There are two ways to talk to someone. There is a way to speak to someone softly, called amirah (speech), which is the way to speak to a woman. Then there is a way to speak harshly – dibbur, which is the kind of speech that men have to hear.
When a tragedy happens, Hashem is speaking to us harshly. But we need to listen with our ears to what Hashem is telling us. If a person is materialistic, he doesn’t hear Hashem talking to him. Nothing moves him. If he doesn’t hear anything, it will take a lot to get him to hear – and the only thing that can wake him up is the shock of a tragedy. When Hashem sends us a tragedy, He isn’t just talking to us – He is screaming at us to hear Him.
What does Hashem want from us? Why is He screaming at us?
When a person screams, it is because there is danger. When Hashem screams at us, it is because our very life is in danger.
How have we come to such a situation that Hashem has to scream at us?
Today’s Problem
There is a lot of Torah today; it is unprecedented. But what is going on in our internal world? Our hearts are hearts of stone. What are our aspirations of life?
There is no truth to be found anywhere. The streets are full of materialistic pursuits which we have. There are only a few individuals who aren’t influenced by the materialism that our world today is seeped in.
We cannot change the entire generation, but each person on his own can change himself and see that the kind of life we are living today is not the kind of life that our Avos had. Even the most recent generation, before today’s generation, didn’t live like we do today. Our spirituality is in very real danger, each day.
Do we feel a love for the Torah? Do we see anyone today who is searching for the truth? Do we see anyone today who longs for Hashem? Do we see anyone today who is living a truthful kind of life?
I also have children, and I worry too what will be with them. What kind of world are they growing up in?! Hashem should have mercy on them.
The choice we are faced with today is like the choice that Avraham Avinu had to make in his life, when the entire world was seeped in idol worship. Our choice we face on this world – and this applies to every person – is to decide if we want a true kind of life, a life of Hashem and His Torah and to be connected to the Jewish people.
We must understand that the tragedy that happened is not another story that will come and go. We must hear how Hashem is talking to us harshly through it. We cannot just let it pass and move on. If we want to just move on, we are sleeping. Our choice we face on this world is like a choice between life and death. We must decide if we will want a true kind of life – or a life that is influenced by our secular surroundings.
In the Holocaust, they faced physical death and suffering. Their job was to give up their bodies and die al Kiddush Hashem. Our generation also needs to live al Kiddush Hashem, but we must do this through our spirituality. We must be ready, every single day of our life, to live like we should – and this is how we live a life of Kiddush Hashem. It’s not enough for us to just think in our mind to have mesirus nefesh when we say Shema; we need to actually live a life of mesirus nefesh, to be ready to give ourselves up for Hashem. All of us must do this.
We are not speaking about a high level to be on. Anyone who isn’t ready to have mesirus nefesh today will definitely fall wayward.
We have to make a change in the whole way we live our life. Our heart has to burn with a desire for Hashem. Dovid HaMelech asked Hashem for a lev tahor, a pure heart. That is precisely what we need today as well. We need a pure heart.
We need to ask Hashem to take away all other desires we have which aren’t important. It’s not enough to seek improvement in our heart -- we need a whole new heart to begin with.
What does Hashem want from us? Hashem wants us to leave the false kind of life we are living. The new generation lives totally different today than in previous times. Anyone here remembers how the world looked a few years ago, and can attest that the world today is far different from even a few years ago.
What To Do
What should we do? Each person, every day, should close himself off in a room and do Teshuvah. Who can say that he’s perfect? We all need to improve. The clothing we wear – would we stand at Har Sinai with it?
If a person really wants to return to the true way that a Jew used to live, he has to return to there from the depths of his heart and cry to Hashem, “Hashem, show me the way and purify my heart.”
We should ask Hashem that we should only want what’s important and holy. If we all daven to Hashem like this, Hashem will show each person the way he should go in. If we don’t do this, no amount of inspiration will help us. There is so much evil in the world and we need big changes to counter it.
It is written, “My son, give your heart to me.” If we give Hashem our heart, we have hope.
We know our financial situation is in danger, but what about our spiritual situation? What do we want throughout the day, and what do want as we go to sleep?
If we don’t listen to Hashem screaming at us through this tragedy, He will only scream louder at us to hear Him and send another tragedy. We need to be ready to give our life for Hashem and separate ourselves from the falsity of this world, even though we see that everyone else is living a false kind of life.
If we set aside time every day to make a self-accounting and ask Hashem to purify us, and we cry to Him about this, then Hashem will answer us – He does not close the Shaarei Demaos, the Gate Of Tears. It is not enough to make resolutions to become better; all inspiration cannot help us unless we are prepared to give up our life for Hashem.
