Part II. A Fiery Nation
Three Special Traits
Now, being made ‘righteous’ doesn’t mean what you think. Nobody is made righteous; there’s no such thing. Even a nation, no. What it means is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu made them a nation that would be more capable of righteousness, a nation more capable of achieving everything that He wants from them. And for that purpose He made us with various characteristics, various qualities.
Now before I surprise you with our tailor-made qualities that are our subject for tonight, I’ll sugarcoat our discussion by mentioning some qualities that we won’t be talking about: שָׁלוֹשׁ מִדּוֹת טוֹבוֹת נָתַן הקב"ה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל: רַחֲמָנִים, בַּיְישָׁנִים, וְגוֹמְלֵי חֲסָדִים – When Hakadosh Baruch Hu made the Am Yisroel He put in them three especial qualities: they have compassion, they’re modest, and they like to do favors (Medrash Tehillim 1:8)
That’s why the Gemara (Yevamos 79a) says that when you want to marry somebody and you want to know if he's a true blooded Jew, so how do you check him out? כָּל מִי שֶׁיֵשׁ בּוֹ שְׁלוֹשָׁה סִימָנִים הַלָּלוּ רָאוּי לְהִדָּבֵק בּוֹ – If he has these three signs then it’s fitting to marry him. רַחֲמָנִים – Is he a man with pity, compassion? בַּיְישָׁנִים – Is he a person of modesty? Is he ashamed of certain things? וְגוֹמְלֵי חֲסָדִים – And also does he like to do favors?
If he doesn't have these three or any one of them you have to be worried. Now, it could be he's a true Jew only it's atrophied because of disuse. Could be; you have to investigate further. But if he has them it's a sign that he is a descendant of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov.
Three Not So Special Traits
But those aren’t the only qualities we were made especially with. Those are the ones we like to hear our Chachomim talk about – it warms the Jewish heart to hear such things – but there’s more to the story. Because when we read in the Medrash (Shemos Rabbah 7:3 ) how Hakadosh Baruch Hu describes the special nature of the Am Yisroel, you’ll be surprised at the description. But you can trust Him; He knows best how to describe them because He made them that way. It’s included in עַם זוּ יָצַרְתִּי לִי – this nation I created for Me, for My purposes, שֶׁלֹּא עָשָׂנוּ כְּגוֹיֵי הָאֲרָצוֹת, that He made us different than the gentiles.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu describes us with three adjectives: בָּנַי סַרְבָנִים הֵם, רַגְזָנִים הֵם, טַרְחָנִים הֵם – My children are sarvanim and ragzanim and tarchonim. Sarvonim means they are refusers. They're stubborn people. Ragzanim means they're excitable; they become aroused, passionate. And tarchanim means they can be bothersome; but not just bothersome – they are aggressive, they can be aggressive about it.
Now, it’s a mistake to think that Hakadosh Baruch Hu was criticizing His people, that He was blaming them for these qualities. No, that’s not it. We’re going to see that these qualities, when they’re used appropriately, they are fundamental and necessary for the success of our nation.
Refuse to be Deceived
Sarvanim means it's a nation of ‘refusers’. It doesn't mean they refuse to do good things, but it's the Jewish nature to look through superficiality; they refuse to be taken in and deceived by words. You know the gentiles live by words, by verbiage. Even when the gentile scientists write, it's mostly talk. If you read a science magazine, you'll see that everything that could have been said in the simplest language is made difficult on purpose. That's an ancient gentile practice to use verbiage.
If you listen to the radio – you shouldn't unless it’s just to hear the weather; otherwise, it's a waste of time – but if you ever listen to the radio, you see there's no brains to these people, no intelligence. It's nothing but verbiage. They're like plumbers; a plumber knows how to twirl a monkey wrench and the radio person knows how to twirl his tongue.
Slabodka Speeches
Now, gentiles and people who listen like gentiles, they're impressed by the flow of words. It dazzles them and they can’t say no. Whatever the radio man said, it’s monkey see, monkey do. But an original Jew however is not impressed by a speaker, by someone who has good delivery. You know, when I went to Slabodka some of my rebbis on principle refused to use oratory. They expressed in four words what others would say in forty. They spoke only in half sentences, sometimes half words. But we heard greatness in those words.
A wise man can stammer and stutter, but he can think! Wisdom, logic, that’s what impresses the Jew. He was made a sarvan; he refuses to be taken in by words, pie in the sky ideas. He’s accustomed to seeing through verbiage; he’s created that way. That’s why when a missionary for Yoshke Pondra comes to a Jew with his stories, bubbeh maisehs, the Jew is not impressed. And the gentile missionary is baffled by that. After all, he's saying such good stories. But the Jew is not dazzled by words because Hakadosh Baruch Hu made him a sarvan, a refuser; he refuses to buy your garbage. Hakadosh Baruch Hu created us to be tough customers.
