UNDERSTANDING FOR THE FUTURE….
HE LED FOR one term. But when he refused to turn against the Jews, they got rid of him and forced him from office. But when he decided he liked being king more, he accepted the role and made the lives of the Jews a living hell. The ally had become the enemy.
Sound familiar? Donald Trump? Perhaps one day. But in the meantime, it had certainly been Pharaoh back in the time of this week’s parsha, and it begs the question, how does such a “180” occur? […]
Rabbi Winston, Parshas VaAira
He told Moshe Rabbeinu what the makkos were for:
“So Egypt shall know that I am Hashem” (ibid. 7:5).
That’s the purpose of the makkos.
‘וִידַעְתֶּם כִּי אֲנִי ה' –
and you will know that I am Hashem (Shemos 10:2).
UNDERSTANDING FOR THE FUTURE….
WE ARE LIVING THAT FUTURE NOW
[by RAV AVIGDOR MILLER ZT”L
From Toras Avigdor, Parshas Va’eira]
The Makkos and The Eirev Rav
we understand right away that it wasn’t for the benefit of
Mitzrayim that these makkos were given – it wasn’t the Mitzrim that
concerned Hakadosh Baruch Hu most. Of all the talmidim for whom the
lessons were intended, it was the Am Yisroel who were most important.
The lessons are for us! Who still reads the story in shul every year?
The Mitzrim? Do the Mitzrim make a Pesach Seder to remember the
lessons? ,,,,,It means, “Even the people of Mitzrayim”; the Mitzrim
will also learn, but by means of watching the Mitzrim learn the lesson
the hard way, the real purpose will be fulfilled – the Bnei Yisroel
will learn that I am Hashem.[…]
The zekeinim taught the people what the purpose of the makkos
really was. And the Bnei Yisroel listened! They studied the makkos
because they understood that every makkah that came upon the
Egyptians was planned purposefully middah k’neged middah.
And so they spent their days and nights sitting and talking.
What’s the news of the day?
The current makkah, that’s what’s in vogue this week.
What was the reason that just in this way the makkah had to come?
[WE SEARCH THE NEWS TODAY FOR MEANING AND CLUES]
If you’ll study the medrashim, you’ll discover many examples of what
the Am Yisroel discovered with their own minds. Those traditions in the
midrashim are from them. It wasn’t the later Sages who invented these
lessons – it came from the Bnei Yisroel who sat there in their homes and
observed what was taking place. And they understood that if Hashem
was bringing punishment upon a people, it was to compensate them for
what they did wrong; and they understood that the lessons were being
taught by the clues that were put into the makkos themselves.
INTRODUCTION TO THE GREAT MAKKAH
When there’s misfortune in the world, when there’s terrible
misfortune among Jews, we have to understand that Hakadosh Baruch
Hu knows exactly what He’s doing. And therefore we have to understand
that these reshaim, the Germans, were the shluchim of Hakadosh Baruch
Hu. Hitler, yemach shemo, was a shaliach from Hashem.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn’t practice. He doesn’t do judgment
without justice (Berachos 5b). And therefore, it’s the biggest
chillul Hashem if people keep quiet about that and instead
they only make a propaganda that Hashem destroyed kedoshim
and tehorim, and that there’s nothing we can do to understand.
We Must Try To Understand
[…] I lived in a small town in Lithuania for a while and I knew the people
there well; I was close to them. And the Nazis came in and marched all
the men out to the field outside the town and shot them all down. My
brother-in-law, they shot him down. A Telzer yeshiva bochur, a very nice
boy, they shot him down for nothing. In cold blood they killed him. Can
you do anything but weep at that?
And a few weeks later they took all the women and the girls – my
sister-in-law was among them; a beautiful and fine frum girl – and the
Nazis shot them all dead in cold blood. Certainly we weep; we can’t stop
weeping.
My chaveirim, my best friends were all murdered. Rav Feivel Pilvishker,
zichrono l’vracha, a tzaddik, a young man who was learning all the time.
He was always thinking in mussar in his spare time. And they found his
body in the field outside the town – he was shot there and left to bleed to
death. Other friends too – Aharon Birzher, my chavrusa. He was the sonin-
law of the Kurdaneh Rav, and he was murdered along with the Kurdaneh
Jews.
My rebbi, Rav Avraham was burnt up alive in a fire when the Germans
set fire to the hospital. Rav Elchonon Wasserman zichrono l’vracha was in
Slabodka and they marched him out with all the Slabodka boys – my
chaveirim – and they shot them dead in the Ninth Fort.
