Dear Friends:
We begin the Three Weeks.
Is it an accident that crisis after crisis seems to engulf the world? Like oil bubbling up from the ocean floor, we cannot seem to stem the tide of disasters. The world teeters, increasingly out of control. And Israel stands alone! As Balaam says in last week’s Parsha,“Behold! It is a nation that will dwell in solitude and not be reckoned among the nations.” (Bamidbar 23:9)
My friends, let me try to speak from my heart. I do not understand our Nation. There is something wrong with us! As the world lines up against us, people react by saying, “How is it possible that this ‘friend of Israel’ has gone against us, and this ‘friend of Israel’ has gone against us? I am amazed! I am appalled! I am outraged. We must demonstrate! We must contact the media! We must correct the lies that are being spewed upon us!”
What are we ‘amazed’ about? Were we born yesterday?
Didn’t Balaam tell us thousands of years ago that we “dwell in solitude” and are “not … reckoned among the nations”? Don’t we get it? The nations of the world are engaged in an impossible mission. There is absolutely no doubt that they will fail! Balaam’s very curses came out backwards! Every word uttered against us then – in Balaam’s world – and now – in our world – will come out backwards. Every venomous arrow will become a rainbow of blessing from G-d showered upon His people Israel! There is nothing they can do to change it!
“How can I curse? G-d has not cursed! “How can I anger? G-d is not angry!” (23:8)
But instead of understanding this and becoming closer to the G-d Who loves and protects us, we give weight to our enemies’ words! We react to them; we insist on arguing with them, trying in vain to “correct” the “misinformation.” By attributing power and reality to the curses of our enemies, we strengthen them.
What is wrong with us? Is G-d not real? Is the Torah not real? What power do the curses of our enemies have? “Hashem is with me. I have no fear. How can man affect me?” (Psalm 118)
It is much easier to blame someone else than to work on ourselves.
“[It is the norm for people] to conduct themselves … by following after the dictates of desire …. [But] the battle is raging. The yetzer hara waits in ambush; desire is unrestrained and negative character traits overwhelm us. We have no weapon [with which to fight the yetzer hara]…. There is no hope to be saved from the snare of death unless we grasp the weapon, the ideals of yiras shomayim and mussar study.” (Letter from Yisroel Salanter written in 5609/1849)
Reb Yitzchok Blazer ZT”L cites a Gemora: “The yetzer hara of a man grows in strength from day to day and seeks to kill him … And were it not that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is his help, he would not be able to withstand it.” (Sukkah 52b as quoted in Ohr Yisroel p. 578)
What our enemies say about us makes absolutely no difference! The only thing that makes a difference is what G-d says about us! And the only way to change what G-d says about us is to change our actions!
This is the lesson of Balaam and this is our task for the Three Weeks. Our Father in Heaven can and will change the curses of our enemies into blessings if we merit His mercies. The lesson of the Three Weeks is that we are to work on ourselves so that we can try to merit G-d’s protection and mercy. It’s not just the Three Weeks, but in fact the entire summer, especially the month of Elul and even more so the Aseres Y’mai Teshuva, the days from Rosh Hashana through Yom Kippur. This is our entire salvation.
By attributing power to our enemies, by being obsessed with their words and their hatred, by attempting to “change” them, we are acting like the miraglim, who thought that their fate lay in the hands of their enemies, for “we were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we were in their eyes!” (Bamidbar 13:33)
During our entire glorious journey through history, from Avraham Avinu to the present day, we have constantly been protected by Hashem, whether it is “I and not an angel” as in Egypt, or through the agency of angels, or clouds of glory or fire or manna or in a hidden manner. If we mistakenly attribute power to our enemies, then we are denying this Truth.
Yes, the job is too big for us. As Yisroel Salanter says, “We have no weapon [with which to fight the yetzer hara]….” It seems that “there is no hope to be saved from the snare of death.” But then he adds, “unless we grasp the weapon, the ideals of yiras shomayim and mussar study.” This, my friends, is our task and our only hope. The survival of our people against apparently hopeless odds occurs only because our Father in Heaven has been watching over us and because of our loyalty to Him. Nothing else can account for it. It is up to us to place our faith in “Hashem echad.”
Balaam heaped upon us the accumulated hatred of the entire non-Jewish world. Between him and Balak, the poison was at least as powerful as the accumulated poison in our contemporary world. But the Ribono shel Olam turned it all into bracha! So it shall be for us if we strengthen our faith and trust in G-d and try with all our strength to correct our own character flaws in this season of teshuva.
Then we will see that “a star has issued from Jacob and a scepter-bearer … from Israel.” (Numbers 24:17) Then the Three Weeks will become a time of limitless rejoicing as we return to the rebuilt Bais Hamikdosh in the eternally peaceful Land of our Heritage!
May we see it soon in our days!
© Copyright 2010 by Roy S. Neuberger
