Rachel’s Tears: Understanding Galus and the Tefillah That Brings Geulah

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Now, bein hametzarim, nine days, as we approach Tisha B'Av, there's a lot of things that we need to understand about aveilus. What is the aveilus on the churban? The entire day of Tisha B'Av is designated for the kinos, many things that are brought out in the kinos. I'd like to just take out one nekudah as we approach Tisha B'Av and the reading of the kinos, and that is galus. In order to be misabel, we have to understand that we are in galus. Otherwise, it doesn't have the true meaning and effect that it's supposed to have. A person is misabel, and he's thinking about the trip that he's going to take after Tisha B'Av. It's not exactly aveilus. What is galus? It's interesting, in the kinos, we don't just talk about the churban habayis. The kinos strings together all the churbanos and all the tzaros of Klal Yisrael from the time of the churban to almost modern-day times, even tzaddikim, gedolim who made up kinos for the Holocaust. Some kehillos say it. It's obvious from the kinnus that we just don't misabel. We're not just not misabel on the churban, the Beis Hamikdash, and the churban of Yerushalayim from thousands of years ago, but we bunch together, we put together all the tzaros in the same aveilus. And the reason for this already is brought down in the mefarshim, that it's all connected. That all the tzaros we have today has a shaychus, has a connection to the churban habayis. Many have already spoken about this. Rav Gifter, zichrono tzaddik livracha, had a whole shmooze about this topic, quite famous shmooze. The Gemara brings down that Rabbi Gamliel was in a town where a woman would wake up every night and cry for her child that was niftar, and he would get up and cry for the Beis Hamikdash, to the point that his eyebrows fell out and the talmidim noticed it. The Gemara is famous, the Chazal is famous, and the mefarshim ask the connection. How is it that the cry of the mother was a reminder, a shaychus to the Beis Hamikdash? The mother cried over her personal tragedy. And the answer, of course, as you doa, it's famous, like I just mentioned to you, that all the tzaros of Klal Yisrael are connected to the churban habayis, and the meila, Rav Gamliel saw in the tzara. Of this woman, he saw the tzaar, the churban habayis. I think we need to go a little bit deeper, and at the end of the shiur we'll get back to the mother who cried, to better understand the connection between the mother who cries for the child and the churban habayis. We need to understand deeper what is galus. If you take a look at the parsha we just read, Parshas Masei, Eileh masei Bnei Yisrael, it seems like the pesukim are talking about the masa'os from Mitzrayim through the midbar to Eretz Yisrael. It's mevuar in the mefarshim, as Hashem will show you and explain to you, that we're not only talking about the past, the masa'os that the pesukim are referring to, of course, are the masa'os that happened then, but it also is meramez the masa'os of Klal Yisrael through the doros, as we soon will see from even the Rishonim talk about this. Because the question, of course, is obvious: what's the negeiah? Why is it so important for us to know?

