The pain of the loss of a Rebbi is so profound...no words can really do justice to encompass any of it.
For 35 years, my Rebbi, Rav Moshe Lieber zt”l was there for me. We spoke every few weeks...from the moment I walked into his tenth grade class in YFR in 1989...until just last week....
And it is just an indescribable feeling to know that he has left This World.
He shaped my mind...he molded my heart...he influenced my sight...he uplifted my soul...and the void and the hole are gaping....
My only possible comfort is what he left for me, his family, and all his talmidim...his love and his Torah — which were wrapped into one.
And...in almost 20 years of Zichron Avinoam, my Rebbi read every single one, every single week, without fail.
As an iluy to his pure neshamah, I want to share something from one of his many seforim, ArtScroll’s Torah Treasury— on our parashah:
After Yosef told his dreams to his brothers, they responded with the following words: וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ אֶחָיו הֲמָלֹךְ תִּמְלֹךְ עָלֵינוּ אִּם מָשׁוֹל תִּמְשֹּׁל בָנוּ — And they said to him, “Would you then reign over us? Would you then dominate us? (Bereishis 37:8).
The obvious question is, why does the language change from melech to moshel, and what, really, is the difference between the two? The Vilna Gaon explains:
A moshel is one who rules against the will of others, while a melech, a king, is one who is chosen by the people.
That is why, explained my Rebbi, from his Rebbi Rav Hutner zt’l (whose yahrzeit was this week), the seven mitzvos that were given to the Bnei Noach were not dependent at all on their acceptance, while the Torah on the other hand, for Klal Yisrael, most certainly was!
The pasuk says, כי לה׳ המלוכה ומושל בגוים — For to Hashem is the kingship, and rulership to the gentiles (Tehillim 22:27).
When it comes to the non-Jews, the Gaon explains, since they have not accepted Hashem’s reign, to them, He is a moshel — a ruler. While for Klal Yisrael, Hashem is truly King.
But, as the Navi Zecharya prophesizes, in the future, the whole world will recognize Hashem as King, and thus, about that great time the pasuk says:
והיה ה׳ למלך על כל הארץ ביום ההוא יהיה ה׳ אחד ושמו אחד — And Hashem will be King upon the whole earth, on that day Hashem is One and His Name is One...(Zecharya 14:9).
Once the world recognizes Hashem as melech, He then is able to be Melech upon the entire world.
Yosef’s brothers were saying, “Does he think that we will accept him as king? Or if not, is he going to forcibly reign upon us as a moshel?”
Besides the amazing understanding in the actual pasuk, the principle learned here is something my Rebbi spoke much about, as it was a foundation he had internalized from his great Rebbeim and passed over to us: Hashem’s malchus is kaviyochul affected by our choice and our free-will.
As human beings, we were created by Hashem in His Image, and thus we have within ourselves a greatness of spirit that has the ability to recognize Hashem as King, and to thus put our whole selves into being truly loyal servants.
Part of that great recognition, is the tefillah to Hashem that the whole world come to see and know that which we have known for so many centuries:
Hashem is King, Hashem was King, Hashem will always be King forever and ever....
As we go towards the light of Chanukah, the last Yom Tov and miracle before the long galus we are still in, let us hope, daven, and yearn for that great day...speedily in our time.... B’Siyata DiShmaya.
