The Narrow Outlook on Jewish Life from an Outsider
A person who thinks that the ultimate success of Klal Yisrael is sitting “each under their grapevine, and each under their fig tree...” or when dancing fervently and joyously with the Torah on Simchas Torah... will exit these exalted days downcast and brokenhearted—for he no longer has that “high.”
Suppose we want to introduce Yiddishkeit to an outsider, a newcomer to Yiddishkeit. We show him a number of situations so that he will understand our lifestyle better. First, we take him into the beis Medrash on Simchas Torah, and we tell him, “Look at the Yiddishe kinder! Yidden are dancing with the Torah with such ecstasy... completely elevated and above This World. There are no words to describe the אלוקים קרבת that Yidden experience during these exalted days of Chodesh Tishrei—beginning with the coronation of Rosh Hashanah and culminating with the embrace of Sukkos and Simchas Torah.
The uninitiated person is indeed overwhelmed and overcome by these sights and sounds—he truly feels the העמים! מכל בחרתנו אתה He is truly impressed with the loftiness a person can attain. But then we tell him, “Know that we don’t celebrate Tishrei all year. There are other Yiddishe situations on the calendar... We show him how a Yid stands in the dead of winter, in his work attire, and he is on the phone working hard for his parnassah. We tell this outsider, “You see, this too is a part of Yiddishkeit.” He doesn’t understand! He understands that a person needs to earn a living... but what does this have to do with Yiddishkeit?!
Then we show him an overwhelmed Yiddishe mammeh trying valiantly to care for her large brood...not exactly managing... and he says, “Okay, I have heard that frum families struggle to raise their large families. But I don’t see the אלוקים קרבת that lies therein.”
Then he is shown a group of ehrliche boys who are traveling—and every one of them takes off his glasses out of a sense of yiras Shamayim and shemiras einayim. The outsider is once again very impressed, but he doesn’t see how one is elevated through such behavior, attaining קרבת אלוקים through it.
It’s Not Yom Tov All the Time
What is the outsider’s mistake? He simply has no inkling of what Yiddishkeit is! The Ribbono shel Olam did not create the world so that it should always be Simchas Torah! If this had been the purpose of creation, then it would be Simchas Torah all year! There wouldn’t be the other 364 days of the year, with all its challenges and nisyonos!
Why didn’t the Ribbono shel Olam make Simchas Torah three times a week? Wouldn’t Klal Yisrael be so amazing and beautiful if we’d have Simchas Torah more often?! Why did He place us into situations where we have challenges and tests we regularly fail and then remind ourselves of the Aibishter; we realize we need to say Tehillim and dust ourselves off. Especially when a long winter approaches, and we get into a routine of week-after-week... it is so difficult for the mind to grab some אלוקים. קרבת
A Glimpse into the Parashiyos Reveals the Purpose of the Torah
When someone asks such a question, we tell him, “It is a very good question, so let’s open the Torah and see what Yiddishkeit really is.” The Torah begins with ...והארץ השמים ויכולו ...אלוקים ברא בראשית and the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh explains that the entire creation pines and yearns for the Ribbono shel Olam. A Yid learns this, and he is filled with excitement... surely now comes an entire Torah of such meaningful words of deveikus and closeness to Hashem!
But it doesn’t take more than a few pesukim—we’re in middle of Parashas Bereishis—and the negativity begins... The Aibishter gave one mitzvah to Adam HaRishon and he failed miserably. We didn’t even get through one parashah and already the entire creation was cursed and transformed forever. This curse affected the men who will need to work hard to make a living, the women who will suffer from childbirth, and even the animals were punished.
Now we go on to Parashas Noach. But before we begin the parashah, we learn that the entire world began to engage in major aveiros. But we just began to learn the Torah; how did this all happen so fast?!
As we begin Parashas Noach, we learn that the world was so infested with sin that it couldn’t be saved; it had to be destroyed by the Mabul. Later, we come to Lech Lecha, and we learn about Avraham Avinu. He was given one nisayon after another; he was made to go to a strange land, his wife was taken away, he didn’t have children, etc.
And so it goes, on and on. Yitzchak Avinu had his own nisyonos. Yaakov Avinu suffered from Esav and Lavan; Yosef HaTzaddik had the nisyonos with his brothers and with Eishes Potifar.... It goes on and on like this until the Yidden came to Mitzrayim, and they were incarcerated there under terrible conditions—all so they should become ready for kabbalas haTorah.
Finally, they’re at Har Sinai, but just as soon as the Torah was given, they tumble into the depths with the העגל מעשה—a most terrible betrayal.
In the coming parashiyos, we learn about Klal Yisrael in the Midbar, where they experienced nisayon after nisayon. Most of the time it didn’t work out very well; they failed more than they succeeded. By the time we reach the final parashah of the Torah, they endured a couple of plagues and pandemics. In addition, the entire generation between twenty and sixty years old died there in the Midbar, and the Torah concludes with Chumash Devarim, in which Moshe Rabbeinu rebukes the Jewish People.
What happened concerning their eventual entry into Eretz Yisrael. This is not important! The Torah tells us, “We don’t need to tell you this part, for this part isn’t relevant! If you want to learn about it, you can open Sefer Yehoshua to see that the Ribbono shel Olam fulfilled His promise. But for the purpose of the lessons that the Torah is here to teach—how to fulfill the ratzon Hashem—it is not important for this to be written in the Torah!
Not Every Story Needs an Ending...
In this vein, stories are told of lofty Yidden who found themselves in a quandary, and they relied on the Aibishter and on the blessings of tzaddikim... and the end of the story is unknown. Because if we tell you the ending, that there was a great yeshu’ah at the end, then what did you learn from the story? That the Rebbe can make miracles? This is not the lesson of the story. The lesson is that a chassid in a bind had emunah in Hashem and in His servants.
There’s a story of a chassid of the Rebbe Rashab of Lubavitch whom the Rebbe instructed to invest in oxen. The chassid dutifully listened... and went on to lose all his money! What’s the end of the story? The end of the story is that the chassid remained a loyal follower of the Rebbe despite losing his money due to the Rebbe’s instructions! He didn’t lose his kesher with the Rebbe over this, because their connection was never built on anything materialistic! There’s no magical ending wherein he recouped all of his losses....