The maasayos, eilu maaseh Bnei Yisrael. And of course the famous teretz lahalacha, that there's only—there's one shita that holds, to Sha'ailin the reshaim, that the issur to go back to Mitzrayim is only al derech hazeh, to go back on the same route. So it was important for us to know the route that they took, to know what's aser in returning back to Mitzrayim. That's a halachic shaila, which is not for today to discuss, maybe for another time. Al kol panim, the mefarshim say that the eilu maaseh Bnei Yisrael is not only the past, but actually it has in it remazim, connotations of Klal Yisrael through the doros. The Baal Shem is yadua, and he says that every person in his private life goes through mem-beis masayos. We all have our trials and tribulations, our tzaros, our yisurim. Klal Yisrael on the prat goes through masayos. We actually say this in the zemiros that we say Friday night, V'galeni l'ohr libi b'galusi. Every person has his own galus, private galus. Every Jew goes through his trials and tribulations, and the mem-beis masayos are meramez to this inyan. Just in one example, Kivras HaTaavah, we have to bury the taavah, v'chulei v'chulei. But it's interesting, there's a raya, rabosai, that says— That actually the Mem-Beis Masoyos is a remez for Klal Yisrael through the doros, ad bias Mashiach, that we will have to go through Mem-Beis Masoyos. This is a raivid, a rishon, a Raivid in Idiyos, perek beis, mishnah tes. The Raivid says, when Mashiach will come, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will not bring us into Eretz Yisrael directly, but He will take us through the midbar ha'amim, the midbar of the nations of the world, galus. And he says, k'dei mevuar b'Yechezkel, like it's clearly in Yechezkel, and if you look in Yechezkel, it's clear there that the remazim of the geulah acharonah and all the galusin are all merumaz in Yechezkel. So it comes out, ki mei tzeischa me'eretz Mitzrayim ar'enu niflaos, that we will repeat, that there's going to be a repeat, rabosai, of the midbar and all the trials and all the masoyos that they had to go through till the time of Mashiach. Let us understand masoyos. What is the point, what is the pshat in all this coming? We went to Spain and then we went to Europe and then we came to America and then Eretz Yisrael, and then there's... and wherever we go, we stay a while and then we travel on, galus. What's the pshat in all these galus? If you look at the pasuk, the pasuk says clearly, Vayichtov Moshe es motzaeihem. Lemaaseihem al pi Hashem. So it says, motza'eihem l'maseihem, where they were camped, where they were found, to where they traveled. Moshe writes this. And then the pasuk repeats itself, v'eileh maseihem l'motza'eihem, the travelings to come on to the places that they came to. And the mefarshim ask, בין the pasuk is redundant, it's the chapashte shaila, what does the pasuk mean? The pshat, chabeis, is ganz pashut. Every place we went to galus, every stop we went, had two reasons for it. One is we had to go there. We had to travel from where we were to come to that place for whatever reason, as we soon will explain. And then from there, we had to travel on. Vayisu, when they traveled, the pshat is motza'eihem. Sometimes they had to be in a certain place in order to travel vayta, and sometimes they traveled to a place because they had to be there. So it's actually both. To give you to understand what I mean, Vayeitzei Yaakov miBe'er Sheva, Vayeilech Charanah, the mefarshim explain that sometimes vayeitzei and sometimes vayeilech.

Sometimes we leave a place because we have to leave. And sometimes we go to a place because we have to be there. And sometimes it's both. Vayeitzei Yaakov miBe'er Sheva; he had to leave Be'er Sheva. Vayelech Charanah; he needed to go to Charan. So in actuality, it comes out that the nesiah, the travel that Yaakov had to make, had two things in it. It had to leave; he had to come to another place. And this is what the pasuk is saying, Mizol farshtein, eileh maaseh Bnei Yisrael, that it's maseihem motzaeihem l'maseihem, and it's maseihem l'motzaeihem. We have to sometimes come to a place in order we have to travel to the next place. And this is galus. This is what galus is. HaRav Chaim HaKadosh explains, says, Al pi Hashem, al פי Hashem, avad al פי Hashem. The Torah is dechal פי Hashem. So I'm going to mefareshim that because it's about the maseihem throughout the doros, hayidavisin, everything is al פי Hashem. That every galus, every travel that Klal Yisrael had to travel through the galusin from one place to come to another place, this is all because al פי Hashem. The cheshbonos are very difficult to understand why. And avada, we have to do