With Elections Around the Corner

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

This week we learn again the fascinating parsha of Noach and how Hashem brought the Mabul to destroy the world He had created.

As we begin learning the parsha, we note that the pesukim (6:11-12) that describe the depraved situation of the world at the time of Noach state, “Vatishocheis ha’aretz lifnei ha’Elokim vatimolei ha’aretz chomos - The world became corrupt before Hashem and the world became full of thievery. Vayar Hashem es ha’aretz vehinei nishchosah - And Hashem saw the earth and behold it was corrupted.”

Acharonim point out that these pesukim indicate that although the world had become an awfully sinful place and was totally corrupted, it was only Hashem who perceived what was happening. Nobody else took notice. All of mankind was blind to what was going on. Either this was because the people themselves were guilty of what was happening to the world and therefore didn’t notice it or because the people didn’t realize that anything was off.

The corruption, thievery, murder, immorality and assorted evil prevalent in their day were considered normative behavior. The people of the day didn’t consider the depravity as a societal ill. If you wonder how that can be, take a look around at this country as it has slid into a socialist, hedonist grip. Criminals are coddled, while those charged with enforcing the law are disparaged, defunded and denuded of their ability to maintain safety and order.

Those on the political right are not only vilified, but are cancelled in every possible way. People who advocate for traditional morals are denigrated as being out of touch and worse. Criminals who society views as deprived are permitted to pillage stores at will. Murder of babies is considered a primal right and all matters of personal proclivity are protected and encouraged.

Elections are around the corner and people are contemplating how to vote. I know that some of you won’t like this, but it is beyond me how any religious person can pull the lever for a Democrat candidate. Not only are they not our friends, but when voting for a member of that party, you are enabling the Democrat Party to achieve a majority in the legislature, or Congress, or the Senate, depending on the race. And even if your local Democrat happens to be an exception, when you vote for him or her you are pulling the lever for higher taxes, for abortion, for no cash bail, for defunding the police, for bad judges, for woke policies, for demoralizing the culture, for empowering the left, and for much else.

At the outset of the Biden administration, the economy was growing at a rate of 6.5%, inflation was at 1%, and everything was humming along. There had been no major wars for four years and peace was coming together in the Middle East. But the Democrats were unhappy and Joe Biden set out on fulfilling progressive dreams by declaring a moratorium on leasing permits for oil and gas exploration on public lands, while rolling back Trump border policies, in effect opening the southern border to millions of illegals.

The war on fossil fuels raised the price of gas, which was immediately felt by consumers. The raised fuel prices also caused the price of shipping and delivery to rise, compounded by rampant government spending and onerous regulations, leading to historic inflation rates.

As prices rose and the economy suffered, the Democrats refused to dial back their anti-fossil fuel policies and instead caused the United States to become even more dependent on foreign sources of oil. Biden begged Saudi Arabia to pump more oil, but they snubbed him and conspired with Russia to cut production and keep prices high.

All along, Republican warnings that the Biden policies will result in economic ruin and an overrun border were ignored. Now, inflation is out of control and a recession is either underway or will be soon. Interest rates are rising, the stock market is falling, and a boom became a bust.

People contemplating voting for Democrats may have already forgotten how their party’s elected officials bludgeoned people as the Covid pandemic raged, forcing most business to close while keeping others open and slamming shut schools, despite scant evidence that the virus was harmful to young people. School closures led to drastic decreases in the ability of children to do math and read and write, not to mention the mental issues caused by isolation. Perhaps they have forgotten how yeshivos held classes surreptitiously in basements and fled from New York State, as did summer camps. Democrats were deaf to pleas and arguments that the lockdowns were severe and unnecessary.

Crime in Democrat cities and states has exploded. Even if they would want to, judges are not allowed to consider a defendant’s danger to the community when deciding whether to bring him to trial, nor can they impose bail to keep him locked up and away from innocent people. So a dangerous person commits a dastardly crime, and within hours of his arrest, he’s back on the streets, prowling for his next victim. Police are handcuffed while criminals are free to do as they please. Crime statistics continue to rise and nothing is done. People remain in their formerly safe neighborhoods at their own peril, while many flee to safer states and cities. Nothing is done, besides some pre-election lip service.

This is without even discussing the cultural revolution going on in schools where children are being brainwashed and taught to accept and practice what had been considered aberrant behavior prior to the current administration’s assumption of power.

We are all obligated to do what we can to ensure that the world is basically a moral place. We accomplish that in several ways, but a primary method to influence change in a democracy is through participating in the electoral process.

