About the current situation with Iran

Shiur 15 – About the current situation with Iran

There are two aspects to the situation that we find ourselves in in Eretz Yisroel. One is the fear of danger and the loss of life that is occurring. Together with this, we will deal with the topic of tefillah as our response to the dangers. The other is the chessed and siyatah dishmayah from Hashem to us during these challenging times that even goyim can recognize. They cannot be dealt with together, so we will deal with them       separately.

We will begin to speak about tefillah. The general background for our tefillah is that when we daven three times a day, in the beracha of techiyas hamesim, we praise Hashem for making man always rise above his limitations. 

Man is made so that he never reaches his limit or end point. Even when he dies, he still does not get to the end as there is still techiyas hamesim. We say in shemoneh esrei, somech noflim-supports the fallen, rofeh cholim-He gives refuah to the sick, matir asurim-He will save the hostages, umekayem emunoso lisheinei ofor– Hashem keeps His faith even to those who are dead by performing techiyas hamesim.

Why do we say these three things before techiyas hamesim? Techiyas hamesim might be Hashem’s most incredible kindness, but this beracha is not about any specific kindness of Hashem. Instead, it is about Hashem making man in such a way that he never finishes; in this respect, all four points are equal.

There was an American soldier who lost his two legs in Afghanistan. They asked him what he thought about what had happened to him. He answered that losing his legs had brought him significant life experience and inner growth. So much so that if a malach would come to him, to      return his two legs, but on condition that he would also take away the life experience that he had gained from losing his two legs, the soldier said that he would tell the malach to keep the two legs. He wants to stay with all his life experiences and inner growth from this loss.

This most disastrous incident that this Jewish soldier underwent did not finish him off. In truth, even death doesn’t finish the person off. Whatever is happening, there is always something to work on. This means that in troublesome situations, not only will Hashem act to help us, but we also need to work.

Tefillah

The Nefesh Hachaim says that when a person davens, he should daven for Hashem‘s sake- for the shechinah’s tzaar, etc. However, ordinary people feel that this is beyond them, and they think that at their low level, they will continue davening for themselves, for their health, and their simchah instead of for the tzaar hashechinah.

However, at times, as we find ourselves now, such an attitude isn’t an option.

The Rama Mipano, in the first chelek of asoro mamoros, at the end of the 10th perek, quotes the gemorah that three things bring back a person’s aveiros to be considered by Hashem-a leaning wall, iyun tefillah and moser din al chaveiro.

The Rama Mipano is mechadesh that each of these three things causes the next. A leaning wall-Hashem shows that He is dealing with the reality with His midas hadin from the danger being posed by this wall. This is like what is happening now: there is a midas hadin on Klal Yisroel, whether in Eretz Yisroel or any part of the world. In such cases, we naturally concern ourselves with our own welfare, and we daven a davening of iyun tefillah, which is a strong davening that we should be safe.

If we daven for our safety, where will middas hadin go? Where should the missiles land? On somebody else since middas hadin which is in the world needs to go somewhere. Automatically, it will go to another person. This is moser din al chaveiro.

The Rama Mipano says that such an approach will cause Hashem to bring previous aveiros back to light. 

If so, the only approach when there is a midas hadin on the world is to daven on a higher level. We need to ask Hashem to run the world differently.

But who are we to ask Hashem to run the world differently?

The answer is that we underestimate ourselves. We think of ourselves and our needs as being the by-product of what Hashem does in the world. In other words, we believe Hashem deals with the world primarily based on things unrelated to us and that we are dealt with as a secondary consideration.  This is incorrect. Hashem enters the world in a way specifically commensurate with how we conduct ourselves. Hashem runs the world and deals with us primarily based on us!

If so, we do not need to ask Hashem in a direct way that He should run the world differently. Instead, we ask Hashem to help us that we should be on a different level, automatically making it so that He will run the world differently.

For example, in the shemoneh esrei, after borech oleinu, we speak about the Jewish nation and say hoshivah shofteinu, where we ask that there should be no sadness in the world. We ask that we should be happy. In hoshivah shofteinu, we say that real simchah comes from clarity and absolute seder (order) (‘veyoatzeinu kevatchilah etc.’).

Weddings are happy times. Why is there always alcohol at all weddings? What does alcohol have to do with the simchah of a wedding? Why is alcohol the only way to arrive at happiness? Hoshivah shofteinu tells us that real simchah comes from clarity and absolute order (‘veyoatzeinu kevatchilah, etc.’), not alcohol!

Our davening can raise our level from the standard low and incorrect values and conduct of the world. When we are on this higher level, Hashem will enter the world in a different way. He will not give us a better reward as a reaction to our actions. Rather, He will enter our world in a different way.

Let us further illustrate this idea of how to daven at a higher level (whereby the higher level will affect how Hashem acts in the world). In al hatzaddikim, we say ‘vesen sochor tov lechol habotchim beshimcha, ‘ which refers to wealth in this world. Hashem gives wealth only to those who have bitachon in Him.

If He gave wealth to those with bad middos, it would only bring out all of the person’s bad middos. He would simply buy all that his taavos desire. Nevertheless, we see that bad people are also given wealth.

In refoeinu we ask Hashem to give a cure to those who are ill. How do we relate to the cure from Hashem? Do we remember the cure that Hashem performed only during the illness, or do we maintain gratitude and connection to Hashem even when we are not suffering? We say, ‘ki tehiloseinu otoh.‘ This means that we ask Hashem that we should remember Him and give Him praise even after the illness has finished and been forgotten.