Fiery Jews and Phlegmatic Germans
The second quality is ragzanim. The Am Yisroel is an excitable nation; they’re fiery and passionate. They’re not calm, stolid, phlegmatic. They can’t look on at injustice and remain quiet. You know, the history books describe the phlegmatic Germans: They’re standing with Tommy guns in front of a ditch full of dead bodies and the calm German is phlegmatically shooting down the naked Jews.
Of course, he took off their clothing first. The phlegmatic Germans didn't want to waste any clothing so they saved the Jewish clothing in big piles. And the Jew had to pile his boots in one pile and his shoes in another pile, underwear in another pile. Then he was made to stand at the edge of the deep ditch and the German calmly shot him dead and he toppled into the ditch. Only a phlegmatic nation could be turned into killers like that.
The Wickedness of ‘Ja Ja’
The German had no mind of his own. All he needed was a broadcast from Berlin that the Jew is vermin, that the Jew must be exterminated, and ”ja ja,” the German said as he listened to his radio. If headquarters in Berlin gave instructions that you should shoot down Jewish men, women and children, so ja ja. They didn't stop to argue.
When I passed through Germany in 1932 I saw that the Germans were obedient and disciplined. I was impressed by that. But later I understood how it could be that when the orders were given to massacre without exception, babies too, it was only ja ja, ja ja. The order was given from Berlin so the Germans did it calmly without questions.
Now, the Germans were especially phlegmatic but all the gentile nations are the same. They don’t get excited. It’s like a cow. A cow can chew her cud calmly while another cow is being slaughtered. As long as she is not touched, she is not excited. That's why we find among gentiles wickedness happens on the streets and injustice takes place in the courts, and nobody is excited. Because they don't have this special quality.
Holy Explosions
But the Jew is not phlegmatic. Ragzanim means it's an excitable nation. That's why many times there are explosions in Jewish synagogues, dissensions and flare ups. And people say, “Would this happen lehavdil in a church?” And the truth is wouldn’t! Because they weren’t made that way.
And Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us that quality for a purpose. Of course, we should always seek harmony. Of course we should protect the good name of the Jewish people. Of course sometimes you can misuse this gift and become passionate about foolishness; sometimes you’ll make machlokes over an unimportant thing. But we’re made that way because a nation of ideals and principles has to be passionate about it. And sometimes the flare-ups are over worthwhile issues. It's ideology. It's principles involved. And that’s part of being a righteous nation. Hakadosh Baruch Hu tailored a nation made to order, to be a nation of the Torah. They should be ragzanim.
A Nation of Criticizers
And the third quality is טַרְחָנִים – they're bothersome. It means they’re an aggressive people; they take action. If they see their leaders doing wrong, they criticize their leader; they won’t let him be.
But we have to know that this is said in praise of our forefathers. They criticized their leaders because they expected the best from them. A leader was forced to be perfect – else he was exposed to criticism.
Now in America it's not so – don't think that they criticize President Nixon because they demand perfection of their leaders. No, not at all. The only reason they're angry at him is because poor Mr. Nixon made the mistake of showing that he wasn't a vandalistic liberal. He showed that he wants to conserve American institutions and that he’s for law and order. He showed that he wants to battle permissiveness and wasteful government spending. That was his big ‘mistake’; and that's why they hate him. But actually they don’t expect anything but crookedness from their leaders. They understand it’s par for the course.
But among Jews a crooked leader was unthinkable. They were tarchonim; they were created that way, to be aggressive and to attack their leaders. That’s the only way they could be a successful nation. A nation needs that its rabbis should be afraid of the congregation. But not afraid he might lose his salary, no – when a rav, a rosh yeshivah, a talmid chacham is afraid of the people because of money, that’s the worst thing. But suppose he’s afraid that he’s not frum enough. He’s afraid that he’s deviating from the Torah and he’s worried they’ll throw bricks because he’s playing loose with the Torah. That’s a nation of tarchonim!
The Tough Nation
And so when Moshe Rabbeinu said עוֹד מְעַט וּסְקָלֻנִי – a little more and they’ll stone me (Shemos 17:4), so we are horrified by that. We think, “What kind of an unruly rabble they were!” But it’s just the opposite. These words should be put on a banner and displayed as the greatness of our forefathers. Even Moshe Rabbeinu couldn't escape their criticism. Authority meant nothing when they saw something wrong.
Now these words, these descriptions, should not be taken lightly. It's an index of the qualities of the Jewish nation from the beginning of the world. We’re a tough people because that’s what Hashem needs in from His one nation! He wants to engrave the Torah on our hearts forever and only a tough nation can handle that.
The Forever Nation
Like the Alter of Slabodka zichrono levrachah once said. Let's say you want an engraved tablet on your wall. Why bother with a stone tablet? When you have to engrave in stone it’s a difficult job. You need chisels and hammers. You break fingernails. Better to take a big chunk of butter and one, two,
