Torat Yisrael Issue 8

Yud Cheshvan, 5769 Parashat Lech Lecha

The Month of Mar Cheshvan: The Best is Yet to Come Rav Chaim Richman Shlit”a International Director of Machon Hamikdash - Temple Institute

This month of Mar Cheshvan is the only month of the Hebrew calendar that does not feature even a minor observance -- not even a fast day. Especially given the fact that this month comes right after the action-packed month of Tishrei – which is host to the High Holidays and Sukkot, with its highprofile, action-oriented mitzvot – this month of Mar Cheshvan seems particularly drab and colorless…a fitting introduction to winter. After the rush of adrenalin we experience in Tishrei that manifests itself in every aspect of our prayers and spiritual pursuits, is this month not something of an anticlimax? Indeed, its very name seems to foretell that we haven’t got much

IN THIS ISSUE

Rav Yossie Bloch

Indeed, as the month of Cheshvan enters accompanied by these feelings, the idea of disappointment seems to transcend our personal idiom and take on a universal theme, running parallel to our own, through the Torah portions that begin the

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Evan Kotel

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to look forward to or anticipate here: Mar Cheshvan, as it is formally known, is just that: the prefix Mar denotes a certain cold formality, “Mr.” Cheshvan, or perhaps “bitter” Cheshvan…not the feeling of an old familiar friend, like its predecessor. Following on the heels of the exhilarating month of Tishrei, we are perhaps just a bit disappointed.

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Inequality and a Fifth Column

Shmuel Sokol

Editor-In-Chief

In our generation we have seen miracles and victories. We have witnessed ancient prophecies fullfilled and miraculous rebirth from our own ashes. We live in a situation that would was beyond the wildest hopes of our forebears. However, this does not mean that there are not problems that must be addressed, and dangers that threaten our very lives. I believe with all of my heart that things will work out in the end. I only worry about how much suffering we will have to endure before we get there. Currently we face a danger greater than the Arab enemy, greater than an anti-semitic United Nations, or campus radicals in the United States. We face an enemy within.

There is a double standard in this country that condemns the religious and the politically right, while allowing excessive license to the left, to self-haters and post-zionists. While Jews are throwing rocks in Na’alin, and professor Zev Sternhall is calling for tanks to destroy Ofra, Rabbi Glick of Machon Hamikdash is arrested for incitement for the crime of bringing Jews to Har Habayit and the Israeli police argue in court that bringing an Israeli flag into an “Israeli Arab” city should be banned as incitement.

We have recently seen a blatant example of anti-settler prejudice in the case of Noam Federman. The police broke into his house in the middle of the night like the gestapo, breaking windows, hitting his wife and children and arresting him for assualt. It was later established that he was handcuffed and restrained at the time of his alleged violence. The police then proceeded, protected by soldiers who had been falsely told to hold a perimiteer to protect civilians against a terrorist incursion, to destroy Mr. Federman’s home with all his possesions inside. Watching this destruction, one man called out a curse upon the police. I do not judge him or condemn him, though I disagree with him, for the Torah states that one is not allowed to judge his fellow while his dead lies before him (i.e. in a time of extreme grief). The media and upper echelons on government seized upon these remarks to fabricate stories on right wing conspiricies and plots against the state. Decrying settler “violence”, they ignore their own brutality. While Aryeh Deri is forbidden from running for Mayor of Jerusalem, due to a previous incarceration, Tagrid Saadi (Yemach Shema), a convicted terrorist who helped facilitate the murder of six Israelis, is allowed to run for city council in Sakhnin. Arabs riot in Akko, calling out death to the Jews, and the media calls it Arab-Jewish rioting when the Jews begin to fight back. We need a change in our political culture and media and we need it fast. The only solution that I can think of at this point, is civil disobedience. The majority of Israelis would be appalled if they knew of what really was going on in this country and we should not hate our brothers in our hearts. We must educate them, and at the same time, give a message to our corrupt leadership that the Jewish people is unwilling to sell out its rights and heritage.

Though the elections in the United States are over, the season in Israel has barely begun. In a few days, we will hold local elections, and shortly afterwards, the focus will turn to the national elections for the 18th Knesset. However, from a halakhic point of view, we must ask: how does modern democracy compare to the traditional Jewish approach to government?

