B"H
THOUGHTS ON LIGHT
Dear Friends:
Do you think the world is falling apart? Do you think that we are being destroyed, G-d forbid, by the daily onslaught of catastrophe?
Not at all!
Lights are burning in the menorah. Within their pure flame one can see the vision of a new world. I would venture to say that we are on the threshold of a tremendous burst of light.
"For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the wicked people and all the evildoers will be like straw; and that coming day will burn them up, says G-d, Master of Legions.... But a sun of righteousness will shine for you who fear My Name, with healing in its rays...." [1]
If G-d is indeed going to bring the Final Redemption soon, then how can we expect life to be ordinary? Huge events are occurring now and even huger events will undoubtedly unfold. Civilizations will fall and a new civilization will arise. No place on earth will be the same!
In conformity with the magnitude of the apparent catastrophes that are being visited upon the world will be the magnitude of the Redemption. How can the Redemption that has been predicted since the beginning of time, and for which we have been longing for two thousand years, be a small event? It must come with a shofar blast that the entire world will hear, and a burst of light that the entire world will see. No one will be unaware of its coming!
We recently read the following words concerning Edom, which is Rome, the nation that destroyed our Second Temple and sent us into the torturous Exile in which we continue to suffer.
"Is there any doubt that on that day ... Esau's mountain will be cut down... For your violence to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you and you will be cut down forever... You should not have gazed on ... your brother the day he was exiled. You should not have rejoiced over the children of Judah on the day of their destruction... you should not have spoken arrogantly...you should not have entered the gate of My people on the day of their disaster... you should not have gazed upon its misfortune... you should not have put your hands on its wealth ... you should not have stood at the crossroads to cut down its refugees ... you should not have imprisoned its survivors...For the Day of G-d is near... as you did, so will be done to you; your recompense shall return upon your head... For you have drunk on my holy mountain, so shall all the nations always drink ... they shall drink and swallow and become as if they had never been." [2]
It is well known that the doom of the Children of Esau/Edom/Rome is predicted in Parshas Vayishlach. Our Father Jacob refuses Esau's invitation to "walk" with him and says, instead, "I will come to my lord at Seir," which, Rashi informs us, refers to the End of History, at which time "saviors will arise upon Mount Zion to mete out justice to ... Esau." [3]
But what about Ishmael? Our rabbis tell us that at the end of our present Exile the world will suffer under the dominion of Ishmael (the Moslems). Since Parshas Vayishlach hints at the end of the Exile of Esau, should we not also expect to find a hint concerning the end of Ishmael, under whom the world currently suffers?
Let me make a suggestion. At the beginning of the Sedra, Our Father Jacob asks G-d, "Rescue me please from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau." This has been interpreted to refer to the two faces of Esau, but perhaps the term "my brother" refers to Ishmael! Ishmael is, after all, the brother of Jacob's father, Isaac. If Jacob foresees the trial his children are to have with Esau, surely he also sees the trial they are to have with Ishmael.
Immediately following the confrontation between Jacob and Esau comes the abduction of Dina. Who abducts Dina? Shechem ben Chamor! And who is "chamor"? A "chamor" is a donkey. Ishmael is called "pe're adam," [4] half man, half donkey. "Maase avos siman l'banim," the actions of the fathers are a sign for the children. Directly after the encounter with Esau comes the encounter with the "donkey-men"!
Just as Shechem abducts Dina, so the descendants of Ishmael attempt to abduct our children today, to plot against us with violence and attempt to steal our inheritance and our Holy Land of Israel. On the holiest site in the world, the site of our eternal Temple, they construct their mosques, as if they have any right or title to the Land of Israel or even an understanding of its significance! They try to steal our very identity, claiming that Ishmael and not Isaac offered himself at the Akeidah and pretending that they, the donkeys, were given our eternal blessing to be G-d's emissaries in this world! They even steal from us the mitzvah of circumcision, pretending that they are the recipients of the blessing given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
What happens to Chamor and his people? Shimon and Levi cut them down with the sword. This, my friends, seems like a clear hint of what will happen at the end of history. I am not advocating going out to battle Arabs (although it is a mitzvah to defend oneself if someone is coming to kill you, G-d forbid). But for us the sword is Torah. We defend ourselves and make a place for ourselves in the world through learning and living Torah. It is our one offense and our one defense, "magen Avraham," the shield of Abraham.
"Behold the couch of King Solomon! Sixty mighty ones around it, of the mighty ones of Israel, all gripping the sword, learned in warfare...." [5] The "mighty ones" are those who perpetuate the legacy of Torah among Our People.
With this sword of Torah, we will defeat our enemies and bring the light of the Eternal Menorah to the Rebuilt Bais Hamikdosh, through which the entire world will be illuminated. "A sun of righteousness will shine for you who fear My Name, with healing in its rays...."
May all those who love the Creator of the Universe and follow in His Way live to see that day soon! My dear friends, it could happen this year, 5769! Let us come together as "one man with one heart," the Children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all those in the world who bless and help us. Let us wield the sword of Torah, and may the Menorah's light illuminate our path!
- Roy S. Neuberger
