The Nuclear Option — VaEschanan

there's an old jewish folk saying god i know we're your chosen people but couldn't you choose somebody else once in a while so at the end of this week's passion of asshain and it talks a little bit about hashem's choosing the jews not because you are most numerous of the people that hashem desire you and choose you ki atem atm but rather or because you are the least of all nations what does that mean hashem chose you because you are the least of all nations we we find many interpretations of this rashi's grandson the rashbam the tracephist says that it's in the immediate context of the jews about to enter the land after 40 years in the wilderness and you're not the least of all people or you are the least of all peoples means only in comparison to the canaanite nations that they were about to um to go to war with who were much more populous rebecca bakaya not even pakuda but rabbina bachaya the one who wrote commentary on homich says that it's referring back to something in last week's parsha where mesha told the jewish people hashem multiplied you like the stars and now we're saying you you're so few how can you be so few of hashem multiplied you like the stars so what it means is hypothetically even if you were few hashem would still still choose you because even if quantitatively you weren't great but you're qualitatively so great so that that's what it means hypothetically theoretically um mal beam explains it even differently he says because the prohibition of intermarriage comes right before this um this verse so you might think that an argument for intermarriage would be well you know maybe we should just join with other nations and then increase our numbers that way so this verse you are the least of all nations like an answer to that no no don't worry about it you are the least of all nations and that's okay you don't have to worry about um you know bolstering your numbers um by um you by by intermarrying like like other nations often do in order to to increase their numbers but probably the most well-known explanation of this verse is rashi rash's commentary and rashi says that least or fewest isn't even talking about a population it's talking about a a character type personality type he says it means humility he says you are the least of all nations means that you are like avraham your your father avram who said i am but dustin and you make yourself small meaning you are humble and that's why hashem chose you so you are the least of all nations really means you are a humble nation you are the most humble nation you are you are a nation with humility so let's try to understand then according to that explanation why humility making ourselves small in that sense is so important to our identity and how it's linked to jewish survival on purim 1951 the first quorum after the laboratory accepted leadership he was speaking about this idea of the least of all nations and at first that i was speaking about it in the literal sense of a populist that remember this is 1951 just a few years after the holocaust and the the number of jews had been slashed and uh decimated and that i just started off speaking about that and then they never asked two questions being that the jews are a tiny minor a tiny minority who was just made even tinier and were vastly outnumbered in the world a how can we ask a jew to stand up to that and b even if a jew does buck the trend and live jewishly what difference can it possibly make so first of all how can we expect him to do it but second of all even if he does do it it's like a drop in the ocean what effect will it have on the world when such a tiny minority of people do something how can it have an effect on the world and then the never pointed out you know the demands of modern life give us so little time for spirituality so now we're we're a small population and we have a very little amount of our time that we can devote to spirituality so it's just getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and the the notion that we could have any effect on the world becomes seemingly more and more impossible and then the device said that we could answer all of these questions in light of the science of the day specifically nuclear fission now nuclear fission was discovered in the 1930s and then its power was most famously harnessed by the manhattan project which was the development of the bomb that was dropped on japan the two bombs that were dropped on japan to end world war ii it's interesting by the way that the manhattan project j robert oppenheimer was the lead scientist of the team he was a jew and most of the members of of the team were jews and in fact to the extent that anti-semites often refer to the nuclear bomb as the jewish bomb it's an anti-semitic trope because so many jews were involved in the bomb now of course there were many jews including those who were on the manhattan project who afterwards begged the world community never to use the bomb again including albert einstein whose many of his theories were used as part of the project um but it's interesting that jewishness is so intertwined with this idea of of the nuclear bomb um what what's the concept of nuclear fission basically to put it very very simply and that's the extent of my knowledge i'm not so well versed in this myself but basically you're taking this tiny tiny particle an atom and it can start a chain reaction that releases this incredible amount of power so what do we see from this is that bigger is not necessarily better less can actually be more this tiny nation is like an atom with immense power we only need the secret of how to unleash the power now what's the secret how to unleash the power nuclear fission doesn't just release the power from this tiny tiny particle fission releases the power of the atom which is tiny by making it even tinier by splitting it breaking