The Truth

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

It is one of the strangest things in politics; Jews overwhelmingly vote Democrat. This habit is said to go back to the days of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a hero of liberal Jews. And the dichotomy was evident there. Though FDR provided jobs for many unemployed citizens, led the United States into World War II, and guided the country to subsequent victory in the war that saw 6 million of our brethren murdered, he refused entry to refugees from the Nazis and rebuffed pleas to bomb the tracks to the concentration camps and shut them down. Many have faulted him for millions of deaths, which they say could have been prevented had he acted properly.

Nevertheless, he brought Jews into the party and they stayed there. His successor, Harry S. Truman, earned the Jewish vote, supporting the founding of Israel in 1948. Then it was Adlai Stevenson and his fascinating oratory against the dour – and some say anti-Semitic – Dwight D. Eisenhower, and you couldn’t blame the Jews for voting for Stevenson.

Eisenhower’s vice-president, Richard Nixon, was seen as an anti-Semite, and Jews couldn’t bring themselves to vote for him against the youthful, telegenic John F. Kennedy. Though Kennedy’s father was a well-known Jew-hater, so bad that he and his future generations were cursed by a leading rabbi, his son was seen as prince charming and Jews fell in line, voting for him. And so it was.

Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer from Georgia, was no friend of the Jews or of Israel. You would think the Jews withheld their votes from him, but you’d be wrong.

Things changed a bit with Ronald Reagan, a great friend of Israel who ran against him. Reagan got a few more Jewish votes than a typical Republican. The Jews solidly backed the loser, because he was a Democrat. As Reagan was swept to victory in a landslide the second time around, the Jews once again put on their blinders and voted for the Democrat. No other group did that besides the blacks.

And so it was. They decided that George H.W. Bush was an anti-Semite and gave him a huge thumbs down in both of his elections. Bill Clinton, who beat him the second time around, was a huge favorite of the Jews. Though the affection wasn’t rewarded, they voted for him the second time around and then for his wife, despite her being part of the Barack Obama anti-Israel brigade and treating the Jewish country harshly during her term as secretary of state.

George W. Bush was a decent person and displayed great friendship to Israel, but it didn’t matter. He was a Republican, so the Jews voted against him. Obama was no friend of the Jewish people or Israel, and nor were many of the people in his administration. But shhh… Don’t say anything. The anti-Semites may get upset if the Jews say a word.

It’s ridiculous. I omitted some others here and simplified the races, but the fact is that Jews ignored their own best interests and foolishly voted for Democrats at every chance they had. Not only in presidential races, but also in local races, anyone with a “D” next to their name could be guaranteed the Jewish vote. It didn’t make a difference what their position was on moral and social issues, nor if they continuously voted to increase taxes on our hard-earned income and homes. Democrats got the Jewish vote.

It makes no sense at all. There is no rational, intelligent way to explain why a Jew who cares about Judaism, about Jews, about Israel, about his wallet, or about the cultural climate of this country would vote for a Democrat. It is nonsensical.

But it’s one of those things you aren’t allowed to discuss. Not if you want to be considered intelligent, learned, and savvy. If you want to be with the “in” crowd, get invited to political functions, and have your picture taken with important people, you aren’t allowed to discuss the ugly secret. If you want to be viewed as important and connected, and perceptive and shrewd about the political world, you hobnob with liberals and Democrats. The media likes you, the machers like you, and people who don’t know better see your picture with Chucky Schumer or Jerry Nadler or some other phony and think, “Oh wow. This guy really gets around. He’s important.”

Of course, it’s all meaningless.

But when the president of the United States, who is a greater supporter of Israel than anyone who preceded him in that position, points out the obvious and says that a Jew who doesn’t vote Republican is either an idiot or disloyal to the party that supports Israel and fights anti-Semitism, the Jews and the media go crazy and say that Trump is out of his mind. How dare he point out that the Democrats can no longer be counted on to support Israel? Who is he to remind everyone that the Democrat Party tolerates anti-Semitism and has within its ranks some of the most prominent enemies of the Jewish state? Not only does the party support and condone them, but it places them on vital congressional committees, where they certainly don’t belong.

Trump, the media warns, is an anti-Semite. “Jews,” they say, “be careful. Stay away from him. He doesn’t like you.”

It is helpless to remind them that his son-in-law is Jewish, that he permitted his daughter to undergo an Orthodox conversion to marry a Jew, that his grandchildren are Jewish, that his closest people in the administration are Jews, that he stuck his neck out for Israel several times, and that he freed Rubashkin because he is a compassionate person who cares about justice.

The New York Times and the media echo chamber that follows it accused Trump of bringing up the old canard that Jews are not patriotic citizens of the lands in which they reside, because he used that dirty word “loyal” when he said that Jews who vote for Democrats “are being very disloyal to the Jewish people and very disloyal to Israel.”

Says the Times in an editorial, “In the bloody history of modern anti-Semitism, one of the most common justifications for violence is the inflammatory canard that the loyalty of Jewish citizens is suspect.” So, by using the word “disloyalty,” Trump has reawakened an old lie and “Mr. Trump toys with fanning [the] flames” of anti-Semitism, as seen in Pittsburgh and Poway. Liberal Jewish mouthpieces got into the act and jumped all over Trump, as if he were the worst enemy of the Jews and Israel, comparing him to Hitler, Stalin, and such wicked murderers.

The same Democrats who Jews have been supporting and helping put into office term after term now control the strings of New York State government. And how are they repaying us for our support? For one, they are going after yeshivos as never before. With a venomous hatred, yeshivos are being treated as enemies of mankind and hotbeds of bolshevism. Who is doing this? The Democrats. Yup, those same people every macher was friendly with and took pictures with. As soon as they were free of the Republican shackles, their true progressive colors came out and the battle began. The governor so many Jews contributed to and felt friendly with couldn’t care less. Oh, but he’s our friend. All the state assemblymen and state senators who are described as friends of our community, well, some friends they are. With friends like these, who needs enemies? Yet, G-d forbid for us to call them out or to mention the obvious.

