Parsha Vayechi 5766: Eretz Yisrael and the Fast of 10 Tevet Revisited
By, Moshe Burt
Last year, this author related how Parsha Vayechi recounts two experiences which carry a common thread relating to Eretz Yisrael. And this week, we’ve just completed our Fast of 10 Tevet. And one year later, it’s deemed important that this thread be recalled.
Our parsha tells how, when Yaakov saw that the time of his death was near, he called for Yosef and made him (Yosef) promise not to bury him (Yaakov) in Mitzriyim, but rather in Ma’Orat HaMachpela in Chevron. (Perek 47, posuk 29)
Later, just before his death, Yaakov called all of his sons to his bedside and pronounced blessings upon them. About Yissachar, Yaakov said, “…he rests between the boundaries. He saw tranquility that it was good, and the land that it was pleasant. And he bowed his shoulder to bear.” (Perek 49, posukim 14 & 15)
And on the Fast of 10 Tevet, we recall the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem, which ultimately led 18 months later to the Korbon Beit HaMikdash Rishon (the destruction of the 1st Beit HaMikdash). The day also commemerated two other lesser known tragedies; that the Mitzri King forced our 70 Sages to translate Torah into Greek causing 3 days of darkness resulting from the superficial knowledge of Torah gained by unlearned masses and the deaths of Ezra the Scribe and his colleague Nechemia who had both led the Jewish people in rebuilding the Beit HaMikdash and Jerusalem and forging a Jewish nation during a time of difficulty and turbulence. (Artscroll Weekday Siddur, The Tenth of Tevet, pages 378-380).
So what is the common thread that is shared by the two occurences in our parsha and the Fast of 10 Tevet? And what relationship do they bear to our current difficulties; the lasting aftermath of the expulsions from Gush Katif and the four Shomron towns as well as the current evil decrees which we are suffering in Eretz Yisrael, i.e., the upcoming attempts at expulsions of Jews from Jewish lands; in Chevron, Amona near Ofra, Sde Boaz near Neve Daniel and more, by their fellow Jews (not by the impotent, cowardly Islamics)?
R’ Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, as quoted in the Sefer “Torah Gems” (by Aharon Yaakov Greenberg, pages 338-339), writes that Yaakov saw during his final years how his children and grandchildren cleaved to Egypt, taking it as their land and how they would eventually forget their own land, Eretz Yisrael promised them by Hashem. Yaakov, as Patriarch of his family sought to instill in them the hope of eventually returning to Eretz Yisrael. And so he said to his children, “My sons, you may want to live in Egypt. I don’t even want to be buried in it.” “Bury me not, I pray you, in Egypt.”
Regarding Yaakov’s Bracha to his son Yissachar, Rabbi Zelig Pliskin in “Growth Through Torah” (pages 135-136) relates comments from Rabbi Yeruchem Levovitz. Rabbi Levovitz noted that some people find it difficult to understand how Torah could be given to the Jews on Har Sinai in the wilderness, that acquiring Torah requires calm and peace of mind, without disturbances. Torah contains instructions for living and, as such, the manner in which Torah was given is instructive to us all.
Rabbi Levovitz continues that Torah teaches us how we can make ourselves fit to accept it. It further teaches us that, contrary to the mistaken impressions of many that our surroundings and our daily lives must be in perfect harmony and without disruption in order to achieve peace of mind and thus properly absorb the lessons of Torah, the reality is that “when a person is able to have peace of mind even though he is missing comforts and pleasures, then he has acquired the peace of mind necessary for accepting Torah.”
Rabbi Levovitz then brings the example of how soldiers are trained to be prepared for battle. Their training prepares them to have peace of mind even though their surroundings are in a state chaos and their lives are endangered. The training includes being placed in situations where they do not live in comfortable quarters, they lack the comforts of home and do not have all of their physical needs met. They are taught not to permit even the most difficult circumstances disturb them. Their training for one goal, to fight tenaciously for the homeland and to defeat the enemy. Their training has conditioned them to have peace of mind no matter how difficult the situation. “When one reaches the proper level of training, nothing will be able to take away his serenity. Therefore, in reference to Yissachar the Torah states, ‘He saw that rest was good.’ Yissachar is the tribe that was devoted to Torah study. He knew that rest and peace of mind were necessary to master the Torah. … ‘He bowed his shoulder to bear’ – by training himself to bear any difficulties he was able to reach the highest levels of peace of mind in all situations.”
In analyzing what the common thread of two experiences above from our parsha and the point of the Fast of 10 Tevet, it seems that, just as in Mitzriyim, many of B’nai Yisrael have lost and are losing their link, their connection with Eretz Yisrael. Maybe, substantial segments of our generation both residing in Chutz L’Aretz and living in Eretz Yisrael have never truly been bonded or connected in any tangible way with our Holy Land. And maybe, the segments who have distanced themselves from a connection to Torah and who have replaced Torah with every manner of falseness and depravity are the same segments who have grown complacent, desperate and willing to do anything so as to bring about what they perceive as quiet, peace, tranquility, normalcy at any and all costs including the ultimate cost — rendering themselves, and all of us as impotent, or perceived impotent weaklings, seemingly demoralized and ripe in the minds of the Arabs, the Islamics, for destruction.
And so Yosef Q. Israeli runs after seemingly perfidious and religiously-unconnected leaders who have abrogated their solemn responsibility for the security and wellbeing of people the govern.
Yosef Q. religiously-unconnected Israeli, in his naivete, runs after the very political slime who seek to profit hugely by the suffering of their brethren who they (the politicians) have managed to alienate from each other through their successful propaganda campaign of hate.
Last year I predicted that a Tax Monkey would climb onto the people’s backs. You know, the one that we now see in paying the price of the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif in hard cold flesh currency via Kassam launchings, via infiltrations and drive-by shootings, etc. The cheap, slimy, cheating politicians have gotten their way so far and will assess us all handsomely for the privilege of having Kassams fall on our major population centers from launchers in northern Gaza. And the political slime will blame President George W. Bush for what is really their own hate-filled, corrupt, self-enriching agenda.
Just as we commemorate 10 Tevet annually with a Fast Day and beseech Hashem eradicate the evil decrees made throughout these nearly 2000 years, we repeat the same mistakes as then — the modern-day bogus avodah zora of peace and tranquility and naive support for slimy, two-faced, corrupt and divisive politicians.
May it be in this year and beyond, that our brethren; the refugee families from Gush Katif and the Shomron (may they soon be restored to new homes and neighborhoods, Bati Knesset, Yeshivot in Gush Katif and the Shomron and only happiness and success for all time), as well as our dear brother, Jonathan Pollard (may he soon know freedom and long life in Eretz Yisrael) be central in our thoughts, prayers, chassadim and actions.
B’Ezrat Hashem, may we soon know the day when Torah is the law of the land and pray thanks to Hashem for the Ge’ula Shlaima and all of the above Barachot. May this abominable period of history called hitnatkut be as a bad dream.
May we be zocha in this coming year to take giant steps toward fulfilling Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations.”
May we be zocha the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Meiyad, Etmol!!!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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