teshuva, we have to try to search. You look at the kinos, Eicha, matzaka, we try to explain why. How, eicha, how did these things happen and why did they happen? But at the end of the day, it's al pi Hashem. There's things that we don't understand; it's from the Ribono Shel Olam. This becomes maaseh bnei Yisrael throughout the doros. This is galus. The end of the parsha, rabosai, talks about galus, interestingly enough. And the mefarshim talk, especially the Chiddushei Sefarim, I'm full with this. The parshas Massei is read bedavka bein hametzarim, because everything in the parsha has to do with bein hametzarim. Here we understand why the beginning of the parsha has to do with bein hametzarim, has to do with the galus. There's two other parts to the parsha, and that is: we have yerushas haaretz, that Klal Yisrael gets Eretz Yisrael, and then we have the parsha of shogeg and galus. Galus, interesting. What is the kesher, and what is the parsha teaching us about galus? The horeg nefesh b'shogeg—it's interesting, a peledike zach—comes out from galus if the Kohen Gadol dies. Peledike thing. And already Chazal tell us, Mishnah Makos, the Gemara, that it was the Kohen Gadol's fault at some level, that he should have been mispallel al dorei. Under his watch, these things shouldn't have happened. It's an interesting thing. Ke'ilu we blame the Kohen Gadol. What was the Kohen Gadol's ashmah? What was his— His aveirah, so to speak. Yitachen these things happened when you were the Kohen Gadol. Now how was the Kohen Gadol supposed to stop all this? So pashut, I guess he gives mussar, the Kohen Gadol, an example. What exactly is the Kohen Gadol's fault? Another nekudah, a pele. Isn't it a peledike zach that how does a Yid who's hoyrich b'shogeg, he goes out with the fact that the Kohen Gadol gets his niftar, and he's mispallel? He davens for it. The Mishnah says that the mothers of the Kohanim Gedolim, and it's interesting, it says Kohanim. If you take a look at the Aruch LaNer, he's masbir, it doesn't mean only the Kohanim Gedolim's mother throughout the years. It's actually four Kohanim. We have a Kohen Gadol and a Sgan Kohen and a Mashuach Milchamah. So any one of them, the Mishnah says, could be motzi the person who's hoyrich b'shogeg. If any one of them dies, so the tefillah actually was for anyone. He could have been mispallel for this Kohen or for that Kohen. So we're not even talking about the Kohen Gadol anymore. According to the Gemara, it's not only the Kohen Gadol.

It's the mishuach milchama. So the meshuach milchama is responsible that there was a he'ireg nefesh b'shogeg. Ad kedei kach, the Netz says that it was almost like a bidding war between the mothers. Says in the haftorah for Mishnah, that the Mashiach Milchamas mother would go and out give more presents than the Kohen Gadol, and they kept on giving more and more, because each one really wanted their child should be the one he davens for that they should die. So the shaila, rabosai, is here: what's takke the pshat? Chazal zach that a kohen, the tefillah of the person should be the thing that takes him out, here, that if he davens for the Kohen Gadol to die, that's din in haTorah. Megas tuntakh, means a chapeldige zach. In the Torah, that's how he goes out b'shogeg. I have another shaila, rabosai. Tell me if a person wants to leave, he wants to leave galus. You think if he gets a little bit prizes, a good cake, a nice blanket from the mamis, that's it, he's going to stop davening to get out of galus? What's takke the pshat now? The chapeldige zach, rabosai. The whole sugya is the chapelah. Man's just heireg b'shogeg, here, and what happens? If he davens, the Kohen Gadol should die. And we blame the Kohen Gadol because it was his fault. How was it his fault? And on top of everything, if the mother comes and the mother gives a present, that's it. He's willing not to daven to get out of galus. What's the pshat? So I heard from Rav Shach, zicher tzaddik livrachah. I heard it from him directly. Tamia meiri dike zach; maybe I even heard it from others. It's a meiridike vort. Avadeh, avadeh, he's going to still daven to get out of golus. That's not the shaylah. But once you take away that he's not going to daven b'lev shalem, she's taking away the tzaar of the golus, so she's not going to daven b'lev shalem. That's not how you get out of golus. Tefillah for the golus has to be davened b'lev shalem. So the mother takes away somewhat of the tzaar hagolus, avadeh he's still going to daven. Why would someone not daven? But because, lemaaseh, not going to daven with the full tzaar, feeling the necessity of it, muz, muz, muz azoi davenen, because there's no choice and it hurts, mimeila, das