40 years after leaving Egypt and slavery the children of Israel are ready to enter into the promised land.    There is one small problem, however. The land is not empty. In fact, there are seven large nations and dozens of scattered tribes and peoples against whom we must fight and prevail. Because this land needs to be conquered. This is not a small challenge. Remember that 40 years ago the fear of fighting paralyzed an entire generation that ended up dying in the desert. Now, Moshe addresses the new generation. He gives them a long speech, which occupies most of the book Debarim. What is the content of this speech? Normally, in these circumstances, you would have expected the leader of the army to harangue his soldiers and motivate them to fight. Normally, the leader would use some strong sounding phrases like “Kill or die”, or “Fredoooom”, or “fight till the end”, etc, etc. Or some unusual act to demonstrate that they need to win, as Julius Cesar did burning the ships when his army was about to invade Britannia.

But rather surprisingly in his speech Moshe Rabbenu is not concerned with the details of the battle. He almost does not mention anything practical about the imminent war… Moshe is not worried about military strategies or the fighting spirit of his soldiers. Moshe knows that this war will be won, because HaShem promised so. And because the Almighty will fight alongside Israel.

What does concern Moshe then?  The aftermath of victory.

Moshe is concerned about the spiritual effects of success and material wealth.

Israel is a rich and fertile land, with material surplus (Debarim 8: 7-9) “[Israel is …] a land with streams and springs of waters, that water the valleys and the hills; a land of wheat and barley, vineyards and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey, a land where bread is not scarce,  [and a land] where you will lack nothing “

Moshe, unlike any other political leader in history, fears the spiritual consequences of stability and wealth. He fears that once the people settle in their new mansions and rich lands, they would forget who they are, and who they should be …

(Debarim 8: 10-19) “[Once you settle in the land and] you have eaten, and you are satisfied … beware not to forget HaShem your God, and abandon His commandments … lest your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold increase, and all you have abound … and then, your heart might become proud, and you might forget HaShem your God, who brought you out of Egypt, the land of slavery …. and then, you would persuade yourself saying, ‘It was my own power and the might of my own hand that produced this wealth for me’ … and when you forget HaShem your God, you would seek other gods and you would bow down to them” 

There is a psychological and spiritual chain reaction which begins with wealth and ends with a special form of idolatry.

1. Wealth and affluence can lead man to forget God. This is a phenomenon which, unfortunately, is not uncommon. The more we suffer poverty, disease and tragedy, the more we must remember God. And vice versa.

2. When we forget HaShem, we become arrogant. “Everything I have, I achieved it by myself, with my own efforts.”

3. This dysfunctional perception leads to (or is a form of) ‘aboda zara (idolatry), which in this context must be understood as “egolatry” or self-worshipping. Human nature does not tolerate emptiness. And when an individual removes HaShem from his or her life, usually he would replace the Divine with his own ego.

Now, we can finally understand that waging war against the enemy does not worry Moshe. Moshe’s great concern is the battle between man and his own arrogance. The Tora warns us that material success can be dangerous. Because once you do not “need” anymore to beg God for bread and water, you are very close to forget and ignore Him.

Now, what is the solution to the moral challenge of wealth and success? Should we give up the aspiration of material well-being, to not risk a spiritual collapse? In fact, the Tora presents “wealth” as a Divine blessing (“berakha” literally means “abundance”) to which we are entitled to aspire. And if we win our bread honestly, the Tora does not impose us to make a voluntary vow of poverty.

  We read in the Shema ‘Israel, we must love (= keep in mind .., think of…) HaShem, our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our possessions. We must have HaShem in mind by rereading these words every day, day and night. We must repeat this message to our children. And place it in front of our hearts, and as a crown on our heads. And have it in writing, as a permanent reminder, in each one of the doors through which we enter and go out, every day of our lives.

The solution of the Tora to the conflict  “wealth > pride” is not to avoid wealth but to prevent “oblivion”. The Jewish antidote to forgetfulness is the permanent study of Tora and the fulfillment of its Mitsvot. 

עוד ישמע בערי יהודה ובחוצות ירושלם קול ששון קול שמחה קול חתן קול כלה

We have left behind a mourning period for the Bet haMiqdash, which extended from the 17th of Tamuz until this past Thursday night when we ended the fast of Tish’a BeAb. Throughout this time, we had no weddings or other celebrations. However, once Tisha B’Ab ended, we resumed festivities and joys.

Today we celebrate a date that, although not well-known, is very significant: the 15th of the month of Ab. According to the treatise of Ta’anit, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said: “There were no happier days for the people of Israel than the 15th of Ab… because on those days the unmarried young women of Jerusalem went out dressed in white to dance in the vineyards… and said to the single young men: ‘Consider who you will choose (to be your wife)’ and then they highlighted their own qualities: their good families, their virtues, their beauty”. Many couples met for the first time on this day, and thus, new marriages began.

To explain why this day was selected for such a joyful and significant event, “the day of the SHIDUKHIM (or formation of couples)”, the Sages mention what happened on the 15th of Ab throughout Jewish history.

