I would like to
start by posing a question regarding the descendents of Yishmoel.
In the sedra
that we have just read כי תצא, there are no less than 74 mitzvos enumerated. Among them are
the following:-
לא יבא
עמוני ומואבי בקהל ה' עד עולם
Namely that a
male person from the nations of Ammon or Moav could not ever be allowed to
become a convert to the Bnei Yisroel.
The Torah
continues by saying that somebody from Edom (children of Eisav) or from Egypt
were not allowed to join the Bnei Yisroel until the third generation.
What strikes me
as strange is that if one of the descendents of Yishmoel wishes to become a ger
the Torah does not forbid this at all.
The Torah tells
us that the descendents of Ammon and Moav cannot be accepted, because their
forefathers did not give assistance by providing food drink when the Bnei
Yisroel went out of Egypt and they went so far as to hiring Balaam to curse the
Yidden, therefore, they can never be allowed to join our people. The Edomites
and the Egyptians both caused considerable problems to Bnei Yisroel up to the
time the Torah was given, but are excluded for two generations. Bear in mind
the fact that right at the end of the sedra we are told that the tribe of
Amolek which is one of the Bnei Eisav must be completely wiped out.
And yet the
descendents of Yishmoel do not have an exclusion clause!!
If we go back to
Parshas יראו, we find that Soroh suggested to
Avrohom that he should send away Hogor and her son Yishmoel. Unwillingly,
Avrohom did so. Hogor and Yishmoel were in the wilderness, did not have what to
drink and Hashem made a miracle by showing them where there was a well. Rashi
explains on the words וישמע ה' אל קול הנער באשר הוא שם that Hashem listened to the cries of
Yishmoel. We have to consider the unusual phrase באשר הוא As he is. Rashi quotes a Gemora in Rosh
Hashonah that the malochim said to Hashem, these people are going to cause
major problems to the Jewish nation. They referred to the fact that when the
Yidden went into Golus after the first churban and were trudging through the
sands on the way to Bovel, modern Iraq, they asked to be allowed to go to their
cousins, the Arabs, descendents of Yishmoel, who, they thought would help them
by giving them food and drink. They were allowed to but what they received were
salty foods and gourds which had holes in them so that instead of drinking
water, they inhaled air which killed them.
To me it seems
very strange that no mention is made in Torah of any prohibition to one of the
descendents of Yishmoel becoming a ger.
I will return to
this later.
Meanwhile, I
want to turn to a different subject.
When Moshe Rabbenu
was a young man, living in the palace of Pharaoh, the Torah tells us that he
went out and saw the distress of fellow Jews. He saw an Egyptian hitting a
Jewish brother of his. Moshe looked each way, saw that there was nobody there
and the Torah continues ויך את המצרי, he smote the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. Rashi
comments that Moshe’s method of killing the Mitzri was to use one of the names
of Hashem which caused the Mitzri to die.
The Torah
continues that the next day, when Moshe went out again, he found two Jewish men
(we are told Doson and Aviram) fighting and he made the following
statement:- ויאמר לרשע למה תכה רעך
He said to the
evil one, why did you hit your friend, to which he was answered, Who appointed
you as a leader and judge over us. הלהרגני אתה אמר כאשר הרגת את המצרי
Do you wish to
kill me like you killed the Egyptian?
Significantly,
the expression used is אתה אמר “you say”, and from this, Rashi quotes a medrash that the
Jewish person was accusing Moshe of wishing to kill him by word of mouth the
same way as he had killed the Egyptian, using the expression אתה אמר you say.
Rabbi Yitzchok
Luria, the Arizal, comments on this. He clarifies which one of the שמות, names of
Hashem, was used to carry out this act. Surprisingly, he says that the word תכה was
actually used. You may have never heard of such a Shem and in fact, it is not
one of the 7 names of Hashem that one may not delete if they are written down.
However, I would
refer you to what we say in the Hoshanas prayer on Succos when we state אני והו הושיעה נא.
אני means I. והו does not have any recognisable translation
(הושיעה נא
means please save us). This expression, in fact, is brought in a Mishna on
Sukkah in the name of Reb Yehuda. Rashi explains there that there is a special
Shem known as Shem ע''ב, 72. This is made up of letters taken from three separate
pesukim, verses, which occur before the famous Krias Yam Suf, the splitting of
the Reed Sea. There are three consecutive verses, each of which have 72
letters, in Parshas בשלח (Shemos 14 verses 19, 20 and 21). The first verse starts off:-
ויסע מלאך האלקים
etc,
The second one
starts, ויבא
and ends with the word הלילה.
The third verse
starts יטו and ends with the words ויבקעו המים.
In short, an
angel of Hashem together with the pillars of cloud instead of going in front of
the Jewish encampment went behind them and separated, therefore, between them
and the Egyptian encampment. The two camps did not have any contact all night.