We do it for ourselves and for the world, for if the world continues to sink in levels of morality, perversion and depravity, the result won’t be good.

Rav Chaim Soloveitchik taught, based on a Medrash in last week’s parsha and other sources, that when we say that the world was created according to the Torah, it means that the Torah contains the blueprint for the world.

When a building is to be constructed, the first person to consult is an architect who knows about engineering and materials, as well as angles, light, sound, and the rules and laws of construction. Based upon his knowledge of everything involved, he creates detailed plans and drawings of the envisioned building, which the builder follows and regularly consults throughout the construction process.

Similarly, when Hashem created the world, everything was fashioned based upon the rules and principles of the Torah. The world is guided by the principles of the Torah, and therefore, if the laws and teachings of the Torah are observed, the world can exist and flourish. But if the people who populate the world disobey the Torah and the morals it espouses, it becomes difficult for it to exist and things begin to spin out of control as the world slowly becomes destroyed.

This is the explanation of the Rashi we have been studying ever since we began learning Chumash with Rashi in our youth. He cites for us the Medrash (Bereishis Rabbah 26:5), which states that wherever there is overwhelming immorality and avodah zorah, devastation comes to the world, killing the good along with the bad. And now we know why. Just as a house begins to fall apart if the architect’s instructions aren’t followed, or the wrong wiring, or faulty plasterboard, or weak sealants are used, so too, if the world deteriorates and degrades, rot sets in and begins to eat away at its foundations.

We have an obligation to ourselves, our children, our communities, and Klal Yisroel to try to rectify the world in which we live.

If we wish to have a fighting chance to raise upstanding, fine, ehrliche families, we have to seek to improve the surrounding culture so that we don’t become sullied – or a statistic – just by venturing out to the public thoroughfare.

Over the Yomim Noraim and Sukkos, we worked so hard to attain new heights of spirituality, achieving improvement and bringing ourselves closer to Hashem. All that is jeopardized by the murky swamp in which we are enveloped.

As we learn this week’s parsha, and as schools and yeshivos begin the winter sessions and zeman, we need to follow the lesson portrayed by Noach, a tzaddik, who didn’t only care about himself and his family, but spent 120 years of his life seeking to right the world and inspire people to rectify their ways.

In the merit of his selfless actions, though his efforts were unsuccessful, he and his family were singled out from all the world’s residents to be saved from the calamitous destruction. By cleaving to the Torah and its gedolim, tzaddikim and talmidim, and doing what we can to make the world a better place, we will help ensure that we and our families remain devoted to Hashem and stay afloat in a sinking world.

Time of Blessing

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Sukkos is a wonderful time of year when we celebrate many mitzvos. Loved and cherished by all, the mitzvos include, of course, the sukkah and the daled minim. Much effort is involved in procuring a nice esrog, lulav, hadasim and aravos. The joy of those who worked so hard is evident when you see them proudly holding aloft the daled minim, heading off to shul with an extra bounce in their step and a smile on their faces.

No matter a person’s situation, when Sukkos comes and he gets to hold his daled minim, a wave of joy sweeps over him. The same goes for the sukkah. Irrespective of a Yid’s personal plight, from that first night of Sukkos onward, when he sits in his sukkah and takes in the sights around him, he feels like a newly installed king on his throne in Buckingham Palace. His problems and anxieties fade away, as he contemplates his blessings, enveloped in the mitzvah and thoughts of “vesomachta bechagecha, vehayisa ach someiach.”

Throughout the centuries of Jewish history, in hospitable lands and non-welcoming environs, in times of great wealth and deep recession, on the hills of Yerushalayim and in the depths of Auschwitz, in the warmth of Marakesh and the bitter cold of Kovno, in large sukkos and small ones, flimsy and strong, covered with pine branches, wheat shafts, and bamboo mats, that smile has been ever-present, the inner joy spreading warmth across a Jew’s sometimes battered body, as he and his family celebrated in the shadow of the Divine.

Shir Hashirim focuses on Hashem’s love for His people. With flowing poetry, Shlomo Hamelech portrays Klal Yisroel’s departure from Mitzrayim and how the newly-formed nation followed Hashem into a desert, a zechus we still call upon as a source of merit in our day, many centuries later.

One of those gloriously poetic pesukim is “Uri tzafon uvo’ie Seimon - A call to the winds from the north (tzafon) and the south (Teimon) to blow on to my garden” (Shir Hashirim 4:16). The Rokeach understands this posuk as a plea for the mercy and goodness of tzafon, which the Vilna Gaon teaches is a repository of good, and Teimon, where middas hachesed resides.