Indeed, one of the most interesting of the mitzvot which are unique to Eretz Yisra'el is the mitzva to appoint a king. As Rabbi Yehuda states (Sifrei 67:10): "The Jewish people were commanded three mitzvot upon their entry into the land: to appoint a king, to build a Temple and to eradicate the seed of Amalek." The Tosefta (Sanhedrin 4:10) is even more explicit: "We do not establish a monarchy in the Diaspora." This stands in contrast to the other mitzva relating to Jewish government, that of establishing a justice system, which is universal; as the Tosefta (ibid. 3:10)

puts it: "The Sanhedrin applies in the Land and outside it."

Does our modern form of government in any way reflect the idea of Jewish government in the Torah? The Rambam (Hilkhot Melakhim 1:5) rules that "We do not set up a woman in the monarchy, as it says, '[You shall surely place] upon yourself a king' (Devarim 17:15)—and not a queen; so too, for any appointment in Israel, we appoint only a man." The exclusion of women from the monarchy is mentioned in the Sifrei (157:15), but we do not find that this applies to all offices. Instead, it is the exclusion of converts from the monarchy which the Gemara in Yevamot (45b) expands, declaring: "Any appointments you make shall be only be 'from among your brothers' (Devarim ibid)." It seems that the Rambam interprets the latter source as telling us that any appointment in a Jewish society should mirror that of a See Page 13

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This article may seem at first to be dealing with nothing more than semantics. But in this case, we are dealing with words pertaining to our very identity. Our identity is the way we perceive ourselves and broadcast that perception to others. The name we are given and words we use to describe ourselves are fundamental to our identity. In an interview with Haaretz journalist Daniel Ben Simon the day following Shimon Peres' defeat to Benjamin Netanyahu in the 1996 election, the following exchange took place:

Interviewer: "What happened in these elections?" Peres: "We lost."

Interviewer: "Who is we?"

Peres: "We, that is, the Israelis." Interviewer: "And who won?"

Peres: "All those who do not have an Israeli mentality." Interviewer: "And who are they?" Peres: "Call them the Jews."

According to the Peres model, there are two publics in Israel: the 'Israeli' and the 'Jew'. 'Israeli' represents the New Jew, free from the constraints of religion and free of the "Galut mentality." This individual has thrown off the baggage of two thousand years of exile and has now taken his rightful place amongst the nations as an equal. He has developed a new culture, a mix of East and West; and while he speaks Hebrew, he is a citizen of the world and feels that Israel's greatest mission is to achieve normalcy and equality amongst the nations.

Peres' 'Jew', on the other hand, stubbornly retains his religious observance. The 'Jew' tends toward political isolationism and in his ignorance he is willing to disregard world opinion. The troublesome 'Jew' supports the continued "occupation" or "settlement" of Judea and Samaria, thereby retarding all progress towards peace. The 'Jew' is some kind of relic that needs to be cleared away so that a "New Middle East" can be born. The 'Jew' even has the audacity to fight

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for his land, not to mention for his life.

Recently, Yair Lapid, the son and heir of the anti-religious Shinui party founder Tommy Lapid, with no trace of brotherly love, eulogized the "Jews" of Judea and Samaria by saying the following: "These people create a situation whereby, when the day comes, and the agreements are signed on the lawn in Washington, it will be easier to give up this land, which isn't really ours; this land where not only the laws and landscape are different, but also the people." This is yet another example of the linguistic and anthropological paradigm which we have been taught: the progressive and the regressive are two very different people living in the same parcel of land. One is 'Israeli' while the other is an outsider; he is the 'Jew'.

The division between the Israeli and the Jew is artificial, counter-productive, and anti-Jewish. Our leaders should always be striving to strengthen the bonds that unite every Jew in the world - especially in this time of renewed anti-Semitism and the world jihad. So why do people like Peres and Lapid utilize the 'Jew' versus 'Israeli' paradigm? Because the distinction between 'Jew' and 'Israeli' was created by them and their post-Zionist cohorts. By blaming the 'Jew', they seek to create a scapegoat for their failed attempts to make peace by manipulating the public and giving away our country. By diverting the spotlight away from their own ineptitude and corruption, they stay in power.

