Everyone is going bowling? So what? Call me a lunatic, but I think it’s not important to go on trips on Chol Hamoed. Everyone is spending money on electric toys, gadgets, for their children, for themselves? So what?
And so of the greatest importance to create an atmosphere of independence in your family – “We don’t follow the crowd!” It’s important. It’s very important.
And therefore it’s of the utmost importance to have a backbone! Stop being a weakling! That’s one of our big tests in this world. A Jew has to have a strong backbone. He doesn’t bend or even cringe before the rabbim that are ֹ̇רָ עו¿ל.
Part III. The Good Multitude
Bending Before the Best
Now, another one of the great antidotes to this disease of ̇רָ עֹ¿ל יםƒּרַ ב ַחֲ ר≈ י‡ is given to us in the same possuk, the last three words in the possuk. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, ̇וֹּהַט¿ל יםƒּרַ ב ַחֲ ר≈ י‡ – you should incline after the majority.
̇וֹּהַט¿ל means bend yourself over; bend over and follow the majority. It means when there’s a good majority, you shouldn’t treat it like something that has nothing to do with you. No; you should utilize that strength in numbers. Outside, yes there are very big numbers and to them we say ַחֲ ר≈ י‡ י∆ה¿הƒ ̇ ‡ֹל ̇רָ עֹ¿ל יםƒַּ ב ר. But among ourselves, we have numbers too! And so ̇וֹּהַט¿ל יםƒּרַ ב ַחֲ ר≈ י‡! Bend your mind and soak it in!
Of course, the first thing is to put yourself in a good environment. Because in this battle of being strong against the rabbim one of the most important elements is being around a lot of good people. When you associate with the right numbers, with the good rabbim, it’s a different story.
Contagious Character
Now, I’ll explain that to you. Weakness of character is a contagious sickness, and all the reshaim have no character; they are weak. They may act like they are strong, but they are weaklings. What others do, they imitate.
The fact that so many of the youth have fallen into the use of narcotics is not because their logic tells them that's the happiest existence. It's merely because they yielded to what you call peer pressure, the pressure of other stupid people like themselves, but today there are so many stupid people that it has become difficult to resist.
Even the attitudes of a typical goy or irreligious Jew. ָ בָרּ„ כָל¿ל יןƒֲ מ‡יַ יƒ ̇פּ∆ – What they are told, they believe. That’s why on all sides mankind is becoming worse and worse; they yield to the wickedness of the Marxists, of the wicked evolutionists, wickedness of the false religions. All of mankind is being lost in a mabul of meshugas and materialism.
Only one little group is standing on an island of truth, and therefore in order not to be drowned in this mabul, in order to be a loyal Jew, you must try to first of all live among frum Jews. And not only the frummer the better, but the more the better!
Good Neighborhoods
There was a woman here who wanted to move. I said “Where does your son go, to which yeshiva?”
So she tells me, “He goes to Ateret Torah.” Ateret Torah? Ateret Torah is a very great institution.
I asked her, “Where are you going to move?”
“I want to move to West Orange.”
Oyyyy! West Orange!? “What kind of environment will your son have there?”
“No,” she said. “We’re Orthodox Jews! We’ll never give up our orthodoxy.”
No, no, that’s a terrible mistake. That’s what you hope, but you should know that once you move away from a frum neighborhood where you have many frum Jews, you’re not the same person anymore. You’re losing out on the great benefit of ̇וֹּהַט¿ל יםƒּרַ ב ַחֲ ר≈ י‡.
Don’t Be an Observer
But not just to be there, to be an observer on the sidelines. ̇וֹּהַט¿ל יםƒּרַ ב ַחֲ ר≈ י‡ means you should take advantage of the good rabbim. That’s what Hakadosh Baruch Hu is saying to you, “You should incline after the majority. ̇וֹּהַט¿ל means bend yourself over. Follow the majority. You see many frum Jews — be like they are. Utilize them. Soak in the environment.
You know there are a lot of people in this neighborhood who wear their tzitzis out. Not only yeshiva people; it’s remarkable how many people around here wear their tzitzis out. It became a style on these streets, in this neighborhood, because there are yeshiva people here, so even plain people do that too. They followed the good crowd. It’s a big mitzvah! I’m not talking about the tzitzis now; I mean the bending before the good crowd.
The Syrian Jews too; they did that. Many of them put on black hats. Nothing wrong, nothing wrong. A Syrian boy sees an Ashkenazi Jew, he shouldn't say, “A black hatter.’ Oh no, he should respect a black hat. That’s beautiful. He should soak it in. Nothing wrong if he puts one on too. I’m not saying he must; the ways of the sefardim are holy, but nothing wrong if he’s influenced by his environment to put on a black hat. I say he’s fulfilling the mitzvah of ̇וֹּהַט¿ל יםƒּרַ ב ַחֲ ר≈ י‡.
A Happiness of Opportunity
And so there’s a tremendous benefit of living among a good rabbim. I read an article, a clipping, from a certain newspaper whose name I don’t want to mention, and it was telling that in Miami, they’re noticing that young Orthodox Jews are increasing and multiplying down there. A modern Orthodox Jew was describing a visit to a pizza shop, a kosher pizza shop and he ordered a piece of pizza. “I had to wait thirty minutes before it was served. It was jammed with people. Young Orthodox people are filling up the place.”