is nisht a tefillah that's going to take him out of golus. Let me read for you a Kuzri. The Kuzri asks the question that we all ask: ... is the golus? How does it keep on going and going and going? And he answers, the Kuzri, because when ... b'lev shalem u'b'nefesh chafeitzah, if only we would have davened. If only we would daven fully, hayinu pog'im mimenu ma shepag'u avoseinu b'Mitzrayim, we would have seen the same nissim that the Ribono Shel Olam gave us in Mitzrayim. He's back to maaseh avoseinu, ki meitzeicha me'eretz Mitzrayim. How did we get out of Mitzrayim? The tremendous nissim and niflaos. Says the Kuzari, if we would daven b'lev shalem, the same nissim would happen, same exact thing. And he continues that when we say, Hishtachavu la'arkatzcha, hishtachavu la'admas raglav, and when we say, Hamaschinasa l'Tzion, it's only k'tziftzuf hazarzir v'hadomeh lo. It's like a bird that chirps. Yeah, we say the words. She'ein anachnu choshim ma shenoimer b'zeh v'zulaso, because we don't really, really, really be meayen into what we're saying. When it comes to galus, you have to understand the tzar hagalus, and we have to daven b'lev shalem that the Ribono Shel Olam should take us out. This, chabeisai, is a taina on the Kohen Gadol also. What was the Kohen Gadol supposed to do? And the answer is—

Vespalah ladoyre. Tefillah. Galus is about tefillah. The way to get out of galus is only through tefillah. And if a person would daven, there wouldn't be roitzchim, the Kohen Gadol, the Mashuach Milchamah. Well, what shaychus does the Mashuach Milchamah? And the teretz is, if they're kohanim and the kohanim gedolim, then it becomes their avodah to daven. This is the parsha of galus. There's another chelek in this parsha, rabosai. Rav Shach told this to me as well. Mentioned the Bnei Saschar, believe it or not, yes, he mentioned to me an interesting Bnei Saschar. He said to me, another way of another nekudah in the aveilus has to be emunah in Moshiach, Dovid. We sit, we are misabel. We sit every day on the floor, and we think about the churban habayis. A chelek of how to bring Moshiach and the binyan habayis, it's called hamisabel Yerushalayim zocheh v'roeh b'nechamasah. You all know the Chasam Sofer. The Chasam Sofer says, what's the zocheh v'roeh on the present? It should say, yizkeh, he will be zocheh. Zocheh is now, he's right now zocheh. It should have said, yizkeh, he will be zocheh. Kol hamisabel Yerushalayim yizkeh, he'll be zocheh to roeh b'nechamasah, explains the Chasam Sofer. That when you mesabel al Yerushalayim properly, it comes with it that Yerushalayim is real, Moshiach is real, Beis Hamikdash is real. So that already becomes the nechamah right now. Zoiche v'ro'eh b'nechamasah, that through the aveilus, through the aveilus, the nechamah is here, because it becomes a metzius, az iz geyt zayn a Beis Hamikdash. Un iz geyt zayn Moshiach, un Yerushas ha'aretz. Das is vos der Chasam Sofer means. Beis Tishah B'Av is a day of tefillah, that we should have the Beis Hamikdash. And Tishah B'Av is a day where it has to become metzius. The galus has to be a metzius. It has to be a reality. And the nechamah that Moshiach is coming and the binyan habayis has to be a metzius also. So it's not something yiskeh. The Torah Vilna says, mizol tachten, tzikumen a tog mithoden. It's not that day. It has to be zoiche v'ro'eh v'nechmasah that day. You know, it's ידוע the famous kasha: Kara alai mo'ed. Tishah B'Av is a mo'ed. How could it be a mo'ed? We don't say tachanun on Tishah B'Av. How could it be a mo'ed? Where is the mo'ed in it? So it's ידוע, many different pshatim are said how it's a mo'ed. How is Tishah B'Av a Yom Tov? So about the famous pshat, the Chofetz Chaim used to say, moyed means we come together with the Eibishter. What does it mean to come together with the Eibishter? Amol, the Eibishter is mesameach. Amol the Eibishter gets a patch, but it's a moyed. It's a moyed. So even the patch, habisfara tata. Neistach from the Dubno Maggid. The Dubno Maggid used to say over all the time, Shivtecha v'shantecha heima yenachamuni. Your stick, your stick, that's my nechamah. How is the stick the nechamah? Shivtecha v'shantecha. The Eibishter gets clapped, dos iz a nechamah. It's a famous mashal, when the sheep gets lost, and I brought it's a mashal for Klal Yisroel, the sheep gets lost. What does the ro'eh, what does he do? He catches the sheep and he gives it a patch. He wasn't supposed to go away from the herd. He wasn't supposed to stay together with the flock. But the sheep feels, at least I'm not lost, right? He knows that the ro'eh, he's near. I'm not going to get lost. So Shivtecha v'shantecha heima yenachamuni, that's how it's a moyed.

