In times like these, with a vicious war being fought in Gaza, the entire region revealing its instability, and blatant anti-Semitism raising its head around the world, from London to France, Australia to Eretz Yisrael, we all acutely feel the danger of these times. It is only natural that we cling to the news, constantly looking to see what is happening. Where was there a siren? Where did a missile hit? What did Biden say? Did they reach the hospital?
Why do we feel such a need to know what is happening? What is compelling us to find out the latest news at all times? Is it right to be so connected?
The Natural, Unnatural Pull
Chazal relate that when Rivkah was carrying Yaakov and Eisav in pregnancy, she would feel a strong pull towards Shuls and Batei Avoda Zara when she would walk past them. Unsure of what this meant, she went, “lidrosh ess Hashem” - to Yeshivas Shem, to find out what was going on. She was told that she was expecting two children who would eventually become two nations, and they were each pulling towards the things they desired. This knowledge calmed her.
Why did this fact calm Rivka? Also, given that they were mere fetuses, why did Ya’akov and Eisav have such an overpowering urge?
Car Accidents
It was 1:30 am and Matisyahu was in a rush. He was driving back from his sister’s wedding, and it was late - his bed was waiting for him. Suddenly, “screech” - he slammed the brakes and his car skidded – a cat had run by his car, and he almost run it over. Baruch Hashem, he stopped in time and saved the cat. The rest of his ride home went smoothly and, before he knew it, his head also hit the pillow and he slumbered peacefully.
A week later he was driving along the very same stretch of road. Again, he was rushing, hoping to make it to his pillow before midnight. And once again, “screech”, he had to suddenly hit the brakes to avoid hitting a child who ran into the road to get his ball. A shocked Avi jumped out of his car and wow; it had been close - the car was a mere two inches from the child’s head. Matisyahu fainted. That night, when he finally did hit the pillow, he could not fall asleep. All night long he tossed and turned and had nightmares about the child he almost killed.
When he almost killed the cat Matisyahu just moved on with his life, but when he almost ran over a child he was unable to sleep for days. Why so? Is it just because he the child is more intelligent? Because he is bigger? R’ Pinkus offers a profound insight on this subject.
The Speciality of Mankind!
A human being is unique and exceptional - he is far more than an intelligent animal. What makes him unique? It is his ability to conceive of G-d. He possesses the basic understanding that the world has a G-d Who created all the amazing things around him. An animal cannot conceive of this. As far as it is concerned the only thing that exists is the fodder in its feeding trough.
For instance, a human can understand the complex mechanisms of the heart. The heart is an astounding pump that circulates the liquid blood through a system of veins and arteries which, if stretched out end to end, would encompass the globe two and a half times. The heart beats 70-80 times a minute, sixty minutes an hour, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, for ninety years. The same is true of the other organs in the body such as the eyes, ears, kidneys, and lungs. Only a human being is capable of recognizing the wonders of the world and thus the existence of the Creator.
The Current Generation
In recent decades there have been tremendous advances in science and technology. Today we have abilities that people did not even dream of a hundred years ago, such as rapid, advanced communication and transportation. People are understandably proud of these achievements. We too, cannot help but be pleased about convenient transportation by car or plane - it is so much better than traveling by horse and boat.
One of the amazing innovations of modern life is that the entire world is now at our fingertips. A businessman can sit in his office in New York and know in real time how much gold bullion is being purchased in Hong Kong. There are people who can affect the whole world just by pressing a button. We all can talk on the phone with a relative on the other side of the world. This gives us a type of control over the whole world. Everything is within our reach.
Today, with the smallest click on his phone, a person can control everything, from his kettle at home to his bank account abroad. In fact he needn’t even type - simply with voice command he can write letters and do complex tasks. (Soon the unthinkable will be the reality: our minds will be read by the technology.)
Why are all these astounding developments happening only now? Why not a hundred years ago, two hundred years ago, or even when the world was first created?
In Its Original Form!
There is a fundamental rule in physics, corroborated by Chazal: the true nature of something can be ascertained only if it is observed in its original form. Take Formica as an example. It is a synthetic product that looks like wood, but is manufactured from petroleum. No matter how much this wood look-alike is processed, no matter how many changes it undergoes, its essential nature does not change. If the processed Formica is broken down in a laboratory to its constituent elements, it will always be found to be made of petroleum.
The same is true of man. Human beings have gone through many changes since Adam Harishon, but we are still made of the same stuff. Man’s true nature can be ascertained by observing him in his original form, as he was created.
The Great Power of Mankind!
Chazal say that when Adam Harishon was created he stretched “mi’sof ha’olam v’ad sofo.” However, when he sinned Hashem “placed His hand upon him,” and diminished his size. He no longer reached across the world or up to the sky; he measured a mere one hundred amos With each subsequent generation human beings shrank further, until they became the size we are familiar with today.
However, while we might not be as tall as the sky or reach all the way around the world, that is our original form - it is our essential nature.
What’s So Bad About Jail?
This is why being incarcerated is so painful. Though prisons nowadays are practically like hotels, imprisonment is still a terrible punishment because it is against man’s essential nature. Before David HaMelech passed away, he commanded his son Shlomo to not let Shimi ben Geira die a peaceful and natural death since Shimi had cursed David severely. Shlomo was meant to find a clever way to bring Shimi to a violent demise.