1. Shortly after leaving Egypt, when the people of Israel refused to enter the land of Israel, all those over 20 years old were condemned to die in the desert during the long journey. Forty years later, this decree was canceled on the 15th of Ab.

2. When the Jewish people began to settle in Israel in the times of Joshua and secured the orderly division of the Land of Israel among the twelve tribes, which were established in twelve “provinces” or “states”, the Sages only allowed marriages between members of the same tribe or province (Numbers, Chapter 36) because this would cause the transfer of lands from one tribe to another. These restrictions were lifted on the 15th of Ab when marriages between the different tribes were allowed.

3. The 15th of Ab also reminds us that the tribe of Benjamin was readmitted to the people of Israel. Its members were excommunicated for their behavior in the terrible episode of the rape of a woman in Gib’ah (Judges 19-21), an event that was uncommon in Jewish society and shook the people of Israel for years.

4. There is one last event that occurred on the 15th of Ab. The Sages say that on that day, the people of Israel were allowed to bury the dead of Betar.

What does this mean, and what does it have to do with celebrating marriages?

To understand it a little better, I will present a brief historical review:

When the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 68 of the common era, the land of Israel no longer belonged to the Jewish people: “Judea” was converted into a province of the Roman Empire. Some emperors were lenient with the Jews, and others were not. But there was one emperor who was the Jews’ worst enemy: Hadrian. This wicked ruler was obsessed with exterminating our people on a level similar to that of Hitler. His “dream” was the final solution: to destroy the Jewish people and erase their memory forever. He started with Jerusalem. He destroyed what was left of the ruins of the Temple so that the Jews would stop mourning for Jerusalem (as we do today when we visit the Kotel) and forget to rebuild it forever. To ensure the success of his mission, he had a city built on the ruins of Jerusalem and changed its name to Aelia Capitolina. As if this were not enough, he also changed the name of the land of Israel to “Palestine.”

The Jews, led by Bar Kokhba, decided to rebel, but after about three years of heroic battles, in 135, Hadrian defeated the rebels. It is estimated that around 400,000 Jews who lived in Betar, the last bastion of Jewish resistance, were massacred by the Romans “until their blood reached the Mediterranean Sea”. And as an additional punishment, Hadrian issued a special decree: he did not allow the bodies of these murdered Jews to be buried and instructed his troops not to leave any survivors. All Jews were to be systematically killed. Even those men and women who could serve or be sold as slaves. In that desperate moment, some sages expressed that weddings and marriages should be canceled. Why marry and bring children into the world if those children are condemned to death from the moment of their birth?

Finally, Emperor Hadrian died on the 15th of Ab (July 10) in 138. In those times, when a king or emperor died, his decrees were automatically canceled. The first action the Jews took was to bury their dead. According to the Talmudic tradition, the bodies miraculously did not decompose for a period of three years. The death of this monstrous emperor resembled the end of the Holocaust for the Jews of that time, like the end of the Second World War in 1945 or the day Hitler died.

To commemorate the end of this tragic period that the Talmud called SHEMAD, “genocide”—the Hebrew word closest to SHOAH, Holocaust—the Sages made a far-reaching and relevant decision: they formulated a new blessing (Berakha) of gratitude to God for the end of the systematic genocide of the Jews and incorporated this blessing called HATOB VEHAMETIB for posterity in the Birkat haMazon, the prayer we recite daily after eating a meal with bread.

And at that moment, the Sages also encouraged the survivors—our ancestors—to bring children into the world again.

And so it was that on the 15th of Ab in the year 138, the Jewish people were reborn from their ashes. And in the cities of Judea and the streets of Jerusalem, the voices of the bride and groom’s joy were heard again, celebrating their weddings and forming their new families.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton

This coming Saturday night, August 6th and Sunday August 7th,  we will commemorate Tish’a beAb, the Jewish National Day of Mourning.

Our rabbis mentioned five tragedies that happened on the 9th of Ab

1. HET HAMERAGELIM (ca. 1450 BCE): When the Jewish people were in the desert, on their way to the promised land, the crisis of the ten explorers took place. Upon their return from spying the land of Canaan, the explorers  tried to convince the people that it was going to be impossible to conquer the land. The Jews, in a horrible act of ungratefulness, reproached God for having liberated them from Egypt. They also hinted that the Almighty would not be able to help them conquer the Land of Israel and defeat the peoples who inhabited it. God decreed that all those over the age of 20 would not enter the Promised Land, but would be condemned to wander in the desert for forty years until they died. The night the Jewish people cried and complained to HaShem, demonstrating their lack of appreciation and trust in Him, was the night of the 9th of Ab.  

2. HURBAN HABAYIT HARISHON (586 BCE): In the times of King Hizqiahu, on the 10th of Tebet the Babylonian seized the city of Jerusalem. The siege persisted for two years and a half. People had no provisions, food or wood. Thousands died from starvation or epidemic outbreaks. On the 9th of Tamuz  the Babylonians destroyed the wall and entered the city, pillaging, killing and destroying. Still, the Bet haMiqdash kept functioning, and sacrifices were offered. On the 17th of Tamuz, for the first time since the days of the Exodus, the daily sacrifice (qorban haTamid) was discontinued. On the 7th of Ab, the Babylonians entered the Bet haMiqdash and profaned it. On the 9th of Ab, close to sunset, the Babylonians ignited the fire which burned our Bet haMiaqdash during that night and the whole following day.  Thousands of Jews were slaughtered, enslaved or exiled to the Babylonian empire. The story of the destruction of Jerusalem and its desolation is narrated in Megilat Ekha.