Hayiti, I feel the patch from Tatten. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, gezogt, efshar, efshar. Tisha B'Av is a day, dafka shtein az mir zin golus, but the metzius that the geulah is going to be, the zoche v'ro'eh b'nechamasa is a chelek of kol hamisabel on the same day. Even Eicha, if you take a look at Eicha, we begin with all the tzaros, and how do we end off? Hashiveinu Hashem eilecha v'nashuvah chadesh... Everything ends off with the same nekudah, in the same, because it's both the same yesod. And that is, it's true, we're right now in golus, but it's the same truth as mitahapechin from the golus. It's a tremendous avodah. It's a tremendous avodah. Who knows, maybe the Eibishter makes wars in Eretz Yisrael, but we should feel it's a bit pashut. Maybe that's why certain things happen on certain days. Galus, rabosai, if we understand galus, it hurts. But galus is also what makes a Yid. You know, Yid is called a galus Yid. Galus makes us who we are, and that is because galus brings out all the things that we can't have when we don't have galus, and that is emunah, tefillah mitoch tzarah. A Yid needs to have... Emunah and tefillah mitoch tzaar, she'ein lanu lisha'en ela al Avinu shebashamayim. That's what makes a Yid. That's part of what we are. Galus was destined before even the aveiros we did. You'll see in the Kinas, if you look carefully, Eichah shekvaros, it's one of the kinos that we say, that it was actually predestined from before the Torah that there's going to be galus. And like I said, the maaseh Bnei Yisrael, this is what makes a Yid. We become stronger because of our emunah and our tefillah, and that's how we even became Am Yisrael. Before we became Am Yisrael, we needed to go through Mitzrayim. We needed it, kur habarzel. Every galus is a kur habarzel. From the time that the choshech... it's already in the beginning, the first pasuk, madua Yavan, all the galuyos, it's already predestined. And we say this, Eichah shekvaros, it was already predestined before. Why was it predestined? Before we did the aveirah. And the teretz is because it was part of the talich of what makes Klal Yisrael. Klal Yisrael is galus, emunah in tefillah in galus, emunah in the Ribono Shel Olam. This beis hamidrash is Parshas Maaseh, and this is what Tisha B'Av—it's a big avodah, avodah. It's very difficult. It's very difficult to make a metzius, to take in galus. Every day, we forget. Tzoladcha tesh, every, every tzarah we're here, we forget, wears off. The kinus reminds us of all the golus and all the tzaros. And at the same time, it talks about nechamah, it talks about emunah, tefillah, and that becomes the avodah. I'd like to end with the following yesod, rabosai. I thought it was interesting. Mothers, the role that the mother plays in the golus of the hairik nefesh b'shogeg. It's an interesting thing. The mothers, they come, and what's the pshat? So I was thinking to myself a yesod, rabosai. The hairik nefesh b'shogeg needs to do teshuvah. He needs to be mispallel. He needs to do... so his tefillah could be that the kohen should die. But what was his aveirah, rabosai? His aveirah was that he killed somebody. You know what he sees from the mother?

