A land that Hashem Your G-d seeks out; the eyes of Hashem your G-d are always on it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year. (Devarim 11:12)
Dear..., shalom uverachah!
It occurred to me several times that I should write you a few words, and, as we know, the word תוכחה comes from the root of להוכיח, which means to prove and clarify something, and does not necessarily imply reproval.
I want to be honest with you. I am very worried about you, and I am not sure you did the right thing by travelling to an impure land. After all, the Holy Land has kedushah. The Vilna Gaon writes about it:
It is desired by Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it is desired by all of Yisrael. All those above and below long for it.
The siyata d’Shmaya is many times greater when one is standing before the King in His home and courtyard.
I want to make the following request of you, which comes from the depths of my heart: Please, do not leave Hashem’s presence! Chazal say:
Someone who lives outside the Land is like someone who does not have G-d.
This applies everywhere in chutz la’aretz except for the tents of Torah. The Vilna Gaon writes that a beis midrash outside of Eretz Yisrael has kedushas Eretz Yisrael. But if a person leaves the tents of Torah, even for a short time, he is going out to the land of other nations, and impurity attaches itself to him, chas v’shalom.
The Rambam writes in the last halachah of Hilchos Teshuvah:
It is clear and well known that love of Hakadosh Baruch Hu does not become tied to a person’s heart until he properly immerses himself in it, always, and leaves everything in the world, other than it.
This shows that the halachah of loving Hashem is not just to attach oneself to that which brings a person close to Hashem, but also to leave everything else.
My father recounted to me that when R. Baruch Ber Lebowitz came to America to collect money for Yeshivas Kamenitz, and was riding in a car through Manhattan, they pointed out to him the tall buildings, but he didn’t want to look out of the window. He said, “I didn’t come to see America; only for the yeshivah.”
And this is not some kind of exceptionally high madreigah. It is obvious that every country has its unique characteristics and special sights, and this is very attractive, like an אשה זרה, an unfamiliar woman (Mishlei ch. 5), whom everyone who looks becomes attached to and is destined to die disgracefully. It is the same with a person who is drawn after the beauty of a country. In Hebrew, the word for land and for country, ארץ ומדינה, are in the feminine gender. It attracts just like an unfamiliar woman does, and is damaging like she is.
Thus R. Baruch Ber did not want to look at the beauty of a foreign country, like he would not look at an unfamiliar woman. Tzaddikim would satiate their eyes only on the Holy Land, as it says, “A land that... the eyes of Hashem your G-d are always on it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.”
The Rambam writes: “A person needs to know that nothing lasts forever and ever, except for knowledge of the Rock of the World.”
We need to work very hard on not running after worldly desires. This applies not only to lusts that the Torah expressly forbids but also to desires that seem to be perfectly okay. Instead, we need attach ourselves to Torah and eternity.
You, too, have reached the age where you can look back at what you went through in earlier years of your life, and you know from experience what remains with us of all the things we chased after and considered at the time to be important. In the end, the only thing left is the few dapim of Gemara that we learned, and this is the property that has true value. Besides that, nothing stays.
You have come to a foreign country. What property did you come with? Only what you learned, the Torah knowledge that you acquired, and the ability to think straight in learning. This is what you were respected for, this is what gave you some status, and all the things that we wasted so many hours on are like they never existed.
Similarly, when you come back to Eretz Yisrael, after a quarter of an hour you will finish telling about all the wonders of America, but the hours of hasmadah, the dapim of Gemara and the tefilos b’kavanah – they are the merchandise that we take home with us even in this world. And surely when we go on the great journey, we will take with us only the true merchandise that will benefit us day after day and year after year, endlessly, forever.
My dear... please spill a little ink and let me know what is really going on with you, if you are immersed in your learning? Every word will be a relief for me and will be considered a mitzvah for you.
Shimshon Dovid Pincus