Essentially, the posuk represents the cry of the Jew in golus, beseeching Heaven for a bounty of goodness and chesed. The Rokeach adds an interesting tidbit. He writes that the words uri tzafon are the acronym of eitz [referring to the lulav]. We hold the lulav and wave it in all four directions, pleading for Hashem, kevayachol, to come to us, bo’i Seiman, with middas hachesed.

Even if we understand the allusion to the garden at the end of the posuk as a hint to the species that come forth from the ground and serve as a cheftzah shel mitzvah, what connection is there between the words uri tzafon and the mitzvah of lulav? What is the connection between waving the lulav and asking Hashem to come join us?

The Torah describes the Yom Tov of Sukkos as Chag Ha’asif, the festival celebrating successful harvests. It is a season of ingathering.

The Sefer Hachinuch (324) develops this idea and writes that the mitzvah of daled minim is also part of this theme. We take in our hands the four minim because they bring joy to those who behold them. It is a time of “yemei simcha gedolah l’Yisroel, ki eis asifas hatevuos upeiros ha’illan babayis, ve’oz yismichu bnei odom simcha rabbah, umipnei chein nikra Chag Ha’asif.” As we celebrate the bounty that Hashem has given us, we translate that joy into kedusha and mitzvos.

The Chiddushei Horim shares a similar thought to explain why Yaakov Avinu recited Krias Shema when he was reunited with his beloved son, Yosef, in Mitzrayim (Rashi, Vayigash, 46:29). Yaakov had waited many long years for this moment. When it finally arrived, he channeled his happiness of the moment into service of Hashem and recited Shema Yisroel.

We merit Hashem’s kindness when we appreciate the goodness He has blessed us with and use it for kedusha. We turn to Hashem and say, “Thank you for all you have done for me in the past year. Please bless me in the coming year.”

Sukkos is when we gather in the harvest. We grasp the daled minim close to our hearts. We focus on the blessings, pulling together the various streams of good in our lives in a single ode of thanks.

Sukkos is the most joyful time of year. We gather our hard-earned bounty, place it over our heads as s’chach, and recognize that everything we have is thanks to Hashem’s chesed. We hold onto what He has given us and turn it in all directions, spreading kedusha wherever and however we can. As we do so, we whisper a tefillah: “Uvena’anui osam tashpia shefa brachos. Hashem, we appreciate what You have done for us. We pledge to do more for You and ask that, in return, You continue to bless us. Mimcha hakol.”

Yet, there is another element to this wonderful Yom Tov. While the Torah in Parshas Mishpotim (23:15) and Parshas Ki Sisa (34:22) describes Sukkos as Chag Ha’asif, a festival celebrating the annual harvest, the Torah later refers to the Yom Tov by the name with which we refer to it, Sukkos. The Torah states in Parshas Emor (23:42) that the reason for the mitzvah is so that future generations will know that Hakadosh Boruch Hu fashioned sukkos for the Bnei Yisroel to live in when He redeemed them from Mitzrayim. (The Bach says that it is necessary to bear this in mind to fulfill the mitzvah.)

How are we to understand the dual message? Is Sukkos a celebration of a good harvest or is it a memorial commemorating the sukkos in which we took refuge in the desert?

The Meshech Chochmah (Parshas Mishpotim 23:15) explains based on the Vilna Gaon that until the time the Luchos Shniyos were given, Sukkos was Chag Ha’asif, a celebration marking the end of the harvest season. After Hashem forgave Am Yisroel for the chet ha’Eigel, and after Moshe returned with the second Luchos and the Ananei Hakavod returned on the 15^th day of Tishrei, Sukkos became a Yom Tov commemorating the sukkos in the midbor, namely, the Ananei Hakavod, which covered and protected us wherever we went. We celebrate the great joy of teshuvah.

The two concepts - the joy of accomplishment and the joy of proximity to His Presence - are interwoven. Chag Ha’asif celebrates man’s efforts invested in planting, cultivating and eventually harvesting his produce, yet recognizing that the fruits those labors produce are essentially a gift from Hashem. Man knows that it wasn’t his toil or expertise that brought forth the fruits. It was not kocho ve’otzem yado, but a gift from Shomayim. Chazal refer to Seder Zeraim as “emunos” because of the inherent faith of the farmer as he plants yet another season of crops.

With this in mind, we can appreciate the unique joy of that first Sukkos. A people redeemed through bitachon and who followed Hashem blindly into the midbor fell into the abyss of sin and were misled into fashioning the Eigel. After they were admonished, they lifted themselves and repented. And their teshuvah was accepted. Their emunah and bitachon were once again intact, and the Anonim returned, remaining with them throughout their sojourn in the midbor.