How long will we permit the farce to continue? For how long will we and those who claim to represent us play the game in which we end up at the losing end of the stick? When will we face up to the truth that these people don’t like us and act accordingly?

Four women new to the game of politics have shaken it up, striking the fear of progressiveness in the hearts of all. Four hateful women have taken a party hostage. The entire Democrat roster of presidential candidates is dancing to the tune of those women. Local politicians veer further and further left because they are afraid of those women.

There is only one person in this country in a leadership position who stands up to those women. He deserves our support. He is neither an anti-Semite nor a nut, as the left claims. Rather, he expresses the truth. Our existence here in this country is becoming more and more precarious by the day. We need to support the president because he is the only one who will suppress the anti-Semites and battle the progressives.

It’s all about loyalty and intelligence.

Michelle Goldberg explains the thinking of the leftist Jews. Writing in the New York Times, she says, “The Jewish left rejects the idea that anti-Zionism is equivalent to anti-Semitism, but even more than that, it rejects the idea that Israel is the guarantor of Jewish safety or the lodestar of Jewish identity. And that is not for religious reasons. It is because they don’t care about Israel. ‘Where we are is our home. This is what we fight for. This is where we seek kinship,’ said one spokesman to the Times, in a quote eerily reminiscent to the ‘Berlin is our Jerusalem’ slogan of the enlightened ones in Germany a century ago.”

And that is why they hate Trump so much. Writes Ms. Goldberg, “For those primarily concerned about Jewish life in the Diaspora, Israel…isn’t really an ally, much less an ideal. And Trump, who always speaks of American Jews as if they belong there, is a grotesque enemy. He tells Jews committed to life in America that they owe loyalty to Israel, which he sometimes calls, when speaking to American Jews, ‘your country.’ He says this and expects Jews to react with gratitude.”

So, the non-Jew fights for Israel and reminds Jews that it is the land that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave them and blessed them with, and for doing so, he is deplored, because the Jews of the left don’t really care about Israel.

Thanks to former President Obama and our European allies, Iran gets stronger by the day. The stockpiles of missiles intended to fall in Israel, killing our brothers and sisters, grow daily. Is there anyone other than Trump who is supporting Israel and working to curtail Iran? Which other western leader stands up to Iran and seeks to remove the threat it poses to Israel and the world?

Lev melech beYad Hashem. Hakadosh Boruch Hu has chosen him, for reasons unknown to us, to lead these battles on our behalf. Hashem has emboldened and strengthened him, providing him with the fortitude to stand at our side during these fateful times.

Elul is here and we begin looking at things seriously. With Elul, we think about ourselves and where we are holding, and we also look at the world and offer tefillos that we be spared further pain, additional hatred, and more wars. Let’s be intelligent and know what we are davening for.

May we all be zoche to a meaningful Elul and the geulah kerovah b’meheirah.

Humility

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

This week is one of the Shivah D’nechemta, the weeks of consolation following the annual period of mourning and Tisha B’Av. Where do we find consolation in Moshe’s admonitions that fill this week’s parsha?

As we continue our study of Seder Devorim, we find this week in Parshas Eikev that Moshe Rabbeinu continues his rebuking of the Jewish people for their waywardness. He warns them not to delude themselves as to why Hashem has been kind to them and why they have experienced success. He reminds them that all Hashem asks for in return is that they have yiras Shomayim.

It’s seemingly not really much to ask for, especially when you consider the miraculous survival of the Jewish people through centuries of persecution. Without obvious Divine intervention, we would have been wiped off the map many times over. Yet, more often than not, we fail to heed the message of this week’s parsha. We discover that honoring Hashem’s request for yiras Shomayim is far from a simple task.

What is it that makes it so difficult? We grow comfortable, strong and haughty, and convince ourselves that it is our superior intelligence and mighty muscles that enabled us to reach the pinnacle of success.

By acting in that fashion, and thinking that everything we have attained is due to our own expertise, we absolve ourselves of the need to appreciate Hashem and follow His dictates. We feel no gratitude to Hashem or anyone else, and that way we don’t owe anyone anything.

As long as the going is good, we fail to appreciate our severe limitations. Despite blatant evidence of our human frailties, we cling to a naïve belief in ourselves and our abilities.

Take, for example, someone who decided two years ago that he will earn his living by investing in the stock market. Ever since Donald Trump came into office, the market has been steadily rising and that person has been doing very well. He can make the mistake of thinking that the wealth he has earned since entering the field is because of his stock-picking brilliance. But then, ill winds blow one week, and the market goes crazy and drops 800 points in one day. He is stuck and needs to be bailed out. No longer is he the big genius he told everyone he is. He needs someone to help him, but everyone he knows has been turned off by his bragging.

It takes a downturn for us to be forced to admit our human fallibilities. By then, it is usually too late, for we have turned off too many people with our arrogance and disloyalty. We can no longer count on their friendship and mercy. We played hard to get much longer than we should have. We were deaf to our friends’ entreaties and good advice. We didn’t listen to anyone. Rules were made for other people, not for us. Then, one day, it all comes crashing down on us and there is no one around to help us pick up the pieces.

Take a look at presidential candidate Joe Biden. About as accomplished as a politician can be, the former vice president decided that he also wants to be president. There is a slight problem, though, as he seems to be sleepy and is not sharp. Whenever he speaks, he makes embarrassing mistakes that his aides, and Democrats in general, quickly have to cover up.

Biden mixes up names, dates and places, but it’s all fine, because he’s a Democrat. Instead of riding off into the sunset as a hero, his ego drives him to seek the presidency. He doesn’t have the stamina to campaign every day. He doesn’t have the ability to face reporters. He’s generally roped off from them when he does show up for a public event, but you don’t see any mainstream media outlets exposing him as unfit for office. They portray him as the strongest contender for the toughest job in the country, if not the world. They did the same for Mrs. Hillary Clinton, another candidate clearly unfit for office, who was propped up by the party and its media allies, only to fail miserably when the election came. There is no way he will come out of this looking good.

