Am Echad

“Pinchas, son of Elazar, son of Aharon HaKohen …” (Bamidbar 25:11)

Rashi explains that the reason the Torah details Pinchas’ lineage is because the tribes were disparaging him, saying, “Have you seen the son of Puti, whose grandfather, Yisro, fattened calves for idols, and who killed a leader of an Israeli tribe?” The Kli Yakar expounds that Pinchas courageously defended the honor of Hashem, without regard for the derision and scorn that his actions evoked among his brethren. Pinchas avenged the honor of Hashem, turned away His wrath, and brought atonement for the sin of the people, for which he was rewarded with the Covenant of Peace and the Covenant of Eternal Priesthood. Yet the people spoke lashon hara about him.

In our world today we are experiencing, on the one hand, great upheaval with a shift in societal “norms,” difficult challenges and attacks. On the other hand, we are seeing Hashem’s miracles in Eretz Yisrael and throughout the world.

The great Klausenberger Rebbe, R’ Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam, (1905-1994) was a survivor of the death camps, where he lost his wife and family. After the war he was a source of inspiration for the she’aris hapleitah (Jewish Holocaust survivors) in the DP camps, and then later throughout the world, offering hope, faith and encouragement to his fellow Jews. He established a network of yeshivot in Europe and the United States for them. After establishing the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood in Israel in 1958, the Klausenberger Rebbe fulfilled his lifelong dream of settling in the Holy Land, two years later. He is renowned for the establishment of the Laniado Hospital, a voluntary not-for-profit state-of-art hospital in Kiryat Sanz, which is run according to Jewish law.

The Klausenberger Rebbe recorded the following perceptive thoughts for our generation:

“The Jewish nation is like a sheep among cruel wolves, whose priority and focus is to trample us. We seem to have fallen into a deep slumber. Why don’t we awaken and do something about it? The Jewish people should gather and say tehillim, and incite the Heavens with prayers.

“How could we err and think, like the Jews of Hungary did, that the nations of the world will protect us during times of tribulation? When the inhumane policies of the evil Hitler, yemach shemo, had already affected most of the countries in Europe after four years, people still paid no attention. How is it possible that people were so self-assured that they believed that the Angel of Death would not reach them? How did they trust in their silver and gold? It is only because their intellect was defective, their heart had turned astray, and they were overtaken by a spirit of insanity.

“How could they not discern that it was an eis tzarah l’Yaakov – a time of suffering and peril for our nation? We saw how many countries where we had been loyal citizens turned their backs on us and made their country judenrein. How did we remain quiet and serene? How did we continue our day-to-day activities as usual?”

The Klausenberger continued: “When I try to rouse the people, they are annoyed because I am ruining their idyllic vacation. They don’t understand what I want. Not one of them is concerned about the future, because everything is right with the world and they are sleeping peacefully. They believe their emunah and bitachon is strong and they have no concerns.

“But, in truth, they don’t have emunah. When they hurt their small finger just a little bit it is as if their world was destroyed. Yet, when Iran’s ability to destroy the world in a minute is increasingly becoming a reality, when hostile nations are firing missiles into Eretz Yisrael, we remain calm and secure. The intellect just stops working.

“What causes this complacency? Sometimes there is a feeling that this is merely a world that is operating in the natural course of events. People put their trust in materiality. If the president sends more weapons to Israel everyone calms down. You would get more volunteers to join a ‘mission’ that will meet with the President of the United States – which will include prestige, connections and photo ops – and then you would to ‘plead and seek favor’ before the King of kings.

“The truth is, though, that we must turn to Hashem in uncertain times. It is possible that the Jewish people actually do want to improve; but they want to do teshuva privately. Each one wants to be better in his own way, to say more tehillim, to daven with more kavanah, to limit his extravagances.

“But we must inspire the masses, all of the Jewish people, to do teshuva. When one sees a blazing fire, rising from a house whose inhabitants are all asleep, he would urgently awaken them from their slumber and save them. In fact, it is an easy matter to return to Hashem, and it does not require money or physical effort. One must only guard his tongue from evil speech, slander and gossip.

“At a time when find ourselves in danger we must try to be melamed zechus (offer a defense) on our fellow brethren. We must ask for mercy on everyone’s behalf and fulfill the mitzvah of v’ahavta l’rei’acha kamocha (loving your fellow man like yourself) without any differentiation between ashkenazim and sefardim, chassidim and misnagdim, religious and secular Jews, country or origin, level of education and socio-economic status. We are all the sons and daughters of our Father in Heaven, and there is no difference between us.

“When I was in the death camps, I resolved that when I was liberated, I would hug and kiss every Jew I met with great love. And in the early days after the liberation I would bless every Yid I met, even if I had never seen them, and I would recite the Shehecheyanu because during the war years we thought there would no longer be any Jewish people left. I believed I would continue this practice my entire life. Yet, I confess, after a while, the feeling mitigated.

“Now we need to gather together and be melamed zechus on our people. Why look for what is not good? Why not focus on what is good among our people? At the time when the wicked people in the world are barking like dogs at the Jewish people it is time to raise the bar of honor, respect, love and empathy for our fellow Jews. Lashon hara is a powerful indictor, and there is no need to give our enemies any help, G-d forbid, by speaking negatively about the Jewish people. We need to speak good of every Jew – whether they are shomer mitzvot or can only observe one mitzvah, or feel they are limited in what they can fulfill, whether they conduct themselves like a Jew or not. We need to unify as one nation so that we can merit to see the fulfillment of (Yeshaya 35:10), “The redeemed of Hashem will return and come to Tzion with glad song, with eternal gladness on their heads.”