Achdut: Peoplehood Unity as Our Secret Weapon - Chizuk During Iron Sword by Rabbi Jeff Bienenfeld

okay thanks again everyone for joining thanks to Hana and to and to and and to Rabbi Shore for putting this uh you know this this event together what I I'd like to I was asked to give a title for it I guess I uh I would call it AK I would call it unity in the face of Crisis and I I'd like to begin with this D Torah but in order to appreciate this D Torah we need a little bit of history and it's history that you may know I say this in the wake of what the beginning of the week when Israel was falsely accused of boming that hospital in Gaza uh and uh and when you know uh media and people uh The Usual Suspects as we would say uh came out and uh and blamed us so the president of Israel commented and said this was a blood Lial and uh you know and it certainly and it certainly was even though now papers like the New York Times have printed a retraction and uh who knows whether other people who who still feel we did it will you know will retract in the face of clear evidence that it was an errant rocket by a terrorist group in Gaza that caused that tragedy but uh so in that regard I I want to call to your attention uh probably what was the most famous blood liel in the 20th century uh from what from what historians say at least and that and that and that liable related to an event uh that took place in 1911 right before pesah when a in Kiev uh when a Christian Child 12-year-old boy was M brutally murdered and uh the the people there you know anti-Semitism was running was always certainly in zarish Russia was no different than Kev anti-Semitism sentiment was was very very strong and immediately they found a culprit and they accused this simple Jew manim Mendel balis of having committed the crime um he they put him in jail he was in jail for two years and then and then uh the trial began two years later in 1913 at the end of September it lasted believe it or not until October 24th uh which is today so it's like 110 years ago if I if I got the dates correct certainly around that time and the trial lasted for a month and uh and eventually he was acquitted the story has a happy ending he was acquitted eventually goes to ER uh living in ER is at that time was very difficult it was very hard for him to make a go of it he eventually uh eventually um immigrates to the United States and he passes away in the United States the details you can look up if you Google uh manak Mel beis it's a fascinating story and and uh given whatever publicity there was at that time his the trial made world news from what I from what I'm able to find out this was an amazing thing and especially since it was clear at least to uh uh to Western observers that he was being this these were trumped out charges uh he was this was clearly they were bringing in false Witnesses and the so on uh in order to prove that he committed the crime even though he had aliis even though he had Alibis that he did not uh that he did not commit the crime uh anyway what what happened was that uh one of the arguments that the prosecution made against him was the following and this is you'll see why thought um the prosecution uh said as follows they quot where the prosecution got this kazal I have no idea but they they quoted a in and a g in and the g comments on a in which says the says you the Jewish people are called and the gar says you the Jewish people are called Adam Theos are not called Adam so the prosecution said what do you see from that you see that as far as the Jews are concerned the only people who are human are Dum are Jews and all non-jews are not even human and that's why Jewish people in general see nothing wrong with murdering and killing uh this this Christian boy of course it happened April 2nd in 1911 which was just a few weeks before pesak and this was the famous blood liel that the Jews were using the blood of this murdered boy for the Passover ritual so that's that was that's how it became this famous blood but this was the argument the argument was that you are the Jewish people are called human so to say but the non-jews are not called of them and therefore the Jews have no value for non-jewish life and they see nothing wrong with murdering non-js so the defense Rose to the occasion and defense quoted the interpretation which has become the famous interpretation of that kazal the interpretation of the the founder of the and he interpreted he he interpreted the uh he interpreted the PK this way he said you know in in Hebrew as I'm sure sure we all know nouns have plural and have singular and this applies to all nouns etc etc however when we get to the word Adam there's no plural it's only it's only in the singular you you can say benam but the word Adam in and of itself cannot be pluralized so the said as follows the Jewish people are called Adam because we're one we are one unit we are one family we're not divided but as far as the non-jews are concerned they're also human but you know but uh everyone feels differently and he went on to say that if a u if a if if a Frenchman is uh hurting in Paris or pardon me if a Frenchman is hurting let's say in one part of the world the the you know the uh the French citizens in France are not going to feel particularly connected to that person and that's how it is in the non-jewish world but the Jewish as far as the Jewish people are concerned we are called Adam we are one we're like one body I'm using my you know like like we're like one goof and and if one part of the body if one part of the body suffers then the entire body suffers so this idea of ATM we are called we are called other we're one is I mean it's an incredible idea when you think about it that we're family and because of because of the fact that we're family we hurt one Jew