They are two examples of people whose ga’ava leads them to fail.

It is not only individuals who are doomed to failure because of their ego-driven vanity, it is also prevalent in too many organizations and institutions. There are serious problems in our community which need to be dealt with. Many issues are swept under the rug and ignored as if they don’t exist. Problems that are recognized, are handled in silly, irresponsible ways. And we wonder why.

All too often the people in charge of the institutions, who are charged with setting the agenda and dealing with serious issues, attained their position by means other than merit. Often, they are quite wealthy, others are arrogant, others are not intelligent. When faced with a problem they don’t consult knowledgeable people who are well-informed and conversant with the topic and its different ramifications. Conclusions are reached based on their biased agenda and the amen corner quickly raises its hand in agreement. Outsiders, plebeians with fewer connections and lower incomes are shut out and ignored.

Just as personal ga’avah ruins a person and misleads him, so too communal ga’avah does the same. It is high time that just as we hold people responsible for their actions and lack of action when necessary, so too communal organizations should be forced to be more open and accountable to facts and outcomes.

Nobody should have to be afraid to stand up for the truth. Good people should not be silenced when they objectively fight for the communal good. It was painful to read a recent article by someone who was hounded and threatened because of something he wrote in this newspaper.

Organizations that survive on communal philanthropy have an obligation to remain true to their declared mission. They should not be permitted to operate as personal fiefdoms unanswerable to anyone outside of their closed orbit. There are so many issues begging for solutions, the most they get is inane well-worn platitudes.

It’s time that the hypocrisy of the way our organizations deal with Open Orthodoxy and other groups and people who veer from the honest and true path be condemned and no longer tolerated. Perhaps its time we examine why so many children are slipping out of the system and ending up OTD. We should face up to the truth and deal with it.

In much the same way, politicians who enact and lobby for laws which destroy the moral fabric of this country should also not be welcome in our homes and communities as conquering heroes. We should have the courage of our convictions to let them know what our agenda is and why we disagree with what they are doing. We should be motivated by Torah values and the truth, not photo-ops and autographed selfies.

When we read the pesukim of Parshas Eikev, we feel as if Moshe is pleading with the Jewish people the way we would plead with someone we deeply care about and are attempting to influence to accept reality.

Moshe reminds the Jews of all they have been through, and all the miracles Hashem performed in order to bring them to where they are. He begs them to remember who fed, clothed and cared for them in the desert, even as they remained ungrateful. He reminds them how stubborn and spiteful they were and how he repeatedly interceded on their behalf. He tries to puncture their self-made bubble of grandeur, but they are deaf to his pleas.

It is like meeting someone who knew our grandparents and therefore has a warm spot for us. They reach out to us with kindness and try to help us in our pursuits. Instead of appreciating where that kindness came from, and that it was inspired by their warm memories of our grandparents, we lull ourselves into thinking that it is we ourselves who are so beloved.

Quite often, we meet people who are so chained by their egos that they are incapable of absorbing the truth. Their vanity causes them to be so blinded to facts that are plainly evident to everyone else. Their resistance to anything that challenges their prejudiced notions prevents them from recognizing uncomfortable truths.

So too is the folly of a brilliant person trapped by his desires, unwilling to grasp how his life is antithetical to the Torah’s imperatives.

Read the pesukim of this week’s parsha (8:11 and on): “Be careful lest you shall forget Hashem… Lest you eat and become full and build nice, good fancy homes and become settled… Lest you have much gold and silver and become haughty and forget Hashem, your G-d, who took you out of Mitzrayim and led you through the midbar, where He quenched your thirst and fed you. Yet you say in your heart, I did this all myself with my own strength. Remember it is Hashem who gives you strength to wage war… If you will forget Hashem and go after strange gods and you will serve them and bow to them, I warn you that you will be destroyed…”

These pesukim are not just written to the people who have obviously gone astray. They are written to us all, and should serve as a reminder to us that we should never let our gaava get the better of us and fool us into thinking that we are self-sufficient, that we are smart and strong enough to take care of ourselves. We must always remember where we come from and where we are headed. We must be constantly aware that it is Hashem who provides us with the know-how and stamina we require to earn our livings and get ahead in this world, and to survive life’s many challenges and pitfalls.

Let us not fall prey to self-aggrandizement. Let us ensure that we don’t become blinded by ego and evil inclination, and that we remain loyal to the One who sustains us.

For as the parsha ends (11:22), “If you will observe the mitzvos, love Hashem and follow in his path…then Hashem will let you inherit nations that are larger and stronger than yours… Wherever you will set your foot down will be blessed… No one will be able to stand in your way.”

The tanchumim offered in this week’s parsha emanate from Moshe’s descriptions of how Hakadosh Boruch Hu cares for Am Yisroel, providing they recognize their abilities and appreciate what Hashem does for them. If we study the parsha, we are able to see – and appreciate – the Yad Hashem everywhere. There can be no greater consolation than to be reminded that there is a loving Creator who cares for us, and although procuring much of what we need is beyond our control, He provides for us.

Nothing is ever impossible. There is never an excuse to give up. There is always hope and belief that the Merciful One will bring the success we work so hard to achieve. He knows what’s best for us, and even when we can’t understand everything, it is a consolation to know that nothing happens by itself and whatever happens is for a good reason.

Nachamu

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Last week, Mrs. Shoshana Ovitz celebrated her 104th birthday at the Kosel. She asked that all her offspring join her there and they would jointly recite Nishmas. The picture of the gathering melted Jewish hearts around the world. Hundreds of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren of a woman who faced down the evil Eichmann in Auschwitz gathered in her honor. She survived some of the worst torture known to man and with faith and trust, she married and moved to Haifa.

Obviously, this woman was jealous of none. Happy and believing she has lived a full life of nechamah, her emunah and bitachon rewarded many times over. Mrs. Ovitz and people such as her set examples for the rest of us. To them, the words “Nachamu, nachamu” are real, true, and a way of life.