Additionally, according to the Vilna Gaon, the 15^th of Tishrei was not only the day on which the Ananei Hakavod returned to Am Yisroel. It was also the day on which the Mishkon was first assembled and the Bais Hamikdosh was completed. It is a day that marks what we can reach with proper emunah and bitachon, and the heights we can attain.

It is because they appreciated that everything they have is from Hashem, and because they celebrated Chag Ha’asif, thanking Hashem for His goodness and kindness, that they merited the protection of the Anonim. “Lemaan yeidu doroseichem ki basukkos hoshavti” is a lesson that those who believe in Hashem and appreciate what He does for them merit His protection.

The joy of Chag Ha’asif, and the mandate to use that euphoria as a springboard for gratitude, is just as relevant in our society. Too often, we work very hard to earn a living, but when we look at other people, it seems as if they lead much easier lives. They seem better off and happier, and we become jealous of them and of what we view as their accomplishments.

It appears that for some, earning a livelihood comes easier than for others, and therefore their lives are more blissful. Outer portrayals of success cover the struggles and challenges others endure.

People whose belief in Hashem is not complete wonder why they can’t have as a good a life as the other guy. They lose sight of the fact that Hashem cares for everyone. Sometimes the blessings are evident and sometimes they are concealed for now and revealed later. But we must know that they are there.

People who believe in Hashem and know that their lives here are for a purpose and everybody has their own personal mission are granted the strength and ability to cope with their situation and remain focused on a goal. People whose focus revolves around themselves and what they perceive is good for them are never as successful as those whose focus is on accomplishing and putting aside personal selfish interests to advance the greater good.

Those who accomplish much and help many often don’t care about personal honor, or attention, and aren’t motivated by the need for public affection. They derive their satisfaction from knowing that because of them, another child is in school, another family has food for Yom Tov, another person has a job, another family has new clothes for Yom Tov, and more people are smiling.

On Chag Ha’asif, everyone celebrates equally the fruits of their shlichus. The posuk doesn’t say that only the top one percent who can afford a private jet, a personal chef, and housekeepers should observe Chag Ha’asif. The Yom Tov is for the farmer who plows one acre by himself and the mega-producer whose expanse is thousands of acres. Every person appreciates his gifts and the challenges overcome on the path to achievement, arriving in Yerushalayim to say thank you, bring korbanos, and live in the sukkah for one week.

Chag Ha’asif offers everyone a moment of rest and time to catch their breath and assess their accomplishments. The nisayon of pride is daunting, but the ability to raise eyes heavenward and give thanks, with the recognition that we are nothing without Hashem’s blessing, is liberating and empowering. We are thankful for this interlude to take inventory and count our blessings.

Everyone needs chizuk. Everyone has their own pekel of tension, challenges, and things that don’t seem to be going right. Sometimes people look happy, but if you scratch the veneer, you’ll find pain looking to be assuaged, loneliness looking to be comforted, and a black hole looking to be filled.

Sometimes, all they need is someone like you to commiserate with them and help them appreciate the good they have. We can help them turn their pessimism into optimism and gloom into hope for a boom, and instead of being sad, we can help them to be glad.

We all have what to be thankful for and should offer thanks to Hashem, who enables us to work, providing us with strength and ability, and presenting opportunities to allow us to feel a sense of achievement, satisfaction and pride.

Perhaps we can derive a similar message from the minhag of Hakafos, when we circle the bimah. Every day of Sukkos, we walk around with our daled minim. And on Simchas Torah, we again circle the bimah and dance with the Sifrei Torah.

The circles we complete reflect the circle of osif that we celebrate on Sukkos, from when the seeds are sown until a complete fruit merges. Chag Simchoseinu reflects the joy of seeing a process culminated, dreams realized and hopes fulfilled.

Let us appreciate the gifts we have. Let us appreciate the lulav, esrog, hadassim and aravos, and the sukkah, and their messages. Let us appreciate the Yom Tov and Chol Hamoed, suffused with happiness and joy.

Whatever we have and whatever we do, whether our bank account is overflowing or overdrawn, regardless of whether our sukkah is large or small, whether we are in a rented super apartment in Yerushalayim or a Lakewood basement, let us allow the mitzvos to overtake and energize us, for the week and the year, keeping our hearts aflutter, our souls aflame, and our intelligence invigorated, bodies enthused so that we may attain perfection and prepare ourselves and those around us for the day when the Tzeila Dimehemnusah will envelop all and the great light will shine bimeheirah beyomeinu, amein.

Chag someiach.