3. HURBAN HABAYIT HASHENI (68 CE): On the year 68 of the common era, on the 17th of Tamuz the Romans broke the walls which protected Jerusalem. During the following three weeks they pillaged the city, destroyed everything they saw and kill tens of thousands of Jews.  On the ninth of ab, after desecrating the Sanctuary, Titus HaRasha destroyed our Second bet HaMiqdash. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed, sold into slavery or exiled. The rabbis explained that the Jews were divided and fighting among themselves (sinat hinam).  They explained that the Romans destroyed a Bet haMiqdash that “was already destroyed”, because when the Jews are not united HaShem’s presence does not rest within them.

4. NILKEDA BETAR (135 CE): In the year 135 of the common era, the jews revolted again against the Roman empire.  This time with the approval of great Rabbis and jewish leaders, among them, rabbi Akiba.  Bar Kokhba revolt was crushed by Roman Emperor Hadrian. The city of Betar (Sephardim call it “Bee-ter”), which was the Jews’ last stand against the Romans, was captured by the enemy on Tish’a be-Ab. Hundreds of thousands of Jews, or according to the Gemara , millions,  were slaughtered and their bodies left unburied.

5. NEHERASH HAHEKHAL: Around the same period, also on a ninth of Ab, the Temple’s holiest area and its surroundings was plowed by the Roman general Turnus Rufus. Jerusalem was turned into a pagan city, and renamed Aelia Capitolina. Access to Jerusalem was forbidden for Jews.

OTHER TRAGIC EVENTS WHICH HAPPENED ON THE 9th of AB

The First Crusade  started on the 9th of Ab of 1096, killing 10,000 Jews in its first month and destroying Jewish communities in France and the Rhineland. 1.2 million Jews were killed by this crusade.

The Jews were expelled from England on 9th of Ab, July 18th, 1290 .

1492

In 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain, after living there for more than 6 centuries.    The edict of Expulsion forced the Jews to leave the country by the end of July. Tish’a beAb was august 1st. There are different versions regarding the number of jews who lived in Spain in the golden era, before the expulsion. There are those who mention that at least there were 250 thousand Jews in Spain. While the historian Juan de Mariana mentioned that there were 800 thousand Jews in Spain. Other sources stated that there were approximately 600,000 Jews in Spain.  200,000 remained there as “conversos”. 200,000 were killed or died while fleeing from Spain and Portugal (they were expelled from Portugal in 1497) and 200,000 managed to escape and establish themselves in Morocco, Alger, Tunis, Turkey (Turkey was the biggest colony of Spanish refugees), Greece, Egypt, Syria, Erets Israel (Safed and Jerusalem), etc.

IN MODERN DAYS

 Germany entered World War I on August 1-2, 1914 , 9 of Ab, which caused massive upheaval in European Jewry and whose aftermath led to the Holocaust.

On August 2, 1941, 9 of Ab, SS commander Heinrich Himmler formally received approval from the Nazi Party for “The Final Solution.” As a result, the Holocaust began during which almost one third of the world’s Jewish population perished.

On July 23, 1942, 9 of Ab, began the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto, en route to Treblinka.

On the 10th of Ab the following events took place:

AMIA bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 and injuring 300 on 18 July 1994.

Israel’s unilateral disengagement plan, also known as the “Disengagement plan from Gush Qatif”, the “Gaza expulsion plan”, or haHitnatkut, began 10 Ab,  15 August 2005.

One of the deepest spiritual experiences I have in Israel has to do ironically with food. More specifically, eating a meal with bread, something I usually don’t do during the week. This extraordinary spiritual experience comes at a price. In my case, it means gaining about 6 or 7 extra lbs in less than three weeks. But I believe it’s worth it…

Before eating, we Jews recite a blessing, or in Hebrew, “berakha”. This first blessing expresses recognition to God before enjoying the benefits of what He created. If we don’t recite this blessing before eating, we will consume what He created without asking for His permission. Then, after eating, we recite another blessing, this time to “give thanks”. The ultimate blessing of gratitude is the Birkat HaMazon, the only blessing, and prayer explicitly registered in the Tora, recited after eating a meal with bread.

Reciting the Birkat HaMazon in Israel holds great significance. Why?

Birkat HaMazon consists of three biblical blessings (plus one rabbinic). The first one refers to how the Creator takes care of and sustains His creations and provides us with food. Then comes the central blessing, which specifically focuses on thanking God “for the land of Israel and the food it produces” (על הארץ ועל המזון). Israel is described as a “generous” fertile land,  the land that we Jews long for, and a land of extraordinary abundance (ארץ טובה חמדה ורחבה).

The third blessing focuses on Jerusalem, and the endless pleas and prayers to see His Holy City rebuilt. It concludes with a millennial (and for centuries, impossible) longing, “May God rebuild Jerusalem soon in our days,” that we may witness it.

Of course, one can go to a restaurant in Jerusalem, like Cafe Rimón or Noya Restaurant, and enjoy literally “the best food in the world”, then take a prayer book, recite the ritual blessing, and be done with it. But in doing only that, one misses the incredible “meaning” of eating in abundance in the land of Israel.

The difference between perceiving events in Israel as natural or supernatural lies in the mental ability to contextualize or the mental laziness of “normalizing”. If one does not contextualize, everything is taken for granted, the present is experienced as something normal, and the realization of living a miracle is missed. The rabbis denounced this spiritual myopia—which unfortunately does not affect only a few Jews—with the following words: “en ba’al hanes makir benisó,” “whoever lives a miracle resists seeing it as such.”

Contextualizing is what Tefila (Jewish prayer) aims to inspire in us. In the case of the Birkat HaMazon, it is this prayer that awakens in my heart the idea that what I have just eaten is a gift from the Creator. The ultimate intention of the Birkat HaMazon is to de-normalize the privilege of having food on the table. The Tora warns us about the danger of forgetting who provides the bread we have just eaten. Birkat HaMazon is the antidote against the danger of “forgetting God”.

There is something more.

When I am in Israel, the Birkat HaMazon transports me to an additional dimension. I think of the extraordinary (and perhaps undeserved) privilege I have as a Jew living in this generation. I think, for example, of the poverty that the land of Israel endured for so many centuries, how this land never yielded its fruits; it was a land of swamps, arid, dry, without water, and yellow from neglect. With thousands of miles of desolation and solitude, as Mark Twain described it in 1890. But exactly as the prophet Ezekiel prophesied 2,500 years ago, “once the children of this land returned to it,” Israel gradually became a paradise, a true Garden of Eden that bears fruit, and an extraordinary super-abundance which is evident in Israeli supermarkets, restaurants, and the eccentric flavors, colors, and aromas in the Mahane Yehuda Market on Friday afternoons.

“Contextualizing” is understanding that the reality of present-day Israel was unimaginable and infinitely better than what even the boldest of prophets could have foreseen. As our sages said, “The human eye is incapable of envisioning what only God can accomplish” (עין לא ראתה, א‘ זולתך).

I also think of the millions of Yehudim who recited this same text of Birkat HaMazon over the past 2,000 years. What did they think when mentioning the abundance of this land? How did they imagine it? I think of the unbearable poverty of Jerusalem described by Rabbi Obadiah of Bertinoro in his letters or the abuse and humiliation that the few Jews who lived here at that time had to endure. What did they think when they prayed—and dreamed—of a rebuilt Jerusalem? Could they have envisioned the Mamilla neighborhood, the tram that traverses the city, or the train that connects Jerusalem to the airport?

Albert Einstein said, “There are two ways to live your life: one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle.” 

The first way is the result of “normalizing” our blessings. 

The second is the essence of Jewish spirituality and the secret to falling in love with Israel.

JERUSALEM, BEFORE SUNSET 

For the past week, I have been in Bak’a, a beautiful neighborhood in Jerusalem. Last Shabbat, my wife and I decided to go to the Kotel, the Western Wall. It’s a long walk, a little over 45 minutes. Jerusalem can be very hot in the summer, but at that time, around 6:15 PM, it’s not as hot anymore. Moreover, as the sun sets, you can feel the cool breeze that immortalized the famous song “Yerushalayim shel Zahab,” the freshness of “the air of the mountains of Yehuda, with the scent of pure wine mixed with the fragrance of the pines, brought by the evening wind” of this magical city. I arrived at the Kotel and found a Minyan that had just started Mincha. I joined them, and once we finished, I took a white plastic chair and approached the Wall a little closer.  There was no space. So I waited a few minutes, and as soon as a small corner became available, I hurried toward the stones. I touched them. I closed my eyes and surrendered to that intense moment of connection with our people, where the long Jewish history passes through the mind, from King David and his son King Solomon, who built the Bet Hamiqdash with these stones, to our heroic soldiers of Israel who recently regained back this Wall.  But these stones mainly represent the Shekhina, the Divine Presence, which never left this Wall. And thus, inspired by the conviction of being as literally as possible “in front of God’s presence,” I began my prayer. Needless to say, prayers are very intimate. But today, I want to share the non-private part of my experience, which may be useful to someone else.