When he became king, he ordered Shimi to build himself a home in Jerusalem, dwell there, and not travel. He forbade Shimi, on pain of death, to leave town, and warned him that the day he would cross the Kidron stream outside Jerusalem, he would be shedding his own blood. He would be judged as one who rebelled against the king and would be punished accordingly. Interestingly, Shimi was already living in Jerusalem and his hometown could hardly be considered a prison. But the moment Shlomo forbade him to leave he felt a strong desire to leave, for this is man’s nature. It was inevitable that he would try to escape the confines of the city sooner or later.
Why does man feel this urge to get out and travel the world? It is because in his original form man stretched from one end of the world to the other. He thus feels compelled to conquer it all. Being constrained feels to him as though he has been placed in a chicken coop and suspended 200 miles above the earth.
The Dramatic Change!
Until approximately a hundred and fifty years ago, people had their feet on the ground and their heads in heaven. They did not know much of the world at large and had little contact with faraway places. Jews lived in a world of kedushah, of spirituality. Non-Jews lived in a world of spirits, goblins, and witchcraft - supposedly supernatural beings. It was a person’s nature to reach towards the heavens above. A person could live in a tiny village with his cows and chickens, but if he would be asked, “Don’t you want to see the whole wide world out there?” he would look up to the heavens, and gaze at the stars. In fact, people in those times had extensive knowledge of astronomy.
In later generations man deteriorated. Instead of standing with his head in the heavens, he fell flat on his face. But his innate nature is unchangeable - he must fulfil the need to conquer the world. This is why Hashem gave him a telephone, a radio, a plane and other technological means that connect him to all the ends of the earth, to hold the whole world in his palm. For this is the man’s nature; he cannot do without it. If a person doesn’t reach heaven, and doesn’t reach the whole world, it feels as though he is locked up in a coop.
Our great-grandparents did not have this kind of breadth, but this does not mean that they were more restricted. The difference between them and us is that their heads reached heaven - they lived with HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
Unfortunately, we don’t live that way. We reach around the world instead - we are proud to know what is happening in the world. But in truth, it means we are lying on the ground instead of standing up. All the modern technological tools are gifts from Hashem that we need due to our essential nature. But it is not the optimum state.
During times like these when so much is happening in the world we feel a powerful urge to “have the world at our fingertips”, as though some great cataclysm will occur if we don’t receive the latest updates. We almost feel like we are the president and a lack of knowledge will cause a tragedy. Sometimes we are tempted to interrupt our learning just to get the latest scoop.
The Real Deal – Sitting in Yeshivah!
Superficially, there is nothing more limiting or restricting, than spending day and night glued to a yeshivah bench, sitting in front of a Gemara. It would seem akin to imprisonment. But it most certainly is not. Yeshiva is a world unto itself, an upwards-oriented world filled with beauty and vivid color. It is the most interesting world, the deepest world.
We must let go of the thoughts that we need to know all about what is happening in the world. And it won’t be easy, particularly at first - it may even feel like a form of death. But when we take this step we will find that we also seek to broaden our world in different dimension, for this is human nature. Then we will discover the holy Torah, which is our true life and our true world.
In current times we have the choice: we can either know the news or make the news. The Rishon Letzion, in his recent address, called for those in those front lines – the omley Torah - to learn solidly throughout the seder, 9-1 without stopping to receive updates on rocket barrages etc. “This will enable the soldiers to fight”, he exclaimed.
The Real Battle
Moshe decided to go visit his friend who was ill and admitted in Barzilay hospital. He was sitting chatting to his friend, and in the next bed is lay a soldier injured from battle.
A friend of the soldier who was sitting by his bedside turned to Moshe and asked him, “why are you- not serving in the army?” Moshe replied, “I might not be serving in the army, but I am doing something special for the soldiers in the army” “What are you doing?” he asked. Moshe responded, “I adopted a soldier, and all the learning, davening and Avodas Hashem I do is as a Zchus for the soldier I adopted.
Unconvinced, and quite sceptical, he asked, “oh really, what is the name of the soldier?” To which Moshe responded “Itai Yehudah ben Keren”. The injured soldier turned white, and exclaimed ”I am Itai Yehudah ben Keren, and you have been learning and davening for me and protecting me, and in your zechus I have been saved”. He was nevertheless wondering why he had not been fully protected and suffered an injury.
Later in the conversation, it was Moshe’s turn to turn white. As they were talking, they mentioned that it was on Tuesday at 4:40 in the afternoon that the soldier was injured. A shaken Moshe exclaimed, “I always try to come on time to Seder, however on Tuesday I unfortunately turned up at 5:00pm. This was the time the soldier suffered an injury in battle”. Indeed, Torah is megin umatzil, Torah is the true protection Klall Yisrael need at this time.
The two newfound friends embraced and kept up this relationship and partnership. Let us each make sure we continue our part in the battle, the real battle, and bring yeshuas to all of klal Yisrael.
In addition to strengthening ourselves in our limmud Torah, let us reduce the time we spend running after the latest updates. In so doing we will gain a true grip on the real mi’sof ha’olam v’ad sofo, and will create the extra merits so much needed by Klal Yisrael in this time.
