In this week’s Parsha, Yosef and his brothers quarrel.
Sinas chinom begins here. Our troubles begin here! Churban Bayis Shaini begins here! Golus begins here!
We are one family; this is the essential description of Am Yisroel. This is exactly what is on Yaakov Avinu’s mind as he gives the final brachas to his children. “Yaakov called for his sons and said: gather yourselves as one! …. Keep together and listen, Oh sons of Yaakov.” (Beraishis 49:1-2) Yaakov Avinu’s parting words are: “keep together.”
Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch zt”l interprets: “Different though you are from one another, devote yourselves … to the one spirit that unites you…. Only when you [are] imbued with that one spirit will acharis hayamim (the End of Days/Moshiach) come. It will not come until [your unity] has become a reality.”
Moshiach and the Final Redemption are totally dependent upon the achdus of Bnai Yisroel!
We know a family who lives in a community in the south of Israel. They have heard many sirens and the boom of countless explosions. Recently, the mother asked her four-year-old why she was moving her lips when she put her shekel in the pushka, and the daughter replied, “Ima, I am davening for the Bais Hamikdosh!” Her Ima never told her to do this; she just does it. The father wears a kipa seruga and carries a gun. He is in charge of security for their community, as well as volunteering for Hatzalah. By profession, he is a cheder rebbe. The mother is a nurse who spends her days and nights doing chessed.
This family has a cousin from Lakewood who is studying at a seminary in Yerushalayim. She came to them for Shabbos last week. You might think she would have been “confused” by the difference in lifestyle, but she wasn’t confused at all. In fact, she was strengthened. The bonds are strong between her and her Israeli cousins despite their different lifestyles.
My friends, we have to stop being afraid of each other! We are not going to catch a “disease” from our brothers even if their minhagim differ from ours.
Several years ago Rabbi Rafael Rubin of Netanya made a powerful video before Tisha B’Av. He ended with a story: A young man came to see his rabbi.
“Rabbi, I am always failing with loshon hara.”
“Do you speak loshon hara about your father?”
“No!”
“Why not? Is your father perfect?”
“No.”
“So why don’t you speak loshon hara about him?”
“Because I love him!”
“My son, if you loved every Jew, you would never speak loshon hara!”
Am Yisroel is composed of twelve Shevatim: Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda, Dan, Naftali, Gad, Asher, Yissachar, Zevulun, Yosef and Binyamin. Each shevet is unique. Zevulun dwells by the seashore. Yehuda is a lion from whom the scepter shall never depart. Binyamin is a predatory wolf. Each shevet has different talents and responsibilities. Together they comprise the Holy Nation of Israel. When Yaakov Avinu blesses his children, each bracha is different, because each shevet is different.
Am Yisroel plays a symphony to Hashem. There is harmony only when each unique part blends with the others, like the spices of the Ketores or the colors of a rainbow. There is no harmony when each part is the same.
Are we afraid of our brothers because they are different? On the contrary! We received the Torah only because we are “K’ish echad b’lev echad … like one man with one heart.”
My friends, it’s time we grew up.
Rabbi Kalman Krohn zt”l was riding in a taxi in Yerushalayim. He said to the driver, who appeared totally secular, “You know, I am your brother.”
The driver laughed. “I’m not your brother.”
“Oh yes you are! My rebbe told me.”
“And who is your rebbe?”
“Adolf Hitler!”
When he heard these words, the driver almost crashed.
Our enemies do not distinguish between a black yarmulka and a kipa seruga. Every Jew is seen as a threat. The world is waiting to eat us up! On Friday night we sing, “Hashem …. Save your sheep from the mouths of lions!” We make this into a song on Shabbos because on Shabbos we are so elevated, but the wild beasts really do want to swallow all of us the way Esav wanted to swallow the “red red stew!”
There is only one way we can save ourselves: ahavas chinom! There is no other way. We are one nation singing one great symphony to Hashem. It’s time to shine the light of truth on our
neshomas. “Taher libainu … Hashem, please purify our hearts so that we may serve You!”
In Rabbi Rubin’s words: “Bayis Shaini was destroyed by Sinas Chinom. The Third Temple will be built with Ahavas Chinom!”
The Territories of the Twelve Tribes
GLOSSARY
Achdus: unity
Ahavas chinom: an atmosphere of peace among the children of Israel
Bnai Yisroel: the children of Israel
Cheder: elementary school
Churban Bayis Shaini: the destruction of the Second Temple
Golus: exile
Kipa seruga: knitted yarmulka
Loshon hara: speaking negatively about another Jew
Parsha: weekly Torah portion
Pushka: charity box
Shekel: Israeli coin
Shevet (pl: Shevatim): one of the twelve tribes of Israel
Sinas chinom: unwarranted hatred between one Jew and another
Tisha B’Av: 9th day of the Jewish month of Av, the day on which both Temples were destroyed
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