Netziv Haazinu and Yom Kippur 5786: What is the Ultimate Atonement?

What is the ultimate atonement? Hello everyone, welcome to the zish my father. This week's para isu. We stand here on the eve of yum kipper and we wonder what is the ultimate part of our atonement. the very end of the song of the last ammo. I'm translating the words because how you translate the words very much is dependent because of the poetry on explanations as even more than usual. The Quran translation is, "Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants and will render vengeance to his adversaries." We'll leave out the last couple of words. Very similar to the Mitsuda translation. Let the nations extol his people, for he shall avenge the blood of his servants and wreak vengeance on his enemies. And here's where the difference the last few words. [Music] What what does this mean? The Quran translates it as and he will Hashem will forgive his land and his people even though there's no VV there. It's based on the rashi as we'll see. The Mitsuda translates it and reconcile his land, his people, which leaves it a little bit more ambiguous. Rashi, as I mentioned, says also ammo is that Hashem will appease his land and his people as if there was a VV there uh for the miseries that had passed over them and for that which the enemy had caused them pain. So is it an and is it the people atoning for the land? The land atoning for the people then dives in. What does this mean? That the nations will should praise and thank Hashem. Which nations? The nations who haven't uh hurt Israel, haven't hurt the Jews. uh sitting here right now uh in 5786 in 2025 wondering uh and thinking about what's going on in the White House right now. tremendous support as opposed to what's going on in Europe uh and states and nation states and leaders making all kinds of statements about other states creating Palestinian states while other negotiations going on with the Arab League uh trying to find peace just where who are the nations who are the it's like the upside down who are the good nations who are the bad nations the the the nations who aren't doing bad to to the Jewish people. It's hard to know who who that is because uh the the nations who aren't doing bad at least now um even if they they haven't aren't doing bad now because you know those nations who may be doing well now that in the past our history is filled with Jewish blood being spilled in every nation in every country And so Hashem will bring about vengeance. No matter when it happened in history, whoever has done bad, who's never done wrong to to Ben Israel, God will find a way to take out uh and extract the uh appropriate punishment. Uh even if they didn't spill blood, they just blood, they just did they just did that. And here comes the last phrase. What does this mean? Says that it says you know how much blood was spilled and how much pain uh the Jews had in your countries. Even though those people are no longer around, those generations are no longer around the earth, the land is always there. I remember going to visit Trebinka where the so many Jews and others but so many Jews had lost their lives and seeing the no remnant of uh of a camp of a concentration camp anymore but just these fields of strawberries and the red of the strawberries struck me and I wondered how much blood had seeped into the land and turned those strawberries uh red. uh the land doesn't forget. Says it [Music] that it's for sure that the land will never allow uh and never be atoned for. However, this is the generosity and the mercy that Hashem has. However, the good years, the times when we were treated well in those countries have the opportunity to atone for all the bad and all the negativity during the bad times. And then it points us back to two earlier. My glittering sword, my hand grasps justice, says Hashem. I will render vengeance to to my adversaries. and repay those who hate me. Then it says and if it really is an equal measure for justice in all of these nations, not one nation would be remaining. every single nation. There's not one who didn't uh treat us poorly and kill us and hurt us and cause us pain. But says that they're not all going to be punished. And we see that based on the gar and that at the end of time, all of the kings of the nations, they will be brought to justice because they didn't involve themselves in Torah. What What does that mean? What if they did if if they were busy killing us? Why are they being brought to justice for the fact that they didn't do the Torah? So then it explains that uh alashba because they will be judged for the positive the good time that they how they treated us if they do cha if they return. If that's the last period of time, if we are really standing right now on the precipice of messianic and redemptive time, if we are at the ultimate atonement, then it's the nations who have sort of done chuva, who have repented, who have atoned uh at at at this time, those nations who are treating us well, those nations will have atonement. that the punishment won't come if everybody is treating Israel well. And this is perhaps the ultimate atonement when we think about the the land and the history of the land and the memory of the land, no matter where we've been, what nations we've been in, how we are treated at the end of time. That is the key to atonement. Will the land atone for us? Will we atone for the land? Will the land atone for those other nations or will something else happen? This is the ultimate atonement says then it said this is the ending ofu the poem the shira that ends off that brings us right to the penultimate para of kish is about atonement but atonement not just for us but for all the nations for all of history space and time coming together at this moment with a chance for everybody to repent not just us but the whole world together. May this yum kipper help to bring that about.