Moshe lifted his hand up over the water and a very strong wind came and the
famous נס, miracle, of the splitting of the sea took place. That is the
translation of the words ויבקעו המים, the waters split.
If you look
carefully at these three verses, you will find that each one has 72 letters and
Rashi explains that if you take the first letter of the first posuk, a ו, the last
letter of the second posuk which is the ה of הלילה and the first letter of the third posuk ו of
יטו, you have והו.
Just to explain
in more detail. Why does one have to go forward in the case of the first verse,
backward in the second verse and in the third verse forward again? The Zohar
Hakodosh explains that the first posuk refers to the zechus of Avrohom Avinu
whose מידה
was חסד,
kindness and therefore this starts from the beginning and goes smoothly to the
end.
The second posuk
is in the zechus of Yitzchok whose מידה was גבורה, strength, in order to counter act גבורה, one has
to start at the end and work backwards and, therefore, one starts from the last
letter with the ה of הלילה.
The third posuk
is in the zechus of Yaakov Avinu whose מידה, his special quality, was תפארת, splendour which
is a mixture of the two qualities of Avrohom and Yitzchok but more emphasis
given to that of chesed, therefore, one once again starts at the beginning.
And so, in order
to create 72 separate combinations, you take the next letter of the first
posuk, that is a י, you go back one letter from the end in the second posuk, that
is a ל and then you have the second letter of the third posuk a י and this makes ילי. By continuing with this method,
frontwards, backwards and then frontwards again, one has 72 separate
combinations. The 37th combination, right in the middle, is אני. Rashi says that
the import of אני והו הושיעה נא, is that we are asking Hashem to save us in the zechus, the
merit, of these Shaimos which were used at the time of Krais Yam Suf.
The 8th one of
the combinations is כהת, which rearranged is תכה “to smite”. This, the Arizal
says, was the word which Moshe Rabbenu utilised in order to get rid of the
Egyptian.
The Arizal then
refers us to a posuk which is the penultimate one recited in ובא לציון every day,
near the end of Shacharis. This reads as followsויבטחו בך
יודעי שמך כי לא עזבת דרשיך יהו-ה, loosely translated as “and those who know
your name (Hashem) have trust in you because you do not forsake those who seek
you, Hashem” The Arizal says, that looking at the final letters of the last
three words which are עזבת דרשיך
יהו-ה, כ הת they make up the word תכה and,
therefore, this alludes to what Moshe Rabbenu said. He was obviously a person
who was of the יודעי שמך, knew the name of Hashem and was therefore, capable of being דורש Hashem, to seek Hashem. He would not be
disregarded by Hashem.
All this I have
just mentioned is quoted in the name of Arizal.
I would like to
add the following.
Looking at the
next verse, that is the final posuk that we say at the end of ובא לציון namely יהו' חפץ למען צדקו יגדיל תורה ויאדיר, this can be loosely translated as follows “Hashem wishes, in
order to evoke his righteousness, that the Torah should be made great and
glorious”.
I would like to
suggest that in the present situation with rockets flying from Gaza and even
occasionally from Lebanon, there is a way that one can influence the outcome in
our favour, other than physically being in the army or saying tehillim etc.
(and this applies even if there is a ceasefire. Who knows how long it will
last?)
The numeric
value, גמטריא
of תכה
is 425. The numerical value, גמטריא, of ישמעאל, Yishmoel, is 451, the difference between the two words is
therefore 26, (425 plus 26 equals 451). By invoking the first word of the last
verse, namely 'יהו
which equals 26, one creates a situation that neutralises the power of
Yishmoel, however, that is not sufficient to overcome it completely.
Utilising the
same method as suggested by the Arizal in taking the last letters of the three
words עזבת דרשיך יהו-ה, if one takes the last letter of the next
word “חפץ " the numerical value of the צ is 90. Adding
90 to 451 one comes to 541. This is the exact numerical value of Yisroel,
ישראל.
Well that is
very nice, therefore, one has now got numerical superiority.
All the Gedolei
Yisroel have been mentioning and entreating people to increase their Torah
learning in the last few weeks. Let us continue with the posuk I quoted יהו' חפץ .למען צדקו יגדיל תורה
ויאדיר
How can Hashem
be entreated to ensure that we have victory and quiet without any missiles
being thrown and people being killed etc.? By increasing Torah learning and
adherence to Torah values. That is exactly what the posuk says, יגדיל תורה ויאדיר the
Torah should be made great and glorious
It is in the
hands of every Jew to learn Torah and increase their learning of Torah. They
should also assist others in learning Torah as well as adhering to the mitzvos
and making a Kiddush Hashem in all ways. All this is part and parcel of the
expression יגדיל תורה ויאדיר. The translation is, the Torah should be made great and
glorious.