hurts for another Jew it doesn't matter where these two Jews live even if we don't know who they are and even if we can't speak the same language and we look differently and dress differently one Jew hurts for another Jew this is what it means and it's you know it's a very very powerful idea and especially in the wake of what we've seen uh here obviously those of us who are here but we see this throughout I mean we're all getting emails from family across the world to see how the Jews are to see how the Jews are stepping up uh you know saying to him them together acts of together donating time and uh and doing everything they can I mean there's there's so much that everyone is trying to do in order to demonstrate that we're all one we're all one family and uh and that's and that's very comforting it's very exciting it's very wonderful was somewhat similar to this you know after in the wake of the Omer War I remember coming to Israel then being a rabbi in the United States and again experience the same type of unity the same Oneness the same coming together it's an important thing and especially in light of the fact that prior to this as we all know the country was polarized because of the judicial reform and the polarization the split affected uh you know literally you know literally tore the country apart between the religious and the non-religious and the pro- judicial reform and against the government and for the government I mean those of us who are living here and even you you know everyone heard about how you know how painful this was especially what happened on Young Kipper with people objecting to uh you know ad doing uh in Tel Aviv I mean again without this is not we're not saying right or wrong here but the point is the country was radicalized it was split it was torn and now you know and now we've all come together this is our reality our reality was not what happened prior our reality is that we're really one people and uh and it's something that um we should not forget God willing we're going to win this war and we will be Vindicated but you know even after the Yum Kipper War the unity fizzled you know it unfortunately it didn't last and uh and God willing this Oneness that's coming together we have to figure out a way to make sure that it is sustained you know and that it will uh and that it will continue even afterwards and we'll forget that this is our true this is really this is our this is our true reality I I'd like to I'd like to connect this with uh with uh an idea from the par do with Lea uh one of the questions that the Ron and ask is that uh if Abraham at the age of 75 which is how hisor of Abraham opens um you know Abraham 75 you already found Hashem Hashem is communicating with him and at the age of 75 and Hashem is telling him to go to erid Kath so the M said why was it necessary as we see in pavos why was it necessary for um for abam to be tested uh 10 times we all know you know various various different tests why was that necessary so um so there are two diff two basically different opinions the opinion of the ramban which is brought down in the third in the the Raman says really abrah did not have to God was not had no doubts whatsoever about Abraham's devotion uh and his and and his loyalty to him so why was Abraham test Abraham wasn't tested for himself the ram says Abram was tested in order to set an example in order to be a model of what it means to be is you know a KN of Faith as K God called up a KN of Faith this is what it means to believe in Hashem uh this is what it means that notwithstanding setbacks and and hardships this is what it means never to lose one's belief in and this needs to be a model for the rest of the world just say parenthetically I'm not sure uh if any of you remember there was a Catholic uh journalist by the name of William Buckley uh a rather famous person uh and uh back uh in the uh in the 1970s 60s and 70s when you had the Soviet uh struggle for I mean the student struggle for Soviet jewelry uh he wrote a piece that I've never forgotten he wrote a piece as a Catholic and he was amazed to see how Jews in the United States who never met a Russian Jew and didn't know their names and and but were protesting and writing and doing everything they could to arouse an awareness in the United States and everywhere else about the plight of Russian jewry he says how come Jews are doing this and Catholics aren't doing this apparently at that time Catholics and different parts of the world being persecuted and he was wondering how come you know how come Jews do this and the Catholics and the Catholics are not doing this I don't recall whether he came up with a conclusion but I remember he was talking and he was he was saying this out of admiration for the Jewish people look at what they do I think the answer though and I don't recall whether this was a conclusion that he came to but the answer is rather straightforward as Jews we're not just a religion we're a family we're a people we care about each other that's what members of a family do and that's what we're seeing now this sense of family the sense of the sense of and that's the you know so that's the view of the R ramban had a different interpretation ramban said he says this the beginning of why did I I have to go through all these test it's a different answer he says Abraham to use a contemporary expression was a work in progress every test every test that abam Hashem tested abam because Hashem was convinced that there was more to abam than met the ey true at the age of 75 he accomplished a great deal but that was just the beginning there was much more there was there was a there were levels of greatness to Aram that every trial brought out another level of greatness every trial that he went to and and ab himself realized this because he