Nachamu, nachamu, don’t be broken. Nachamu, nachamu, persevere. Nachamu, nachamu, with proper faith you can rebound from anything and lead a productive, happy life.

The past three weeks, we pondered the churban and the tragedies that have befallen our people ever since the destruction of the Botei Mikdosh. We refrained from music, clean clothing, shaving, haircutting, and beard trimming. Every time we looked in the mirror, we were reminded that we are homeless, far from home. The year-round comfort gave way to a three week break of reality.

We mourned martyrs of the past and present; during the Nine Days we mourned the murder of Dvir Sorek, a 19-year-old yeshiva student, at the hands of bloodthirsty Arabs. A boy with holiness in his soul and cheerfulness in his heart, was snuffed out by animals who value nothing but the sword and the knife and the death they bring about. Returning from Yerushalayim to the shadow of Chevron, he met the fate of his martyred grandfather and too many others, and was found 100 yards from his yeshiva. Yet another manifestation of the churban.

The yearning for a rebuilt Eretz Yisroel, with Yerushalayim at its center, the Bais Hamikdosh in its heart giving meaning to our lives and raising us to the heights of holiness, happiness and fulfillment, pulsated within us for three weeks, coming to a head on Tisha B’Av, when we sat on the floor, reciting sad liturgical poems depicting the blood-letting, destruction, emptiness and hardship that have befallen our people.

We sat on the floor pondering our fate, thinking about the important things in life as we ignored many creature comforts. We wondered what we can do to get ourselves back home. We prayed for better days and resolved to do away with sinas chinom and its causes.

Golus can be understood by viewing people who nebach lo aleinu suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Though from the outside they seem fine and vivacious and by looking at them you could never tell that there is anything wrong with them. The superficial exterior is perfect. However, tragically, inside there is emptiness, their brains have been corroded and there is little cranial activity.

When you take a superficial look at the Jewish people in the exile, they seem as if they are a growing, flourishing people. But when you examine beneath the surface, you detect that their spirituality is lacking, in the place of holiness there is emptiness. That which made them great and connected them to the Creator has corroded and the connection is shaky, tentative and weak.

During The Three Weeks, we recognize our vacuity and pine for relief. However, when Tisha B’Av ends, we revert once again to our normal golus stance, reinforced with the faith that the redemption will soon come and the golus will end.

In effect, mourning and appreciating our condition give rise to hopes of salvation. When we forget how far we are from where we should be, we begin admiring the exile, reveling in its physical attractions, sights and sounds. We become outwardly gleeful, but increasingly empty on the inside.

Once we remember that we are in golus, the consolation can begin. Last week, we read Parshas Devorim and heard the plaintive wail of Eicha. This week we read Parshas Vo’eschanan and identify with Moshe Rabbeinu’s desperate desire to behold the Land, to touch its soil and to fulfill its special mitzvos. And then the pleasant chords of Nachamu tug at our souls, as we echo Moshe Rabbeinu’s prayer with much eagerness.

Moshe Rabbeinu davened 515 (the gematria of the word vo’eschanan) separate tefillos that he merit entry into Eretz Yisroel. We wonder: If Moshe’s requests were denied, how can we possibly have a chance?

By examining Hashem’s response to Moshe, we can gain an understanding of our abilities to achieve a positive result.

The posuk (Devorim 3:26) states that Hakadosh Boruch Hu instructed Moshe to stop davening, saying, “Rav loch, al tosef daber eilai od badovor hazeh.” The Vilna Gaon (Chumash HaGra, ibid.) explains that Hashem commanded Moshe to stop praying for entry to Eretz Yisroel, because it had been decreed on high that he would never merit crossing the border in The Promised Land.

The Gaon explains that Hashem empowered tefillah into teva, nature, giving prayer the power to effect change in the world. Tefillos that are heard by Hashem have the natural ability to bring about change and erase decrees. Hashem seeks to maintain the laws of nature and therefore asked Moshe to stop davening.

How comforting it is to know that our tefillos have the ability to change and correct the course of our lives.

Thus, not only is the haftorah comforting, but Parshas Vo’eschanan is as well. It is a parsha of nechomah. The first word, “Vo’eschanan,” is translated as an expression of tefillah, but Rashi indicates that since the word “chinom” is at its root, it has an underlying explanation as the ability to make requests of Hashem even though we may not be worthy of receiving what we are asking for. We all have the ability to daven, as Moshe did, and be answered, even if we are not worthy.

We know that the second Bais Hamikdosh was destroyed because of sinas chinom, commonly translated as baseless hatred. Let us examine the Gemara that discusses why the Bais Hamikdosh was destroyed to gain an understanding of sinas chinom, so that we can rectify the sin that causes our exile to continue.

The Gemara in Maseches Yoma (9b) states: “The first Bais Hamikdosh was destroyed because the Jewish people engaged in the sins of avodah zora, giluy arayos, and shefichas domim. However, during the period of the second Bais Hamikdosh, when the Jewish people busied themselves with Torah, mitzvos and gemillus chassodim, the churban was caused by sinas chinom. From here you see that sinas chinom is equivalent to the three cardinal sins that caused the first churban.”

The Netziv (Haamek Dovor, Devorim 4:14) cites the Yerushalmi (4b), which adds some explanation for the churban of the second Bais Hamikdosh: “We know that at the time of Bayis Sheini, they delved into Torah study and were very scrupulous in their mitzvah observance and maaser…but they loved money and hated each other for no apparent reason.” Therefore, the Bais Hamikdosh was destroyed.

The Netziv explains that the Yerushalmi is indicating that at the root of sinas chinom lies a love of money. In other words, sinas chinom is brought on by being jealous of people who have more than you.

The cause of this jealousy is a lack of emunah. It demonstrates a fundamental distrust in the notion that Hashem decides who gets more and who gets less.

