A Special Post Chanukah Message to all our family and friends
We were privileged to celebrate our first Chanukah as a family here in Israel, which included visits from Bubby and Zaidy Lebovic (who stayed for two weeks) and our sister and brother in law ,Shulamis and Yoni Zakutinsky. During the childrens Chanuka vacation we visited Mearat Hanitifim right here in Beit Shemesh – a magnificent stalactite and stalagmite cave. We also took the kids to Gan Hachayot, or the Biblical Zoo, in Yerushalayim. Unbelieveable!
The highlight was Menorah lighting at the Kotel on the seventh night. That was a very momentous occasion, complete with music and a speech from the Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat , who noted that people around the globe are astonished at Yerushalayim and Israel’s growing prosperity and strength despite all its struggles with bitter foes. He said that he informs everyone that this is an ancient story, steeped in the spiritual reservoir of Jerusalem’s mighty ones from David to the Maccabees and beyond.
So what is the secret of the Yehudim’s resurgent strength?
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (see The Rav Thinking Out Loud, page 398, by David Holtzer) quotes the teachings of the Kotzker Rebbe, which is also found in Sfas Emes on the Torah in the name of the Chidushei HaRim, who himself was a student of the Kotzker, on the pasuk:
גור אריה יהודה מטרף בני עלית כרע רבץ כאריה וכלביא מי יקימנו (בראשית מ"ט:ט)
“Judah is a lion, he stooped down and he crouched like a lion, and as a lioness who shall raise him up”
The Kotzker noted that Yehudah is a lion, not only when he is upright, but also when he is crouched, when he is כרע רבץ :that even when he falls, even when he makes a mistake, or commits an error, and departs from his brave ways into a short interval of cowardice he still is called a lion וכלביא ,כאריה and he can then rise afterward כלביא מי יקימנו he can raise himself to even greater heights. Similar to what it says in Yalkut Tehillim 6:28:
אל תשמחי אויבתי לי כי נפלתי קמתי, אלולא שנפלתי לא קמתי כי אשב בחשך ה' אור לי, אלולא שישבתי בחשך לא היה אור לי
Do not rejoice, my enemies, that I have fallen and I now arise, if not for my fall I wouldn’t have the ability to rise, if not for my sitting in the dark I would not have my current light
The Rav noted that the greatness of Yehudah was not his spiritual perfection (צדקות) but his resilience (גבורה), that is, the ability to learn from moments of darkness and pain and rise up to even higher heights. Yehudah was not a natural saint, like Yoseph his counterpart. He was, as it says in Pirkei Avos, a גיבור שכובש את יצרו, he could control himself although sometimes he failed. Yet, at the very moment that he failed, he had a heroic power, a superhuman valor, to rise again, springing up like a lioness (who is known as a more powerful hunter than the male and the provider for her young).
The Rav lauded this beautiful ma’amer of the Kotzker, and observed: Gur aryeh Yehudah is a lion, not that he never fell, he lost a couple of battles. Rather, kara ravatz, sometimes he fell. But it was a ירידה לצורך עליה. The criteria by which you judge whether one has a valiant heart is whether or not he has the courage to admit mistakes, to say chatasi, to say tzadkah mimeni - just as Yehudah admitted his mistake in wrongly judging Tamar his daughter in law, and was publicly able to declare his guilt and her innocence (B’reishis 38:26). The hallmark of a gibor is their resiliency in their ability to rise again continuously. This is the quality that a melech must possess: To lead a community or a nation forward, at all times and in all circumstances.
In a similar fashion, we see a pattern of resiliency regarding the various central places of Jewish worship, their destruction and their ability to be subsequently restored in even greater magnitude. The Rambam, in the Laws of Beit HaBechirah, noted:
כיון שנכנסו לארץ העמידו המשכן בגלגל ארבע עשרה שנה שכבשו ושחלקו. ומשם באו לשילה ובנו שם בית של אבנים ופרשו יריעות המשכן עליו ולא היתה שם תקרה. ושלש מאות ותשע וששים שנה עמד משכן שילה. וכשמת עלי חרב. ובאו לנוב ובנו שם מקדש. וכשמת שמואל חרב. ובאו לגבעון ובנו שם מקדש. ומגבעון באו לבית העולמים (הל' בה"ב, פרק א', הלכה ב')
When they entered the Land they erected a mishkan in Gilgal for the 14 years of conquest and settlement. From there they came to Shiloh and they built a house of stone and spread over it the canopies of the mishkan and there was no roof. For 369 years the mishkan stood in Shiloh, when Eli died it was destroyed. They came to Nov and they built a mikdash (including a roof), when Shmuel died it was destroyed. And they came to Givon and built a mikdash there, and from Givon they built the Beit HaMikdash on its eternal site (the days of Nov and Givon totaled 75 years).
Clearly, a pattern of resiliency emerges from this halacha for each time the central place of Jewish worship was damaged or even destroyed, it reappeared in a stronger and more powerful way. From a temporary mishkan in Gilgal, it was rebuilt as a building without a roof and still covered by the tents of the desert mishkan for close to 400 years. After the destruction of that incredible edifice, a formal building replaced it for a 75 year interim in Nov and Givon until finally the spectacular and permanent k’dushat HaMikdash was established by Shlomo in its rightful place, in the final point of its journey, on Har HaBayis.
It is our blessing of chizuk and consolation to our friends and particularly to our former congregation, Young Israel of Oceanside, and to the Far Rockaway and Five Towns communities, who are seeking to raise funds and replace devarim shebik’dusha that were damaged or lost, including many mikdashei me’at that each Jewish household represents
May it be HaShem’s will that with the g’vura of Yehudah, the symbol of the malchus, and with the image of the ever-strengthening mikdash, that this opportunity to rebuild will offer new vistas of growth and strength, both spiritually and physically to all involved. Both we here in Israel and those back in New York share the common goal of strengthening our kehillos and communities to withstand outside pressures that appear in many forms, natural, political and threaten our very well-being and safety. כלביא מי יקומנו, but who has greater reservoirs of spiritual strength than us? B’ezrat HaShem na’aleh v’natzliach!
Rabbi Yaacov & Chani Schwartz and family, Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel
