Like a Father Treats His Children
Last week, we discussed how the events of the week usually connect with the week’s Torah portion. One such instance, if we paid attention to it, is the connection between Parshas Devarim and Tisha B’av. Parshas Devarim, for a bulk of it, discusses the story of the Meraglim who spoke bad about Eretz Yisroel, the beautiful present that Hashem was ready to give us, and caused the entire nation to cry for no reason. For this, Hashem said, “Since you cried for no reason, I’m going to give you a reason to cry on this day for generations.” That day was the 9th day of Av. It is interesting to note, that regardless of whether the year has an extra month (leap year) or not, no matter how the year comes out, Devarim is always read the Shabbos before Tisha B’av, to remind us of Hashem’s infinite love for us, His Children.
How did the people of the Jewish nation come to this? These were people who were enslaved by the Egyptians, witnessed the Ten Plagues leading up to their redemption, not only witnessed but actually walked through the Split Sea, watched their oppressors drowning after them, reached a level, 40 days later, that enabled them to receive the Luchos and hear the Ten Commandments straight from Hashem’s mouth. They messed up with the Egel, the Satan got to them, but they received the second Luchos, they saw open miracles, for Heaven’s sake, their food came to their door, their clothing grew with them. Yet, when it came to Eretz Yisroel, they said, “Let us scout out the land,” after Hashem said, “You will defeat the nations of the land.” Even more questionable, how did the Meraglim, who saw the beauty of Eretz Hakodesh, Admas Kodesh, come back with such a bad report. How could it be? Eicha?
An answer that I heard, in the name of the Slonim Rebbe, the Nesivos Shalom, is as follows: A boy comes home every week from school with a hundred on his test, and one week, he gets a 90. He might be very scared to show it to his parents, out of fear that he may have let them down, and be worried that he would be in trouble and be doomed and have no future. However, once he shows his parents the 90, and they show him the same amount of love they show him when he gets 100, and they tell him, “Beautiful, you did a great job and next week, you will do better…”
then he knows that his parents still love him. What about a 49? What if a child got a 49 on his test, after getting 90’s and 100’s on his tests for years. Now he is petrified. “Do I go home or not? Maybe I will be grounded? Maybe no supper for a week? Who knows? But, if he comes home and his parents tell him, “Sweetest yingeleh, you know we love you, and we know this test was hard. You know what, maybe next week we will review the material with you better. We still love you.” He knows that as long as he gets higher than a 49, his parents still love him.
Friends, Hashem allowed certain situations, such as Klal Yisroel reaching the 49th level of Tumah, before taking them out of Mitzrayim, to show that even while we were so stooped in the Tumah of Mitzrayim, we are still the children of Hashem and are royalty and He still loves you the same. Perhaps we can say the same of the Chet Hameraglim. Even when we get punished for it, it is not out of anger. It is coming from a loving Father in Heaven, who is trying to teach us a lesson, “I Love you, but why won’t you just listen to Me. You don’t appreciate what I am giving you, I won’t force you to take it”. We need to show Hashem that we got this message and we see that even in the darkest of times that He is running the show, and we are ready to follow wherever he takes us and trust his even if we don’t exactly see where he is taking us we put our full trust in him, and with that we will Imy”H be Zocheh to Sasson V’simcha Vnas Yagon Vaanach B’shuvi L’Yerushalayim. Amen.
Good Shabbos and Have an Easy fast, if there will be one, otherwise you are all welcome to join us in our home Sunday for Levyassan Sushi in Yerushalayim.
Zevi