Your own efforts, to turn into a blessing. Not only is it possible but it’s what we’re expected to do. Just like Levi took that curse of “I’ll scatter you” and used it to become great, we’re no different in our golus.
Part III. Our Blessings
Brooklyn Versus Cracow
Now, I’m going to take the time to explain this a little more because I want that you should walk out of here with something in your hand. It’s important we should understand how this principle applies to us, how we, in whatever station of history that we find ourselves, are given the opportunity of changing the curse of our exile, into blessings.
According to our circumstances, according to our potentialities, we need the golus of today. And there are opportunities in exile that we never had before, opportunities to become very great just because of the golus! Because let’s say you, with your little mind and your little soul, had been born in the days of the Rama. What would you be? Would I be sitting here talking to people in the Rama’s time? In the Rama’s time I’d be happy to be a porter, a water carrier. And even better than me would be happy to be one of the hamon am in old Cracow.
But in this golus that you find yourself now you can learn every day and become a talmid chochom. You can go to the beis knessess every day in the morning and learn a few lines of Gemara and then you can come back in the evening again and learn more. And on Shabbos all afternoon long and Sunday too and you can be a talmid chochom. In the Rama’s time however, it would take much more than that because everybody knew everything! So many people knew Shas! It was very difficult to become distinguished in the Rama’s time. Today it’s so easy comparatively.
There’s so much opportunity today to create from yourself a personality that will be admired in the Next World forever. Just because of golus there are so many English seforim, so much torah available. A plain woman in her home, a plain man in the synagogue, can become great by studying the Mesillas Yesharim in English, the Shaarei Teshuvah in English, the Chovos Halevovos in English. That person is not plain anymore!
Kiruv is an Opportunity
Today it’s possible for you to become even a teacher, a man who influences people, who brings Jews back to Torah. You can accomplish so much more today because it’s so much easier today! In the Rama’s time you couldn’t get any mitzvah by being mekarev Jews to Yiddishkeit – there was nobody to be mekarev. You’ll bring in people and make them frum? Out of the question! Who wasn’t frum?! Even the thieves were frum!
It’s true! The criminals were frum! Everybody kept everything! Even Lubavitchers couldn’t bring in people in those days! Because there was nobody to bring in.
Today there are Jews to bring back everywhere. Many years ago I was in Williamsburg; I was looking for a certain address so I asked a chassideshe Jew for help. I spoke to him in Yiddish. He said to me, “I’m sorry. I don’t know Yiddish. English please.” He was a new Satmerer, a baal teshuvah. Someone brought him in! It couldn’t happen in the olden times!
Adopt–a–Building
Today there’s gold lying here waiting for you, to bring in Jews and make them keep the Torah, make them shomrei Shabbos, make them eat kosher! You could get children and send them to yeshivas.
There are big apartment buildings right here on Ocean Parkway filled with Jews who know nothing at all. Right here! If because of golus so many Jews in Russia went away, so many Jews in America went lost, so this is your especial opportunity. They’re not apikorsim. They’re just tinok shenishbas, people with empty heads, people who know nothing.
So you can choose one building and make it your project. Talk to them. So go in there one day and write down the addresses of the Jewish apartments – if the super doesn’t let you in, offer him ten dollars and he’ll change his mind. Write down the addresses and send them the Jewish Press. For people who know very little the Jewish Press is excellent. There he'll read about kosher salami. There he'll read about kosher hotels, kosher restaurants. To him it's an eye-opener. It's a new world to him.
Of course after he'll make progress, we'll move to Mesillas Yesharim, to higher things. But in the beginning buy him a subscription to The Jewish Press and let him delight in stories of Shabbos and stories of kashrus and things that he never heard of before.
The American Wasteland
And so you have such opportunities today that never existed before! It’s a wasteland, so many lost Jews. And it can be done. You know I remember in America years ago, a frum girl was a rarity in America. Frum boys also were not so shechiyach, but frum girls were mamesh milsa d’lo shechicha entirely.
So along comes a woman, a ‘plain’ woman in our days. Her name was Rebbetzin Kaplan, Rebbetzin Vichna Kaplan. She wasn’t a Devorah Haneviah. She wasn’t Sarah, Rivkah, Rochel and Leah. But she achieved in her lifetime as much as she could.
Number one, she had fourteen children. That’s a big job, fourteen children. That’s already making a blessing from this golus. To raise frum children in America?! Any mother who raises frum children, big families, in the filth of America can consider herself a very successful woman. A father too, but a mother especially.
The American Revolution
But in addition, Rebbetzin Kaplan made a Bais Yankev movement in America and she raised up girls who changed the face of America. So all the frum girls resulted from her talmidos. Then other people started copying her school. She inspired thousands of girls; they were taught to have big families and to marry boys and support them while they’re learning.
And these girls went forth as a result of her teachings and they made a revolution in America. You don’t realize what was beforehand. Reb Aharon Kotler zichrono livracha said, “If not for Rebbetzin Kaplan the kollelim in America couldn’t exist.” You need women who are willing to marry kollel men.
