Bechukosai - Spiritual Rocket Fuel

[Music] without question the most frightening part of the entire tah is the curses contained in this paraa those horrible events that Hashem tells us will ensue if we abandon our faith in him and our adherence to his mitzvos those scary Heavenly Declarations of the misery that will rain down upon us how our bodies will languish how our enemies will dominate us how wild beasts will beve US of our children roads and cities how we will be met with sword and pestilence and sickness how we will encounter forms of death unfathomably gruesome and ghastly how we will eat the very flesh of our sons and daughters out of hunger how we will be scattered amongst the nations of the world and our land will become desolate our cities in ruin how we will be rendered into a bunch of carcasses and heaped together into a pile to rot kind of scary but what's strange is that just as the para is ending it throws in something that seems to be completely unrelated to this very daunting and prophetic Divine warning immediately after the the tah discusses the laws of aim which are the laws about the right each Jew has to donate his monetary value to the B mikdash why does the tah place the laws ofin specifically here doesn't it kill the dramatic effect why would the toyra follow its thunderous and ominous admonition of serious catastrophes with the laws of Ain something so Technical and seemingly unrelated perhaps the following idea can give us a clue out of all the many character traits that the Jewish people exhibit the one that is perhaps the most impressive is its endurance to be history's punching bag and live to tell the tale to have suffered at the hands of virtually every one of History's villains and still survive it all but more than merely surviving in the face of adversity what sets us apart is our unique ability to actually use the pain and anguish as a springboard to cap catapult us forward we don't merely stand up and Limp to safety we spring up with Vigor we jump up with tenacity we regain our spirits and rebuild ourselves even better than before each tragedy we go through is transformed into new creativity we are pummeled and terrorized and yet we pick ourselves up we dust ourselves off and we find a reservoir of strength to not only move on but to do so with robustness to thrive and grow and soar using the animosity around us as fuel to power the spiritual rocket ship within us for example following King schlomo's death and the division of the Kingdom came the Towering prophets Amos andos HOSA yes and yo after the tragic destruction the first B mikdash came the great renewal of Torah beginning withes and culminating with Ezra andya from the destruction of the second B mikdash came the explosion of Torah in the form of the mishna med gar from the Crusades came the ashkenaz from the horrific Spanish expulsion came the immense mystical Circle ofas led by the ARA having Ripple effects that reverberated throughout the entire Torah World from the Unspeakable Eastern European persecution came the kic movement injecting Judaism with a seemingly endless flow of passion story and song from the Holocaust the most horrid loss of Jewish life in our nation's history came the miraculous resurrection of Torah Judaism in America and in Israel where virtually every 15 feet is another sh based medish and Seminary it all begs a question where did that inner Reser for of fortitude and strength come from with what energy do did our parents and grandparents after persecution of the worst degree Rise From the Ashes and rebuild our communities bigger and better than before Brick by painstaking brick the end of this para says retki holds the answer holds the key immediately following the list of Horrors that will barrage the Jewish people upon straying from the Jewish faith the Torah speaks of the ability of each and every person to donate his monetary Worth to the B mikash the placement isn't random nothing in the Torah is random the jux deposition in the Torah is telling us that the immense inner value of each and every Jew is unbreakable and no matter how grim and gory the backdrop is one's Nisha is intrinsically holy and no amount of persecution should ever convince us otherwise the torah's specific placement of the Mitzvah ofen which highlights the ability to for each and every Jew to donate his Worth to the basa mikdash is telling us that when we get kicked and burnt and stabbed and expelled we must remember our everpresent Untouchable glistening inner worth we are to remember that it is not those barbaric Hooligans who determine our value it is a them who determines it and in his eyes we are all intrinsically holy no matter how many layers of human corpses we may lay under we must climb out and allow our Holiness to shine we are the torch of humanity and no amount of ferocious persecution will ever dim it if we lose sight of the immense spiritual value embedded deep inside of us then our enemies win the war if we keep our eyes on the potential within we are indestructible every month Jews go outside to say Kish Lana the monthly sanctification of the new moon we look at the Moon and we declare that the same way the moon renews itself so must