There Was A Breakdown
All over Europe you have to know there was a breakdown.
Of course there were frum Jews too but all over, the Am Yisroel
was defecting from the Torah in great numbers. […]
There were Reform kehillahs established there,
with Reform rabbis who didn’t believe in anything.
And every home was being affected, even the best ones.
[THEY MADE PARADES….
TODAY THEY ALSO MADE PARADES, WE SAW
THE PRITZUS AND PERVERSION WITH OUR OWN EYES]
They used to make parades in the towns, parades against the Torah
Jews. I have a picture upstairs. It’s a photograph of a demonstration in the
town of Chubashav, a May 1st parade. Who’s parading there? Not children,
not young people. It’s well-dressed middle-aged Jews without anything
on their heads marching down the street. And they’re carrying a big
banner; from one side of the street to the other a big banner is waving:
“Nider mit dem klerirkarlism.” Down with clericalism! It means down
with the rabbis. Down with religion!
The Great Propaganda Campaign
Do you hear people speak about that when they teach about the
Holocaust? No, you don’t hear that. The whole subject is not even
mentioned. People are busy carrying out a propaganda campaign against
Hakadosh Baruch Hu. You know what they say?
[TODAY’S PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN]
The Yeshivos Were a Minority
At that time, where I was, you didn’t have even a hundred young
people under the age of thirty who put on tefillin. Older people still
maintained the old ideas but young people did not. You had a tiferes
bachurim of about fifty men – that’s all.
It was a few balebatim who wanted to stay frum; the rest
were throwing it all away. In a city like Pinsk, there were
40,000 Jews in Pinsk – in 1928 there were 40,000 Jews.
And you didn’t have even ten boys who went to yeshivos
outside of Pinsk. There were no yeshivos in Pinsk. Slabodka,
Lomza, Telz, Radin, Mir, didn’t have ten bachurim from a
town of 40,000 boys. I have a letter written by a Pinsker Jew
to the Jewish newspaper where he describes that.
The world turned upside down.
[TODAY, THEY WANT TO EMPTY YESHIVOS and
SEND YESHIVA BOCHURIM TO THE ARMY]
A General Certain Answer
Now, am I saying that all the events of the Holocaust are fully
understandable to us? Certainly not. Chas veshalom, I should say such a
thing. Nobody can claim to understand such a tragedy in all its details.
When we sit here and say that we try to understand that Hashem does
things for a reason, it’s b’derech klal, on a general level. And so nobody
claims to have all the answers. But what we can say is that it is certain –
absolutely certain – that the Holocaust included a reaction to those that
rebelled against Hashem violently and virulently, and with the worst kind
of results had they been allowed to continue to exist. What could you
expect as time kept on going? They were getting worse and worse. And
so Hashem said, “It's enough. I'll bring it to an end.”
[THERE WAS SO MUCH MORE THE RAV EXPLAINED THAT
WAS HAPPENING IN EUROPE, BUT ITS SO SAD....I OMMITED IT]
Yes, that's one of the reasons. And it won’t help if you call me up on
the phone at twelve o’clock at night to yell at me. “Don’t talk about these
things!” he yells. It won’t help because not only is it one of the reasons but
it’s a reason that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to talk about!
– In order we should speak about it, – and you will know
that I am Hashem (Shemos 10:2).
It’s a makkah that He wants us to study and speak about so that
we should always remember that there’s a Hashem – a Hashem
who takes action – in order that such a thing should
never happen again.
UNDERSTANDING FOR THE FUTURE….
[WE ARE LIVING THAT FUTURE NOW]
‘וִידַעְתֶּם כִּי אֲנִי ה' –
and you will know that I am Hashem (Shemos 10:2).
It’s a makkah that He wants us to study and speak about
so that we should always remember that there’s a
Hashem – a Hashem who takes action….
***************
Any misunderstandings, typos, are mine, as I copied portions (and omitted others) from the Toras Avigdor Parsha Va'eira (https://torasavigdor.org/) for emphasis. To understand we are living through a "Darkness from Shamayim" (a replay of Yitzias Mitzrayim) and anything can occur that we may or may not understand. But the ONE THING we must learn is that, ‘וִידַעְתֶּם כִּי אֲנִי ה' – and you will know that I am Hashem (Shemos 10:2).
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