Bringing the Two Moshiachs Together by Rav Moshe Weinberger

From the Fire Parshas Vayechi Bringing the Two Moshiachs Together

By Rav Moshe Weinberger Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf

The Gemara in Kiddushin 81b says that when Rebbe Akiva read the pasuk (Bamidbar 30:13), “And Hashem will forgive her,” he would cry. In order to understand why that pasuk moved Rebbe Akiva, we must first understand the law of a woman who makes a vow to become a Nazira, who is forbidden to drink wine during her Nazirus period. If her husband annuls her Nazirus vow without her knowledge and she drinks wine, thinking at the time that it was forbidden, the pasuk says, “And Hashem will forgive her,” meaning that she needs atonement for her attempt to sin, even though she failed and did not actually sin. Whenever Rebbe Akiva read that pasuk, he would say, “If someone intends to eat pork but actually eats kosher meat, the Torah says that he needs atonement and forgiveness, then how much the more so does one require atonement when he intends to eat pork and succeeds in eating pork!”

Similarly, Bilaam attempted to curse the Jewish people, and although Hashem transformed his curses into blessings, he was still considered a rasha, a wicked person. We see from this that even when someone doesn’t actually commit a sin, although he tried to, he is still considered guilty. Bad intentions do count, although a Bais Din cannot act on such a failed attempt to sin.

Based on this principle, how can we understand Yosef’s attempt to comfort his brother so that they would not feel guilty for selling him as a slave? He told them (Bereishis 50:20), “You planned to do bad to me, but Hashem planned it for good in order to give life to a great nation at present.” How is Yosef’s attempt to comfort the brothers valid? Hashem may have turned their “pork” into kosher meat, their Nazir wine into permitted wine, and their “curses” into blessings, but how does the fact that Hashem caused the sale of Yosef to work out for the good absolve the brothers of their evil intentions?

The Ohr Hachaim, as explained by the Klei Chemda, explains that there is a difference between mitzvos bein adam l’makom and mitzvos bein adam l’chaveiro, interpersonal mitzvos and mitzvos between a person and Hashem. With respect to mitzvos between a person and Hashem, the primary aspect of the mitzvah is one’s intentions rather than the outcome. Hashem does not ask us to do mitzvos because He “needs” the outcome, the result of the mitzvah. His main concern is one’s loyalty in keeping the mitzvah or rebelliousness in defying Hashem’s command. In contrast, Hashem’s primary concern with regard to interpersonal mitzvos is the practical outcome, that people actually treat each other properly.

Therefore, a woman who unsuccessfully attempted to violate her Nazirus vow still committed a sin when she believed that she was drinking wine because her intent was to sin, and intent rather than the outcome is the most important element of mitzvos between a person and Hashem.

In contrast, because the brothers’ sale of Yosef was an interpersonal sin, the main thing is the objective reality, the outcome. Yosef was telling his brothers that because Hashem worked everything out for his and everyone’s benefit, their bad intentions do not count because with regard to interpersonal mitzvos; the main thing is the outcome rather than the intention. That is why Yosef said (Bereishis 50:19), “Am I in place of G-d?” Yosef meant that because their attempted sin was against him, a human being, and not against G-d, they could look to the outcome, rather than their intentions, and understand that ultimately they were not blameworthy.

The Ohr Hachaim and Klei Chemda’s explanation is beautiful, but we must still attempt to understand what this interaction between Yosef and teaches us today.

Yosef and Yehuda, the leader of the brothers, are the paradigms for the two main forces throughout history: Moshiach ben Yosef and Moshiach ben Dovid. These two forces permeate all of Jewish history and our own individual lives. Moshiach ben Yosef means physical redemption and the practical cultivation and economic development of the land. Yehuda and Moshiach ben Dovid stand for spiritual redemption and the rectification of the inner world of the Jewish people as a whole as well as each individual Jew. From this latter perspective, intent is everything.

From Yosef’s perspective, however, because the main thing is the practical outcome, the brothers should not be blamed because everything worked out for the best regardless of their intentions since a whole nation was sustained as an ultimate result of the brothers’ sale of Yosef into Egypt. According to Yehuda, however, to whom the inner world of intent is the main thing (Bereishis 42:21), “Indeed, we are guilty” because they did not heed Yosef’s cries for mercy.