If we would yearn for Hashem’s Presence, there would be no room in our hearts for divisive feelings and hate, because we would recognize that to feel that way is to contradict belief in the Creator’s dominion.

One who appreciates that Hashem rules over the world is happy with what he has. He recognizes that all that he has is from Him. Those who cause him pain are Heavenly messengers. The challenges he is confronted with are presented by Hashem. Knowing that helps him get through difficult situations and overcome impulses of hatred and anger.

The Vilna Gaon establishes this in Even Sheleimah (3:1-3), where he writes that “bitachon and being satisfied with what we have is at the root of all middos tovos. These attributes are the marked opposites of wants and desires,” which consume man. The main attribute that a man can strive for is bitachon… All sins arise from wanton desire, the Aseres Hadibros and the Torah are summed up in the dibbur of ‘Lo Sachmod.’

“The middah of histapkus, being satisfied with what you have, is at the root of the whole Torah, representing the complete belief of not worrying today about tomorrow.”

He says that, “a person who has proper bitachon but transgresses the most severe sins is better than someone who is lacking in bitachon, for the latter will come to jealousy and hatred, and even if he delves into Torah and performs good acts, he only does so to create a nice reputation.”

This explains the Bavli and Yerushalmi in Yoma. The Jews at the time of the second Bais Hamikdosh were engrossed in learning Torah and performing mitzvos. They were even engaged in performing charitable acts. But their core was rotten. They were driven by selfish desire for more money and more possessions. They didn’t do good deeds because they cared what Hashem would say about them, but because they wanted people to praise them.

They hated each other, because each saw in the other things he didn’t have. The other guy had a bigger house, a bigger wagon, and more money. Their bitachon was lacking. They didn’t believe that what they had was apportioned by Hashem, and thus their root was crooked and corrupt.

Yeshayahu Hanovi (Yeshayahu 1:1) expressed the words of Hashem: “What do I need your korbanos for, says Hashem… I don’t want them.” Hashem wants the sacrifices of those who believe in Him and follow His word because of that belief. He is not interested in the offerings of hateful unbelievers. (See also Devorim 23:19, which states, “Lo sovi esnan zonah umechir kelev bais Hashem Elokecha...ki so’avas Hashem gam shneihem.”) Therefore, the Bais Hamikdosh was destroyed and waits for us to rectify what lies at the root of that negative trait in order for it to return.

A mother who feeds her children is offended when they squabble over who received a larger or smaller portion. She loves them all and provides for them everything they require. When they suggest otherwise, it is an indication that they don’t appreciate her love and all she does for them. The Master of the World gives us what we need. Believers have no reason to hate. The Bais Hamikdosh, the place of the Shechinah in this world, was destroyed because the hatred among the Jewish people indicated that the nation negated the significance of the Divine home amongst them.

The person with bitachon can rise above pettiness and extend kindness to everyone. He can judge others favorably and really love every Jew. He is not challenged when others succeed financially, and he doesn’t. He does not go nuts when someone insults him, even in public. Competition doesn’t eat away at his soul. He isn’t driven by an insatiable need for attention, honor or control.

People of faith know that Hashem provides for them, as He does for everyone else, and their obligation is to satisfy Him and find favor in His eyes. They know that all that exists and all that transpires is because the One who created the world willed it so.

This lies at the root of the segulah of Rav Chaim Volozhiner to concentrate on “Ein od milvado” in times of danger. Acknowledging that what will happen is from Hashem is to throw yourself upon Him. Bitachon is the segulah for a yeshuah, because it emboldens us to daven with conviction and confidence. We turn to Hashem in tefillah for what we need and are satisfied with the response.

The fact that tefillos help is a rule of nature.

Thus, Vo’eschanan and Nachamu are bound together. Faith and prayer bring consolation. Emunah and bitachon bring nechomah.

Yeshayahu Hanovi proclaims, “Nachamu, nachamu ami, take comfort My nation, yomar Elokeichem, your G-d says. You are My people. You are My nation. Recognize that and you will be comforted, for I shall comfort you.”

As we finish reciting the Kinnos, after a morning spent sitting alone on the floor, reading the sad words written throughout the ages, we unite in song. We proclaim the words, “Eli Tziyon v’oreha. Zion wails as a woman about to give birth.” We state that we have learned our lesson. We recognize where we have gone wrong. With hearts united, we say together: No more hate, no more jealousy, no more lack of bitachon. From our pain, we will give birth to a renewed people finally redeemed. From our pain, the Bais Hamikdosh will rise in the heart of Zion.

Let us rid our hearts of hatred, pettiness, jealousy and machlokes. Let us appreciate what we have and stop looking at what other people have. Let us find satisfaction with what Hashem has blessed us. Let us increase our love, satisfaction and faith. Let us do all we can to eradicate sinas chinom in all its guises from among us.

Nachamu, a way of life. A future soon to unfold.

An Unbending Force

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Parshas Devorim is always read prior to Tisha B’Av, for it recounts Moshe’s lecturing of the Bnei Yisroel for the sins they committed in the midbar.

Rashi (1:1) writes that all of the Jewish people were gathered together when Moshe addressed them. This miraculous occurrence that they should all be in one place and able to hear Moshe speak was brought on so that no person would be able to say later on that he missed the speech, but had he been there, he would have responded to Moshe. Therefore, everyone was there when he spoke, and Moshe said to them, “If you have anything to say, if you have a response to my castigation of you and what you did, speak up now.”

It seems a bit strange that at this late date in the sojourn through the desert, there would still be wisecrackers who would shoot off their mouths at Moshe, especially after he had told them off for their misdeeds and recounted what they did and how Hashem had reacted.

As Moshe continued his admonishment, we find in posuk 22 that Moshe reviews the story of the sin of the meraglim. He tells what transpired and then (26-27) how the people reacted. “And you did not anymore want to continue on the trip to the Promised Land and you rebelled against the word of Hashem. You sat in your tents besmirching Hashem and saying that He redeemed you from Mitzrayim because He hates you and wants to hand you over to the Emori nation to kill you.”