A STORY OF A GLASS

Until a few years ago, when I visited the Kotel, the first thing I used to do was ask God for my parents, z”l, for my wife, my children, for my grandchildren, my health, etc. Being in front of the Kotel is to encounter the Creator, “firsthand”. And instinctively, the first impulse, which drives the thousands of people who pray here every day, is to ask God for help, after all,  He is able “to grant everything you need.” But some years ago —I believe it was after I understood that I survived cancer–  I changed my plans. Sometimes, the difficulties we go through help us become more aware of the famous “half glass.” Like most of us, I realized my glass is much more full than empty…   I became aware that instead of asking God for a million things I need, I should dedicate this first reunion to thanking Him for everything He has given me and continues to give me. This is also considered “praying.” In fact, and although I suspect that most notes placed in the Western Wall do not contain just the words “Thank You,” praising God and expressing gratitude is the true essence of Jewish prayer. Remember that the word “Jew” in Hebrew is “Yehudi,” derived from “Yehuda,” which comes from the word “todá” = thanks. That is to say, in Hebrew, “Jew” literally means “grateful,” the individual who remembers God primarily to give thanks!

It’s simply realizing “who owes whom.” And that’s when I started thinking about Aladdin’s Lamp Syndrome.

HASHEM AND THE GENIE 

The most famous scene in the story of Aladdin is when the thief of Baghdad rubs the mysterious lamp and suddenly finds himself “firsthand” with a genie coming out from inside the lamp. In the beginning,  Aladdin is afraid of this supernatural being that seems so powerful. But to his surprise —and fortune—the genie not only has no intention of harming Aladdin, but he offers to fulfill three of his wishes, “and he can grant you anything you want”! Now Aladdin has to decide “what” to ask the genie not to waste any of his wishes. I started thinking about this story, and it seemed to me that sometimes, without realizing it, we act before God, just as Aladdin acts with the genie. Especially when we come to the Kotel and meet God firsthand in our minds and heart, selfishly, we might focus just on our wishes. I realized that in The One Thousand Nights story,  Aladdin rescued the genie from his horrible captivity, where he was trapped for centuries. The genie owes his freedom to Alaaddin.  But unlike the genie, HaShem, our Creator, doesn’t owe us anything, absolutely nothing (when He listens to our Tefila, He does it out of love or Hesed, not out of duty or obligation). As we say mention in our prayers so many times every day, He liberated us from centuries of living in captivity and fast-forwarding 3500 years of history; it was He who helped us regain our State of Israel in 1948 and who delivered Jerusalem to us in 1967. It is we who owe Him!

WHO OWES WHOM? 

That’s why I decided that when I return to Kotel, at least the first time around, I should forget about my particular needs and concentrate on everything I have that I’m grateful for. I recite then Nishmat Kol Hay.   By the way, Jewish prayer fulfills its mission when we allow it to inspire us. And the prayer Nishmat Kol Hay is precisely formulated for this purpose:  to open our eyes and help us become aware of everything we constantly receive from the Creator and usually take for granted. This Tefila has no expression of requests or pleas to God. It exclusively focuses on one theme: the infinite gratitude we owe to our Creator and our appreciation for everything He has done and continues to do for us constantly. When I finished Nishmat Kol Hai and while still possessed by its poetic influence, I began my prayer. First, I thanked HaShem for being alive and reaching this present “now and here” (Shehecheyanu). Then, I thanked HaShem for my wife and revisited the names of our children, their spouses, and our beloved grandchildren. And as I whispered their names, visualizing their faces, I said, “Thank God,” or in the improved Hebrew version: “BARUKH HASHEM.”

A part of the beautiful Tefila: Nishmat Kol Hay: 

“… and even if our mouth were as full as the sea with songs, and our tongue was filled with music like the multitude of its waves, and our lips multiplied in praises like the expanse of the heavens, and our eyes shone with devotion like the sun and the moon, and our hands extended toward You like eagles opening their wings in the sky, and our feet were swift [to move toward You] like the deer, still, we could not thank You enough, HaShem our God and the God of our ancestors, and it would not be sufficient to properly acknowledge You for the thousands upon thousands and tens of thousands of miracles, favors, and wonders that You did for our ancestors and for us… You rescued us from Egypt, HaShem our God, and You liberated us from the house of captivity. In times of hunger, You fed us, and in abundance, You sustained us. You saved us from the sword of our enemies, You protected us from plagues, and You healed us from serious illnesses… Therefore, every organ that You bestowed upon us in our body and the soul that You breathed into us, and the tongue that You placed in our mouth, will thank You, bless You, praise You, glorify You, exalt You, honor You, and proclaim praises to Your Name: our King, our Creator…”

 Leiluy Nishmat Ziva Tzvia Bat Evyatar z”l

WHO WAS BILAM?

Although one of the Perashiot we read this week is named after the King of Moab, Balaq, the main protagonist is a very mysterious individual named Bil’am (Balaam). Who was Bil’am? Bil’am was a non-Jewish prophet. And according to our Sages, God revealed Himself to Bil’am on a level similar to that He revealed to Moshe (Moses).

But let’s not assume that because God revealed Himself to Bil’am, Bil’am was like Moshe. Actually, although both Moshe and Bil’am received a prophetic message, they processed this experience in a completely different way.

