The effect it will have upon you and your wife and your children if you follow the prescription of Chazal, לֹוּבַר םֹו̃¿מƒּב םָ„ָ‡ רּו„ָי םָלֹעו¿ל. L’olam means always. Even when you are older and have grown independent. It could be you’re already a gavra rabbah, a great man; at least you’re married and you have children, even grandchildren, so you think you‘re something already. And maybe you are. But no matter; l’olam! Always! You should be as close as possible to your teacher, always, so that you should see him and he should see you. You must remain under somebody’s constant watch.
Cause of The Churban
Now, in order to emphasize the importance of a rebbe looking over your shoulder, the Gemara there tells us something about a great man that at first glance seems so remarkable that it’s almost difficult to accept. It says there that it was the violation of this teaching that caused the Churban Beis Hamikdash and golus! You hear such a thing? You know why we’re mourning for the Beis Hamikdash today? Because of someone, someone great, who made the big mistake of making decisions without his rebbe. We’re talking about the great tzaddik, the great talmid chacham, Shlomo Hamelech.
What happened? יםָּיַ̃ ‡ָיר≈ּ‚ ן∆ּב יƒע¿מƒּׁ̆∆ׁ̆ ןַמ¿ז לָּכ – As long as Shlomo’s rebbe, Shimi ben Geira, was still alive, הֹע¿רַּפ ַּ̇ב ̇∆‡ הֹמֹל¿ׁ̆ ‡ָָׂ̆נ ‡ֹל – Shlomo didn’t wed the daughter of Pharaoh. It was only after his rebbe passed away that he made the decision to marry her, which ultimately brought the destruction of Yerushalayim. We’ll see soon that the wicked Rome, the ones who razed our Beis Hamikdash, was created by Shlomo’s sin.
Now, you can’t tell me that Shimi ben Geira was bigger than Shlomo Hamelech; Shlomo was far beyond his rebbe. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu had already put His stamp of approval on Shlomo that he was the chacham mikol adam (Melachim I 5:11). It means he was the genius of our history and he was fully competent to get along on his own. He could make decisions that were the best, even without his rebbe—so it seems to us.
Shlomo’s Encyclopedic Defense
And the truth is that if Shimi ben Geira would have confronted him, Shlomo would have had what to say. Let’s say Shlomo thought his rebbe was dead and all of a sudden after marrying bas Pharaoh his rebbe shows up and says, “Shlomo! What are you doing here?! You think that just because you converted her, it makes you right?!” So you can be sure that Shlomo had a big pilpul prepared, a maarachah, to defend his actions. Not like in the shaalos u’teshuvos seforim, a maaracha with just ten anafim; oh no, that’s child’s play compared to the chochma of Shlomo. He would make a whole set of seforim defending his position.
There is a halacha sefer called Chazaka Rabbah, a big set, like a Shas, all on the subject of chazaka. Some people, talmidei chachamim, look inside it sometimes; Chazaka Rabbah, a whole set like this wide. Shlomo Hamelech would make a set three times, ten times, as long as that! And he would prove b’osos u’mofsim that not only is it muttar, but it’s a mitzvah, a chiyuv to do what he did.
I spoke about that here last time, about Shlomo Hamelech’s derech in spreading the word of Hashem. It was his great plan to increase kavod Shamayim; to spread emunah in the world by marrying into many royal families and influencing the monarchies of the world. And he was succeeding! And therefore whatever it was, Shlomo Hamelech could have defended himself mightily against his rebbe.
Rome Wasn’t Built in A Day
And yet the Gemara says that only because his rebbe was no longer alive, that’s why he did it. He would never have done it with his rebbe still around. A remarkable thing! Had he been in the shadow of his rebbe, had the rebbe still been alive, Shlomo would have hesitated to take that step. He would have thought it over and something in his mind would have told him to hold off. The mere presence of Shimi ben Geira would have deterred him. Despite Shlomo’s tremendous mind and his titanic ability to choose, the fact that there was someone in the background, that would have limited his gigantic free will.