Hopefully, this
will also hasten the coming of Moshiach in our times.
Looking
carefully at the three final words יגדיל תורה
ויאדיר the second
letter from the end, of these three words יגדיל תורה
ויאדיר, are ירי. I mentioned
earlier on about the Shem ע''ב and that it consists of 72 different combinations of letters.
You might be interested to know that one of them is ריי which, working on the
same basis as the Arizal did, can be rearranged as ירי.
There is a lot
more depth in Torah that appears on the surface.
I think it would
be appropriate to consider the whole situation in the Middle East. Fighting
involving the Arabs בני ישמעאל, is extraordinary. The savagery, bloodshed and lack of
consideration even for their own brethren is mind boggling.
A war has been
going on in Syria for years now and according to reports, over 190,000 people
including many children have been killed unmercifully as well as over a million
people having fled the country. This is just one part of the story. We now have
ISIS, this very extreme Islamic, fundamentalist group occupying considerable
parts of Iraq as well as Syria and carrying out beheadings, forced
conversations etc. It does not stop there, Libya is now encountering the same
problems and one can only conjecture as to where this all leading to.
I believe that
if somebody would have written a novel ten years ago utilising the above facts
and figures, he would not have sold many copies. The book would have been
treated as fantastic, beyond the realms of possibility.
I am reminded of
a story of Reb Yehoshua Leib Diskin, Rov of Yerushalyim about 120 years ago who
was coming home one Friday night in the Old City of Jerusalem from davening,
accompanied by a number of baalebatim. All of a sudden stones were being thrown
at them by Arabs. The baalebatim scattered and the Rov took one look and
carried on walking home.
Later that
evening, the baalebatim began coming round to his house to apologise for having
left him on his own. One of them asked him why was it that he appeared not to
be shocked, as they were, at the stone throwers.
He answered. “It
is written clearly in Torah”. We are talking here about people who could really
learn, they were יקירי
ירושלים. One ventured to
suggest that the Rov was referring to a posuk which reads as follows:-וראו כל עמי הארץ כי שם ה' נקרא עליך ויראו ממך. Namely, that all the people of the world
will see that the name of Hashem rests over you and will fear you.
No, said Rabbi
Diskin, I did not mean that. They tried other pesukim, but to no avail.
Eventually he
told them what he was driving at. When the angel came to Hogor and told her
that she was going to have a son, the following statement was made:- והוא יהיה פרא אדם ,
and he will be a wild man.
In English we
refer to somebody of that ilk as a wild man, the adjective comes before the
noun, wild-man. However, in Hebrew, Loshen Hakodesh, it is always the other way
round, namely the noun comes before the adjective. For example, if you would
like to call somebody a “good man”, you do not say טוב
אדם, you say אדם טוב, namely
the אדם
comes first. Rabbi Diskin continued, significantly, the Torah refers to ישמעאל as פרא אדם, in
other words the noun is פרא wild, אדם is only the
adjective. He just looks like a man. So Rabbi Diskin completed his statement,
“In the circumstances, I was not surprised to see stones being thrown at us”.
I now come back
to the question I asked right at the beginning, namely why is there no
prohibition on a descendent of Yishmoel being accepted into the Jewish people.
I believe that
the reason for it is that which Hashem answered the angels with the words באשר הוא שם “I
look at the circumstances as they are at the moment”. At the time that Yishmoel
was dying of thirst as a young boy he was not a rosha and Hashem said “I am
looking at the current situation”. If we go forward, we do not find that
the Bnei Yishmoel actually done anything wrong collectively to the Jewish
people. That is up to the time that Moshe Rabbenu, in his 40th year a few weeks
before his petirah, mentioned the prohibitions in respect of Ammon, Moav, Edom
and Mitzrayim and the reasons for them.
Therefore, I
would suggest, there was no prohibition enacted against accepting descendents
of Yishmoel as geirim.
Whilst it is
true that 900 years later, after the first churban, they did horrible things,
that was much later. Hashem had set out his way of dealing with the Bnei
Yishmoel on the basis of באשר הוא שם. What is his position at the moment. It therefore
follows that if the descendents of Yishmoel are nasty to the Bnei Yishmoel, as
they are at present, they deserve to be punished and will be punished. We
nowadays are at that juncture and we can see how things have been panning out
in the Middle East.
The situation is
indeed grave and menacing. However, we have אמונה and
בטחון,
belief and faith that Hashem will look after us and especially our brethren in
Eretz Yisroel, who have seen so many ניסים, miracles, over the past weeks . These are
part of the חבלי משיח. We hope and pray that ה' will speedily bring Moshiach Tzidkanu in
our time, במהרה בימינו אמן.
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