There is a Gemara in Yoma 39b that states that Shimon HaTzaddik had foretold of his impending demise in conversation with his associates. “How do you know this?” they asked. He said, “Every Yom Kippur, I would be met by an elderly individual who was entirely clothed and wrapped in white. He would enter the Holy of Holies with me and leave with me. This time, the elderly man accompanied me, but this time he was wearing black and was wrapped in a black caftan. This time he entered with me into the Holy of Holies, but he did not exit with me.” The Gemara relates that Shimon HaTzaddik became ill after the holiday and later succumbed to his illness.
The obvious question, which everyone asks, is that the Torah states, “And no man should be in the Ohel Moed from the time the High Priest enters to perform his atonement service until he leaves.” Concerning the words, “And no man,” Chazal deduce even he upon whom it says: “And upon the throne there was a visage of a man…” It begs the question: who was this figure who escorted Shimon HaTzaddik in and out of the Holy of Holies every time he performed the avodah on Yom Kippur? And what is meant by the fact that he normally donned white clothing, but in the last year of his life he wore black?
I heard a vort that the man who accompanied Shimon HaTzaddik was a representative of himself and his outlook on the world and the people of his generation. When he was escorted by this figure dressed in white, it means he had faith in the people of his generation and the world around him. But when he entered the Holy of Holies and saw this figure garbed in black, he knew it would be his final rodeo in the Holy of Holies because his view of the world had darkened and there was no more space for him in it.
I came across a podcast earlier this week that featured an interview of a Chabad Shliach on the Stanford University campus. College campuses nationwide have become hotbeds of virulent antisemitism, so the host of the podcast out of Lakewood, NJ was interested in getting a first-hand view of what was really going on in college campuses from a rabbi who had spent decades on one such campus and was known for his dynamic oratory skills.
The podcast began with a poll of the listeners to determine what percentage of people thought a) the uptick in antisemitism didn’t affect them since they don’t follow the news (11%), or b) that the increase in antisemitism will end up blowing over into some other juicy story that will take its place (25%), or c) that the events of late are reminiscent of the situation in the world on the eve of the Holocaust and is possibly a prelude to a cataclysm of that nature (64%). The shliach confirmed the fears of the 64%. He spoke about the campaign on the eve of the Holocaust to vilify the Jews, portraying them as an inferior race that had to be removed from society.
In every generation Jew-hatred mutates in such a way that despite the knowledge of what occurred in the 1930s, people deny the possibility of it ever occurring today without realizing that it is the same hatred but with a modern twist.
Today, we are seeing a narrative on college campuses that seeks to brand every Jew and supporter of Israel as a Zionist regardless of their affiliation and worldview. Even Jerry Seinfeld was heckled at a Duke University commencement address by dozens of attendees who staged a walkout during his speech. Jerry Seinfeld, the Hollywood star who was beloved by all for his humor, did not have the merit to withstand the haters when it came to his full-throated support for Israel. He brought an example from the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., which has three floors: the first floor depicts the years of the Holocaust; the top floor depicts the years following the Holocaust; and the middle floor depicts the years leading up to the Holocaust which he says seemingly goes on and on in far more detail than the other exhibits in the museum.
The image the listener was left with after forty minutes into the podcast is that our society is on a trajectory to another Holocaust and at that point, I had to shut it off.
It doesn’t take a genius to read the constant barrage of news stories on an hourly basis and to conclude that our world is devolving into chaos and anarchy. Most of us walk around on a daily basis with the realization that this is not the world we grew up in. For sure, antisemitism has been a reality from time immemorial, but it is reaching a point of institutionalization which we haven’t seen for quite some time. As such, we don’t need leaders to confirm our worst fears; we need leaders to explain to us that while our understanding of what is happening leads to a very dark and negative conclusion, there are other more redeeming lenses with which to view these events.
The calmest, most empowering voice on the eve of the Six Day War and the Persian Gulf War was that of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. People who feared for the plight of children and close relatives in Israel were told with complete assuredness that Eretz Yisrael is the safest place on earth, the land upon which the eyes of G-d look down on and protect from the beginning of the year until the end of the year. There is nothing more empowering than watching the Rebbe’s thunderous address at the Lag B’Omer parade in the 1960s when he promised that Hashem would perform wonders and miracles for the Holy Land, which ended up coming true.
So, we resign ourselves to the fact that we once had a rebbe who had the shoulders to carry the Jewish people, but sadly is no longer with us and we are left to our own devices. But that is not exactly true. He left us shluchim, people who are acting with his agency, which the Torah tells us are the embodiment of the person that sent them. But instead of empowering us in the manner that the Rebbe used to do, here we have a shliach sobering us up to the reality that the world is headed on a crash course and we should brace ourselves for the inevitable impact.
The Gemara in Berachos teaches us that dreams follow their interpretation. Our sages teach us that this entire world is like a dream seeking interpretation. We all know that we are headed in the direction of geulah, and it is our fervent hope and prayer that it will come speedily in the way of mercy and kindness. With Lag B’Omer right before us, in the words of Eliyahu HaNavi to Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai: “With your composition we will be redeemed with mercy. The way towards unlocking mercy in our lives both collectively and individually is to look at reality from the perspective of the soul rather than the body; in the language of penimiyus haTorah to see reality face to face rather than through the opaque partition of the body.”