It was only when Shlomo lost that someone, that’s when the seeds of the Churban Beis Hamikdash were planted. The Gemara says that at that time when Shlomo married the daughter of Pharaoh, a malach came down and put a stick into the ocean and seaweed began to collect around the stick. And then more seaweed and then sand and dirt, and after a while an island developed around that stick and there was formed the piece of land on which Rome was built.
The Domino Effect
Now that's a mashal of course, but it means that when Rome finally came at the end and destroyed the second Beis Hamikdash, that churban was a result of the first churban, and the first churban was a result of Shlomo's misdeed.
Of course, it took many twists and turns from the day that he married the daughter of Pharaoh until the churban but our Sages detected in the destruction of the Mikdash and our being exiled from Eretz Yisroel a connection to hundreds of years previous, when a great man didn’t have a rebbe anymore.
There’s a great lesson there that our Sages are trying to teach us. They’re not just trying to teach us a history lesson. They’re teaching us a life lesson; they want us to know that having someone looking over your shoulder is so important that the future of our people hinges on it. The kiyum of the Am Yisroel, our success, depends on every single one of us living in the shadow of a rebbe, someone to look over our shoulder.
And that’s why one of the most important things that we mourn over during these days of aveilus is that we lost the system of nevuah; we lost an entire system of having people standing over us and guiding us. Of course we weep for the destruction of the House of Hashem and for the people we lost, the ב∆רָחּ∆בּלו¿פָּנׁ∆̆ םּׁ≈ַ̆ה םַﬠ, but we should never forget that we are weeping too for the great opportunity that went lost when nevuah came to an end.
The Maggidim of Yesteryear
Now, if we’re going to mourn properly we have to know what we’re mourning for. It means we have to get a clear picture in our minds, what was the function of the nevi'im?
You know that up until about a hundred years ago there were maggidim, preachers, who used to visit the kehillos and speak to the Jewish people. They spoke for hours criticizing. The Kelmer Maggid used to come to towns and speak; he spoke for two or three hours. He was lambasting them. And don't think the people didn't come to listen. It hurt but they listened anyhow.
An old man once told me that he remembers in aseres yemei teshuvah the maggid used to speak to the storekeepers about honesty in weights and measures. This man said he remembers, if you would take a walk outside of the town, you would find pecks and pints and bushels scattered all over because the merchants had thrown away these bushels or weights in order to buy new ones. They had been worn out and no longer gave exact measurements. That's what the maggid accomplished in those days, not so long ago.
The Original Maggidim
But all this is nothing compared to what we once had. It’s nothing compared to the days of the nevi’im! When the navi came he spoke with the utmost vigor to denounce anything he saw that was wrong. Nobody—not the kings, not the talmidei chachomim, not the wealthy—was immune from his criticism.
It was so harsh that in some cases they attempted to silence the navi by killing him. Zecharyah ben Berechya was killed at the order of King Yoash. He was criticizing the king in public and finally, the king sent somebody to secretly attack the navi and kill him. It was a case that was never forgotten in our history. The blood of the navi was never forgotten. It was a rarity but it happened. Uriah Hanavi was killed by Yehoyakim. Yeshayah was executed by Menashe.
Oh yes, it was dangerous to be a prophet. Yirmiyah Hanavi says (Eicha 3:53) יּƒב ן∆ב∆‡ּוּ„ַּיַו – they threw stones at me. They attempted to kill him too—he was thrown into a quagmire and he was sinking until a colored man came along and saved his life. It’s interesting to know that—a black man saved the life of Yirmiyah Hanavi. The white Jews were afraid to save him because he had enemies but along came a black fellow, a slave, and he told the king, “Look! The navi is drowning in mud!” So the king said, “Take blankets and ropes and run to save him.” That’s how Yirmiyahu was saved. We’re grateful to the black people for that! But we see that he had been put there to drown in mud. And that's because Yirmiyah had a bitter tongue. It wasn't his tongue though—he spoke the words that Hakadosh Baruch Hu told him to speak.