Moshe continues that at the time he reprimanded them that Hashem would fight and care for them as He had done in the desert ever since He took them out of Mitzrayim. Yet, the people refused to believe. Hashem angered and swore that none of the people of that generation would see Eretz Yisroel (besides Koleiv ben Yefuneh and Yehoshua bin Nun).

In Parshas Shelach, the Torah recounts the sorry story of the meraglim, yet there, instead of saying that the people complained in their tents, the posuk says that after hearing from the meraglim upon their return from Eretz Yisroel (Bamidbar 14:1), the people raised their voices and cried about their misfortune that night. 

The Gemara states (Taanis 29a, et al.) that Rava said in the name of Rabi Yochanon that it transpired on Tisha B’Av. Hashem heard their cries and said that since they cried for no reason, He would give them something to cry about on this day throughout the generations.

The Ramban (ibid.) writes that he doesn’t see how that is derived from the pesukim in Parshas Shelach. Rather, he cites the pesukim in Tehillim (106:24-27) that recount the sin of the meraglim, and there Hashem’s reaction is written differently. It says that Hashem swore that He would dump that generation in the midbar and would deposit their children and future generations among the nations of the world.

Rashi (Tehillim 106:27) writes that at that time, Hashem declared that the Botei Mikdosh would be destroyed, for this took place on Tisha B’Av, and Hashem said, “They wept for no reason; I will give them what to cry about throughout the generations.”

I found this difficult to understand. The sin of the meraglim was indeed a grave one. Although Hashem had repeatedly promised that He was bringing them to a land that flowed with milk and honey, the people felt it necessary to send spies there to check out what the country was really like.

The sin that showed a lack of faith was sending the spies to scout out the land. Once the spies returned and were able to convince the people that the land would be difficult to capture and inhabit, why was that considered more of a sin, deserving of eternal punishment? They were led astray by wicked, talented, important people. Was it their fault that the meraglim were blessed with oratory skills with which to excite the Jewish people? Although the people should have maintained their faith in Hashem and heeded His promises, can we fault them for being human and having human feelings and fears?

It would seem that our faith in the word of Hashem must be so strong that we cannot be swayed, even by smooth talkers who establish their careers based on their ability to convince people of their agenda. We must control ourselves not to be misled by false prophets who promise happiness and bliss or those who predict tragedy and failure.

We need to follow Moshe, who teaches us Torah and the way – and word – of Hashem. There is never an excuse to deviate from the words of the leader who is suffused with Torah, provides leadership, and answers purely based on Torah and not individual agendas or bias. The meraglim were biased in their reporting and thus what they said should have been ignored.

Having been freed from Mitzrayim and led for as long as anyone can remember by Moshe, a proven, faithful servant of Hashem and student of the complete Torah, anyone who could cry because he was misled by a charlatan failed in their mission as a Jew and deserved to be punished. When the entire people are misled and retreat to their homes to bemoan their fate, they have collectively failed and come close to forfeiting their future.

Thus, while perhaps the Jews could have explained that their desire for meraglim was an expression of permissible hishtadlus to see how they would enter and take over the land, nevertheless, when the people went into a collective depression following the report delivered by the people who were supposed to be aiding in permissible hishtadlus of populating the land, it showed that the sending of the spies was a sign of a lack of faith and trust in Hashem and Moshe.

Rav Yitzchok Elchonon Spector was rov of Kovno and widely respected by Lithuanian Jewry as the rabbon shel kol bnei hagolah, but there were always people who thought they knew better.

During a period when people were starving for food, the rov permitted the consumption of kitniyos on Pesach. There were those who baulked. The rosh yeshiva of Slabodka, Rav Itzele Ponovezher, overheard yeshiva bochurim objecting to the ruling. He went to the middle of the room and announced loudly from the bimah, “When Rav Yitzchok Elchonon permits something, the Torah is permitting it.”

The words of the Moshe of the dor are Torah and we must follow without demurring.

Never feel lost. Never let people scare you. Never be overwhelmed by current events and things going on around you. Never feel besieged and never feel hopeless. We don’t understand the ways of Hashem, but we do know that if we follow the Torah, whatever happens to us will be for the good.

When the Torah says, “Lo saguru mipnei ish” (Devorim 1:17), it is a lav to fear other people, “ki hampishpot l’Elokim hu,” because justice is in the Hands of Hashem. The understanding of the posuk is that the admonition refers to a judge, who may not fear those who stand before him in court, even if they threaten him. We can also say that the Torah is speaking to everyone. Fear not what others tell you, and do not fall prey to what men say, for their words are naught. Hashem is the One who rules over us, not other men, and He will decide our future.

Someone I know was coerced into swearing to do something. He soon regretted what he had committed to do. He went to Klal Yisroel’s posek, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, and asked him if he could negate his vow.

Very sternly, Rav Elyashiv looked up at him and asked why he swore to do whatever it was. He told the aged rov that he was scared of the person who pushed him to make the neder.

Rav Elyashiv became very angry with him. “I will not give you an answer now. Don’t you know that it is a lav in the Torah to be scared of other people? The posuk says, ‘Lo soguru mipnei ish.’ Return to me tomorrow after you have contemplated what you have done and I will see if I can help you.”

The Torah is a force that never bends, and if it forbids doing something, then we must never engage in that action, no matter how fearful the situation seems.

Rav Yecheskel Abramsky was well-known as a talmid muvhak of Rav Chaim Soloveitchik. He later headed the London Bais Din before moving in his later years to Eretz Yisroel, settling in Yerushalayim while serving as rosh yeshiva at the Slabodka Yeshiva in Bnei Brak.

In Lita, he occupied one of the most important rabbinic positions as rov of Slutzk. The communists robbed the city of its Jewish infrastructure as part of their ongoing battle against the Jewish religion. Many rabbis were taken away and locked up, and he feared for his future. He traveled to Moscow to seek a visa to leave the country. With the NKVD on his tail, he fled to Leningrad. While there, he found a room to rent for lodging.