we we take inspiration from the change of the Moon to get up and change ourselves so the question is glaring just about the only thing in the entire solar system that does not change is the Moon the Earth has Seasons stars come and go the sun is forever burning itself with more and more energy the moon just sits there there's no wind there's no water there's no gr there's no life Neil Armstrong's Footprints are still there exactly where he left them six decades ago the moon doesn't actually grow larger and smaller it merely gets blocked by the sun in increasing or decreasing degrees but in actuality it is nothing more than a ball of mass that just floats there could we have picked a worse Paradigm for change in the entire galaxy but that is precisely the point that is precisely the point we are trying to make change is not about waiting for the season to pass or the climate to improve change is not about dreaming about different settings and scenarios more conducive to Our Success change is about changing our perspective Chang is about taking the circumstance stands at hand and seeing them in a different light with a different angle change is ridding the habit of blaming circumstances and directing our sights on inner transformation hence the Moon is the perfect Paradigm it sits there it never moves a muscle and yet it waxes and waines every month how so because our perspective of it changes it screams out to us that in order order to grow and climb and ride the wave of life we need to be forever enhancing ourselves to be forever improving the quality in ourselves to stop blaming external persons places and things and start focusing on ourselves to be forever grabbing hold of that self-replenishing reservoir of value deep inside of us and unleashing it the Hebrew word for I is Ion hsch points out that the word ion also means spring for having the right Outlook in life can make us release a spiritual spring of potential and gush forth energies that are strong enough to survive any adversary we go out once a month whether in the cold or the rain the snow or the sleet and we dance by the Light of the moon for our nation has a spring of spiritual energy contained within our souls and we with the right perspective can always tap into it ranetki sums up this concept with the following story after the Nazis invaded the small village of kenberg they began to celebrate in their usual sadistic fashion Gathering the Jews into a center of the town the Nazis paraded the rebel Rebus Yehuda halberstam into the middle taunting and teasing and pulling his beard and pushing him around the vile soldiers trained their guns on Ral buram as the commander began to speak tell us Rabbi the officer sneered do you really believe that you are the chosen people the soldiers guarding the crowd howled in laughter in a Serene voice the rebba answered loudly and clearly most certainly the officer became enranged enraged he lifted his rifle above his head and viciously beat The rebba Swinging the right rifle like a baseball bat he repeatedly swung at the holy Reba's head as the rebba fell to the ground blooded and bruised there was a rage in the officer's voice do you still think you are the chosen people he yelled once again the rebba nodded his head and said yes we are the officer became even more infuriated kicked the rebba and repeated you stupid Jew you lie here on the ground beaten and humiliated what makes you think you are part of the chosen people the rebel looked at his family and fellow towns people watching in horror he turned back to the face the officer from the depths of his humiliation covered in dust the rebba replied as long as we are the ones getting kicked and not the ones doing the kicking we can call ourselves the Jewish the chosen people from the back Alleyways of the destroyed city of yelam to the ports of Spain in 1492 to the villages in Germany ransacked and torched by programs from deep within forests in the middle of nowhere to the northernmost part of freezing Siberia from the riots to the Crusades from the cells to the Jun dungeons from the fires to the torture chambers from the barracks to the ghettos from the hidden caves to the concentration camps from the bomb shelters to the prisons no matter where we find ourselves at the beginning of every month we Jews in groups large and small huddled together in the cold of the night and said K we looked up at the moon and proclaimed Hashem this month we will be better this month we will start a new this month we will re-energize ourselves and bring a fresh perspective and with tears in our eyes we said Hashem no amount of pain and bloodshed will ever place a damper on the value we place on our Holiness shamos we will keep dancing down history's Road and allow our souls to flood forth no matter the circumstances shining ever brighter with each passing year we look down from the Moon with tears streaming down our cheeks we limp into a small circle and we dance and we sing and we cry and we remind each other that though the Exile has been long and it's been dark and dreary if we absorb the lesson of the Moon and keep the fire in our souls growing ever stronger we will without a doubt keep on forging on [Music]