The difference is, the Alter said, how long it's going to last. So if we would be a butter nation it wouldn’t be difficult to write on us, to make us a Torah nation. But the question is how long will it endure? Easy come, easy go.
And so the Am Yisroel was made not an easy nation. סַ רְ בָ נִ י ם הֵ ם – They are a people who refuse. They have independent minds. רַ גְ זָ נִ י ם הֵ ם – They’re an excitable nation. טַ רְ חָ נִ י ם הֵ ם – And they won’t back down. That’s how we were made from the beginning and these qualities make us endure forever. Once you engrave on the Am Yisroel, it’s there.
We are going to keep His Torah for thousands of years even though all around us we have ovdei avodah zarah. There are nations all around us. Even to this day, the Jewish nation is stubborn. We don't care what they do. We ignore them. They are a big majority but we don't care. We are going to be, up till Moshiach we are going to keep our Torah. And that's because ִי לִי יָצַרְ ת עַם זו – this nation I created for Me. They were made for that purpose.
Part III. A Torah Nation
A Fire of Humility
Now what did Hakadosh Baruch Hu say to Moshe Rabbeinu when he was refusing to go to the people? “I want to let you know,” He said, “that when I take My people out of Mitzrayim I’m going to bring them to Har Sinai and I’m going to give them the Torah. ֶה קִים עַל הָהָר הַז ן אֶת הָאֱל ַ עַבְדו ת – And on that mountain the nation will humble themselves before Me (ibid. 12).”
ן ַ עַ בְ דו ת means that they’ll become avodim, servants, that are humbled before Him. “The Torah I’m going to give to the Am Yisroel,” Hashem said, “was created by Me to fit perfectly with the character I created them with. It’s going to humble all of those qualities I gave them and make them the perfect nation.”
About this the Gemara in Mesichta Beitzah (25b) quotes a possuk, ׇת לָמוֹ מִינוֹ אֵשׁ ד מִי – From Hashem’s right Hand there was given a Torah of fire to them (Devarim 33:2). It’s talking about what happened at Har Sinai, how Hashem gave us the Torah, and it says that a das of fire, a fiery Torah, was given to the Am Yisroel.
Fight Fire With Fire
But the Gemara finds in these words a hint of something more. Because actually the word das implies something besides Torah; das means ‘custom’ or ‘ways’. And so we have to understand what does it mean that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave a ‘das’ to Yisroel? If He gave us laws, that's Torah; it’s not das. Das means something besides the laws of the Torah.
So the Gemara says something cryptic about that: ָ ת אֵשׁ נָּתֵ ן לָהֶם ד שֶׁ ת ָלו יִין הַל רְ או – It’s fitting for this nation to receive a Torah of fire. Why?
ָ תֵ יהֶם שֶׁ ל אֵלו ד אֵ שׁ – Because their nature is fire. The Jewish nation received the Torah because of their nature; we received the Torah because it fits with our nature. That's the Gemara without any embellishments: Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave to the Am Yisroel a fiery Torah according to their fiery nature!
And now the Gemara adds some explanation, a secret. Maybe you already know it but it's a secret to the world: וֹ רָ ה לְ יִ שְׂ רָ אֵ ל נָ ה ת אִ לְ מָ לֵ א נִ ת – If the Torah would not have been given to Yisroel, ָל אֻמָּ ה וְלָשׁ וֹן אֵין כִ פְ נֵ יהֶ ם יְ כוֹ לִ ין לַ עֲ מֹד ב – then no nation could have withstood them. The nation of Yisrael has such a fiery nature that without the Torah they would have been a great disturbance to mankind. They would have been impossible to live with. And therefore Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave them such a Torah; He fought fire with fire.
Taming the Fire
Isn't that a novel idea? We were given a Torah of fire because otherwise we would be a menace, a menace to ourselves and to the world. If it wasn’t for the Torah the world couldn't tolerate the Am Yisroel. That’s why liberal Jews, Jews who forsake the Torah, are very dangerous people. Because they’re fiery people without a fiery Torah to control them.
We shouldn’t publicize it but among ourselves we can say that the irreligious Jews are the biggest of all nuisances. All the corrupt ideas that the gentiles think of, they take and go meshugeh with them. All of the qualities they were made with they use for the opposite of what it was intended for. They're sarvonim and ragzonim and tarchonim; they’re pushy and demonstrative and wild, and so they make the biggest trouble.
Fire Untamed
Who were the defendants in the Chicago trial? Ruben, Friedman, all Jewish names. Jewish bums. And who goes on NBC and CBS and ABC to promote all the gentile craziness? Who poisons the country with their television and radio programs? It’s liberal Jews. They’re tearing everything down, ruining everything.
And most of all, they’re ruining themselves. You remember Abbie Hoffman, alav hashnubbel? A Jew. He could have made something from himself. Instead he ruined his young life by trying to be a rebel against the establishment. He was full of fire, raising the sky with his tumult. Finally the newspapers reported that at the age of fifty two he commited suicide. A waste of a fiery Jewish soul.
You see it still today. I was walking on Kings Highway, I saw a fat man waddle out onto the street. A Jew; I’m sure it was a Jew. A big fat man with a big belly and across his belly were the words: “Abbie still lives!” He’s still fired up about Abbie.
Because they’re taking the fiery character that the Yotzer Bereishis made them especially with and they’re misfiring. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave them a fire for the purpose of serving Him and they’re ruining themselves. They were made with special qualities, fiery qualities, that are dangerous if not tempered and controlled by a fiery Torah. A fiery nature is a great tool but it’s dangerous; it has to be kept within bounds, and therefore He gave us a Torah of fire. It’s an important principle you’re hearing now, a chiddush: When Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave the Torah, one of the reasons was to keep our fiery characters under control.