Furthermore, cowardly people who are prepared to give away the heart of Israel to our sworn enemies feel threatened by fellow countrymen who represent bravery and a will to survive. For post-Zionists like Peres and Lapid, the woman who happily raises her kids in Judea and Samaria is a constant reminder of their own gutlessness, leading them to develop a burning hate for the pioneering and strong 'Jew'.

The irony of it all is that in today's Israel, the 'Jew' is the new 'Israeli'. Israel was supposed to be the breeding ground for a strong new Hebrew who does not cower. Yet in today's Israel, it is the secular-postZionist-left which is the cowering Jew being led to the slaughter. The religious settler is now the emancipated Israeli, bedecked with side locks and tzitzit, and armed with the classic fundamentals of Zionist See Page 6

ideology; that is, to ingather, to build, and to settle the land of Israel. In a cynical and cunning fashion, the postZionists are attempting to take away 'Israeli' identity from those parts of society which still retain the true 'Israeli' and Zionist spirit. By branding strong Israelis as 'the Jews', post-Zionists are trying to marginalize and denigrate that segment of society. The division between Jew and Israeli works to their advantage.

Sadly, after the Disengagement, many of the 'Jews' have also embraced the very same 'Jew' versus 'Israeli' lingo. While it is not commonplace, some religious Zionists proclaim: "I am not a Tzioni, leave that for the Israelis, those who kick Jews out of homes and bash our children's heads in Amona like Cossacks."

Without realizing it, the religious Zionist who embraces the 'Jew' vs. 'Israeli' lexicon is a victim of a propaganda aimed at destroying him by cutting him off from the state he helped build and defend. Instead of relinquishing his Israeli identity, he would be better off saying the truth: it is the post-Zionists who have lost their Israeli self. The strong Jews of Israel are the real Israelis. The word 'Israel' has been hijacked and has been made merely to reflect an identity of citizenship. However, while Israel is indeed the name of our country, it is much more than that. It is the name of our people. Our familial and tribal name is Israel. Our Book of Collective Memory tells us that we are all sons and daughters of one man named Jacob, who was renamed Israel: "Then G-d said to him, 'Your name is Jacob, your name shall not be called Jacob

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any longer, but Israel shall be your name.' Thus he called his name Israel." (Genesis 35:10)

(Israeli Arabs are not Israeli, and how could they be? Israel is a name set aside for the people of Israel. Arabs who live here can be called "Arabs with citizenship of the State of Israel", but they are certainly not 'Israelis'. Ask them and they will tell you the same thing.)

Israel is the country that we have built. We, the Children of Israel, have returned to our land and have built a prosperous and healthy country in which Torah flourishes alongside advanced farming, life-saving medicine and computers. Are these things in contradiction? Of course not. We are one nation, reuniting on one land, speaking one language. We are Israel. I am Israeli, because for two-thousand years of exile I was the Jew, a lone speck traveling through time just to arrive at this point of redemption. I am no doubt Jewish, and I love Judaism. But I am even prouder that I have been given the great opportunity, the Jewish dream of two thousand years, to live in Israel and to help build it into the wonderful and holy country that it will one day be.

Nobody is going to take away my hardearned right to be an equal member of Israeli society. Nobody is going to take from me my country and my identity. And certainly I am not going to relinquish my name Israel and give it to those who have forgotten what Israel is really all about.

Yishai Fleisher is the Program Director of Arutz 7’s IsraelNationalRadio.com and the co-founder of Kumah.org.

Baruch Hashem, presidential elections in the USA are over and Baruch Hashem (times 10!), the municipal elections in Israel will be over in a few days. That means life returns to normal… wrong! “Election season” is far from over in our sweet, holy and cherished Promised Land. Actually, it is really just beginning! Think about it; While America has already picked its president and cities across Israel will pick their mayors and city councils very soon, the elections for the Knesset are just about ready to start. How exciting is that??? All kidding aside, these elections are far different from those in most parts of the world. In the overwhelming majority of political races, you simply prefer a certain candidate over another. Your candidate – we’ll call him “Candidate A” – appeals to you because you like his economic plan or his stand on crime, housing or education. You vote for him and

even work hard on his campaign but when the votes are tallied - whether he wins or not - does not really mean a whole lot. Your life goes on, pretty much the same, whether “Candidate A” wins or loses. Sure, you will be a little upset and depressed if he loses but as the saying goes; the beat goes on…