MOSHE’S EXPERIENCE

Communicating with God made Moshe realize how small and limited he was. An illustration. Moshe had many questions. One of the issues that most troubled Moshe was not understanding God’s administration of justice. How can it be that if God is all goodness (omnivolent) and all powerful (omnipotent), righteous men often suffer? However, after his “close encounter” with God, this question disappeared. But it did not disappear because Moshe found an answer to this question, but because closeness of God allowed Moshe to better realize his own insuperable limitations. His encounter with God made Moshe understand why he could not understand. As he approached the Infinity of God’s Wisdom, Moshe became aware of his own infinite smallness. And he understood that trying to grasp “God’s thoughts” is beyond the cognitive capacities of a human being, regardless of how wise or intelligent he may be. That is why after experiencing Divine revelation, Moshe, who was already a humble man, behaved with even more humility and became “the humblest man on the face of the Earth” (Bamidbar 12:03).

BILAM’S EXPERIENCE

Bil’am also had a close encounter with God, a similar overwhelming epiphany that Moshe Rabbenu experienced. But Bil’am’s reaction was exactly the opposite of Moshe’s. When God revealed himself to Moshe, Moshe focused on God, on his Infinite Wisdom and how far is from our grasp. But when God revealed to Bil’am, Bil’am focused on himself. Bil’am thought that if God communicated with him, it was because he, Bil’am, was a very special and unique person: an enlightened person. Bil’am convinced himself that if God spoke to Him it is because he was the most important man on the face of the planet. And he acted that way. Far from becoming aware of his finitude by becoming more aware of God’s infinity, Bil’am boasted that he could now understand Divine Wisdom. And at one point he uttered the most arrogant phrase ever written in the Tora: yode’a da’at ‘Elion,“ [I am Bil’am], the one who understands the mind of the Almighty. ”

THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

The same spiritual experience affected Bilam and Moshe Rabbenu in completely opposite ways. Moshe became the humblest man and Bilam, in the most arrogant. Bil’am, for example, referred to himself in the third person. And he also boasted that God spoke “through his mouth,” as if he were His chosen one. Bil’am boasted that he had the ability to destroy an entire nation, Israel, with the power of his word, without the need for a military confrontation. Bil’am thought that he could “force” the Divine will and “compel” God, through his magic to do whatever he, Bil’am, wanted.

WHEN DONKEYS SPEAK

Our rabbis point out that Bil’am learned a lesson in humility from whom he least imagined: his donkey.

When Bil’am was on his way to meet Balaq, who hired him to curse Israel, he was riding on his ass (a female donkey). The animal suddenly stopped and strayed from its path. The Tora explains that the animal was frightened because she saw an angel, and therefore stopped. But Bil’am punished his donkey and threatened her with his sword. God, then, “opened the mouth” of the animal and the donkey revealed to Bil’am why it had strayed.

Our rabbis explained the following:

Bil’am boasted that God “spoke through his mouth.” Now, Bilam saw that even a donkey, who was never considered a very intelligent animal, could also speak and transmit a Divine message, if God wants it. Ergo: Bil’am was not even superior to his donkey.

Bil’am also claimed that he could wipe out the entire nation of Israel with his magical curses. But then, why did he threaten to kill his donkey with his sword? Bil’am flaunted powers that he himself knew he did not have.

Finally, Bil’am claimed that he could understand the Divine Mind. And God shows Bil’am that he was not even able to understand the mind of a donkey…

The humble man is like Bamboo, says a Chinese proverb, the higher he grows the more he leans.

“If you will follow My decrees and keep My commandments, and you shall perform them. And I will give your rains in their time, and the land will yield its produce, and the tree of the field will give its fruit. … and you shall eat your bread to satiety, and you shall dwell securely in your land. And I will give peace in the land, and you will lie down, and there will be no one to frighten [you].

Yesterday, thank God, I arrived in Israel. I recognize that with each visit, my emuná, my faith in HaShem, grows and strengthens. Not only because here I feel that Tefilot (prayers) reach directly to heaven but because I see our beloved Israel renewed, increasingly prosperous, and more beautiful. Exactly as anticipated by the Torah and our prophets. Of course, to appreciate the miracles of this country, they must be put into context.

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Israel is located in the world’s most unstable and complex geopolitical context. Surrounded by countries with which it is at war, such as Lebanon and Syria, or with those with whom it maintains a tense relationship of diplomatic peace but cultural (and religious) hostility, such as Egypt and Jordan. In addition, it faces constant explicit threats from Iran, the contemporary version of Amalek, the enemy who hates Israel without any territorial conflicts in the middle (Israel and Iran do not share any border). Iran threatens to attack Israel and “wipe it off the map,” for which it is developing a special nuclear program. Israel is the only country in the world under this explicit threat.

SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY

But that’s not all: within its borders, Israel faces a Palestinian population that is largely hostile and refuses to renounce terrorism. A population that, with the consent of the entire world, has not been educated to seek and negotiate peace but to hate Israel. They have absorbed the ideal of jihadist martyrdom in their homes and schools: “Sacrifice your life to kill a Jew: man, woman, child, or baby!”. Now, under these circumstances – with so many military threats, hostilities, and terrorism – any other country in the world would be in a state of permanent panic and completely paralyzed. Its economy would be in ruins. Its government would be focused on surviving. And the population would be afraid to go out on the street. This would be the norm, the expected, the statistical, in a country with these problems. But the Jewish people have always known how to be the exception to statistics. Israel, inexplicably in non-supernatural terms, defies all expectations.