In our own lives, neither extreme is healthy. We cannot go to the extreme of total concern for intentions without regard for the realities of practical life, nor can we be so focused on the bottom-line outcome that we begin to believe that “the ends justify the means” no matter what.

The students of the Vilna Gaon and the students of the Baal Shem Tov teach us that the goal of the Jewish people and for ourselves as individuals is to join together the paths of Moshiach ben Yosef and Moshiach ben Dovid, the forces of practical-physical life and the spiritual-inner life, as the Navi says (Yechezkel 37:17) “and they shall become one in your hand.” This was Yosef’s goal in comforting his brothers, to bring

together the world of action and the world of ideas. Men of action and halacha must join together with men of spirit and those who specialize in the revealed Torah must not separate from those who study the inner light of the Torah. We must finally reconcile these two opposing forces within the Jewish people, which was Yaakov’s greatest desire when he said (Bereishis 49:2), “Gather and listen children of Yaakov.”

This was also Rav Avraham Yitzchak Hakohen Kook’s greatest desire: to join the powerful Torah of the “old yishuv” with the practical idealism of the “new yishuv.” Rav Kook wrote about his frustration at his inability to bring those two worlds together in hundreds of places. I will, however, quote a few selections from one of his letters to Rav Baruch Meirs, which can be found in the first volume of Rav Kook’s letters (Letter 274).

Rav Kook wrote:

It is very difficult for me to find common ground with the majority of the gedolim of the generation,

Hashem should protect them, because they desire only to walk in the old path, distancing themselves from every type of aptitude or movement toward practical life.

It is clear to me that this is completely against the will of Hashem.

Such an approach assists immoral people and strengthens the hands of evildoers. And woe is to us for these people’s actions even though they have good intentions. I therefore have no choice but to support an educational approach which recognizes the fact that knowledge of the world and life has a place, and which guides children in the path of healthy life.

Rav Kook’s radical idea was to set aside just fifteen minutes a day for children in yeshiva to exercise. In response, posters were plastered all over the old yishuv vilifying Rav Kook for this proposal, accusing him of the worst forms of evil for allegedly attempting to nullify the study of Torah for those fifteen minutes a day. Rav Kook knew that by not recognizing the needs of the generation, the old yishuv was driving more people away from Torah, strengthening evildoers and increasing the number of young people leaving the path of Torah. Because the old path caused people to believe that their natural lively inclinations had no place in the Torah, they felt imprisoned and believed that

they had to escape a life of Torah in order to live a healthy, creative life.

Rav Kook continued later in the letter:

The majority of the Torah learners of the generation, even the great rebbeim of the generation, do not make an effort to become great in matters of Yiras Shamayim with the kind of breadth fitting for the leaders of the generation. They are therefore unable to walk in the new path fitting for the current generation and attend to its spiritual needs.

The old guard has not even studied enough of the inner light of the Torah to understand that the soul of each generation is different and that they must lead each generation according to its spiritual root, which changes from generation to generation.

They feel that they have no choice but to maintain the old way of doing things without taking even one good point from the new ways, through which they could rectify the stature of the generation. They refuse to admit that they lack any grasp of a fundamental part of life [the physical-practical], which is an inseparable part of Torah and faith. We therefore fumble around at midday like blind people in the dark of night. Because of this, the masses continue to stray even further, become heretics, and in truth, they cannot be blamed at all, for there is no one to show them the straight path, a unified vision of the holiness of Torah and faith along with practical healthy life. So they continue to stray from the Torah... If, in educating our children, we

can join the good of each side together by teaching courses of study that will allow them to make a good and honorable living together with the Torah, this will strengthen and increase the foundation of the Torah. But who can I speak to about this? Who will agree with me? Who will throw away his own honor for the sake of the honor of Hashem, His Torah, and the sanctity of His precious holy land?

Rav Kook writes that his heart is on fire with longing to bring the world of holiness and Torah together with the world of practical life, but that he cannot see how to create this unification by natural means.

We can only attempt to unify these paths in our own lives and in the lives of our children and hope that Hashem will intervene and help us bring the worlds of Moshiach ben Yosef and Moshiach ben Dovid together with the coming of the complete redemption soon in our times.

Because the old path caused people to believe that their natural lively inclinations had no place in the Torah, they felt imprisoned and believed that they had to escape a life of Torah.

Rav Moshe Weinberger, shlita, is the founding Morah d’Asrah of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, NY, and serves as leader of the new mechina Emek HaMelech.