This is not true in Israel. Here in Israel, if the wrong candidate wins, you could find your house destroyed, your city bombed, your business closed, your Yeshiva demolished or yourself dead. No exaggeration. As a matter of fact, things are so upside-down here that even if your candidate of choice wins you can find your house destroyed, your city bombed, your business closed… If you don’t believe me, ask the 10,000 good Jews from the southern coast of Israel who once lived in a beautiful region called Gush Katif. These people danced the night Ariel Sharon won Next the election. They sang and partied with joy Page

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when the final votes were counted. Their hero had won and they would be safe! Sadly, they are not dancing now…

These 98,000 people – and only these 98,000 people – will decide on who will be on the Likud list after Bibi. All polls show that Likud will get at least 30 seats in the next Knesset. Who will these 30 If I needed to summarize the election process people be? Will they be strong and proud of their Jewin Israel I would simply use one word. While “crazy” ish heritage – like Moshe Feiglin? Will they be comcomes to mind – as does “again???” – the real word is mitted to the land – like Uzi Landau? Will they be “serious”. Elecready to fight the tions here are no enemy – like “You have to look past the commercials, posters laughing matter Boogey Ya’alon? and you had bet- and jingles and realize that it’s not just people in Is- These questions ter realize that will be decided on rael who are waiting for election results but some very quickly! very evil eyes from Iran, Lebanon, Gaza, Syria and December 15th by This is a serious those people who Egypt are waiting to see who wins on February 10, took my suggesbusiness since 2009.” millions of lives tions seriously and are at stake. You joined Likud. They have to look past the commercials, posters and jingles realize that the secret of Israeli politics is in the “priand realize that it’s not just people in Israel who are maries” and they are determined to make their voices waiting for election results but some very evil eyes heard! from Iran, Lebanon, Gaza, Syria and Egypt are waiting to see who Please get wins on Februinvolved in ary 10, 2009. these elections. Even if you are Actunot-yet a memally, if you reber of Likud, ally want to be you can help serious, the imthose who are. portant date to You can help put on your calelect a ticket endar is Dethat will truly cember 15, represent your 2008. That is in views and just over a ideas. Don’t just month and on that day, all voting members of the hide under your pillow counting the days until elecLikud party (approximately 98,000 people) will go to tions are over. Roll up your sleeves and get to work the polls to select the Likud Knesset slate. Ever since making sure that the next leading party in Israel is I began writing these articles, I told you to join Likud. I made up of people that are strong, proud and conurged you to realize that the Likud is the true nationalnected to authentic Jewish values. You can – and ist party of the entire nation of Israel. It is not just must – make a difference. Join the team! Please visit made up of “knitted kippa wearers” or members of the our website for more information: www.MFLikud.com “Orange camp” but rather it is made up of representatives from every sector of the Israeli population. The Shmuel Sackett is the co-founder of both Zo Artzeinu 98,000 members of Likud who will vote on December and Manhigut Yehudit. Together with Moshe Feiglin, 15th are from Elon Moreh, Haifa, Jerusalem, he is spearheading a campaign to rise to the leaderRa’anana, Petach Tikva and Hebron. They are reliship of Israel with an ideology based on Jewish idengious, secular, Ashkenazic, Sefardic and Haredi. They tity and values. He has spoken in 500 USA cities and are native born Israelis, anglos and French. They are universities in the last 5 years. His website is: young and old. Some are in hi-tech, some are farmers www.JewishIsrael.org His email is: Shmuel@jewishisand some learn in kollels. You simply won’t find these rael.org 98,000 people in any other party in Israel.

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month. In the Torah portion of B’reishit, we are told that G-d was pleased with the world. Upon completing His creation, He looked and beheld that it was very good. Yet by the time we reach the end of the portion – and a mere 10 generations have passed from Adam to Noah – G-d was so disappointed with His creation that He regretted having made man, and decided to destroy all life with the exception of the righteous Noah and those with him upon the ark. And don’t forget that it was on the 17th day of this very month of Mar Cheshvan that the flood began… But a fascinating mystical tradition relates that although on the surface, Cheshvan doesn’t have much to offer, in truth, the best is yet to come:

“The Tabernacle of the desert was completed by Moshe in the month of Kislev, however the Holy One, blessed be He commanded him to wait until the following Nisan to inaugurate it. The month of Kislev was embarrassed, and so G-d rewarded her with the rededication of the Second Temple, during the era of Chanukah.