Let’s look at some examples:

GROSS PRODUCT

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita indicates a country’s economic prosperity. Israel has shown steady growth since 2018. From $42,407 per year in 2018, it has increased to $52,171 in 2021, and the International Monetary Fund’s projection predicts that by 2023 the GDP per capita of Israel will reach $58,270. This would place Israel as the 13th most prosperous country in the world, far above Japan, Italy, Spain, and Germany.

ISRAEL’S ENERGY

In recent years, Israel’s progress is reflected in its energy industry. For decades, Israel was considered a country without natural resources. I remember a joke from many years ago that said that Moses had gotten the destination wrong, and that he should have gone to an oil-rich country like Saudi Arabia. However, in recent years, Israel is becoming a major country with gigantic offshore natural gas reserves.  As Israel Katz, Israel’s Minister of Energy, said in June 2023, “Natural gas reserves have already changed the face of the local energy economy and turned the Israeli state into a global power in this field.”  See also this: https://www.jns.org/israel-news/natural-gas/23/6/4/292488/

OPEC AND THE JEWS

Do you remember OPEC and the pressures from oil-exporting countries on the US and Europe to boycott Israel? Well, listen to this news that you probably don’t know yet: apart from having found gigantic reserves of natural gas, Israel has discovered oil deposits on its Mediterranean coast. In February 2023, the company “Energean” recently produced the first crude oil extraction from Israel, a historical milestone for the country. The extraction of crude oil from the Karish offshore field represents the first time in Israeli oil production that Israel now exports to international markets, as Energean revealed on Tuesday, February 14, 2023, that Israel has joined the club of oil exporters. Who would have thought?   See this article https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/021423-israel-makes-first-ever-crude-oil-exports-as-karish-gas-giant-ramps-up

ISRAEL LEARNED TO DEFEND ITSELF

Israel’s military might is equally notable. As a result of so many wars and threats, and after experiencing international arms embargoes when it needed them most, Israel produces its own weapons, which are among the most sophisticated in the world. Israel specializes in everything that is missile defense, in air, land, and sea. Recently, Israel announced the final experimental stage of a new anti-missile defense system based on laser technology. This places Israel in a forefront position on how to face new supersonic missiles. Israel exports weapons to India and Azerbaijan, among others. And that’s not all. This is what journalist Herb Keinon wrote on June 16, 2023: “Israel sells its missile defense system to Germany…last week, Berlin preliminarily approved the purchase of the Arrow-3 missile defense system from Jerusalem for $4.3 billion. Such news would have been completely inconceivable 80 years ago…not long ago, the only thing Israel had to offer the world was Jaffa oranges, a revolutionary hair removal device called Epilady, and the Uzi machine gun. But today it provides missiles that shoot down other missiles in the stratosphere and software that drives industries, and exports natural gas and oil to European countries seeking to reduce their dependence on Russian oil.”  See this:  https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-746500

DEMOGRAPHIC GROWTH

Israel’s Jewish demography is becoming increasingly robust. In 2023, Israel is the Western democracy with the highest birth rate. With 3.13 births per woman, the Jewish birth rate in Israel surpasses the rate of 2.85 of the Arab population. Soon, very soon, the majority of the Jewish people will be here in Israel. This demographic dynamism fuels the economy, strengthens national security, and promotes a less timid foreign policy.

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

There is something else. A statistical data point that, unlike the aforementioned, can be seen on the street and perhaps represents the most miraculous statistic of all. Let me tell you. In 2012, the UN created a new international index that measures countries according to the degree of “happiness” of their population. With all the external and internal conflicts — Iran, Palestinian terrorism, Hamas, etc.— and due to the constant tension that this would normally produce, the average Israeli citizen should be the most worried, depressed, terrified, and unhappy person on the planet. However, Israel is among the happiest countries in the world! Israel competes in the same zone as the most “boring” countries: stable and with a total absence of war, like Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. In fact, in 2023, Israel is ranked incredibly as the fourth country with the happiest population in the world. Above Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Can anyone explain this anomaly in rational or statistical terms? I don’t think so.

God promised our patriarchs that in the future, their descendants would inherit the land of Israel and enjoy all His blessings: fertility, prosperity, and peace. There is a Tefilá (prayer) that we say every night, “UFROS ALENU SUKAT SHELOMEKHA,” we ask the Boré Olam (Creator of the Universe) to extend over us his “protective cover” of peace, which I would like to interpret as mental tranquility, which is exactly the opposite of the fear that terrorism naturally causes. This “psychological peace” is a Divine blessing.

For all this, if anyone needed proof of the existence of God — the God who protected and blessed with prosperity and fertility Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — let him or her come to this land and open his eyes to the miraculous Biblical reality that is lived here: Israel, in the midst of adversity, not only survives but also grows and thrives.

PS: I almost forgot… Israel also stands out in the “most important arena of international sports”: soccer :),  achieving the honorable third place in the Under-20 World Cup of 2023!