it down into smaller parts so what do we see that not only is there immense power and smallness but the real power is when smallness becomes even smaller so how do we release our infinite potential by making ourselves small that's what it means you are the smallest you humble yourselves you make yourself small like avraham your father who said i'm dustin ashes when do we have impact when can we unleash a chain reaction that can affect the entire world through humility when we make ourselves small ego reduction see the ego is the ego the engine got out so the spiritual nuclear fission is when we take the smallness and make it even smaller a tiny and significant minority by making itself even smaller by reducing the ego becoming humble can release this massive massive massive amount of energy what does that mean let's talk let's talk practically you know one of the first charges against khabad early early early in the times of the altar he was arrested two times so the second time he was arrested there were charges against acidic culture one of the charges was that hasidic culture is bad for society because hasidic teachings stress humility what we call dipl self-abnegation ego reduction or ego negation and the argument was if everyone's going to walk around without an ego they're not going to be motivated they're not going to do anything they're not going to contribute to society they'll become leeches on society so the altarebe explained that actually the very opposite is true the alternative says it looks like the motivated person is the self-interested person but no their self-interest has a limit so ultimately they're only going to do what they need to do to get what they want they're not really giving to society but who's unlimited who will really do everything that it takes the selfless person so you think selflessness makes people not contribute to society that that's that's the myth that's the lie no selfishness limits people's ability to contribute selflessness is what makes people unlimited in their ability to contribute so this has always been a great misunderstanding that if you reduce the ego you're going to become a schmatter you're going to become ineffective you're going to become a nobody a loser you know passive it's the exact opposite when you reduce the ego then there are no limits then you can accomplish anything because it's not about you anymore who are you who who are you to say that you can't accomplish anything who are you to say you can't change the world you understand that's humility don't get in your own way just get out of your way and let hashem shine through that's the nuclear option you know we spoke about it says he was one he was the only one like him in the whole world he didn't have a party behind him he didn't have a group nothing talking about a tiny minority a minority of one but we're all children of rahm and we're here because of avram and not only did he discover hashem he taught the world about hashem and not only he called out in the name of hashem he caused others to call out until this day you see the influence of avraham now it took a lot of humility for avraham to do that the whole world said he was crazy but he rose above his ego and he selflessly changed the world you know there's a concept called the samson doctrine it's not confirmed that israel even has nuclear weapons but if they do it's known that if there would ever god forbid be an existential threat to israel there would be a disproportionate response like samson samson died in the temple in in the philistines in in gaza they trapped him and so he pulled down the pillars and he destroyed and killed everyone including himself he knew he was going down so he took everyone with him so there's this samson doctrine the nuclear option that if god forbid there was a situation where israel couldn't save itself they would make sure that there would be enough collateral damage that it would make it not worth it to anyone to ever threaten the jews that way god forbid nobody wants that to happen at all but my point is with their you want to know the real nuclear option the real nuclear option and it's not even a last resort the real nuclear option is humility to take like the tiny atom that breaks apart and unleashes the chain reaction that releases all this power in the world the nuclear option is humility break yourself down get yourself as close to nothingness as possible and then everything becomes possible there's a story that hadin steins alts he once he wrote to the rabbit and he said that he can't go on he he's got his scholarship that he's doing you know with translated given translating a commentary on the on the talmud writing a commentary on the talmud and he's got his outreach that he's doing and the yeshivas he's running and he was running programs in in russia at the same time literally had his hand in four or five full-time jobs he says i can't go on he wrote to the deb and he said i gotta pick something to focus on you know what the ebba's response to him was do more i can't do more do more that's the nuclear option the nuclear option is when you reach your limit now we just go beyond limits you can't you're right you're you're maxed out but it's not about you you take the ego and you break it down and then everything can happen through you if it's based on your own ability even if you're great even if you're a genius even if you're talented even if you're driven it can only get you so far but when you can just surrender and you say it's not me anymore it's not possible i can't accomplish all this i surrender and then you allow hashem's power through you now you have the nuclear option now you can accomplish anything so this is the message if there's something that feels uncomfortable if there's something that feels like it's gonna break your ego do it do it and unleash your massive world-changing power