Separating Eisav
Now, we have to understand that the process did not stop there. And when Yitzchak and Rivkah had two sons, you have to know that both had a good chance to be chosen—they both could have become great. Don't think Eisav was a rasha at birth. That’s a mistake. Nobody is a rasha by birth. Despite all the agados that you read, whatever you read in the mefarshim, don’t misunderstand them—they're only nevuos, prophecies of what could happen in the future, but he could have changed that prophecy. Oh yes, Eisav had free will to adjust them. He had free will to become a tzaddik gamur. He could have remained as part of the Am Yisroel.
But what happened? Because Eisav didn’t live up to being the best, therefore he became a supercargo; it means he became an unnecessary burden, and so Hakadosh Baruch Hu shook him off, and Yaakov was left alone. Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, “If you’re not willing to live up to My requirements, then it’ll be just Yaakov.”
And so Eisav took his wives and children and all his tzon u’bakar, and his horsemen and his army, and they all marched away and settled in Edom. It’s like the Jew who picks up his family from Flatbush and settles somewhere far away from a good Jewish community and they go lost. And that's what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted. From now on we were rid of Eisav.
Left in Mitzrayim
And even when it came finally to Yaakov Avinu, it seems to us that יוָירƒח¿ּב בֹ ֲ̃ﬠַי י≈נ¿ּב, the sons of Yaakov are His chosen ones. Reuven and Shimon and Levi and Yehudah, all of them, became the Am Yisroel and maybe they were finished now with the process. No, it wasn’t finished. Because did they all leave Mitzrayim? Everybody knows that before they left Mitzrayim there was a plague of darkness that continued for a number of days. And something happened during that time. Some of the Bnei Yisroel perished at that time.
Perished?! Right before Yetzias Mitzrayim? Why? Because they were not worthy of being redeemed. In the Haggadah shel Pesach, when the unworthy son asked a question and he showed that he wasn’t so interested in being attached to the nation, so we said about him לָ‡¿‚ƒנ הָיָה ‡ֹל םָׁ ̆ הָיָהּוּלƒ‡ – had he been there in Mitzrayim he would not have been redeemed. So we see that those who were not worthy, were not redeemed from Mitzrayim.
And it's remarkable how few did go out. Although two million of our nation went out of Mitzrayim, there were many more who did not go out. It's a remarkable thing. םƒיָר¿ˆƒמ ı∆ר∆‡≈מ ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ ̆ƒי י≈נ¿בּלוָﬠ יםƒׁ ּ̆מוֲחַו. Only one-fifth left Mitzrayim. And one medrash says יםƒׁ ̆יƒמֲח≈מ „ָח∆‡ – one out of every fifty. It's hard to believe. It could be it’s just a lashon, an expression, guzmaos. But whatever it was, not everybody left Mitzrayim. They were rejected. Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted to make sure He's getting only the best, so that when we come to Matan Torah only the very best should stand around Har Sinai and hear the Voice of Hashem.
Shevatim Go Lost
But at least all the Shevatim remained. We marched out twelve big beautiful tribes. And every shevet had its own characteristics and its own middos that were valuable in the eyes of Hashem. He didn’t want us to be all the same. It’s like a body. We can't all be feet or all be hands. And so Hakadosh Baruch Hu made separate eivarim and every shevet contributed something.
But a tragedy happened. Ten of the Shevatim began to weaken. It’s a long story how it happened—one day we’ll talk about it in detail—but it happened. ל-≈‡ םƒע „ָר „ֹע הָ„ּיהוƒו – Yehudah, the house of Dovid, and Binyamin, still clung to Hashem. They had the Beis Hamikdash and Yerushalayim; it was the land of the Torah and so they remained loyal to Hashem. But in the Eretz Aseres Hashevatim many wrong things had been done, and therefore it was decreed that eventually they'll be cut off.
A tragedy of tragedies! They were among the mekablei haTorah! They lived a long time together with us! They were oleh regel with us. Every year, three times a year, we all gathered together in Yerushalayim. Chaveirim kol Yisroel! But now they dropped off the body of the nation and most of them went lost. םƒיֹוּ‚ַּב םּ∆ ̇¿„ַבֲ‡ַו – They went lost among the nations (Vayikra 26:38).
It was a terrible operation to amputate so many limbs from the body of the Am Yisroel. Today we don't even think about it, but how could you live without Shimon? Could you live without a lung? How could you live without a Gad? Could you live without an ear? You need every eiver.
