I
This week we celebrated 3,333 years since the Revelation at Sinai. The number three is found five times in the Gemara (Shabbos 88a) in a blessing due to Hashem. He gave us a Torah of three parts (Torah, Neviim, Kesuvim - Rashi), to a nation of three parts (Kohein, Levi, Yisrael - Rashi) through a third child (Moshe, following Miriam and Aharon - Rashi) on the third day (of abstinence. Rashi, see Shemos 19:11,15) in the third month (from yetzias Mitzrayim, Shemos 19:1).
The Maharal (Tiferes Yisrael, 11) explains that every creation is flawed as it departs from "yosher," the straight middle path. The only exception is Torah, the true "yosher." The number three represents the middle straight path, veering neither right or left.
The nation of three refers to the three patriarchs (unlike Rashi). Yaakov, the middle between Avraham (chesed) and Yitzchok (gevura) is called Yeshurun, an appellation given to the entire nation (Devarim 33:5). Moshe, the third child, represents yosher. He could not tolerate injustice and intervened three times to protest it. He killed the Egyptian who was hitting a Hebrew man (Shemos 2:11,12), reprimanded a Hebrew man fighting with another (2:13) and saved Yisro's daughters from the shepherds who chased them away (2:17). Similarly, the third month is in the middle, just before the heat of the summer, and the third day represents yosher as well. We must bless Hashem for the Torah, the only perfect creation. It is associated with four other three's and was given to us 3,333 years ago.
The three-faceted blessing of the Kohanim (Bamidbar 6:24-26) can be understood along the same lines. The first beracha refers to material prosperity, and the second to Torah. Beracha number three alludes to a proper middle ground, combining the first 2 blessings to achieve inner peace (see Birchas Kohanim: L'bracha v'lo l'klala).
II
The three national tragedies of the last three weeks demand teshuva and introspection. The COVID-19 crisis continues to devastate humanity and lingers in our own community as well. Sadly, the recent CDC relaxation of masking and distancing requirements for vaccinated persons has caused friction with individuals who refuse to vaccinate. Balancing safety and unity can be challenging, but must be approached with sensitivity, so that our shuls can bring everyone together once again peacefully. While this is an international issue, it seems more divisive within Am Yisrael, as the Kli Yakar bemoans (Vayirka 26:36).
How do we respond to the Meron tragedy? As the shiva for the victims ended, we read (Vayikra 26:36,37) "The sounds of a rustling leaf will pursue them. They will fall, but without a pursuer. They will stumble over one another as in flight from a sword, but there is no pursuer." These words, eerily hinting to death by stampede, are interpreted by the Kli Yakar as follows:
This [stumbling] refers to the divisiveness that is common in Am Yisrael, more than in other nations. Each one pushes his friend and tries to push him from his place, to roll over and fall on top of him. Every member of Yisrael is pushed as a leaf by the wind, the four kingdoms called four winds (Daniel 7:2). Despite the weakness caused by our enemies, each leaf pushes and hits the leaf near it. So, too, a Jew, despite being like a wind-blown leaf pursued by the enemy, pursues another Jew. He attacks him verbally, maligning him to the nations or in the Jewish street by lashon hara. In our generation, this itself causes the extension of our galus.
Unfortunately our own generation, like that of the Kli Yakar, suffers from infighting which continues to extend our galus. On occasion, here in our galus, and even in Eretz Yisrael, it rises from verbal to physical, leading, to our great shame, to police intervention. This has occurred, even recently, in iconic Torah and Chassidic institutions, as publications in Eretz Yisrael after the Lag Baomer tragedy have noted.
Lag Baomer is a holiday because R' Akiva's twenty four thousand students, who perished between Pesach and Shavuos, stopped dying (Maharil). They stopped dying because they had already died! Why do we celebrate? The Pri Chadash (493:2) explains that the later students of R' Akiva did not die, but rather filled Eretz Yisrael with Torah, and established Torah for all generations (Bereishis Rabba 61:3, Yevamos 62b). They heeded R' Akiva's warning not to begrudge one another.
R' Shimon bar Yochai was one of those later students. The Kaf Hachaim (493:26) states that R' Akiva ordained his five later students, including R' Shimon bar Yochai, on Lag Baomer. This is why we celebrate Lag Baomer at Meron on the yahrzeit of R' Shimon bar Yochai. When our dancing turned into mourning (Eicha 5:15), we must respond to the tragedy by introspection and teshuva (Rambam Hilchos Taaniyos 1:3), particularly in the area of bein adam lachavero.
Biblical precedent for a sudden turn of events, from ecstasy to mourning, occurred on the day of the dedication of the Mishkan (Vayikra 9:24, 10:2,6). The nation rejoiced when the divine fire consume their sacrifices. The very next verse (10:1) tells of the unauthorized fire offered by Nadav and Avihu, after which divine fire consumed them. The entire house of Israel cried over their death by fire.
While Nadav and Avihu were on a level higher than we can even imagine, greater than Moshe and Aharon (Rashi 10:3), Chazal (Yalkut Shimoni 524) attribute their death to a variety of primarily interpersonal sins. As those nearest to Hashem (10:3), they, like R' Akiva's students, were held to a higher standard and punished for sins compared to a barely visible, hair-like thread (Yevamos 121b).
