Off the Subject
At the end of this week’s sedrah we read the story of the mekallel, who committed one of the worst aveiros of all: ִשְׂ רְ אֵלִית אֶת ה'ָּׁ ה הַיֶּן הָאִשֹּב בִּקּ וַיֵלּוַ יְ קַ ל – And the son of the Israelite woman cursed the Name of Hashem (Vayikra 24:11). It was a terrible thing, one of the most tragic events that took place in the Midbar – a Jew should curse Hashem?! A very unpleasant story.
If you’re interested you can look in the Chumash and in the mefarshim to see exactly what happened there, what the details were. But for our purposes it’s enough to know that this man was very upset about his station in life, and in his distress and his anger he blamed Hashem for his plight and uttered blasphemous words.
Now, at the end of the story there begins a list of transgressions which seem to have no connection at all to the previous subject of the mekallel. It says there that Hashem told the Bnei Yisroel how to punish someone who ‘curses the Name’. But then, before the story concludes with how they put the mekallel to death, it interrupts with various other sins that seem out of place: bloodshed (ibid. 17) and assault (18) and damaging someone’s property (19) – various aveiros that a person might do. And only then after that list of sins, אֹתוְֹּמוִּרְ גֵּל ... וַיּ אֶ ת הַ מְּ קַ לּוֹצִיאוּ וַי אָ בֶ ן – the Bnei Yisroel took the mekallel out of the camp and stoned him to death.
Now, to us it seems that all these other sins don’t belong here at all. They’re out of place.
The Common Denominator
And the explanation is as follows: The common factor in all of these subjects is the element of anger. How could it be that a person will do something as wild as cursing Hashem, chas veshalom? Because he’s angry. And that’s the lesson here: an angry person is a loose cannon who might do anything!
And so the Torah warns us here: ‘Beware! Every kind of wickedness is on the table for someone unwilling to train himself to curb his anger. He’ll curse Hashem! And even if he won’t get so meshuge, but other things he’ll do; he’ll damage his fellow man’s property or even assault and maim him. He might even shed the blood of a fellow Jew!
Don’t think it’s an exaggeration. We have Orthodox murderers today – and not in far-off places. In this neighborhood not so long ago a man murdered his wife. An Orthodox man who wouldn’t think of eating tarfus, but shefichas domim he did. How could that be? A frum murderer?! It’s because an angry person is bound to do anything.
Kaas is guaranteed to bring a person to very many sins, big and small, because שְׁ כִ ינָה אֵ ינָהּוּ אֲ פִ לּוְֹ נ ֶ גְ דּבָ ה כּחֲ שׁ ו (Nedarim 22b). He’s too busy fulminating in his frustration and nothing else matters – even the Shechinah means nothing to him now! Hakadosh Baruch Hu can wait – what matters now is that his neighbor is parked in his driveway! And that means he might do anything – he’ll be up to his nose in sins before he finally settles down.
Prepared for Yom Hadin
That’s what Shlomo Halelech said in Mishlei (29:22). ַ עַ ל חֵ מָ הּב – A person of wrath, רַ ב פּ ֶ שׁ ַ ע – has many sins. Rav means he has a majority of sins. A majority! וֹ עֵ סָּ ל הַ כּכ – Anybody who is an angry person, ִ יןּעַ שֶׁ עֲ ווֹנוֹתָ יו מְ רֻ בְּ יָ דוּב – we know for certain that his sins are more than his merits (ibid. 22a).
It means he doesn’t have to wait for the Yom Hadin of Olam Haba to find out what’s going to be with him. Even though he is a frum man who does mitzvos and gains many merits – and merits certainly are important for a person’s final judgment – but if he's a baal kaas then he can take it to the bank. He can know for certain that his merits will be outweighed by his sins.
And that’s why the Gemara says that וֹ עֵ סָּ ל הַ כּכ – anyone who gets angry, וֵֹּיהִנֹּם שׁ וֹלְטִ ין בָּל מִינֵי גּכ – all the various treatments of Gehenom will have power over him (Nedarim 22a). Not a treatment or some treatments; kol minei means all the various treatments that they have in Gehenom, the angry man can expect them.
The Treatment Plan
Now, that word ‘treatments’ deserves an explanation and so we should take a few minutes before we start the subject, to talk about what it means. You know, we were not given the opportunity to take a peek into Gehenom. Nobody ever saw it and whatever it is, it’s a thousand times or a million times more than we’re capable of expressing in words anyhow. And therefore, it’s only the teaching of our Sages, their traditions, that open our eyes to the truth of what it is. And they tell us that it’s a place where the neshamah goes in order to be treated, to be remedied.