Preventing Golus
Now, we must know that for hundreds of years people tolerated the navi. It doesn't mean that everybody always obeyed him, but they allowed him to speak. Everyone understood that it was the best thing for the nation; the kiyum of the nation depended on hearing criticism, and having a rebbe. Everyone was told his faults, his sins, his deficiencies, and they became better as a result.
What happened finally? At the end of the era of the first Beis Hamikdash, our resolve began to weaken and that’s when false prophets began to appear on the scene. It happened because people wanted other kinds of prophecy, not criticism.
Like Yirmiyahu in Eichah (2:14) said in the name of Hashem: ¿ךָלּזוָח¿ךƒיַ‡יƒב¿נ ל≈פָ ̇¿ו ‡¿וָׁ̆ – Your nevi’im—not My nevi’im; your nevi'im—they saw for you visions that were false and meaningless, ¿ך≈נֹ וֲﬠ לַﬠּוּלƒ‚ ‡ֹל¿ו – and they did not reveal to you your sins, ¿ך≈ ּ̇בוׁ¿̆ יבׁƒָ̆ה¿ל – which would have brought back the captivity; it means it would have prevented the golus.
The End of Prophecy
So Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, “I gave you this great gift to help you in this world and the Next World and now you're becoming tired of it? So I'm going to take away that gift.” And that's why the nevuah stopped; the Churban Beis Hamikdash was the termination of the nevuah. At the beginning of Bayis Sheini there still remained some old nevi'im who continued to live on for a little while but when they passed away no more nevi'im ever arose.
And that is the saddest of everything that we lost in the Churban—more than the Mikdash, more than golus—because that was the success of the Am Yisroel. Up until then the Am Yisroel relied on the nevi’im to guide them toward perfection in avodas Hashem. And that's why those generations were so excellent; never again did we have such good people as we had in those days when the nevi'im stood on guard and they lambasted every wrong thing that they saw. We were made aware and we became better and better.
And therefore we have to remember always what we lost when the nevuah stopped. When prophecy came to an end, we lost one of the most precious gems our people ever had, the gift of unbiased and unlimited criticism that guides us to everlasting life. And it’s that gift that we try to relive in our own lives by always being close to someone who will look over our shoulders and guide us. That’s the lesson of vachai—and he should live successfully in the ir miklat. It’s the lesson that ‘living’ means to live a life of coming closer to Hashem by means of asei lecha rav.
And if as a part of our mourning for the ancient days we remind ourselves of those days and we too try to use that gift of limiting our free will by accepting the guidance of others then we b’ezer Hashem will be included in that great promise of הָָ̇ﬠּוׁ̆יƒּב ה∆‡ֹרו¿ו ה∆כֹזו םƒיַלָּׁ̆רו¿י לַﬠ ל≈ּבַ‡¿̇ƒּמַה לָּכ - Those who mourn for Yerushalayim will be rewarded that they shall see the salvation of Yerushalayim (Taanis 30b).
Have A Wonderful Shabbos
Let’s Get Practical
One Minute a Day of Choosing Real Life
Life means living with a rebbe who forces you to limit your free will and choose only to do good. From now until Tishah B’Av, I will bli neder spend thirty seconds thinking about the loss that befell our nation when we lost that great system of nevuah whereby the nation was being taught and watched and criticized. And then I will spend another thirty seconds thinking of practical ways that I can gain that same perfection we once had, by means of choosing a Torah teacher who will stand over my shoulder and help me “choose life.”
This week’s booklet is based on tapes: 248 - Clinging To The Sages | 263 - Life of The Wise 469 - Curbing the Free Will | E-21 - Mourning For Our Ancient Perfection Listen to Rabbi Miller on the phone! Call the Kol Avigdor hotline 718-289-0899