The First Temple built by King Solomon was completed during the month of Mar Cheshvan (the month known as ‘bul;’ see I Kings 6:38) however through Divine Inspiration, King Solomon knew that he was not to dedicate it until the following Tishrei. So, the month of Mar Cheshvan was embarrassed…and G-d promised to repay it in the future, with the dedication ceremony of the Third Temple.”

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(Midrash Yalkut Melachim 184 as cited in Bnei Yissaschar).

How does one view a tradition such as this? Is just merely anecdotal? It is just a whimsical tale of a “month being embarrassed,” devoid of any significance in our real world? What would it take to make a dream like this – the dream of the dedication of the Third Temple – come true?

If there is one thing we know about the Jewish people, it’s that our dreams always come true. But it is the people of Israel themselves who make these dreams happen! A constant recurring theme in the Torah is that everything is up to us. This is exactly why the Sea of Reeds did not split until one man – Nachson, the son of Aminadav, prince of the tribe of Judah – walked out into the water until the sea came up to his nostils, and he could walk no further. G-d made a miracle, to be sure…but only after one man showed Israel that nothing will happen until we do all that we can possibly do ourselves…and not a drop less.

There is a spiritual revolution taking place in Israel. We see it and feel it all around us, and during this past month of Tishrei, it became a palpable, living reality, as thousands of Jews from all over the country converged at the gate of the Temple Mount, to ascend the Mountain of Hashem, location of the Holy Temple, in purity. Just a few years ago, only a handful of Jews visited the Temple Mount in strict accordance with halacha. But on several days of Chol HaMoed during this past Sukkot, for the first time in living memory, there were more Jews lined up to ascend Har HaBayit then there were waiting to visit the Kotel. These numbers included entire families, delegates from communities all over the country, Roshei Yeshiva with their students…a veritable representation of the entire Klal Yisrael.

This is how the Third Temple will be rebuilt. When we look and see how Am Yisrael, with its collective, intuitive wisdom and pure faith, is changing the facts on the ground, we can understand how, after such a Tishrei, Mar Cheshvan is anything but drab…it is laden with promise and potential, because the best is yet to come. We can understand how the Jewish people will see to it that Hashem will keep His promise to the month of Cheshvan, with the dedication of the new Holy Temple. This is the plain and See simple meaning of this enigmatic Page 12

Midrashic teaching: If we will it, it will be.

According to our sages of blessed memory, the month of Cheshvan is a bridge between Tishrei and Kislev. Our forefather Yaakov passed away on the first day of Sukkot and was buried on Chanukah. Thus these days of Mar Cheshvan are characterized by the aspect of Yaakov Avinu, and Chanukah is the true climax and completion of the holidays of Tishrei.

An intriguing oral tradition (Imrei Noam – R. Eliezer of Dzikov) – relates that when the dove brought Noah an olive branch, Noah made pure olive oil from these olives. He gave this oil to his firstborn son, Shem, known as Malkitzedek, the first king of Jerusalem… “the priest of the Most High G-d” (Gen.14:18). Shem sealed this oil in a bottle and gave it to Avraham Avinu as a gift. Avraham, in turn, passed it on to his son Yitzchak, and Yitzchak gave this bottle of oil to Yaakov.

According to our sages of blessed memory, Yaakov forgot some small jars on the other side of the Yabbok River and returned to retrieve them. This is when he was confronted with the angel of Esav, who fought with him all that night but could not defeat him. One of these jars was this container of oil from Noah’s

ark.

Yaakov Avinu hid this oil at the site of the Holy Temple and thus laid the foundation for the miracle of Chanukah.

It is well known that the Chanukah lights we kindle each year are a reflection of the “hidden light” with which G-d originally created the world but then hid away for the future. The Imrei Noam explains that the gematria (numerical value) of the words pachim ktanim (small jars) is 359, the same as the word mashiach. Perhaps this is the meaning of Yaakov’s hiding of this oil, the oil which originated with Noah’s dove. After the flood, when it was time for the world to heal, the Holy Temple was already foreseen and anticipated…and Mar Cheshvan, the very month in which the great flood began, would look forward to hosting the greatest holiday of all…the dedication ceremony of the Third Holy Temple, soon to be built by all of Israel on the Temple Mount, the one spot chosen by the G-d of Israel for the resting of the Divine Presence and the ultimate healing of the world. Rabbi Chaim Richman is the Directorof the International Department of The Temple Institute www.templeinstitute.org, www.universaltorah.org

Eretz Yisrael Photo of the Week

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monarch.

