going home ... to yerushalayim: Reb Neuberger

09 January 2025

Reb Neuberger – Vayechi

THE NESHOMA IS A STRANGER IN THIS WORLD

We now say farewell to our Avos and Imahos.

Every year on this Parsha a tremendous sense of sadness envelopes me as we bid farewell to Sefer Beraishis. I feel as if I have lost my parents, which is actually the truth! The old home – where we all grew up -- is shuttered, and all the beautiful moments are relegated to the world of memory. I feel homeless.

During Chanukah, I was looking at sefer Pachad Yitzchak, by the renowned Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner zt”l. Rabbi Hutner explains Chanukah with reference to the unique character of Golus Yavan.

The “vast” darkness of this exile is connected to the attempt of the Greeks to deflect the nature of the neshoma from attachment to its intrinsic home, which is the World of Truth, the Eternal World. The Greeks had no understanding of a world beyond the material.

They tried to deflect our ancestors from our eternal mission by attempting to influence us to sever our neshomas from their intrinsic connection with Hashem. This is the Greek Exile, whose influence has penetrated down to the present, the ensuing Golus Edom, in which the Greek poison still afflicts our souls.

Rabbi Hutner – based on the writing of the Maharal in Gevuros Hashem -- speaks about the neshoma as a “ger,” a stranger in this world. If it focuses on its own world, the World of Truth, through immersion in Torah, then its flame will continue to burn and it will illuminate this world with the Light of Torah.

But, if it immerses itself in materialism, it has no peace or comfort and suffers the agonies of exile. The flame will die out and the neshoma will lie in dust and ashes along with the body to which it is attached. The material world is a foreign place for the neshoma.

This is what the Greeks tried to inflict upon us until Hashem helped us overcome them with the great miracles we commemorate during Chanukah.

Last week I recalled my own past, how I awoke in the middle of the night on the 18^th of Teves in the year 1966 and realized that I had to find Hashem. My neshoma needed to return to its Source. The alternative would have been spiritual death in the chaotic, dark universe of mental torture in which I had been plunged until that point.

It amazed me to read Rabbi Hutner’s account of the soul as a ger, an exile in this world, because it illuminated for me my entire childhood and all the years up until 18 Teves, 1966. As anyone knows who has read my books or heard our story, I searched this entire world for the first thirty years of my life. My soul was never at rest. I thought something was wrong with me because I could not adjust mentally to this world, but I now see that – in fact – what was wrong was the very fact that I was trying to adjust to this world! The only place in which the neshoma can find rest, peace and normalcy is in the Presence of Hashem!

Now I understand why those Jews who have swallowed the Greek poison have such hatred for their own people. It is well known that “we are our own worst enemies.” Sinas chinom, causeless hatred among Jews, does actually have a cause.

When a Jew rejects Torah, he rejects the intrinsic nature of his own neshoma and becomes an adversary to his own brethren, even to himself! There are countless tragic instances of this. We see, for example, both inside and outside Israel, that the greatest challenges to our continued existence often come from our own brethren! It is no coincidence that our present – seemingly endless – exile was caused by sinas chinom.

And so, my friends, as we bid farewell to our beloved Patriarchs and Matriarchs, let's keep this tremendous truth in front of our eyes: at our core, we are Children of the Eternal World. It is the legacy of Am Yisroel that we bring the Reality of Hashem and His Torah into this world. This is our unique heritage, privilege and ability. No other nation carries aloft the flame of Truth.

No wonder that we are regarded as outcasts by the rest of the world. They dwell in dust and ashes and we dwell in the eternal World of Truth. “Ele v’rechev … Some with chariots and some with horses, but we – in the Name of Hashem our G-d -- we call out. They slumped and fell, but we arose and were invigorated!” (Tehillim 20)

We begin every Shemoneh Esreh with these words: “Blessed are You, Hashem, our G-d and the G-d of our forefathers, G-d of Avraham, G-d of Yitzchak and G-d of Yaakov … Who recalls the kindnesses of the Avos and brings a Redeemer to their children’s children, for His Name’s sake, with love.” (Shemoneh Esreh)

May we greet him soon in our days!

The Old Homestead