You know, our greatest expectation, the greatest happiness that we are all looking forward to, is the promise of ָל יִשְׂרָאֵל יֵשׁ לָהֶםּ כָ אּחֵ לֶ ק לָ עוֹ לָ ם הַ ב. We are promised a happiness so great that even Hakadosh Baruch Hu couldn’t give us greater joy.
And yet a person who didn’t prepare himself in this world, he won’t be permitted to go to Gan Eden immediately – he must be processed in the clinic of Gehenom in order to be capable of enjoying the delights of the World to Come.
The Choice is Ours
Of course, if you do teshuvah while you’re still here, you're a smart man because you’ll avoid those treatments. You’ll save yourself a lot of trouble.
It’s the same as in this world; let’s say a man who has ulcers. So there are two kinds of treatments. One way is before it gets to the stage where it’s extreme; he could still change his habits. If he would live a reasonable, temperate life that would help him heal. He could go to sleep early every night instead of sitting up in front of the ‘devil machine’ and ruining his mind. Instead of reading magazines late at night or sitting and gabbing with the family, if he would hit the hay early, that’s one way of healing an ulcer or preventing a future one.
But the other way is surgery. If he waits too long, the end result will be surgery. It’s not the first choice of course because surgery is painful and it’s dangerous too. But finally, the doctor will tell him that it’s inflamed and abscessed and it has to be cut out with a knife.
The Only Alternative
In the Next World however surgery is the only alternative; there it’s always the answer and it’s always painful. And so all of the questions and pleadings won’t do much for you – if you come to the Next World with a cancer that you didn’t treat with teshuvah while you were still in this world then it’s going to require treatment in Gehenom before you can get into Gan Eden. And it’s going to be H-E-L-L.
By the way, it’s good you came here tonight to hear this. You know that in this place we like to talk about happy things, about how to live happy and successful lives. But included in that is knowing the truth. And so even though in other places they won’t talk to you about Gehenom because they want you to keep coming back but I’m not so interested in you coming back. I’m more interested that you should know the truth, that you should become better. And so I’m telling you once and for all what it really is.
The Clinic You Don’t Want to Visit
And so Gehenom is a place of treatments, all types of treatments. If a person comes there with a big ulcer, let’s say, of jealousy, so it’s too late to do anything about it except to operate. And the operation is very long. The surgeons there have all types of tools; everything they have – except anesthesia.
If you come in with a different sin, let’s say, of lashon hara, so you need a different treatment; they have to work on the mouth. It’s not pleasant to have your teeth fixed. They have to be ground and filled, drilled and filled. Maybe some teeth have to be pulled out. They pull with pliers. All types of tools to treat that problem to make you ready for the happiness of Gan Eden.
If he wasn’t careful with what he ate, his stomach has to be treated. If he has lesions of onaas devorim, hurtful words, so it’s a different kind of treatment. You didn’t listen to your mother when she asked you to take out the garbage? A different treatment. There’s no such thing as a sin that’s not going to be treated. Every sin has a specific kind of treatment.
Anger is the All-In-One
And so we come back now to the angry fellow. Anger, the Sages tell us, is something different altogether. If you’re prone to anger, if you have a tendency to flare up, you have to expect a Gehenom where all the treatments will be given to you – וֵֹּיהִנֹּם שׁ וֹלְטִ ין בָּל מִינֵי גּכ. Why so many? Because it’s not one sickness. The ‘angry person is filled with sin’.
That’s what the Torah is telling us here at the end of our sedrah. A person might do the worst things. He might say the worst things. He might damage or maim or hurt or kill. There have been boys and girls who ran away because of kaas and they accepted a cult instead of the Jewish faith; people have bowed down to idols to spite their families because of ka’as!
Talking to Ourselves
But we’re not only talking about those extreme scenarios. We’re talking now about ourselves, about people who learn Torah and perform mitzvos. And still when a person gets angry it brings him to be mean and to say hurtful words. People break other people’s hearts in their anger. People say lashon hara; they slander others and ruin their lives. It brings machlokes. He fights with his neighbors and in-laws. He’s unhappy and frustrated and he blames Hashem. Kaas is not only anger – every middah raah and every sin comes as a result.
And because he’ll be coming to the Next World with all types of sins – all types of cancers and lesions and disorders and ulcers and sores – they all have to be treated before he can get into Gan Eden. The indescribable joy of Gan Eden is waiting for him but first he’ll be treated and readied for that eternal happiness.
