going home ... to yerushalayim: Reb Neuberger: Ki Sisa

11 March 2025

Reb Neuberger: Ki Sisa

THE SCORPION

Megillas Esther is an accurate portrait of our world.

Like the Jews in Shushan ha Bira, we are the target of worldwide antisemitism.

Like the Jews in Shushan ha Bira, we are in dire need of achdus. As Esther ha Malka said: “Assemble all the Jews.” We need to become one family again.

Like the Jews in Shushan ha Bira, we need to “fast.” Just as the Jews participated in Achashverosh’s banquet, so have we been eating at the banquet of the Other Nations among whom we are lost in Golus.

But how are we going to do this?

How can we find the strength or even the inclination to become unified and to dissociate ourselves from the foreign culture around us? And who among our people is listening to this message? Why should our alienated brethren listen to the voice of Hashem calling us all back in teshuva?

This reminds me of the hostages in Gaza. We scream! We cry! We beg Hashem for mercy! But the remaining hostages are still there, only a few miles away from their homes, and we cannot reach them! One feels so hopeless. Our cry seems to reverberate against the wall and return to us unfulfilled!

For thousands of years, we have cried. What became of our tears?

But wait! Think!

If we look around, we will see that we are literally surrounded by miracles.

I will tell you perhaps the biggest miracle of all: How is it possible that a Nation still exists whose entire culture and homeland – the most exalted nation which ever existed – were completely wiped out two thousand years ago? Everything spiritual and physical was destroyed and we were exiled to the Four Corners of the Earth! How is it possible that we still exist today as a discrete entity known by everyone in the entire world? Wherever we are, we are identifiable and identified – by Jews and non-Jews – as the Children of Israel! Why did we not disappear and why did our attachment to Torah not disappear? It makes no sense! It is impossible!

But it is true and real!

I want to tell you a story.

Our grandson is a licensed Israeli tour guide. Last week he took an advanced guiding course in the Negev Desert. Early one morning he went off from the group to put on tefillin. Because he is Sefardi, he puts on tefillin while sitting. So he was sitting in the sand and putting on his tefillin. Suddenly a large bird swooped down, circled around him and then pounced on something in the sand. As the bird flew away, he saw a scorpion in its beak. The scorpion had been right next to him. He never noticed it until the bird grabbed it.

“Yeshuas Hashem k’heref ayin … the redemptions of Hashem come in the blink of an eye!”

My friends, we are surrounded by miracles. They come when Hashem wills them to come, with the exquisite timing which only He can calculate. Our avoda is to bem’kadaish Shaim Shomayim, to sanctify Hashem’s Name wherever we go and understand that He is always with us.

“Al tira … Do not fear sudden terror or the holocaust of the wicked …. Plan a conspiracy and it will be annulled. Speak your piece and it shall not stand, for Hashem is with us. Even until your seniority, I remain unchanged, and until your old age I shall endure. I created you and I shall bear you; I shall endure and rescue.”

Sometimes the wait seems endless, but Hashem is calculating to the infinitesimal wisp of time. I had to wait thirty-one years before the gates to Torah opened, but I know it could not have been a moment earlier, because at that earlier time I would not have walked through those gates! Hashem calculates to the hair’s breadth!

“Thus said Hashem: a voice is heard on high, wailing, bitter weeping; Rachel weeps for her children; she refuses to be consoled … for her children, for they are gone. Thus said Hashem: restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for there is reward for your accomplishment -- the word of Hashem -- and they will return from the enemy’s land. There is hope for your future -- the word of Hashem – and your children will return to their border.” (Yirmiah 31: 14ff)

My friends, the story of Purim is so real. Just as the moment of doom was about to strike, the wheel turned and Haman was hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordechai.

“Behold, the winter has passed; the rain is over …. The blossoms have appeared in the Land; the time of singing has arrived and the voice of the dove is heard….” (Shir ha Shirim 2:11-12)

We are the dove, and the voice is the Voice of Torah!

May we see it soon in our days!