Reb Shaya’le of Kerestir was known to distribute food to the hungry. People would come to visit him with empty sacks, crying over their plight that they had not a morsel of food for their families. He would take the sack and say, “All you have to do is mix and distribute; mix and distribute.” What he meant was that we have to forget the notion that there is a possibility of counterproductivity in this world and if we are met by circumstances that lead to that conclusion, then we need to mix the bag and transform what seems to be a negative permutation of reality into a positive one.
Reb Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin demonstrates how every great event in history was preceded by what seemed to be a negative event. However, the Leshem who was a Kabbalist from the beis midrash of the Vilna Gaon, the grandfather of Reb Yosef Sholom Elyashiv in his Sefer Hadeah writes that we have to live with the realization that every occurrence in our lives exists within the realm of progress. That means regardless of what things might look like outwardly, we have to believe with perfect faith that whatever is transpiring within our lives at a given moment is bringing us a step closer to geulah rather than further away from it.
We must learn to be the masters over the news rather than allowing it to shape us. Things happen, but whether or not they are positive or negative lies squarely in our minds depending on how we process it.
My Rav, Reb Yussie Zakutinsky, shared the following story during his derashah this past Shabbos. He said that he was at a wedding this past week, sitting next to a person who was sharing a “half empty cup” perspective on the news of the day. He sat there thinking of a way to get this guy to stop, which he surmised could only be done by making a shocking statement. So, he said, “You know there is no such thing as a heavenly tribunal, Beis Din shel Maalah.” “What?” said the astonished man. “What do you mean?” The Rav replied that Rav Tzadok teaches in many places that we are the ones who pass judgment on ourselves by the way we view others and the world around us.
Later, during a melavah malkah he told a story that occurred during the tenure of the Tzemach Tzedek when a fire had consumed the beis midrash in Lubavitch, which required it to be completely rebuilt. At the Chanukas Habayis, after the completion of the new structure, the Tzemach Tzedek asked the assembly if they wanted to hear a Torah or a story. They asked for a story. The Rebbe said that in the times of Reb Yisrael of Ruzhin there was a Yid, let’s call him Yankel, who was a Chassid of the Ruzhiner, who worked for the local Poritz. There was another Yid, Reuven, who was likewise a Chassid of the Ruzhiner, who came upon hard times and was unable to meet his monthly rent obligation to his friend Reb Yankel on behalf of the Poritz. With each due date Reuven insisted that he could not make the payment and despite the repeated attempts at patience, Reb Yankel was under great pressure from the Poritz to collect the money or evict Reuven so the property could be rented by other interested parties.
Each time Yankel would come to his Rebbe, the Ruzhiner, he would implore him to lower the price and to push off the collection until Reb Yankel, who was no longer able to withstand the mounting pressure of the Poritz had no other choice but to evict Reuven. The Tzemach Tzedek continued: “After 120 years, when Reb Yankel came before the heavenly tribunal, they said that he was a good Jew who spent his time learning Torah and performing mitzvos. He was a close adherent of his Rebbe but there was one thing standing between him and Gan Eden, and that was the fact that he had evicted his fellow Chassid. Hearing his judgment, he said to the ministering angels, “I don’t accept your ruling.” “Why not,” they asked? He said: “Well, you are angels, so you cannot relate to the pressure of working for the Poritz so how do you think you can render judgment on me for that?” “Fair point,” they thought and they threw the case to the Rambam, the Beis Yosef, and the Taz, who concluded that R’ Yankel was guilty of evicting Reuven. Reb Yankel straightened his posture and replied, “With all due respect, I do not accept your ruling.” “Why not,” they asked? “Well, you are all completely righteous individuals and besides it has been a very long time since you were on earth and you too cannot relate to the immense pressures that I was under and therefore I do not accept your ruling.” The Tzemach Tzedek continued: “They understood that they needed to set up a tribunal consisting of people who were still living on earth who could relate to the pressures that he was talking about, working for a Poritz. The Tzemach Tzedek said, “So, tell me, is Yankel guilty or absolved of the charges? He needs you to render the ruling.” Everyone understood that their Rebbe was prodding them to drop the charges against Yankel and everyone in unison declared his innocence.
We don’t need people to state the obvious. We need creative and empathetic minds to look at what seems to be dark and gloomy, yet see a redemptive light that is seeking to be noticed. We represent the heavenly tribunal and if we would like to receive a merciful redemption rather than a severe one, chas v’shalom, then we better start making the case for one.
There is a law with regards to warfare, “Anyone who is fearful and faint of heart needs to leave the battleground.” The uniqueness of this war is that it is being fought on multiple fronts. There is the physical battle which is in Rafah right now, and there is the PR war, which is not as dangerous in the vital sense, but in some ways is more difficult and challenging to overcome. We need people of great influence who are unafraid to look at the situation in Israel and across the world to find the redeeming aspects buried within them and deliver a favorable interpretation of what looks outwardly like an unending nightmare so we as a people render our own judgment for a favorable redemption speedily in our days.