Years later, on Chanukah in 1959, he delivered a shmuess to talmidim of Yeshiva Kol Torah. He told them that while serving as rov in Slutzk, he was consulted about a certain halachic issue and wrote a responsa on the topic. “Rav Yitzchok Elchonon had also addressed the topic,” he told the talmidim, “but I disagreed with him.

“That morning, the Bolsheviks came to town to arrest me for my activities to strengthen Torah and Yahadus across Russia. I escaped and went into hiding in the home of a Jewish widow, hoping to stay there until the Bolshevik rage calmed down.

“I searched and could not find a single sefer to study in her home and asked her if she had any seforim. Initially, she said she had none, but then she remembered that a relative had once left a book behind. She found the sefer. Amazingly, it was none other than the sefer Be’er Yitzchok, authored by Rav Yitzchok Elchonon Spector. Not only that, but when I opened the sefer, it was to the page where he discusses and rules on the topic on which I had disagreed with him.

“Immediately, I understood why I was being hunted by the Bolsheviks and foresaw that I would soon be arrested. A few hours later, I was indeed taken away and sent to Siberia.”

The story of Rav Yecheskel’s fate spread like wildfire across the Jewish world. Everyone began praying for his release, and giants such as Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky and the Chofetz Chaim led a campaign to free him.

He continued his story, telling the bochurim, “One night, after months of the Siberian torture, I had a dream in which I saw Rav Yitzchok Elchonon, who smiled at me. When I awoke, I said to the guards, ‘I am going to be freed today.’ And indeed I was. It was Erev Yom Kippur in 1931, and that afternoon the guards came to notify me that miraculously I had been freed.”

If a giant as great as Rav Abramsky felt that he was exiled to Siberia because of his disagreement with a p’sak of Rav Yitzchok Elchonon, how careful we must be with our own words and actions.

The Bnei Yisroel cried one night because they were misled while in exile in a barren desert. Those cries cost them their lives and caused Am Yisroel to suffer until this very day.

Let us not cry for naught. Let us repent for our sins and those of our forefathers. Let us accept upon ourselves to follow and respect the words of the Torah and its giants. Let us get along with others, and respect and love them as we do ourselves. Let us pray for the day of our geulah to arrive speedily. Our faces will break out in wide smiles and it will all feel like a dream. We will finally joyfully reap the products of the seeds we tearfully planted in golus.

May it be today. Amein.

Justice

Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Back in the day when we were fighting for the life and freedom of Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, there were those who castigated us for our crusade. They said that he is a criminal, and he was indeed eventually found guilty in a court of law. “He is a felon,” they wrote. “How can you defend him? He’s a crook. Shame on you.”

We are not into conspiracy theories, but as we were following the story from the beginning, we saw that the hand of justice can at times be crooked. It can be used by people with an agenda to destroy someone who crossed them in one way or another.

We proved that was the case. His lawyers proved that the judge and prosecutors were in collusion, which is a common word these days, but back then, not everyone knew what that meant. Prosecutorial misconduct was proven, as were many oddities, mistakes and open bias in the case.

It was strange to many of us, because we were brought up to respect authority, the law, lawmen and agents of the court. We didn’t want to believe that the law and those who swore to uphold it had twisted it to destroy a man, his family and his business. There are still people who look down upon him and seek to prevent him from doing what he does, namely, traveling the world to speak about emunah and bitachon and giving chizuk to broken souls.

Last week’s congressional hearings into President Donald Trump and the Special Council who was appointed to investigate him was eye opening even to people who thought they know the game. And while the president is no Rubashkin and the stakes were much higher, the allegations that he colluded with the Russians in order to get himself elected president become more ridiculous by the day.

Democrats still have not gotten over the fact that the political neophyte who had never run for anything beat their prized candidate and was elected president of this great country in 2016. While he was yet a candidate, the FBI - yes, the holy FBI - worked with the Justice Department and the Democrat campaign to concoct a story that Trump was colluding with Russia and was guilty of other crimes. They sought to entrap people working on his campaign, as they compiled a dossier - whatever that means - of Trump’s alleged criminal and immoral behavior.

From the day he was elected, Democrats have been seeking to chase him from office, thus far to no avail. Working with old hands in the Justice Department, they had a special prosecutor appointed to get to the bottom of the Trump scandals. This man was promoted as the paragon of virtue, the most honest, straight, efficient lawman in the country. He had previously headed the FBI and had wanted to lead it again under Trump. He spent a lifetime in government and was heralded by all as justice incarnate. He was the epitome of wisdom and impartiality.

Democrats thought that somehow, this man, who was not even familiar with the report he himself submitted to Congress, would be able, in live testimony, to hit it out of the park and convince the entire country that Trump is the evil person he has been portrayed to be. From the hearings, they would march him straight to impeachment and then to the guillotine.

But that was when the jig fell apart. Under questioning by congressmen, he was shown to be slow and confused, with faint knowledge of the facts, doddering, and totally unable to answer the questions posed to him. The more the charade continued, the more it became obvious that the whole investigation and everyone involved in it were a farce. It was an abuse of power propped up by Clinton cronies, from the compilation of the dossier up until and including staffing and the council’s investigation.

It took someone as brash as Donald Trump to expose the scandal. Most targets of such campaigns capitulate and fear the outcome. The Justice Department wins 97% of its cases, and most often, the defendant pleads guilty rather than face the crush of veteran prosecutors and the FBI.

You don’t have to be a supporter of Mr. Trump or his agenda to acknowledge the truth of the legal case against him. Yet, after the national embarrassment of their strawman’s ineptitude played out for the entire country, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, facing a progressive primary opponent of his own, is pursuing his bid for impeachment of the president. He says that Mueller’s testimony clarified in greater detail than ever before that the president should be impeached.

