Reb Neuberger: Mattos Maase

 

“AL EILEH!”

I hesitate to write about the following incident, but it troubled me greatly. In these days before Tisha B’Av, it seems to me that we should be aware of such things because we have to deal with them. They indicate the challenges we face. 

We are surrounded by the culture of gashmius which descends from Esav, who entered this world obsessed with pouring that “very red stuff” down his throat. His descendants are obsessed with satisfying their cravings, whatever they may be. We do not even realize how deeply this culture has affected us, in every community and in every Jewish home. Hand in hand with obsessional cravings go the poisonous tentacles of technology, which reach into every corner of modern life. 

“We live in a ‘modern’ world, but with all its technological advances …. the results are shockingly poor. Everything is put to use for the bad. The world was a more beautiful place without [the] streams of indecent images that now flood the world. And so it is with technology’s other products.” (Rabbi Shimshon Pincus, Thirteen Principles of Faith) These prophetic words were written many years ago. How shockingly worse have things grown since then! 

This incident concerns a group of young boys. Oy, I am in such pain from this! “Al eileh ani bocheach … over these things I weep. My eyes run with water because a comforter to revive my spirit is far from me.” (Eichah 1:16)

I was on my way to Mincha on Shabbos. A group of young boys was playing in the street. Each had a bag filled with candies, which looked like they came from a Shabbos afternoon group of some sort. My immediate reaction was negative because I do not like to see Yidden eating on the street. I did not feel an atmosphere of kedusha. Perhaps it was my own inadequate kedusha, but I felt uncomfortable. 

Down the street walked an older group of three boys, maybe sixteen years old, with the “casual” yeshiva look, meaning white shirts and tzitzis untucked and jackets draped over the shirts. Each boy carried one of those huge plastic cups with giant straws and they were drinking soda or iced coffee as they walked. I didn’t like this either. What can I say? Sometimes one gets a nervous feeling. 

Suddenly, as the older boys passed, one of the younger boys threw a full can of soda at them. It missed and landed on the ground, fizz spraying in the air. The older boys turned and faced them. One of them picked up the can, about to throw it back at the younger boys. It mamash looked like the beginning of an old-time “rumble” from when I was a kid. They were about to try to destroy each other. 

But these were yeshiva boys! And this was Shabbos! 

“Al eileh ani bocheach!”

I walked up to the boy who was about to throw the can and said, “Give it to me.” 

“But he threw it at me!” 

I said, “Stop acting like a little boy.” 

I took the can, walked away and threw it in the nearest dumpster. 

I immediately thought: why is it that a hater of Jews has just won the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City, with a population of 1.3 million Jews? I thought of the Gemora in Sanhedrin which discusses what will happen if Am Yisroel does not do teshuva before Moshiach, and answers, “Hakadosh Baruch Hu will appoint a king over them whose decrees will be as harsh as Haman." 

My friends, the parshios we are now reading never fail to elevate my soul. Am Yisroel is standing on the banks of the Yarden River. I have often mentioned my favorite road in the world, Route 90, which traverses the length of Israel all the way from Eilat up to Har Chermon on the Lebanese-Syrian border. On the 90, if you look eastward across the Jordan River, you can clearly see Arvei Moav, the Plains of Moav, where Moshe Rabbeinu bid farewell to his people. This is the destination of the forty years’ march through the Midbar and the place from which Israel crossed into the Holy Land. 

We are now at a time in history which is similar to this geographical place. Spiritually and historically, we are standing in Arvei Moav, waiting for the moment when we will cross the river together to enter the Holy Land as one nation under the leadership of Moshiach ben Dovid. 

Every weekday, we say, “T’ka b’shofar Gadol … Sound the great shofar for our freedom, raise the banner to gather our exiles …. from the four corners of the earth.” We sense that this moment cannot be far off, but we have to prepare for it. If we keep it in our consciousness, then that machshova itself can elevate us. If we try, we can heal our spiritual sickness and lift ourselves above the degraded lifestyle which has turned the rest of the world into a malignant swamp. 

There are two versions of “us.” One is the downtrodden Yid, mired in the mentality of Edom. And then, there is the Yid whose eyes are ever on the Torah of Hashem, a magnificent being who overcomes spiritual and material challenges in his service of the King of the Universe. This is the Yid of the future. This is the Yid who will inherit the Holy Land and transform “kol ha olam kulo” into the paradise for which Hashem created this world. 

May we all soon see the Rebuilt Palace of the King upon the Hills of Yerushalayim!

The Plains of Moav

Mitzpe Yericho

Mt Hermon

GLOSSARY

Arvei Moav: the Plains of Moav, on the east bank of the Jordan River

Eichah: Book of the Torah read on Tisha B’Av

Gashmius: materialism

Kedusha: holiness, sanctity

Kol ha olam kulo: the entire world

Machshova: thought

Mamash: really

Mincha: the afternoon prayer

Tisha B’Av: 9th of Av, the tragic day on which both Temples were destroyed

Tzitzis: Biblically-mandated strings attached to men’s four-cornered garments

Yid: a Jew