HaMizrachi Weekly (UK Edition) | Parashat Matot-Masei 5784 by mizrachiuk

MATOT-MASEI 5784

Finding The Light In The Darkness

Rabbi Andrew Shaw Chief Executive, Mizrachi UK

Rabbi Shaul Robinson said it best today:

A Tellah: Hashem, this year our Simchat Torah was noSimchat Torah, our Purim was no Purim, please may it be Your Will that ourTisha B'Av be no Tisha B'Av…

As we move into the nine days, we are reminded of the Gemarain Taanit

Mishenichas Av Mimatin b simcha – when Av comes we lessen our joy (Taanit 4:6)

We live in difcult times, Israel faces threats on multiplefronts, Iran continues to be the coordinator of the evil that is terrorisingthe planet, yet the west ddles while the Middle East burns

Israel, on the other hand, actually does something about it

As Douglas Murray pointed out yesterday in The Telegraph.

In the middle of July the Israelis carried out a strike in Gaza which they have now conrmed took out Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif– the terrorists’ number two. Then at the weekend Iran’s proxy army in south Lebanon – Hezbollah – red a missile

into a playground in northern Israel that killed 12 children from the Druze community as they were playing football. Israel’s response came swiftly.

Israel launched a precision airstrike into the Lebanese capital of Beirut The strike killed Fuad Shukr, one of Hezbollah’s most senior commanders. He was also wanted by the authorities in the US for his involvement in the killing of 241 US military personnel in the Marine barracks bombing that the terrorists carried out in 1983. The short timer of Israeli justice ended up helping the long-arm of American justice

Then just 10 hours later there was the explosion in Tehran which took out the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh He was in Tehran to participate in the swearing-in of the new Iranian president, a man whose predecessor fell out of the sky in a helicopter some weeks ago. Although the BBC have been careful to refer to Haniyeh as “moderate and pragmatic”, he was no such thing. He was one of the most senior gures in a brutal terrorist group which has no meaningful distinction between its “military” and “political” wings. After October 7 it was vital that he was targeted.

Mattot and Ma’asei are always read in and around Rosh Chodesh Av As we have discussed before Devarim is always Shabbat Chazon, the Shabbat before Tisha B Av.

This year it is extremely apt for both Parshiot.

Firstly, in Mattot we read about Hashem commanding the Jewish people to take revenge against Midian for their responsibility for the immorality and idolatry that resulted in the deaths of 24,000 Jews. Hashem saw the Midianites as a threat to the moral bre of the Jewish people.

What is interesting, as Rashi points out, is that Hashem commands Moshe to go to war with Midian. What about Moab? They were also part of the vile campaign against Bnei Yisrael.

The answer is very powerful, the Ramban states that the Moabites acted out of fear, but the Midianites were motivated by sheer hatred of the Jews.

What has characterized so much of the response since October7th has been a hatred of Israel and of Jews.

Whether the shocking events on Western Campuses or the behaviour of certain politicians or the blindness of some of the media – all fuelled by a hatred of Israel and the Jewish people, there really cannot be any other explanation.

Certainly, in the Middle East, that is what fuels Iran and her proxies, a visceral hatred of the Jewish people and the Jewish State. There will never be peace with those who want our destruction.

This week, just like in Parshat Mattot, we struck at our enemies, the coordinators and creators of pure evil.

And then we have Ma’asei which can remind us that despite th ethreats and the fear –there is so much to be grateful to Hashem.

Parshat Ma’asei is blessed with a list of forty-two stations that Bnei Yisrael passed through during their wanderings in the desert on the way to the Promised Land.

The question is why does God command Moshe to document the resting spots when they are already documented in the narratives of Shemot and Bamidbar?

Rashi relates to the list as historical narrative and say that the decree that the children of Israel should wander the desert for 40 years was still done with plenty of respite. The list is therefore to inform us of Hashem’s kindness even in the execution of the decree.

The Ba’al Shem Tov says that the signicance of the record of stations is not just historical but internal and spiritual.

“These are the journeys all the stops along the way apply to every human being from the day of birth until death.” (Sefer Ba’al Shem Tov: Ma’asei).

Consistent with this approach of the Baal Shem Tov, symbolic signicance was given to the names of the places where the Israelites camped.

R. Mordechai Yosef Leiner – the Ishbitzer Rebbe follows the assumptions of the Ba’al Shem Tov with a teaching on two of the names of the encampments which are both prophetic and inspirational.

"And they camped in Harada“ This means that whenever a person is uncertain what Hashem wants then the best advice is to remain passive; this is the meaning of camping in Harada (trepidation). This is the situation today (mid 19th century Poland) when we are prohibited by oath not to agitate for the End of Days.

“And they departed from Harada and they camped in Makhelot”(meaning a place of ingathering): This means that when Hashem will desire to gather us in then he will instil within our hearts the courage and self-condence so that we will not fear May this come to be speedily in our day." (Mei HaShiloah, Mas'ei)

Within just a few years of the Ishbitzer’s passing in 1854, his prayers began to come true. The Jewish people, inspired by visionaries such as Rabbi Mohliver, Leon Pinsker and Theodore Herzl, instilled with ‘ courage and self condence’ began the Zionist movement to bring us back to the land of Israel.

So, this generation is a little different, which the Ishbitzer never lived to see. We have made one more journey.

We camped in Yemen and journeyed to Israel

We camped in Russia and journeyed to Israel

We camped in Ethiopia and journeyed to Israel

The Ishbitzer wrote his words just under 200 years ago, and remarkably almost 100 years after he wrote those words, Hashem did gather us back to the land of Israel

We have come home.

So yes, the world at the moment seems unsure and unstable. Yet Mattot and Ma’asei reminds us, both of the challenge of our enemies and the hope and prayer of our eventual victory.

Please God that victory will transform Tisha B Av, as we learn in the Medrash in Pesikta Rabbati, that joy will come on Tisha b’Av, reecting the idea that the nature of the day will be reversed from mourning to rejoicing when the Mashiach comes

So, to tweak Rabbi Robinson’s tellah!

Hashem, this year our Simchat Torah was no Simchat Torah, our Purim was no Purim, please may it be Your Will that our Tisha B'Av nally transforms to a day of joy, bimheirah b yamenu!

Shabbat Shalom

Watch: DvarTorah from Rabbi Benjy Rickman >

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