He sees from the mother that a mother comes and is in pain over the loss of her child. This is supposed to be the lesson. There's a lesson that the Hairug Nefesh b'shogeg has to take. He has to understand that there's a mammeh. There's a mother that you made suffer, the tzaar of Klal Yisrael. We have to identify their mammes in tactus, their suffering. And the tefillah and the bakashos have to be, not mammeh, but tzaar tatteh that suffer. And I'll explain to you a little bit deeper what I mean. We all know that the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed and Klal Yisrael would have been destroyed. There was a mammeh in Klal Yisrael that came to ask for her children. Kel rachum v'chanun, rachum v'chanun. But now it's a very important part of the kinnos. If you take a look, Oz halach Yirmiyahu al kivrei avos, that the Ribono Shel Olam sends Yirmiyahu to ask the avos that the avos should come to be mispalel al bneihem. ... The Ribono Shel Olam said, What are you doing, Yirmiyahu? Why don't you go? The Eibishter tells Yirmiyahu, Go wake up the avos and tell the avos that they should be mispalel al bneihem. And they all come and they say different things on why the Ribono Shel Olam should send the yeshuah to Klal Yisrael. The only one that the Ribbono Shel Olam should listen to, we all know, is Rachel mevakah al baneha. Rachel is asking for Klal Yisrael. There's a limud here, my friends. In order to come out of the galus, we have to understand the role the mother plays in the koach ha-tefillah. There's a koach ha-tefillah of a mother. What does that mean? It's the most purest tefillah that could be. When a mother cries for a child, that's a bechi, that's b'lev shalem, it's the strongest bechi possible. The Ribbono Shel Olam is telling us that's the tefillah that's going to take us out of the galus. It's Avad Avram, Yitzchak, Yaakov, but the greatest bechi is Rachel mevakah al baneha. That level of bechi, that level of tefillah, and that maybe is merumaz in the mother who tries to save her child. That the tefillah—what was the tefillah? He's going to be mispallel that kohen should die. So the mother plays a role in the tefillah. The mother plays a role to show the tzaar of the mother, and that's the tefillah. What should you daven? Realize the tzar. Realize what it means, the mother to the child. Coming out of Golus needs azat tefillah, my boys. I end every year, and I have to bring out the ma'aseh from Reb Chaim Shmulevitz. This is not my yesod, even though the Torah is my yesod, but the yesod is already the heilige Reb Chaim Shmulevitz. I've seen it in the mirror. But when every year, Kever Rachel, and we tell Rachel Imeinu, Mama Rachel, the Ribono Shel Olam tells you, Mehi kolech mibechi, einayich mi'dimah, v'einekh, chayim. He says, Don't stop crying. Cry, cry, cry. Because he understood that the tefillah, Mehi kolech mibechi, that level of tefillah is going to take us out of the Golus. Yesh sachar li'pe'ulasech. That's the only tefillah. The lesson that we have to take from this is, the tzar of the Golus has to be azeivi a mamma fakind.

That level of connection to the tzar and that level of tefillah, that will take us out of the galus. Eileh maaseh Bnei Yisroel. We go through difficult things, like I said, the rabim, from Spain to Germany, wherever we go. And then there's the yachid. There's l'galeni l'oir, libi b'galusi. It's about emunah and tefillah, emunah and tefillah. That it's zocheh v'ro'eh b'nechmasa, even that day, and that's kara laimoid. It's possible that it's kara laimoid because of the emunah we believe that right even that day. And the truth is, Chazal tell us, the Mashiach is born on Tishah B'Av. Mashiach is born on Tishah B'Av. What does it mean he's born on Tishah B'Av? Tishah B'Av is a day, it's aveilus and yeshuah at the same time. Either we're zocheh or we're not zocheh. Kol shelo nivneh Beis HaMikdash b'yamav, k'ilu nechrav. It's about our tefillah. It's about our emunah. It's about understanding the tzar, and through that tzar, we mispallel to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and we zocheh. Im am racham. We would say, Einikl, we all here, we ask you to keep on crying. We ask you for the soldiers in Eretz Yisrael. We ask you for all the tzaros in Klal Yisrael, the mothers that cry and all the fathers that cry, shetaka binispalo. And this we should be zocheh v'ro'eh b'nechmasa to the bias haGoel. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.