The Israelites are in the desert, ready to conquer the promised land. Moshe decides to send twelve men on an intelligence mission, behind enemy lines, to explore the land’s strengths and weaknesses. This information is absolutely necessary for the military expedition to be a success, and to have the fewest possible casualties. The spies explore the land from South to North. After 40 days, they come back to the desert. The Israelites, understandably, were anxious to have some information about the land in which they will very soon live. They congregated around the spies to hear what they are saying to Moshe. And thus the problem begins, and a tragic situation is created that will literally “erase” an entire generation of Jews. The spies give their report not only to Moshe but now, in front of a huge and anxious audience. And the spies had an agenda. In the beginning, we do not notice it, and it seems that they all speak with the same voice. But very soon we notice that there are two groups among the spies. Those who want to go to Israel, and had faith in God, and those who did not. The speech of the spies who oppose continuing to Israel is a superb example of demagoguery and “media” rhetoric used to manipulate and persuade the masses, something of great relevance in our times of Fake News, where objective journalism virtually disappeared.
Let’s look at some illustrations.

FEAR OF FREEDOM

The Rabbis clarified in their commentaries that the spies had already an opinion and an agenda even “before” their mission began. Apparently, they were not interested–or they were very scared– to fight and risk their lives to live in an unknown land. They preferred to return to the “stability” of Egyptian slavery. Perhaps, they thought, if they would lead the people back to Egypt, they will be rewarded by the Egyptian with leadership, wealth and power.   And when an individual —especially a tribe leader, i.e., a political player— already has a fixed idea of what he or she “feels”,  it is very unlikely that facts or reality would change his way of thinking. A few years ago, two anti-Israeli (and anti-Semitic) US congresswomen announced to the press that they wanted to visit Israel “to see with their own eyes the situation of the Palestinians there.” Some people, very naive Jews, thought that it was an extraordinary opportunity for them to see the reality of Israel with their own eyes; understand that the Arabs living in Israel are the most privileged in the Middle East, and change their minds! The Israeli government was less naive: it doesn’t matter what they see or won’t see: the anti-Israeli opinion of these congresswomen is already formed, it is part of their platform, and nothing would succeed in changing it! Regardless of what they would see in Israel, they will come back repeating the same prejudices about Israel. It is very difficult for people to change their opinion when it has already been transformed into a “political” ideology.

PRESENT FIRST WHAT YOU OPPOSE

The ten spies surprisingly began speaking positively of Israel: “Israel is a land flowing with milk and honey”, that is, it is suitable for raising livestock (from which “milk” is obtained) and for agriculture (“honey”, which in this case refers to the sweet juice of ripe dates). Why did they start from a positive angle?  When a demagogue wants to convince the audience that “A” is better than “B”, he cannot simply ignore the arguments of “B”. If he does, the people will doubt the credibility of his or her opinion. Therefore, he would briefly introduce “B”, with selected arguments, pretending that he has an objective and balanced view of the matter at hand. And when would the demagogue start introducing “A” or “B”? When at the end of a trial a judge presents his verdict, if his final veridic is for example “not guilty” he will present first the arguments for “guilty”, which he will discard. And will end up with the non-guilty arguments. When a demagogue presents two possible ideas, he would first present the idea he wants to discard.

MORE FEAR
Demagogues do not address human intelligence or logic: they usually aim their discourse toward people’s emotions. One of the easiest emotions to target in order to manipulate the masses is “fear”. It does not matter if what the demagogue says is real or is exaggerated or imaginary. Fear penetrates our emotions, bypassing the filter of the mind. You can see that in our case, after they praised the land, they now start the intimidation campaign. Examples: 1. “The men we will have to fight against are giants and savages!” No matter how strong we are, they will defeat us! 2. “They’re huge savages!, compared to them, we looked like insects. 3. “Amaleq” is there too!” Amaleq was a traumatic experience for the Jews. The first nation to attack Israel, targeting women, children, and the elderly, and they will be the first enemy that we will have to face. 4. “The land swallows its inhabitants”. In their efforts to discourage the people, the spies described Israel as if it were Iceland: a rocky, volcanic region where seismic movements abound.
The discourse of fear is always a favorite of tyrants and dictators, who usually make up an enemy to blame for all the evils “that they create”.

YOU CAN’T DO IT!

The spies were sent on an intelligence mission to objectively identify the power and weaknesses of the enemy. But instead of reporting the facts, the spies became “political advisers” and reflected their own personal fears (or personal agendas, according to others). When they said: LO NUKHAL LA’ALOT “we will not be able to conquer the land”, the people began to cry and went into a state of panic and despair. The two loyal spies, Yehoshua and Caleb, tried to calm everyone down, and offered a very rational argument: Have we forgotten that HaShem has been and is with us? Don’t you remember that He defeated Egypt and Pharaoh’s mighty army? Don’t you realize that it is God who is leading us to the Promised Land and that it is He who is giving us this land? Do not be afraid! With God’s help, we will conquer the land! ” But it was already too late. Caleb and Yehoshua’s “logical” arguments fell on deaf ears. Political ambitions and manipulation won. And we all lost.