passed every test he discovered something new in himself something better in himself he became better that's you know that's the view so that was according to ramban that was the purpose of the test I think that also has a message for us you know there is a there is a uh a statement from the na'vi in y and uh and the whole p goes this is a wondrous day people are familiar with the last part of that P that it is a time a troubling time a difficult time a painful time for Yakov but he will will be saved from it it's a wonderful no he is telling us that no matter what we go through ultimately Hashem will Hashem will save us we'll experience salvation you know and uh and at the end of the day we'll all be okay so the bmov though has a very different reading of this not to you know it doesn't negate the the theat but the BTO says like this he says Ace he uh it is a very difficult hard time for yakoba from that very crisis in other words by confronting that very test that very crisis those hardships those difficulties a person will discover he will be saved meaning what he will discover within himself such a new powerful definition of who he is or who she is that precisely because of the Sor they discover the person will discover levels of greatness that they never knew they had and I think this also is I think this also is an experience that just like according to the rambam I think we're setting a certain model moral ethical e Excellence that the world should be able to see and the world should be able to admire about Jewish people who we are this is who we are so so too with the understanding of n in the words of ramban it's something similar we've discovered I mean you know all of us everyone who's you we're all dealing with this trauma and of course we're still in it it's not over yet we don't know we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow but it's precisely in dealing with the Sor not brushing another than not ignoring it not trying to repress it dealing with it openly confronting it dealing with it every and everyone of course you everyone dealing with it in a different way it's precisely it's precisely that confrontation with it seizing it that we discover things about ourselves that we you know that frankly we never knew before all of a sudden I didn't know I had the capacity to do this I didn't know I I felt this this type of desire to do I didn't know I had the strength within me uh you know to see people and to talk to people and to you know give people etc etc we discover things about the the test is for us we discover things about ourselves that we never that we never knew that you know that we never knew that we had it's this type and other than with this note is this type of M neish this ability to go above and beyond what we thought possible that has characterized us you know in last week's para with Noah I'm sure we're all familiar with the uh you know no is compared to AB in a you know in a somewhat negative way that you know Noah didn't pray the Zohar says Noah didn't pray for his generation abam prayed for even people like the wicked people of sedom and that's why the flood is called May no and and uh if Noah had lived in the days of ab he wouldn't have a mounty wouldn't have been seen as any as you know as as as anyone special that's the zor the however the m at the um um at the end of the at the end of the par of Noah that is the m gives quotes a med which gives a different comparison a comparison between Noah and mosenu and there and there the medish says Noah Noah at the beginning was called isik a righteous a righteous person a righteous and a pure person and at the end he's called the nishad a normal person of the ground mosu at the beginning was called ish an Egyptian by the daughters of isra and at the end he's called isim he's called the man of God he said what so the M says what what was the difference what was it between Noah and between Moshe we're not talking about AB Noah the medish is comparing Noah to Moshe and so the M uh says his fathers he says Noah was basically concerned with himself he was he was uh someone who was uh he used the expression hit he was someone who who who related to God in a very personalistic very individual way you know meditating and and developing a very sincere closeness to God but it was all about him and God okay it was all about connecting with God in the most powerful intense way okay no one says that that's fine but mosh Renu was Mish MOS mosh Renu gave of himself gave of himself to other people he wasn't so much concerned with his own personal Spiritual Development he felt there was a need to be concerned when an Egyptian you know kills one of the you know one of the Jewish slaves as we know the story and so on and so forth and this is what made Moshe great this is what made Moshe so you know so unique and and in a sense this is again what we've experiencing now you know everyone is caught up in trying to deal with a TR this trauma in their own personal way but it's not stopping us from moving outside of ourselves and being concerned about other people as well in everyone in everyone in their own way from davening to learning to acts of to you know donating time and money Etc all the things that people are doing in Israel throughout the world this should be a very very as difficult as the situation is for everyone this should be a very very encouraging thing a very inspiring thing and it's precisely that strength that strength that we have in coming together as one and being most andish that will guarantee that with God's help we will win this battle we will grow from it and we'll all become better for it thank you very much for listening and hopefully things will get better thank you have a good week and a good Chas thank you so much okay well thank you bye bye right