Indeed, this ruling of the Rambam serves as the basis for the ban on female representatives among the haredi parties and their hesitation to sit in governments headed by women. However, nationalreligious parties, on the local and national level, have had female representatives. What is the basis of this approach? If we strive to build a government that at least reflects the Torah's vision of it, how can we flout this law?

Rav Moshe Feinstein (Iggerot Moshe, Yoreh De'a II, 44) argues that the Rambam's limitation does not represent the halakhic consensus. He shows that Tosafot (Sota 41b, s.v. Oto) prove that there is a distinction between the monarchy and other offices precisely in the area of lineage: while having a Jewish mother is enough to make one eligible for other offices, to ascend to the throne one must have a Jewish father as well. If so, he argues, there is no reason to assume that the ban on females—which is derived from the very word "king"!—applies to other positions of authority.

Another issue is raised by the Malbim's interpretation of the abovementioned verse. He differentiates between "sima" (the term used for the positive command to appoint a king) and "netina" (the term used for the prohibition of appointing a non-Jew over the community), arguing that "sima" indicates a permanent office—such as the monarchy, which is hereditary—while "netina" refers to even temporary appointments. Based on this, one may argue that since the exclusion of women is based on a clause which uses "sima," there is never an issue of appointing a woman to a temporary position—which all elected offices in Israel are, by definition.

Regardless of the technical issues, we must note that these terms, "sima" and "netina" (the latter being used also for the appointment of judges, Devarim 16:18), do turn directly to the Jewish people and place upon us the responsibility to choose our leaders, from judges to kings. Ultimately, the authority of a leader comes from the people, though we do our best to find the representatives most fitting in Hashem's eyes. Thus, our duty on any election day is a sacred one.

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Remember the days of old; understand the years of each and every generation. (Devarim 32:7)

This verse refers to the necessity of appreciating the past ("days of old") in order to understand the present ("each and every generation"). Indeed, the Ramban (Bereshit 12:6) uses the principle of ma'aseh avot siman le-vanim, that what happens to the Patriarchs (literally, fathers) is significant for their descendants, to explain much of Sefer Bereshit. He writes: Nothing of that which befell the fathers will not happen to the sons, and this they explained in Bereshit Rabba (40:6): "Rabbi Menachem said in the name of Rabbi Oshaya: 'The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Avraham: "Go out and conquer it ahead of your sons"— and you find that everything which is written by Avraham is written by his sons.'" The Gemara (Tamid 32a) says "Who is wise? One who sees the nolad." The term "nolad" is usually translated as "future," but the Chatam Sofer challenges this. After all, "nolad" is literally "that which has been born," in the past tense. Thus, he explains that one who sees the future is not really a wise man; rather, he is a prophet. Instead, the wise man is one who sees the past and figures out what will happen in the future.

So it is with ma'aseh avot siman le-vanim. The Midrash (Introduction to Eikha Rabbati) refers to the Jewish people as "bat golim," daughter of the exiles—daughter of Adam Ha-rishon, who sinned and was exiled from the Garden of Eden; daughter of Avraham, who was exiled from his place with the command "Go for yourself" (Bereshit 12:1). Thus, these cycles repeat themselves. We see this also in the famous verse (Mikha 7:15): "As the day you left the land of Egypt, I will show you wonders." This tells us that the miracles of the Exodus serve as a template for all the generations; thus we find in Tehillim (136:13), "To He Who divides the Sea of Reeds asunder"—in the present tense. The Zohar Chadash to Parashat Ki Tavo (98a) explains that the essential revelation of Hashem's glory is on the road to Egypt; this is why we find a return to Egypt it at the climax of the Curses in Devarim (28:68). Therefore, in the future, there will be special miracles on the road to Egypt. The Jewish people will face their enemies in the same place that they first be-

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came a nation, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, will do miracles as wondrous as the splitting of the Sea of Reeds. The enemies of Israel who surround Eretz Yisra'el today are the Egyptians, the Syrians (Aramean), Jordanians (Ammonites and Moabites) and Saudi Arabians (Edomites)—just as they were our enemies in the past. This is why the first prophecy of exile (Bereshit 15:13) opens with "Yadoa teda"—literally, "Know you will know"—a double language. The Midrash Rabba (44:18) expounds this idea, that by meditating on the present tense, we can understand the future:

"Know" that I scattered them; "you will know" that I will ingather them. "Know" that I sold them off; "you will know" that I will buy them back. "Know" that I enslaved them; "you will know" that I will emancipate them."