Shaking Off Limbs
But that was the fulfillment of Hashem's plan of shaking off. It’s a remarkable thing. To shake off the brothers? If you shake off Eisav, OK, we have a certain prejudice against Eisav. We learned Rashi when we were little children; we know Eisav is no good. So if He shook him off, all right. We have a prejudice against Kayin too. We think he was no good. So if you shake him off, all right. But to shake off the brothers? Even Yosef's family went lost. Efraim and Menashe went lost! How could that be?!
The answer is as old as the beginning of time. It was a sifting; it was a salvation min haShamayim to get rid of them because they had proved that they were not worthy to continue. If a man goes to a doctor and the doctor sees that the appendix is swollen—“It might burst any minute,” he says. “Hurry to the hospital!”—so you pay the surgeon a big fee to take out your appendix. It's a loss of the appendix, but your body is saved.
Shaking Off the Christians
I'll give another example. After the churban Beis Hamikdash about sixty odd years passed by and then came the great war of Beitar; the Jewish nation fought against the Roman Empire for years. It was the most arduous, the most difficult war that Rome ever faced, and finally when Rome won, they began the great slaughter. The land was littered with dead bodies that were not permitted to be buried for years.
But you have to know that at that time a tremendous benefit was bestowed upon us because we became rid now of a very infected limb: We got rid of the Christians. Up until then, all the Christians were Jews—the early Christians practiced the laws of the Torah. Oso ha’ish himself, we see from the New Testament, kept the Torah. He wasn't a medakdek bemitzvos, he wasn't a tzaddik gamur, but we know he sat down at the seder Pesach night and he said hallel.
It says befeirush he said hallel Pesach night at the seder. They call it the Last Supper but if you read inside you see it was the seder. He kept almost everything, like all Jews did. And that was the biggest peril for us, to have such weaklings, such corrupters, in our midst who might corrupt us.
But they had no intention of renouncing their Judaism. They didn't want to separate from us. How could we shake them off? And then this miracle happened in the war of Beitar. Because now it didn’t pay to be a Jew anymore. To be a Jew meant that your life was in great peril. And so what did the Christians do? They declared that they are not Jews. From then on they began to discard all the practices of Yahadus and began to behave like pagans.
That's when they broke off from us. We lost very many Jews then. Very many!
Shaking Off the Kara’im
And so we learn from this that Hakadosh Baruch Hu makes it His business that those who don't belong should get lost. You remember the Kara’im. In their homes on Shabbos they didn't permit any fire to exist—even if the fire was made before Shabbos. And some of them were medakdek in their mitzvos. Of course they did it absolutely incorrectly, but at that time they were powerful and they had important political figures. They had their own chachamim and the world was full of the noise made by the Kara’im. There was a real threat to the Am HaTorah.
But we see today that the Kara'im went lost. How they went lost, why they went lost, it has to be studied, but they went lost. It's a remarkable story. At the time it was unbelievable if you would say that they would go lost. They were more powerful than the Reformers are today. Even today if you say the Reform and the Conservative will go lost, many people will say: “How will they go lost? They're so powerful and so numerous.” But we can understand they'll go lost because they don't have any children.
Soon, Rabbi Susan, in her short skirt, won’t have any congregation to speak to. In the course of time, for lack of progeny to follow them up, they'll go lost. They don't have children, no families. They'll die out. But the Kara'im had families. It was impossible to picture a time when we would be rid of them. And it happened. It happened. It had to happen because only the best survive. Only the loyal, the best, will remain as the Am Hashem.
Remaining in this World
But not only to remain in this world. Of course, we want to continue in this world with the Am Hashem forever. I’d like to know that my children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren will forever be in this world keeping mitzvos! Because ‡ָﬠ¿רַּכ ‡ָרָּבָהּבוָ‡¿ּ„, it's like my foot is in this world.
It's a great nachas ruach, a happiness for me, as if I’m still alive in this world. Even if they don't say yizkor—my great-grandchildren won't say yizkor any more for me—but just the fact that they're davening! They're keeping the Torah! It's my nation and they're continuing. It's a happiness! A nachas! A very great joy to know they're continuing.
But more important is continuing in the Next World as part of the Am Hashem. The tragedy of tragedies when someone is sifted out, is to lose the World to Come forever and ever. What does it pay to live if you're not going to succeed in the great quest that all mankind secretly hopes for in the depths of their consciousness? We want to live forever.
For a Jew to lose his eternal share with the Am Yisroel together, there's no greater disaster in the world. Gehinom is nothing compared to the misfortune of being torn away from his people. The assimilationists who change their names and try to get lost among the gentiles are committing suicide in the very worst manner because the future belongs to us, in this world and in the Next World.
