 We broached this subject last week. Originally I had written some notes which also included the following. However, after Purim I could not find the notes. Having since found
them, I would like to append them to last week’s words.
Contradictions
When a question is to be asked, one must be careful that there not be a self-serving element behind it. After the akeidah (the binding of Yitzchok),[1] when Hashem told Avrohom to release him, Avrohom asked Hashem,[2] “I will present my question to You – previously You said to me, ‘Through Yitzchok will offspring be considered yours.’[3] Subsequently, You said, ‘Please take your son and bring him up as an offering.’ Now You say to me, ‘Do not send forth your hand at the lad.’” Hashem answered him, “I never said sacrifice him, but rather bring him up. You have brought him up. Now take him down.”[4] [5]
The question is asked that the main thrust of Avrohom’s question could have been asked earlier. “First You said that your offspring will be considered through Yitzchok and now (at that time) You say bring him up for an offering?”
Why didn’t Avrohom ask it at that time?
No Self-Serving Questions
They answer that a person doesn’t ask questions where he potentially has something to gain. A question at such a time reveals an underlying hope to change what is being commanded, i.e. “How can You ask me to sacrifice Yitzchok when You promised me that he represents the future?” That would reveal an underlying opposition to the proposal or command. However, after everything was finished he asked, in order to clarify the seemingly opposing statements.
Non-Belief
With this example we can clarify a lot of “questions.” There is a famous story regarding Reb Chaim Brisker. He once encountered a man who had become a non-believer. He admonished the man. The man answered him that he had too many questions and problems with religion and for him to observe religion would be an act of self-deceit. However, if Reb Chaim would answer his questions …
Rationalizations
Reb Chaim agreed to listen to his questions but first asked him if the questions that bothered him came first or his rejection of Torah came first. The man didn’t understand the difference. Reb Chaim answered that if his questions came first he would be able to answer them all and set him at ease. However, if his rejection came first, then the questions were not questions but rationalizations which are basically an unwillingness to hear.
The Holocaust
Before going on to the next topic, I would like to touch briefly on one question – the Holocaust. We’ve dealt with this previously in a more detailed manner. I bring it up here because of a recent article about the passing of an Orthodox woman at age 100. She had gone through the war. Around twenty years earlier she had been interviewed by a journalist. She told him about the many miracles that saved her life during the war. He asked her, “What about all the other people whom G-d did not save? Why didn’t He do miracles for them?” She answered, “That’s a good question. I don’t know.” He asked, “So, how can you still believe?” She answered, “I don’t know. I believe in G-d and that’s all I believe.”
An Insecurity
One reads these lines amazed at the insecurity of the journalist. He wasn’t interviewing a theologian. He was interviewing a simple, old, Jewish lady. Yet he felt the need to question and attack her lifelong beliefs.
Apples to Oranges
The above is just an aside. What is really of import is that the journalist fell into the same trap that many, if not most, fall into. The Holocaust (and in general the question of bad things happening to good people or vice‑versa) does not call into question G-d’s existence. This is a question of apples to oranges. Existence is predicated by, among other lines of reason, the teleological argument (the argument from design)[6] and from the argument of “atem aidei” – you, the Jewish People, are My witnesses.[7]
The Holocaust is not a question of “existence.”[8] It is rather a question on “Goodness” and “Fairness” not on existence. We can’t get into the question now but the Torah itself speaks about it and warns about it in Parshas Bechukosai and Parshas Ki Savo. There are other factors as well.
hghg
Ma’amar 2
Bechipazon (With Haste)
Don’t Jump
“There are times when a person begins to go on a straight path and then he leaves it because it is too difficult for him … this was through his own fault in that he wanted to go in one jump to the highest level. (One cannot jump up a ladder.) One must rather go ladder-wise, step by step.” [9]
Do Jump
On the other hand, there are times when one does jump. “There are times when one feels an awakening to start anew, when he receives mimorom (from on high) the will to lift himself from his lowly status … to start a new path. The main thing at those times is to act bechipazon (with haste) and lift himself with a jump. At such a time one doesn’t go step by step, but rather rushes and grabs the opportunity.[10]
When This Way, When That Way
I present both of the above to the reader. I do not believe that they disagree. I believe that they are both applicable at various times. I apologize that I don’t have the key to when one goes behadrogoh (step by step) and when one jumps. The emotional constituent might be a factor but I don’t believe it to be the final arbiter. One might have the emotion and yet jump too far.