The tragic death of forty five holy souls on Lag Baomer in Meron indeed inspired a national day of mourning and a coming together of previously separate, and even hostile, groups in the mourning. The challenge is to continue to be unified going forward. Of course, as the more recent tragedy in Givat Zev reminds us, a primary lesson of Meron is to avoid dangerous situations whenever possible.
III
Remember, Hashem, for the children of Edom, Yom Yerushalyim. "They say 'Destroy, destroy to its very foundation'" (Tehillim 137:7). On Yom Yerushalyim 5781, the children of Yishmael, a branch of Edom (according to R' Saadiah Goan and Abarbenel, see Artscroll Daniel 2:40, 7:7) began a spree of thousands of rockets fired with the express intention of destroying Am Yisrael. Woe unto me, as I dwell near the tent of Kedar (Tehilim 120:5), the kingdom of Yishmael (Radak), those who hate peace (6). I am peace, but when I speak, they are for war (7).
This jihad, began with a squabble over property in Yerushalyim. It is a holy war, waged by haters of Israel, who are called haters of Hashem (Rashi Badmidbar 10:35). It begins with land for which we paid, as in Chevron (Bereishis 23:16), Shechem (33:19), and Yerushalyim (Shmuel 2 24:21-24).). More fundamentally, it goes back to the very beginning (Rashi Bereishis 1:1). The nations of the world say "You are bandits, for you have conquered Eretz Yisrael." We respond "The whole world belongs to Hashem. He created it, and He gave Eretz Yisrael to us."
The Be'er Yosef (Parshas Shelach) explains that any bandit can make such a claim. Our response is valid only because, as the Shela states, it was impossible to conquer Eretz Yisrael without Divine assistance (Bamidbar 13:27,28,31, Devarim 9:13). This proves the biblical statement that the land was given to us (Bereishis 13:15,17).
The spies reported (Bamidbar 13:33) "We were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we were in their eyes." The Be'er Yosef cites Bava Kama (116b) that grasshoppers steal the grain of everyone. If we view ourselves as thieves, the nations will reach the same conclusions. Sadly, many Jews today fail to recognize our Divine biblical right to Eretz Yisrael and even reject Israel's right of self-defense against murderous jihadists (Chet Hameraglim: Then and Now).
How do we, faithful Jews, respond to the ongoing national crisis and tragic deaths? We must pray for peace. "If Hashem will not guard the city, in vain is the watchman vigilant" (Tehillim 127:1). "Pray for the peace of Yerushalyim" (122:6). "May there be peace in your wall, serenity in your palaces" (7). The Malbim explains: "if the tribes living around Yerushalyim will unite, and there will be no fights and disputes around its walls between one tribe and another, then there will be serenity in your inner palaces."
Our prayers must be accompanied by a resolution to pursue peace between the different tribes of Am Yisrael. Sadly, even in Yerushalyim itself, there are vicious disputes, sometimes even violent, between its Jewish factions. Tehilim neged tilim, prayers to be saved from rockets, do not suffice. The Iron Dome, and the brave soldiers to whom we must be so grateful, do not suffice. We must achieve greater internal peace in order for our prayers for peace from our enemies to be answered.
"Yerushalyim, the rebuilt, is like a city that is united together" (120:3). We became chaveirim, friends to one another (see Yerushalymi Bava Kama 7:6). We saw this fifty four years ago, on the Shavuos following the original Yom Yerushalyim. We must attempt to recreate that unity achieved in the euphoria of victory and in the crisis which preceded it, and extend it to normal times.
"They encamped (vayachanu) in the desert, and Yisrael encamped (vayichan) there, opposite Mount Sinai" (Shemos 19:2). Rashi explains the change from plural to singular: as one man with one heart, but all the other encampments were with complaints and argumentation. How was this unity achieved? Chasidic masters interpret vayichan homiletically: and they found favor (chein). As R' Elimelech of Lizhensk prayed, "Let each of us see the superlatives of our friends and not their shortcomings." As Maharal taught, no one is perfect. We achieve unity by focusing on the whole person, usually mostly positive, instead of harping on the inevitable imperfection.
Egypt was pursuing them (nosei'a, singular, Shemos 14:10). Rashi adds: with one heart, as one man. The order is reversed. Egypt achieved unity as one man only when they were with one heart, in this case to chase Am Yisrael. We must do better. We must be as one man even when we have not yet achieved with one heart, even when we disagree.
"Behold how good and how pleasant is the dwelling of brothers together - gam yachad", (Tehillim 133:1). Yachad, homiletically, means "Yesh Chilukai Dei'os." Even when we disagree, we must stay together. It is both good and pleasant, doing well by doing good.
Just as we encamped as one person with one heart 3,333 years ago, let us aim for greater unity now. May the three tragedies, COVID-19, Meron and the rocket barrage, inspire us to merit the building of the third Beis Hamikdash.
More divrei Torah, audio and video shiurim from Rabbi Willig