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BECHUKOTAI 5784
Resilience and Greatness
Rabbi Andrew Shaw Chief Executive, Mizrachi UK
It has been a whirlwind week here in New York as the Simchat Torah Project gains momentum
We have had endorsements from Roshei Yeshiva and Social Media In uencers. We have received messages of support from parents of victims of the Nova massacre and more and more shuls from Chile to Canada are signing up to be a part of this global project. Please make sure your shul has signed up www.thesimchattorahproject.org
Probably the most inspiring person I have met on this USA trip is Lizzy Savetsky Lizzy was a fashion in uencer, until October 7th thrust her into her new role as spokesperson for the Jewish people and Israel, to her nearly 400K followers on Instagram.
She very kindly agreed to meet with me and to post about the Simchat Torah project https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7kACz7xnPY/?hl=en, but what amazed me was her remarkable, positive attitude, despite the hate she receives on a daily basis. In one of her recent posts, she said the following:
I've lost followers, I've lost friends, I've lost jobs, I was dropped by my management company. I've received countless death threats and the hate in my comments and DMs is immeasurable I can't stand here and tell you that every day is a joy.
It's actually really, really hard. And usually by 3pm I've decided to throw in the towel, but then I remember our soldiers on the frontlines. I remember my ancestors and their faith and resilience. And then I think about my children and the future of our people.
And I pull myself back up and I keep going because I believe in my soul that this is why I was put here on this earth at this time and given this platform by God.
Remarkable.
We are currently in the Omer, a period of semi mourning dating back to the days of Rabbi Akiva However, as we know, there are days in the Omer where we can ‘suspend’ the customs of mourning. There are three of them. However, the Jewish world is only unanimous on one of them – Lag B’Omer - which we celebrated this week.
The other two – Yom Ha’atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim are still debated and discussed within the Orthodox world with a variety of opinions as to how these days should or should not be celebrated. I do think that as the years go by, especially after the events of October 7th and the continued hatred, more and more of the Orthodox and wider Jewish world is coming in line with the views of the Religious Zionist world, that these days should be lled with celebration and prayers of thanksgiving to Hashem even in these dif cult days.
There is an idea in this week’s Parsha which can shed lighton this area.
This week we read about the dreadful Tochacha – the curses. Just before the long litany of tragic punishments we read of a very strange promise which is part of the thirteen verses of blessing.
“V natati mishcani btochchem v’lo tigal nafshi etchem” - “And I will place my Sanctuary in your midst, and my Spirit will not reject you ” (Vayikra 26:11)
V’lo tigal Nafshi etchem seems very strange. After promising the utopian state of His dwelling in our midst - the highest state that we can ever hope to achieve in this world, Hashem ‘throws in’ as part of the blessing "and I will not be disgusted with you". What kind of blessing is that?
"Lo tigal nafshi" is a very strong term, it actually indicates revulsion! What does the verse mean?
The Shemen HaTov, Rav Shmuel Horowitz of Nikolsberg makes a stunning observation, which can shed light on the dilemmas of Yom Ha’atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim
Unfortunately, we know that there is divorce in the world. It has been documented that sometimes by the time people get divorced, they already hate each other.
It is explained that there is no hatred as deep and as bitter as that which can exist between two people that were man and wife, two people who once loved each other dearly.
Sometimes that hatred can be immense - precisely because of the closeness that they had once shared. Filling the void of this deteriorated love, is sometimes the worst hatred and disgust.
Says the Shemen Ha Tov, this is the tremendous blessing that Hashem guarantees the Jewish people which has such a huge impact today.
"I will live with you. I will place my Sanctuary in your midst..." says the verse, but Hashem knew that there would come a day when the Jewish people would sink to such depths that He would literally have to "throw us out of the house". It happened on the 9th of Av in 586BCE and 70CE and on both occasions, we were exiled from our land.
That was when Hashem and the Jewish people had the equivalent of a separation but not, Heaven forbid, a divorce
You see what Hashem is promising here is that in spite of all this, in spite of the fact that our powerful love and intimacy that we had at the times when the Shechina was in our midst in the Bet Ha Mikdash, had turned into a thing of the past, nevertheless, "I will never despise or be disgusted with you".
We as a nation may do despicable acts, we may be banished from "Hashem’s abode", but He will never become nauseated by us. Despite everything, He will never hate us. This is the great blessing that no matter how bad things become, "V'lo tigal nafshi etchem" -"I will never be disgusted by you".
The Shemen Ha Tov wrote that in the late 18th century in Russia when we were still separated, while we were still enduring the longest exile.
Yet his Dvar Torah was prophetic, lo tigal nafshi etchem, he knew what that meant, that we would one day come back, because he had emunah ,faith in the future. We now know he was right, because we are living in that era, the era of return, the era of a trial reconciliation.
There were those in 1948 who refused to see the signs, who still refuse to see the signs Yet, some had a point. Yes, we may have returned to national sovereignty in Israel after
2000 years, but we lacked our soul, we lacked Yerushalayim Even Rav Tzvi Kook of Mercaz Ha Rav wrote about 1948 ‘At rst, I could not go out and join the jubilation. I could not accept the fact that indeed “they have …divided My land” (Joel 4:2).
However, then in the most miraculous 6 days in modern history we regained Yerushalayim, we regained the Old City, we regained the Kotel. As the immortal words rang out across the world “Ha’Kotel Be yadenu” – the Kotel is in our hands, I can imagine Rav Shmuel smiling in heaven saying, ‘I told you so’
Please God, in just under 100 days, the Jewish people will gather at the Kotel with the families of the kedoshim, to demonstrate the resilience and the greatness of the Jewish people as we launch the Simchat Torah Project.
This Tuesday night will be 57 years since that epic day in 1967. If we are to be worthy of being a light unto the nations, we need to understand and internalize what is our light, what is our hope, what is our future.
Yom Yerushalayim is all of those and has become even more important due to what is happening at the moment.
And we can now see Lizzie’s speech in a new way, not just as her personal feelings about the current climate – but how we as the Jewish people have been feeling for millennia right up to today.
We’ve lost family, We've lost friends, We’ve lost our livelihoods, we have been exiled by nation after nation. We've received countless death threats and the hate from so many nations over so many years is immeasurable. We can't stand here and tell you that being a Jew every day is a joy
It's actually really, really hard. And certainly, after the Shoah you can understand if we had decided to throw in the towel, but then we remember our soldiers and the miracles of 1948 and 1967. We remember our ancestors and their faith and resilience. And then we think about our children and the future of our people.
And we pull ourselves back up and we keep going because we believe in our souls that this is why the Jewish people were put here on this earth for all time and given this platform by God.
Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael once again, fuelled by Torat Yisrael.
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach for Tuesday night
WATCH: Dvar Torah from Rabbi Benjy Rickman >
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