Part II. Loving the Beloved
The Big Job
What we’re seeing now is that one of the first prefaces to love Hashem is to become an ֹוּמַﬠ ב≈הֹו‡ ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ ̆ƒי because anything less than that will be an obstacle to the great perfection of ahavas Hashem. We have to love His people! And not just love — we have to learn how to love our nation with an intense and fiery love.
Now, I won’t mislead you and tell you it’s easy. It’s a job, a big job. And you won’t do it by just coming here and listening to me drone on about it. A little bit it’ll help — it helps me when I speak about it, no question. I’ll tell you something, a secret. When I speak to you, I wouldn’t waste my time just for you alone. It’s in the hope that I’m hearing it as well. Agav urcha, I’m letting you listen in, but I’m listening too, and hopefully something rubs off on me. But this is too important of a subject to rely on something rubbing off. We have to know that it is a function that we're mechuyav to work on.
Love Jewish History
So, first of all, you have to learn how to love your people. Do you love your history? Do you love the old generations? After all, Hakadosh Baruch Hu loves them. םָ ֹ̇ו‡ הָבֲהַ‡¿ל ה׳ ַׁ̃ ָ̆חיך∆ ֹ̇בֲ‡ַּב ַ̃ר – He loves your fathers with an eternal love! And so even for those who departed already, they’re still Amo Yisroel, and you should keep in mind that you love them. You should have a love for Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. You should love the Imahos. You should love the Shevatim. You can love Moshe Rabbeinu too. Did you ever think of loving Moshe Rabbeinu? Love all the great men of our nation’s history.
You have to know the past, however. Do you know anything about Dovid Hamelech? Anything about Shlomo Hamelech? Do you know anything about Chizkiyah Hamelech or about Yoshiyah Hamelech? You have to know things about them. You can’t love something you don’t know, the Rambam says. You love according to what you know.
That’s why everyone should be ambitious to know Tanach. Without knowing Tanach, you’re missing one of the fundamentals of Torah perfection; you don’t know about your people.
Tannaim and Amoraim
Not only Tanach; you should be ambitious to know all of our great men. Do you know who Rav Huna is? Many Jews you’ll ask them so they look befuddled. “Rav Huna?” He’s scratching his head. He doesn’t know. “Is he a rav in my neighborhood?”
How can he be a candidate to be an oheiv Yisroel? You have to know the whole Klal Yisroel in order to begin loving them.
Learn to love the Tana’im. You have to know their names and love them. Not only to know their greatness. Not only to be proud of them but to love them intensely. When you learn, let's say, a machlokes Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua, love these great men. You immerse yourself in their words. You think of their arguments. Ah! You can argue with them on this side. You can argue with them on this side. You agree with both of them. And even if the Gemara makes the maskanah it doesn't mean that one is rejected. We follow one, but we love both of them intensely.
Learn to love Rava and Abaye. Oh, these great people. My people! Rav Ashi! You have to love Rav Ashi!
I once asked a young yeshiva man, eighteen years old. I said, “Who came first – Hillel or Rav Ashi?”
He couldn’t answer.
A Comic Book Head
You know why he couldn’t answer? I saw him standing on the street corner with a friend looking in a comic book. So his mind is filled with imaginary super-people. And then in the mesivta he’s reading, let’s say, a book of American history. What’s American history? The whole thing is nothing but a comedy of errors. So you have to read it for the Regents, but it’s nothing.
Instead of reading garbage books — some people read novels, romances — a Jew should read what helps him fall in love with his people. How can you love your people if you never read the Book of Yeshayah? That great, glorious Navi who speaks of the nobility of our people, and how Hakadosh Baruch Hu loves us, and His love is eternal. The greatness of the Am Yisroel is reflected in the words of Yeshayah Hanavi, and all the other Nevi’im too.
Loving Gemara
And so, all of our emotions of love have to go back into our great history. Think about the days of the Talmud Bavli! Ah, what a glorious people we were then! If you know what the Talmud Bavli is you begin to love your people. You know, without studying the Gemara, you don't begin to realize what greatness there lies in the Jewish people. Of course you have to cover ground in Shas if you’re going to get an understanding of our people in the days of the Talmud Bavli. Up until recently in the yeshivos they used to learn a big part of the mesichta — they used to cover sometimes an entire mesichta, sometimes half of the mesichta.
Today however, it’s a problem because there is a competition for who can cover less ground.
A boy says, “In my yeshiva we covered only six blatt in Kesuvos this last year.”
So the other boy says, “That’s nothing! My yeshiva only covered four blatt!”