Not To Sleep One’s Opportunities Away
On the opposite side of the ledger one must be careful to use his abilities to the utmost.
“We often find people who when young show a great deal of promise and tremendous abilities. Later in life, however, we no longer find these abilities which they had shown in their youth. The truth is that, indeed, they no longer have them because they did not work to develop their abilities. Those abilities, therefore, wasted away. Similar to physical strengths and abilities, if they are not used or exercised they tend to atrophy. So also, regarding mental or spiritual abilities, if they are not used and “exercised” they will tend to atrophy.”[11]
To Lose The Moment
In a similar vein is the following.[12]
“I was a young man, attending secondary school in Russia, when I was drafted into the army. Shortly afterwards, World War I broke out. Every day I shot and killed and hid in my foxhole trying to avoid being killed myself. For hours and hours the shooting would continue, then there would be a cease-fire. At that point both sides would emerge to remove the fallen soldiers from the field. After a short reprieve the shooting would begin again. We were exhausted and spent. But I noticed something interesting. In the foxholes next to me were young religious Jews. During the cease-fire they would take out a Tehillim and pray with great intensity. When they finished I could see that they were comforted. Their faces were relaxed and they approached the next round with confidence in G-d.
“I didn’t have that comfort and I needed it very much. My parents were not religious at all, although my grandmother used to light candles every Friday night. Every time I thought about it, I became angry that my father had not taught me anything about Yiddishkeit. This thought gnawed at me every time I saw those young Jews reciting their Tehillim so fervently. Finally, one day when I was in the foxhole after a particularly hard round of fighting, I cried out, ‘G-d, You know that it’s not my fault that I don’t know how to approach You. My father didn’t teach me anything, and it’s not my fault that I don’t know how to be a good Jew. I am facing the enemy, trying to stay alive. I don’t know them and they don’t know me. I don’t want to kill anyone. If a bullet hits my hand so that I can no longer shoot, it will be a sign from You, G-d, that You are indeed here, even on this battlefield.’
“I finished my prayer. It was quiet. A few minutes later the sound of a single shot shattered the silence. The bullet hit my finger!
[The chalutz showed R’ Shlomo Zalman his finger which had remained useless from that day on. Then he continued.]
“My gun fell from my hand and I lost consciousness from the excruciating pain. I was in a military hospital for days and I promised myself that as soon as the war was over I would go home, and find someone to teach me as much as possible about Yiddishkeit. I was never sent back to the front.
“Finally, the war ended. I came home and had to make a decision. Should I learn about my religion? But what would I do for a living? If I went back to school for three months I would get my diploma in agriculture and be assured of a livelihood. I decided to get my diploma and then go to a shul or yeshivah to learn about Judaism.
“I went back to school and in three months I finished. Then I began to study Torah. My head was clear and logic dictated that I study with intensity, but now after three months of my original resolve, my heart was not in it any more. I thought I could continue learning, but it just didn’t go. Had I started three months earlier, maybe I would be a different person today. The first Yom Kippur after the war, I went to shul, but as I held the Machzor I became frustrated with my inability to read Hebrew. The next Yom Kippur I didn’t go any more.”
[1] Genesis 22:1-12
[2] Rashi ibid 12
[3] Ibid 21:12
[4] Genesis Rabah 56:8
[5] See Rashi there further as to Hashem’s reason for all this.
[6] We went into this on a much broader and deeper scale in Parshas Vo’eschanan, Volume 1, no. 39.
[7] This means that (a) Yisroel has been and is here since Biblical times to testify to the Oneness of Hashem and (b) their existence follows the script given in the Torah. See Chovos Halevovos, Sha’ar Habechinah, chp. 5; Meshech Chochmah Parshas Bechukosai; Hakdomos Rabi Yaakov Emden Lesiduro.
[8] And, therefore, that “existence” must be recognized and dealt with. It cannot be ignored.
[9] The Gra, Mishlei 19:3 as quoted in Even Shlomo.
[10] Ohr Gedalyohu, Mo’adim p. 131
[11] Ohr Gedalyohu, Genesis p. 40
[12] The Maggid Speaks, p. 208-9
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