to the existence of the Creator …. Man perversely … devises theologies that envision a Creator who … is distant from … daily affairs….

“But man is expected to see beyond such specious theories. He is even expected to perceive that which is suspect within himself, even when it evades the sages, the prophets and the angels. He is responsible for every nuance in his devotions. And he is surely liable for his every gesture, for every time he raises his hand [even in the Knesset in a vote] against Torah!

“There are people in the Knesset who learned neither Scripture nor Mishnah … and with the raising of a hand … they act to destroy Klal Yisroel. I marvel that their hands did not wither when they raised them in a vote against Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, against all the generations of G-d fearing jews, against Moshe Rabbeinu, against the Rif, Rambam. They aspire to uproot everything sacred. Are they aware of what the Gemora con-

tains, that they cast a vote against it?” (Jewish Observer, October 1988)

Now let’s look at the present. You know that I avoid the news as much as I can, not only because the news is sheker, but also because it literally makes me ill. The news only makes one confused and depressed. Whenever I think about the news, the following words of Dovid Hamelech come to mind: “Bnai adam … Children of Man, who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, shackled in affliction and iron ….” (Tehillim 107:10)

I remember hearing how Rabbi Avigdor Miller zt”l would “get his news.” His doctor ordered him to walk thirty minutes a day. There was a certain intersection on Ocean Parkway where he usually had to wait for the light to change. At that intersection was a vending machine in which one could read the top of the front page of a certain newspaper whose name I will not mention. In the few seconds, while he waited for the light to change, he read the headlines. That was enough!

Nevertheless, I am aware that the Prime Minister of Israel is conducting a war on many fronts. He is the visible leader of Medinas Yisroel in the eyes of the world and he is not afraid to speak openly b’Shaim Hashem before the United States Congress or the United Nations. At the same time, I am aware that he is being forced to appear day after day in a local courtroom – excuse me, but I will say it – on totally stupid charges because of some trivial political hatred.

My friends, when are we going to wake up ? How long are we going to hate each other, make fools of ourselves in the eyes of the world and cause a gigantic Chillul Hashem? Can’t we get past our petty jealousies and become the Holy Nation again?

Next week we read the following. Let’s all concentrate on this and try to get ourselves together. “Thus said the L-rd Hashem Elokim: Behold, I am taking the Children of Israel from among the nations …. I will gather them … and bring them to their soil. I will make them into one nation … upon the mountains of Israel, and one king will be a king for them all. They will no longer be … divided into two kingdoms…. They will no longer be contaminated with their idols and … all their sins…. I will purify them and they will be a nation to Me and I will be a G-d to them. My servant Dovid will be king over them and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow my ordinances and observe my decrees and fulfill them. They will dwell on the land that I gave to My servant … Yaakov …. they and their children and their children’s children … forever, and My servant Dovid will be a leader for them forever.” (Haftaras Vayigash)

May we soon merit to see this day!