Taamei Hamitzvos
And so if you're looking for reasons for mitzvos, this is an excellent one: the Am Yisroel is put into a straitjacket. When we are forced to live according to all the details of the Torah, to do things just so or just so, we are being trained in self-control. We are taming our fiery qualities.
It doesn't mean that's the only reason but the mere fact that you cannot do whatever you wish to do, that you constantly have to consult the Torah – “What does the halachah say?” – is a balm for our fiery character.
So if you ask, “Why is it that I can’t buy a suit unless I first check it for shatnez?”, the first reason is that you’re being put in a straitjacket. Just the fact that you cannot buy a suit in any place unless it has a non shatnez label inside, it's a very great success in achieving control of your character. You can’t just do whatever you want.
Kosher Control
Here’s a man walking in the street and there are all kinds of restaurants, all kinds of foods are being advertised, and you cannot use any of them. Each time he passes by he’s practicing self-control! And if you want to eat a packaged food, also; you must first see: is there a hechsher on it? And sometimes it costs more too because of that. It's a tremendous achievement in self-control.
A Jewish boy runs in by recess to his rebbi and shows him a package of candy. “Rebbi, can I eat this candy?” The rebbi says no; there's no hechsher on it. The boy takes the candy and casts it into the wastebasket. It's an achievement.
Boys and girls learn self-control by living according to the Torah. We don't realize the greatness of the Jewish home where self-control is the modus operandi. It's the way of life. Little boys and girls eat meat. They say “Ma, can I have some ice cream?”
“No. You have to wait six hours.”
Six hours after meat to wait for ice cream is a long time! But the little boy and little girl accept that.
The mother walks out to the store and he's alone in the kitchen with the refrigerator with ice cream in it. He doesn't go there. He has learned self-control. Do you know what an achievement that is for a child?
Shabbos, Shul and Shatnez
Shabbos, you can't do this. You can’t do that. Even if you want to move a pen from the table you have to look up in the seforim, how and when. Shabbos! It’s a day of excellence of character. If only Abbie Hoffman would have kept Shabbos ...
Even just to be in the shul where there is a strict rov who doesn't let you talk. At least during chazoras hashatz you have to keep your mouth closed. Isn’t that a wonderful thing? Every day you come to the synagogue and you practice taming your fire. It’s very good practice. During krias hatorah, if you’re in a strict minyan, they don't let you talk. Wonderful!
Now of course that's not the only reason for Shabbos and kashrus and shatnez but even had it been the only reason it would have been sufficient. And so we should not complain of the fact we have chukim, certain laws for which no reason seems available. Don't worry. There's a reason for it. But it doesn't mean it's for your benefit to know the reason. Your benefit is to do, and by doing you become a different personality. You're transformed. When we obey the Torah laws on the highway of life – even the hair splitting little details – we learn the great excellence of self-control. We’re changing ourselves. We're transforming our personalities.
Lift Off!
Now, once we have our fiery nature under control, now that fire can be used with the best results. That’s the fire that raises us up; like old-time balloons. If they wanted the balloon to go up in the air, a big balloon that had some passengers in it, so first you made a fire under the balloon and the hot air came into the balloon and made it swell and then the balloon began to rise because of the fire underneath it.
Hashem says, “Get going! Lift off! You're not in this world to stand still. I want you to fly! And I created you with a fire just for that.” ָ ת לָמוֹ אֵשׁ ד – He gave them a fire of Torah!
And because at Har Sinai they were given such a fire, the fire continued to burn brightly and hotly for many generations. And now you have a fiery nation ascending the scaffold to be burned in fire for the sake of the Torah. The Jews suffer fiery ordeals for the sake of the Torah!
Jews give up jobs. Jews give up careers for the sake of the Torah. Men and women sacrifice, kollel wives. Kollel wives endure poverty so that their husband should continue to learn.
Men get up early when it’s still dark outside to go to the beis medrash for a shiur. It requires a fire to come out from under the warm blanket. Or at least the wife has to have the fire to chase him out of the bed. Women labor all their lives raising families taking care of a big family of children. Boys and girls give up all types of ‘good’ times because they have a fire burning inside them. It’s a fiery ordeal but they do it with love because they have a fiery love for the Torah, for Hashem, in their hearts.
A Nation of Greatness
And every Jew should realize that he’s capable of all these things because he was created for this. Every Jew was created with fiery qualities that are intended for his perfection. It’s much easier for Am Yisroel to accomplish greatness in their lives because inherently they possess these qualities; qualities whereby every Jew is endowed with the capabilities of becoming great.
Every man, every woman, every boy, every girl! There is nobody little in the Jewish people because we were tailormade for this. That's the lesson we're learning. We have been tailored. We're made to order for this purpose. Everyone can attain greatness. Now some more than others but everyone who is descended from our forefathers should realize that Hakadosh Baruch Hu had him in mind from the beginning of the world and He endowed him with these gifts. And these gifts are our heritage and we're expected to use them.
And we have to say Aleinu L’shabeiach for that opportunity. Every day by Shacharis, Mincha and Maariv we thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu א עָ שָׂ נ ו שׁ ֶ ל גוֹיֵי הָ אֲ רָ צוֹת כ – that He didn’t make our lot like the nations of the earth. The nations of the earth live for the earth and the end is they go back to the earth.
But the Am Yisroel, they're made differently. They’re created for ideals, for perfection, for eternity. And for that they were made with fiery qualities and given a fiery Torah. And this fire ascends after they finish the span of their lives; it ascends and returns to Hakadosh Baruch Hu to remain with Him forever!
Have a Wonderful Shabbos
