Part IV. A Sad World
From Rejoicing to Crying
And now Hakadosh Baruch Hu views the ruins of Yerushalayim, of the nation that lived with the ideals of Yerushalayim. The spirit of Dovid, the heart of the nation, has been stilled. The nation was chased off their land and the glorious atmosphere that we had then, the inspiration and idealism that the nation absorbed and achieved, their perfection in this function of תְהִלָּתִי יְסַפֵּרוּ, abruptly came to an end.
And Hakadosh Baruch Hu cries about that. Not because their land was taken away but because their pride, the pride in living for the ultimate purpose, was taken away. And more than taken away, it was given to the nations of the world: אָ מַ ר רַ ב שְׁ מוּאֵל בַּר יִצְחָ ק – Rav Shmuel bar Yitzchak said, מִפְּנֵי גַּאֲוָתָן שֶׁ ל יִשְׂ רָ אֵל שֶׁ נִּטְלָה מֵהֶם וְ נִתְנָה לְ עוֹבְדֵ י כוֹכָבִים – Hashem cries because of the pride that was taken away from the Am Yisroel, and it was given to idolaters.
Stolen Valor
It was taken away, that’s a halbe tzarah. But it was also given to the goyim! Oh, that’s a knife in the heart of our nation. Because when we lived together in Eretz Yisroel, in our ascendancy, it was easy to live with the ideal that Hashem told us: לוֹ נֶחְ שְׁ בוּ גּוֹיִם מֵ אֶ פֶ ס וָתֹהוּ כָ ל – All the other nations of the world are considered to Me like nothing (Yeshayah 40:17). I’m interested only in you.
Hashem says לִי מַר מִ דְ גּוֹיִם כְ הֵן – the nations are to Me like a drop that drips on the outside of a bucket (ibid. 40:15). When you draw a bucket of water from the well and underneath the bucket there’s hanging a little drop, is that important compared to the water inside the bucket? כְ שַׁ חַ ק וּ מֹאזְ נַיִם נֶחְ שָׁ בוּ – They’re considered to Me like the dust on the scales (ibid.) When you put on the scales to weigh something and after you finish weighing, you take off the merchandise and some dust falls off from the merchandise onto the scale; it’s unimportant. We are the water in the bucket; we are the merchandise.
Visible Glory
Now, it was easy to live with those ideals when we were together under Dovid Hamelech. After all, Dovid conquered all the nations around and they all brought tribute to him. In Shlomo Hamelech's time tribute poured in from all the surrounding kingdoms. So it's easier to understand the greatness of Yisroel when you see that physically they also are in the ascendency. And so we lived confidently, proudly. That was their attitude – here is where the news is being made! Our lives, our avodas Hashem, that’s what matters in the world!
But then it was ‘taken from us and given to them’. We were dispersed among the nations and now we’re no longer the leaders in world history. Of course, we still are because even today Hakadosh Baruch Hu thinks only of us always; but our greatness was taken away from us – where it really belongs - and it was given to gentiles.
The World Upside Down
Everything now is in the hands of those who are not fulfilling the purpose of the world. The gentiles have the big cities; they have the big schools, big cathedrals. They have statues and skyscrapers. They build big museums and stadiums and universities.
The gentiles have the newspapers. You pick up a newspaper – do you read about the Creator? Everything but! Bush and Gore, who won the election, yes. But the Creator and the Am Yisroel, no.
Now, if Gore would have been in competition with Bush about learning Mishnayos let’s say, and Bush would have learned one more mesichta than Gore, ok. But to be President, it’s hevel va’rik; there’s nothing to it. Nothing to it at all. Now, Bush is surely excited about it; oy vey is he excited! And maybe we get excited as well. Alright, could be. But Hashem is not excited about it at all.
What is Hashem excited about? If a man is sitting and learning Mesillas Yesharim. A man who is making progress in learning Gemara. If a girl is trying to become more and more of an oived Hashem; someone who is midakdeik b’mitzvos. That’s what He loves! That’s what’s important to Him! The other things, the ‘big’ things, are very insignificant to Him.
Golus is an עוֹ לָ ם הָ פוּךְ, an upside-down world. Everything that is important is on the bottom. And everything that is unimportant in this world, it is on the top.
A Deprived Nation
And that's a great tragedy because our minds are being deprived of the truth. The attitudes of the nations have percolated into the best Jewish circles. Even the observant Jews are suffering under the disability of the opinions of the umos ha’olam; we’re influenced.
Other things become important. Politics. Money. Driving on the highways. Little things. But תְהִלָּתִי יְסַפֵּרוּ? No. And that creates a confusion, and we lose sight of the truth that it’s the Am Yisroel fulfilling their function, that’s what matters in the world. Even if we know that Golus is an upside down world, but it creates a weakening in our minds.
And that’s why Jews go lost among the goyim in Exile – וַ אֲ בַ דְ תֶּ ם בַּ גּוֹיִם. We’re still frum – some are very, very frum – but so many are not fulfilling the purpose of their lives; to be Yehudim, praisers of Hashem. עַם זו יָצַרְ תִי לִי – The people I created for Me, תְהִלָּתִי יְסַפֵּרוּ – so that they should say My praises and gain awareness of Me.
And so Hakadosh Baruch Hu weeps for us; He’s not weeping for Himself because it makes no difference at all to Him. He weeps for the greatness that our nation deserves, that our nation needs in order to be most successful in its function. He’s weeping because the Am Yisroel is falling behind in its function in Golus. And when we weep, we are weeping along with Him. We cry over what went lost from our nation.
The Silver Lining
Now, you have to remember that this weeping for our pride is done in secret; Hashem is crying bamystarim, behind closed doors. And that means that we too, even though we have to cry about גַּאֲוָתָן שֶׁ ל יִשְׂ רָ אֵל שֶׁ נִּטְלָה מֵהֶם וְ נִתְנָה לְ עוֹבְדֵ י כוֹכָבִים – the pride that was taken away from us and given to idolaters, it’s in a secret compartment in the back of our minds.
Why in secret? Because we have to know always that even in Golus we are a happy and confident nation – עֹז וְ חֶ דְ וָ ה בִּמְ קוֹ מוֹ. That’s what Hashem teaches us that always we are a strong, happy nation, confident in our mission.
Only that we have a tinge of sadness in a secret compartment of our minds as a reminder to ourselves about what Hashem wants from us. It’s a weeping for the pride that we have to try to regain even while we’re in Golus; the pride of being Yehudim, praisers of Hashem.
And we can do it. It’s more difficult but to a great extent we can achieve our purpose even in Golus; we can be a successful nation, an accomplished nation. If a person wants to, if he understands his purpose and he ignores all the falsehoods of Golus he can do it – even in America or in England or Australia. Even in Siberia. And so that tinge of sadness, the weeping in a secret place in our minds, always reminds us that we have a function in this world: the function of תְהִלָּתִי יְסַפֵּרוּ. And even though our function is being stifled in Golus, as long as we recognize our purpose in this world, then even in Golus we reinvigorate our pride and live successfully and happily.