It’s a doubtful accomplishment. And it’s especially doubtful because you won’t see the entire panorama of our history. When you learn the Talmud Bavli, you begin to see it's about a great nation, a big populace in Bavel. They lived a thousand years in Bavel, and there are many, many stories there; incidents without end.
When you read Gemara, you begin to understand the holiness of our nation. The people spoke divrei Torah; even women spoke divrei Torah. Many times, things are quoted from women in the Gemara. The entire nation was immersed, soaking in Torah. You have no idea of the kedusha of the ancient times. And you won't understand who we are unless you learn Gemara. At least you get a faint idea of what our ancestors were as reflected in the glorious pages of the Talmud and you can begin to love them.
Loving the Rishonim
And we have to love those on the side of the page too. Do we think of loving Rashi? What did Rashi do for us? Rashi opened the eyes of the Jewish people. Once when I was a boy I had a chaver, a Hungarian boy, in Europe. The Hungarian boy used to say “the heileger Rashi”. That’s how people used to say — they said “the heileger Rashi” whenever they said Rashi. That's a beautiful thing to say! We love Rashi!
Do you think about that? To love Rashi? He thinks it’s a silly thing. It’s not silly at all. Love the Rambam!
Love the Rif! Did you ever think of loving the Mesillas Yesharim? He's benefactor number one. The Chovos Halevavos! As you study their words, learn to love them. Not merely that you're doing them a favor and reading their words. You’re loving them. You have to think about that.
Loving Plain Jews
But not only the Torah leaders. You have to learn how to love the people who lived in the time of Rashi. Rashi’s people were such noble people; they sacrificed their lives when the Pilgrims and the Crusaders came to them in Shpira, that’s Speyer, in Magentza (Mainz) and Vermeisa (Worms). And they tried to force the Jews to accept the cross. What did the Jews do? The Jews took their knives from their kitchens and slaughtered all of their little children. And chossonim slaughtered their kallahs and husbands slaughtered their wives and then they killed themselves. And when the Crusaders finally broke through and entered the homes, they saw only a mass of dead people who refused to bend their knees to avodah zarah because of their great love to Hashem.
Do you love the European Jews from a hundred years ago, when almost everybody kept everything? And two hundred years ago, even more? And three hundred years ago, in the days of the Rema, when everybody studied Torah? Every beis haknesses was packed with learners, and even children babbled Torah when they played in the streets. Do you love them?
That’s included in loving Hashem because you’re loving those whom He loves. ם∆יה≈רֲחַ‡ םָﬠ¿רַז¿ּב רַח¿בƒּיַו – Hashem chooses to love all the descendants of the Avos, and therefore you’re partnering with Hashem.
A Nation of Scholars
Do you know what we were in Europe before World War I? After World War I, there was a very great descent, but what we were before World War I was glorious. And further back what we were? You couldn't find a Jew who couldn't read siddur. Among the gentiles the only ones who could read were the priests. That's why the office people are called clerks today; from the word clergy. The clergyman was the one who could read and write. But among our nation, the majority could read. Very few Jews couldn't read siddur. And writing, almost every Jew could write. There were some women who couldn't write, it's true, but among the gentiles nobody could write. If a gentile could write, the government gave him a job. He became the town clerk.
We're an educated people, an entire nation of people who study. When I was in Europe, I went to a small town in the synagogue. I climbed up with a ladder into the loft of the old synagogue, and I saw seforim. They weren't used anymore, unfortunately. It was after World War I. But I saw seforim, old seforim; Abarbanel, Malbim, Alshich. And I asked an old melamed who still survived from the olden days, I asked him about it. And he said that he remembers in the olden days the place was so packed Thursday night, that you couldn't get a seat in the shul.
The Working Boy
And I pointed out to him — I saw a Teshuvos Rabi Akiva Eiger and the pages were so worn out, it was almost loose leaf. I asked him who learned Rabi Akiva Eiger so much that the pages are loose leaf already?
He said he remembers there was a working boy who came home every night from work and he studied Rabi Akiva Eiger every night, and he was the one who worked out that sefer until the pages were all loose. It's a remarkable thing! Go into a yeshiva and pick up a Rabi Akiva Eiger. Are the pages loose? These were all worn loose! That's how it was in the olden days. We're the am hasefer. You know the Quran calls us ‘the people of the book’. We're the am hasefer. That's what we were.
Even as recently as when I was a boy, I went to a synagogue on the East Side of Baltimore, and it was all European Jews there. They were sitting at separate tables. This is about sixty five years ago, more than that. There was a table for Shas, Gemara. There was a table for Ein Yaakov, a table for...