The Maharal, in the first chapter of Netzach Yisra'el, explains that the experience of slavery allows one to understand redemption, since exile is unnatural; because of this, the Jewish people's periods of exile teach us about the preparation towards the future. This is how we can understand the words of our Rabbis explaining Hashem's name (Shemot 3:14): "I will be what I will be;" they say (Berakhot 9b) "As I was with them in the Egyptian exile, so too I will be with them in other exiles." The Egyptian exile symbolizes, more than anything, God's leadership of his people. Sefer Chasidim writes (160): "If you withstand the test, do not give yourself too much credit, for perhaps it was because your ancestors withstood a test that you withstood a test." We are merely following in our ancestors' footsteps. In conclusion, we should recall the words of Rabbeinu Se'adya Gaon in Emunot Ve-deot:

"In the Egyptian exile, concerning which it said [merely] 'And also the nation which they will serve, I will judge' (Bereshit 15:14), the Holy One, Blessed be He did so many miracles for us; in the future redemption, upon which so many chapters in the words of the Prophets were written, all the more so, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will do miracles for us!" Rav Shwartz is the RaM of Yeshivat Dvar Yerushalayim in Har Nof and the founder of Nahal Hareidi.

The Zohar hakadosh comments that Hashem gave man the power of bechirah chofshit - free choice - the principle according to which every individual is empowered to make unconstrained moral decisions and hence to be held accountable for his or her conduct, be it good or evil. When a man decides to act according to Hashem`s will,hashem would help him, but if he decides to go against hashem `s will Hashem let him go in this way but let also the teshuva door open for him.

The story of Pinchas ben Salu is an example of the application of this principle. The Arizal says when Pinchas wanted to stop Zimri`s action to protect Am Yisrael against Hashem`s anger, his Neshama flew in the sky, as with the souls of Bnei Yisrael during Matan Torah, because of the fear that taking such action held for him. Then Hashem, seeing his mesirut nefesh sent him tremendous strength and ten miracles. His actions made him worthy of great reward and merit. The Zohar explains that when someone feels an unexplained fear, it comes from the sins that he has committed, such as lashon hara, misbehavior in makomei kadoshim, lack of honesty and causing shame for others.

David Hamelech was very careful in forbearing to transgress any of the aforementioned aveirot. Before he went out to battle, he would undergo a cheshbon hanefesh, and only then pursue his enemies and achieve complete victory. Free of sin, he felt no fear.

In the case of Asa Hamelech, even though he was careful regarding his actions, he knew that he was not on the same spiritual level as David Hamelech. Therefore, he would ask Hashem to help him to pursue his enemies, but not to vanquish them. He would request that Hashem himself would eliminate them, and his request was always accepted. Yehoshafat Hamelech would tell Hashem that he had neither the strength to pursue, nor to kill his enemies, only to sing shira to Hashem. He would be mevakesh that Hashem would both pursue and annihilate his enemies himself, and Hashem acceded to his requests. Chizkiyah Hamelech, because he was not married, told Hashem that he had not even the strength to sing shira like Yehoshafat, to pursue like Asa or to kill like David. He said that he would do teshuva and then go to sleep, and that Hashem should undertake all actions on his behalf. Chizkiyah made this request while under siege by the forces of Sancheriv, and Hashem sent an angel who destroyed the entire enemy force.

Chazal say that this last war was a siman for the war of Gog U’Magog. The Zohar says that if even the tzaddikim were afraid due to their aveirot, that kal v’chomer, how much more so our generation has to be careful in regards to the aforementioned aveirot, in order to protect ourselves from our enemies. From this we learn that teshuva brings the destruction of the strength of evil, and brings the yeshua of Am Yisrael. May Hashem bless Am Yisrael and bring peace and the Mashiach in our days.

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