The Great Presence of Hashem Amid the Galus
A Different Reality Amid the Galus
In Eichah (3:21) the Navi says: אוחיל כן על לבי אל אשיב זאת, yet this I still bear in mind, therefore I will hope. After the preceding pesukim of despondency, despair, and bitterness, the Navi says that he remembers the following pesukim, and this gives him hope. רחמיו כלו לא כי תמנו לא כי ה’ חסדי (ibid. v. 22). The never-ending kindness and compassion of Hashem keeps me going in this terrible galus, through all the dreadful situations, and thus I still hope to Hashem.
What is the depth behind this chizuk? Don’t the preceding pesukim about the terrible suffering in the galus remain true? The Navi says that Hashem has... filled me with bitterness, sated me with wormwood. He ground my teeth on gravel, He made me cower in ashes. My soul despaired of having peace, I have forgotten goodness. And I said, “Gone is my strength and my expectation from Hashem....”
How does repeating the verse רחמיו כלו לא כי תמנו לא כי ה’ חסדי reverse any of the suffering—when the Kindness is so hidden?
Entering the Beis Medrash
In Medrash Eichah we learn: The gentiles of the world ridicule the Yidden and they say to them, “Your G-d hid His Face from you, He removed His Shechinah from among you, and He will no longer return to you.” And they [Klal Yisrael] cry and whimper [because this taunt that Hashem has abandoned them is more painful to them than any of the suffering of galus. They don’t point out that the Jews don’t have nice homes or that they don’t have much money— Rather, they point to the deepest possible pain: Hashem has abandoned you; you no longer have אלוקים קרבת].
Continues the Medrash: But as soon as they enter the shuls and batei medrash and read in the Torah, they find that it states (Vayikra 26:9), בתוככם והתהלכתי בתוככם משכני ונתתי אתכם והפריתי אליכם ופניתי, I will turn to you, I will multiply you, I will rest among you, and I will walk among you, then they are consoled.
When we analyze the wording of the Medrash, we find an incredible point. It doesn’t say that the Yidden retort to the goyim, “No, the Torah says that we aren’t abandoned.” It says that when they enter the מדרשות ובתי כנסיות בתי and find this written in the Torah, they are consoled.
The Medrash is teaching us that when a Yid lives the galus outside the walls of the beis medrash—without being connected to Torah—then the galus is indeed so very dark. The distance from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the proliferation of darkness, the הלב טמטום, the inability to think clearly, the terrible tzaros, R”l... then indeed are fulfilled the dire pesukim of במרורים השביעני, I have become sated with bitterness. Because it truly is bitter.
Says the Navi: Yet this I still bear in mind, therefore I will hope. What will console me? The fact that we can emerge from the galus by stepping into spirituality. When a person goes into the מדרשות ובתי כנסיות בתי [i.e., he connects with Hashem], he tastes the light of Torah, and he knows—and feels—that he is close to Hashem... this is what consoles him. We can understand this pasuk of רחמיו כלו לא כי תמנו לא כי ה’ חסדי only when we enter the beis medrash, connecting to Hashem.
Choosing the Right World
Sometimes, we hear two people speaking two distinct languages. One person bemoans how terrible things are—whether in his own personal life or about the state of the generation. “It’s too difficult to bear,” he says. The second person fervently recounts the great kindnesses of Hashem, the closeness to Hashem that we can experience, and the beauty of Shabbos and other spiritual experiences. And you wonder: One of these people isn’t living in the real world! How can it be that two people in the same world can feel such vastly different experiences; one of them is so broken and the second is so joyful and elevated!
And the truth is that they are living in two different worlds. The first is living in the world outside the beis medrash, a world in which it is very difficult to live (just read the earlier pesukim in Eichah to see how bitter it is), and the second one is living in the world inside the beis medrash. This is what the Navi is teaching us, “Even though you’re living in galus, you can still enter the beis medrash. Leave the galus world and enter the world of Torah, a world of closeness to Hashem.” When a person is in that world of אלוקים קרבת, he feels differently... he feels hopeful and optimistic in the ה ישועת’.
Escaping Galus
So long as he remains outside this beis medrash world, a Yid will feel sad and downcast, always bemoaning his reality. But Hashem gave us a new world of geulah, as the Navi says, מעט למקדש להם ואהי, I will be for them a miniature Mikdash (Yechezkel 11:16). With these words, HaKadosh Baruch Hu promised Klal Yisrael that He will come with them into the galus—because He created a reality within the galus into which Yidden can escape the galus, being transformed into people who are elevated and strong, joyful and content.
The Rebbe Rav Baruch’l of Medzibuz would say: How dark is This World for one who lives within it, and how illuminated is This World for one who resides outside of it, but elevates himself above it. Indeed, these are two different worlds, entirely different worlds—and a person has the power to choose in which world he will reside.
I Did Not Remove My Presence
In Medrash Tehillim we learn that אבנים ועל עצים על חמתו שפך, HaKadosh Baruch Hu poured out His wrath on wood and stone. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, “I did not take away the Aron or the Kapores or the closeness to Hashem that you can experience. I took away only the wood and stones, that is, I took only the place of השכינה השראת—but not the idea of השכינה השראת.” HaKadosh Baruch Hu says: I didn’t take away the level of השכינה השראת; I only took away the ease with which it can be attained.
In the times of the Beis HaMikdash, a person could go up to Yerushalayim in any state that he was in and see the beautiful and elevated Avodah of Kohanim and the Leviim. This will no longer exist in the galus; when we come to the Makom HaMikdash we see “foxes walking there.” However, the light can still be attained when a person elevates himself... he can taste the great light that was previously brought down by the Menorah, the Aron, and the Shulchan, etc.
When Yidden enter the מדרשות ובתי כנסיות בתי, they don’t merely read the words בתוככם משכני ונתתי, I will rest among you. They feel it! להם ואהי מעט למקדש means that “I will be with you in the galus, and anyone who shakes off the galus and becomes davuk in Me will feel the sweetness of being close to Me.”