Nadler said this week that the president “richly deserves impeachment. He has done many impeachable offenses; he’s violated the laws six ways from Sunday.” Nadler says with a straight face that Mueller’s report presents “very substantial evidence” that Trump is “guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The facts don’t count. For two years now, the people have been sold a sham tale of fiction, perpetrated by the power elite and the mainstream media people used to rely on for information.

Such is life in golus. Such is life in the alma d’shikra. It is sad to see that democracy, the vaunted form of government that has been so kind to our people and to hundreds of millions of residents here, is in danger of being taken over by corrupt bureaucrats and socialists. Our people have flourished here like never before, and some have even felt as if the messiah had arrived and brought the Jewish people to this land of plenty.

Rarely has this much corruption been exposed in this country. Never has a major party been taken over by socialists, anti-Semites and haters of Israel.

Reading the news is a reminder that we are in ­golus and the dangers that this represents. Everything that happens in this world provides a lesson for us in how to conduct ourselves and to seek improvement. Every story in every parsha of the Torah is there to teach us something.

As we are currently in the midst of the Three Weeks, when we mourn the destruction of the Bais Hamikdosh, we must also concentrate on what we are to do to merit its return. With small gestures, we seek to impress upon ourselves the great loss as we aspire to reach the levels of our forefathers with a home for the Shechinah in our world.

Parshas Mattos recounts the voyage of the Jewish people throughout the desert and the stops they made along the way to the Promised Land.

Sifrei Kabbolah and drush are replete with deeper meanings and the significance of each station along Klal Yisroel’s journey through the midbar. They teach that the 42 masa’os correspond to the 42-letter name of Hashem, the holy “Sheim Mem Bais.”

The journey, with its forks, turns, hills and valleys, was necessary to prepare the nation for acquiring Hashem’s land, Eretz Yisroel. As we study the parsha and follow the journey, we must be attuned to the mussar and chizuk encoded here. As we recount the difficult times and the exalted moments, we find direction for the masa’os of our own lives as well.

We know that whatever happens to us in our life is a sentence in an unfolding autobiography. By now, chapters have been completed and many more remain to be written. We forge ahead to our destiny, neither tiring nor being satisfied with past accomplishments, nor becoming bogged down by failure.

None of us knows which of our actions will be the one that earns us eternal life. Something we say to someone today can have an impact years later. We can’t expect instant success and we must not be deterred by temporary failure.

We have many opportunities to act positively and put things into motion. Just like we invest money and understand that if there will be a payoff it will be sometime in the future, so too, when we invest in spiritual actions, we shouldn’t necessarily expect immediate results. We never know how our actions will turn out, but if we work lesheim Shomayim and give it all we have, we will have written yet another chapter in our book, made the world a better place, and brought us all one step closer to Moshiach and the rebuilding of the Bais Hamikdosh.

A speaker can travel a great distance to deliver a speech. He arrives at the hall and it is desolate; only a few sleepy-eyed people showed up. But if the speech awakens a spark within even one of the attendees, that single person may be inspired to undertake a tremendous project several years later. The reward will accrue to the speaker long after he forgot what he thought was a wasted night.

Adam le’amal yulad. Man was created with the purpose of exerting himself towards accomplishing a goal. Each of us has to undertake masa’os, trips, toward that destination. Some are smooth rides, others are bumpier. There are many that are filled with “construction sites” and detours. Some people ride in a Cadillac and others in a Fiat 500. Whichever maso we are on, and whatever type of wheels we roll on, the common denominator is that we have to ensure that we never stop moving forward.

Since the churban, Jews have given of their spirit, blood and tears in a cyclical pattern of death and life. Some years were better, others worse. Sometimes, we have been fortunate, living comfortably and growing productively under the rule of kind masters. In other periods, millions died with the name of the Lord on their lips, alone and together, lined up at forest pits and in ghettos. They died sanctifying Hashem’s name, saying Shema Yisroel. The chevlei Moshiach swallowed them up, and in their merit we live and prosper in freedom.

The posuk states, “Tzion bemishpot tipodeh veshoveha betzedakah.” Let us seek out and perform true justice, for then we will be redeemed. Know to differentiate between true justice and the fictitious version all too prevalent in our day. We should seek to perform justice, to work to ensure that proper justice is done, that the righteous are rewarded and the wicked punished. Let us not permit the thief to be exalted and the victim faulted.

President Donald Trump exhibits a rare kindness to our people and to Israel. Just this week, on Monday, he freed a religious man from prison who was convicted in a case involving a regulatory minefield. Most of the trial was spent by his lawyers showing that he could not have known that what he dealt with regulated. In a verdict which justice authorities wrote “represents the worst kind of disproportionate sentence,” the man was found guilty and sentenced to a 20-year sentence. Numerous elected and former officials, along with the Aleph Foundation, reached out to the president and appraised him of the injustice and its repercussions on the man’s family.

The individuals who set out to help this man were mocked by others as wasting their time on a lost cause which nobody would care about. But they persisted anyway. Hashem rewarded their efforts. Of course, we should appreciate what the president did, using his power to restore life to the convict and his family, with no evident benefit for himself. His kindness should be noted and appreciated.

Rav Mordechai Pogramansky repeated that one time while he was in the Kovno Ghetto there was a major commotion and tumult. The city’s rov, Rav Avrohom Dov Kahane Schapiro, turned to him and said that he was jealous of the kohen who hid the jug of olive oil as the Chashmonaim were battling the Yevonim.

“Der umbakanter soldat, that unknown kohen, was blessed with the calmness of spirit and presence of mind to do what had to be done at the time of great chaos that ensued when the Yevonim broke through the walls. Through his action, in the time of chaos there was oil with which to light the menorah when the battle ended.”

Regardless of what is going on around us, no matter what our chances are for success, we must always remain calm and act intelligently. We must never lose ourselves and get swept up in the madness of the moment.

Always remain focused on the bigger picture.

Let us engage in righteousness and charity, so that we help strengthen kedusha and honesty in this world and weaken the koach hatumah, allowing Moshiach to reveal himself and bring about the geulah.