And on her shoulders alone is a tremendous credit for hundreds and thousands of boys and girls who were born because of her inspiration. And so many kollelim and talmidei chachomim as a result! One person! One woman by himself!
The Right Generation
I remember way back, even rebbetzins didn’t cover their hair in America. Rebbetzins didn’t cover their hair in America. I remember that. Rebbetzins didn’t cover their hair in America. And she brought a generation of girls with tzniyus and everything. A whole generation. That’s her work!
Now had she lived in any time, she wouldn’t have the opportunity. They didn’t need her. In Moshe Rabbeinu’s time, the whole nation was in kollel. Everybody was learning Torah in the midbar. It was one big kollel. Everybody had children. But in her time, she fulfilled most perfectly her destiny. It couldn’t have been better if she had been in the dor hamidbar!
Jewish Muscles
I’ll give one more example. I have written down here more than that but we have time now for one more. Our golus is also an opportunity to build up the muscles of standing against all the gentile influences. I’ll explain that. You know the middah of strength, of being a gibor in rejecting the influences of the outside world is a perfection of character that you take with you into the Next World forever. Forever and ever it stands to your credit.
But it’s a middah that atrophies when it’s not utilized. Like a man who doesn’t do any physical labor so his muscles become flabby after a while. And to a certain extent for someone living in the ‘good old days’ those muscles became weak. After all, in old Europe there was a wall around the ghetto, and there were watchmen at the gate, to see that no Jews would leave and no gentiles would come in. Goyim didn't come in there and so the ghetto was a makom kadosh.
The streets were holy. There was no influence of the umos haolam in the streets of the ghetto. What influence was there? Only the ruach hatorah; all you could see was frum Jews. All you could see was people doing the minhagei Yisroel, dressed like Jews. If you lived in the ghetto you were stewing in Jewish juices your whole life. And so it was easy to be a frum Jew, to resist the blandishments of the gentiles. There was no other way. And so nobody’s personality was especially perfected just by keeping away from the gentile ways.
But today it’s different. In our golus we have the opportunity to stand up against the gentile culture. Today you can become great just because of that.
South American Heroes
A man came here once and he told me about his father and mother, frum Germans, who had to leave their frum community and they went into exile in South America. For them it was a curse. They lived among irreligious Jews. They were the only frum family. His mother was the only one who wore a sheitel. They were ridiculed by everybody. They couldn’t go anywhere because everywhere, it was treif.
They were surrounded by people who were disloyal but his father and mother were loyal to the Torah through thick and thin. Not only they were frum but they kept all the frum German minhagim. It’s an inspiring story!
These people don’t know how great they are. They were writing a history, a history of perfection down there in South America. They were unknown, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows. A book should be written about it. In Shomayim a book was written about them, absolutely, because they became great under the most adverse circumstances. I say “under the circumstances” – it was because of the circumstances. They took their exile and turned it into a blessing. They created great personalities from themselves just because of that ‘curse’.
Just Say No
And that’s an opportunity for all of us in this golus. To say no to all of the garbage, to keep the home quarantined, isolated from all outside influences. And that means that there cannot be a Jewish home with television. Television and the kedusha of a Jewish home are two contradictory things. And no matter how you’ll try to assuage your conscience with explanations and teirutzim, you’re making a fatal error of misusing the curse of golus.
Even a radio. The radio today is terrible. Now, I don’t want to waste too many words on that because it’s a waste of talking. People are so hardened that they refuse to listen anyhow. There was a man who listened to me. I once spoke about this so he told his wife and they both decided and they got rid of it. They are the successful ones; they made use of the curse of golus for greatness. They won’t regret it.
Greatness in Laughter
And that’s a lesson for all of us to keep in mind. To say no; there are so many opportunities. In this golus you can laugh at evolution. The whole world is yelling “Evolution! Evolution!” and you’re yelling back “Bereishis Bara Elokim! Bereishis Bara Elokim!”. In the Rama’s time you couldn’t do that – they weren’t stupid enough to even think up such foolish ideas so you didn’t have such opportunities. And so today you have the opportunity to create a great personality by laughing at all the crazy ideas of the gentile world.
Of course, a person can wallow in complaints and do nothing. And so he’ll remain a plain Jew. Now, a plain Jew that’s nothing to sneeze at but compared to what you could have made from yourself in golus, just because of golus, it’s a waste. It’s a waste of the opportunity to turn a curse into blessings.
Happy in Golus
And this brings us back to the principle. The curse of the golus certainly is a curse, but it’s one of the greatest blessings because in this golus, we have opportunities that never existed before. But it’s up to our bechirah, our free will, to take a curse and with our own efforts, make it into a blessing. That’s what we’re learning tonight.
We’re not living when we’re living and where we’re living as result of an accident. No! We’re in our golus because Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted us to be in golus and our job is to do the best we can wherever we are. Hakadosh Baruch Hu puts us in circumstances for our benefit. And so let’s not be dissatisfied. Wherever you are, you can gain greatness. You can achieve in the golus! You can achieve just because of golus! Wherever you are, it’s a place where you can turn curses into blessings.
Have a Wonderful Shabbos