He wasn’t complaining; he was happy. It’s a simcha when more Jews move into the neighborhood. There will be kosher grocery stores, more shuls. Very good! But we have to know that this is not only a very big simcha but it’s also a big opportunity. Because when you see a Jewish neighborhood, full of Jews, and you walk in the streets and you see Jews — frum Jews, shomrei Torah — we have to feel that it's an opportunity to become better, to be dragged along with the crowd.
You see signs everywhere, glatt kosher. Glatt kosher everywhere. You see yoshon now, many stores have signs outside for yoshon. There are shomer Shabbos cosmetics advertised in the drugstore. Seforim stores, shuls, all good things. Don’t be reluctant. Don’t be so resistant. Don’t be so stubborn. Give in and become one of them. Identify with them. Look like them.
Bustling with Buses
That’s what Hakadosh Baruch Hu intended. Of course sometimes the middah of akshanus is required. When we came over as immigrants and there were not very frum Jews and America was populated by gentiles only and even the Jews who were here were socialists, so ̇רָ עֹ¿ל יםƒּרַ ב ַחֲ ר≈ י‡ י∆ה¿הƒ ̇ ‡ֹל – be stubborn. That’s when stubbornness has a place. Be stubborn and fight back against all the wrong things around us.
But when you have a good frum environment, when on Friday you walk out on the street Friday, tomorrow you go outside at 12 o’clock and buses are coming from all directions bringing boys from the yeshivas, bringing girls from the Beis Yankev, buses and buses, all sides, baruch Hashem!
It’s an opportunity when the yeshivos close down on Friday and the buses start rolling down. Twenty buses from this yeshiva and twenty from that yeshiva. All over the town, buses full of yeshiva boys and yeshiva girls are riding home.
All hurrying home for Shabbos! Mobs of frum girls with long dresses, frum girls coming home, going to school, coming home for Shabbos, shopping for Shabbos, the place is bursting with people preparing for Shabbos, challos in the store windows. Those who bake challos at home, even better. Everywhere, preparing for Shabbos. Baruch Hashem! That’s what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to enjoy. It’s our happiness. And opportunity, soak it in, bend!
The fact that you see so many other Jews makes a tremendous impression on you if you’re willing. The effect can be quite powerful. If you have people who are together with you, and you soak it in, it causes you to have much more loyalty, much more steadfastness, much more strength. Just because you see so many other frum people, you become fortified, you become oifgelebt!
Numbers Trump Arguments
Nothing to do with arguments. You can always find arguments to show how ridiculous all the theories of the nations are. Even if you’re one Jew by yourself, and you’re living let’s say, in China — a frum Jew living all by himself in China could easily show how ridiculous Christianity is or how ridiculous the avodah zarah of the Chinese is. He could bring proofs to show how Islam is nothing and nothing. He could show how evolution is ah pusta chalom, empty dreams. But even without any arguments and sevaras, just the chizuk of living among frum Jews — you begin to love the minhagim and the mitzvos that Jews do. You come to love the service of Hashem and the ways of the Jewish nation.
It doesn’t mean that a Jew somewhere out West, in a little agricultural town, and he’s all by himself among gentiles, it doesn’t mean he can’t be strong, but there’s a big difference, however. There’s nothing like being in a big Torah community, where there are many frum Jews. No comparison. The conviction, the firmness of his belief is reinforced by the numbers. It’s a very important principle; the power and conviction of numbers.
I once went to see the Satmerer Rav, the old Satmerer Rav, zichrono livracha, on Hoshana Rabbah. The place was packed. It was jam-packed with people and the Hoshanos were four hours! Four hours! Now, I consider myself a misnaggid; my family didn’t practice any chassidus and neither did my rebbes. But no matter; just being among all the frum Jews, all wearing shtreimelach, it was a chizuk. Just seeing so many frum Jews for hours and hours can have a profound influence if you’re willing to let it be so.
I’m not saying only there. You can go to other places. When the Agudas Yisroel made a siyum, twenty thousand Jews came. It knocked the eyes out of the New York Times. It hurt them to no end. Very good!
Soaking in Good Numbers
And you don’t need a Siyum HaShas to knock out their eyes. All the black hats, the frum Jewish children with yarmulkes, the frum boys on bicycles with their tzitzis flying, the frum Jewish women pushing baby carriages, two inside the carriage and five running alongside the carriage! A reporter came from the New York Times to Brooklyn so he wrote in the article, “There are so many baby carriages in Brooklyn.” That’s what an impression it made on him; his heart hurt him when he saw that. In Manhattan there are no baby carriages.
But who cares about the New York Times; that’s nothing. It’s what we can achieve by being among good Jews, by being among a rabbim of good Jews.
You know what that means? A tremendous chizuk! You may not admit it. You’re a philosopher, you’re a chacham, you want to read the Kuzari, you want to read the Chovos Halevavos. Fine. But this is more important than anything else. You don’t have to be a philosopher if you’re willing to live among the rabbim of frum Jews and fulfill the mitzvah of ַחֲ ר≈ י‡ ̇וֹּהַט¿ל יםƒּרַ ב.
Have a Wonderful Shabbos