The higher level of tefillah is to daven that we human beings should behave in a straight and correct fashion. We should have wealth only together with having bitachon. We should have refuah and remember the praise of Hashem even after the time of suffering.

A higher level of tefillah doesn’t require deeper kavonos of the Rashash! It just requires an understanding that tefillah is not about filling our chesronos. Instead, it is about recognizing that Hashem runs the world and enters into our world according to our actions. If we behave straight and daven for this, the middas hadin can become midas rachamim. This way, a person can avoid getting into the Rama Mipano’s problem, asking Hashem to remove the middas hadin from himself and giving it to another Jew instead.

In the current dangerous situation, this is what is required from us through our tefillah.

Chessed, siyata dishmayah and nissim

 

Validation

The Israeli industry creates all the weapons. How do they feel?

It is superficial to say that they are baalei gaavah because they are so intelligent. The truth is that their main feeling comes from reality validating them.

The worst thing in business is to focus on success. Kodak was extremely successful, but their success caused them to narrow their vision. They focused all their efforts on making film more and more accurate. As a result, they missed out on the development of digital cameras. Their focus on furthering their success brought their downfall, and they went out of business. The most important thing to think about is validation from reality, not success.

Example of Validation and not Haskamah

In avodas Hashem, we also need to focus on validation. I wrote a sefer on Ohr Yisroel and brought part of the sefer to the Mashgiach. The Rebbetzin saw me and said, ‘For sure the mashgiach will give you an ishur.’ I was so hurt. It wasn’t an ishur that I was looking for. I wanted a haskamah (agreement)!

Later, I realized that what the Rebbetzin had said was the truth of the matter. Haskamah means agreement. Getting a haskamah would imply that the Mashgiach would have been saying that he didn’t have time to write a peirush on Ohr Yisroel, but if he had, he would have written exactly what I wrote. This would make getting a haskamah impossible since mine and the Mashgiach’s heads worked totally differently.

Instead, the Mashgiach, by giving an ishur, was saying that my peirush was an important work because the aim of the peirush is to show that Ohr Yisroel is a very deep book that cannot just be run through. He said he didn’t necessarily agree with everything I wrote, but it’s a chashuvah peirush. Validation can come from something being chashuv and worthwhile, even if it’s not the ultimate truth or obligatory.

Chinuch-Validation through Chashivus and not Haskamah

In parenting, we make this mistake the whole time. We put pressure on our children and conduct chinuch in a way that they need to get agreement from us. Correct chinuch needs to give chashivus to what the children are doing. Giving chashivus to what the child does makes the child work and without pressure.

We tend to work based on obligation and not based on importance. This creates tremendous pressure on us. We see in the current events how Hashem performs nisim for us. This is because we are chashuv to Him. If so, rather than trying to be mechazek in our Torah learning and not speaking lashon hora, etc., we should think about what Hashem considers chashuv, which will arouse us to work in these areas in a much healthier way.

I had parents who came to me, asking me about getting their daughter, who had a very low IQ, accepted into seminary. I spoke to her and discovered that she was very good at dancing and swimming. I told the parents to stop worrying about seminary and instead focus their energy on making her kishronos more. She naturally had kishronos for dancing and swimming and it was these natural kochos that she had, that needed to be worked on and strengthened. They never validated these kishronos as they held that getting good grades at school was the only thing worth validating.

I didn’t give a haskamah to the girl’s kishronos of dancing (I am not particularly interested in all the nuances of dancing), but I gave chashivus to it. Giving chashivus is an essential tool in chinuch to get people to start working hard but without pressure.

Giving a Shiur-Focus on developing what was chashuv to the audience

If a person gives a shiur, it is not enough to consider whether the speech was successful and liked by the audience. He needs to work out what validated his shiur to the audience-what did they like about it? Once he has ascertained this, he needs to work on developing what the public deems chashuv.

Some people who give shiurim feel the need to tell a joke every few minutes to get validation from the audience. This is zilzul hatorah. The shiur needs validation through its Torah content.

If I give a shiur and want to dazzle the audience with great lomdus, the audience may be impressed. However, they will get nothing from what I said as they do not understand it and cannot connect to it. This is the wrong way of being validated.

I have a Kollel of magiddei shiurim. They listen to me despite them being very chashuv. It took me two years to work out what is important to them in what I say. Once I worked out what it was, I worked on what was chashuv and developed it further without pressure.

We have been speaking about chashivus on an individual level. What can you do regarding chashivus on a level of the Klal? I don’t know exactly, but my suggestion is to work out what is chashuv to Hashem as far as Klal Yisroel is concerned. 

However, this isn’t easy to do since we do not really know what Klal Yisroel is. To illustrate our lack of knowledge of what Klal Yisroel is, we can see this in the haftorah for tazria metzorah. It speaks about four metzoroim who needed to be outside the town. One of the metzoroim was starving to death alongside other Jews who were also starving. The four metzoroim were Gechazi and his four children.

Gechazi didn’t have a chelek in Olam Habo, but nevertheless, he was the shliach to save Klal Yisroel from dying of starvation. Klal Yisroel is not just about the gedolei Yisroel and the lomdei torah. After all, Gechazi was not one of these elite people in Klal Yisroel, but even still, he was vital in the salvation of Klal Yisroel.

In a nutshell, there are two things for us to work on. First, we need to improve our davening. Second, we need to recognize what is chashuv about ourselves and Klal Yisroel and then develop these important points.

 

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Written by Rabbi Rapport