Rabbi's Blog

 Ever pick up your cell phone and feel it’s really hot and the battery is drained? Do your eyes and forehead ever hurt when trying to read? When fasting, do you feel uncomfortable, listless and hear your stomach muscles straining? All these examples - cell phones heating up, eyes hurting, stomach muscles straining - share something in common. 

Cell phones search for a signal from their carrier, and the search doesn't stop trying to connect until it finally links up to a strong connection. During this search the battery continues to work, burning itself out trying to make the connection. Once the link-up occurs it cools down. 

As I approached middle-aged status my nearsightedness became an issue. Without the appropriate, corrective lenses our eyes strain to see properly. Our eyes make ever-increasing effort to focus; the more we try the greater the strain is on the eyes. I've noticed that as soon as I put on my new reading glasses, everything comes into focus and the strain is immediately relieved. 

On a fast day we feel increasing pangs of hunger. As our stomachs empty, our bodies search for nutrition from all sources, pulling from the area where food is normally stored. Our stomachs’ constant search for food causes strain and discomfort. As soon as we eat, the muscles searching for nutrition relax as we feed ourselves. 

The fascinating, common denominator is feelings of strain and uncertainty when dealing with a lack of needed energy or correction, in the case of our eyes. Quite often, while enduring such a difficulty, we are troubled and can’t accept the fact that once the situation is resolved everything will again be calm. The battery cools down, the vision is clear, headaches due to eye-strain are gone, and the hunger pangs (pulling of the stomach muscles) subside. We only recognize why we went through something only after the cure is revealed. We begin to appreciate why things are unclear only after the issue is resolved. As they say in the vernacular, “hindsight is twenty twenty”. We, in this world, don’t have the ability to see the future; we are capable of grasping only the present situation. We Jews train our thinking to believe that this is but only a part of a bigger picture. Even though things in life may appear bleak and dark now, we believe it is for a reason we’re not capable of grasping that the difficulties are necessary for the future. This concept straddles both worlds, going from bad eyesight to seeing and recognizing the benefit good glasses and the beauty of vision, to recognizing that difficulties in the present can lead to something good in the future. 

We find a similar idea in the opening verse of this week’s Haftorah. The Haftorah for Parshas Matos is sometimes read from Melachim Aleph, but this year it is read from the very beginning of Yirmiyahu. The passuk states: “Divrei Yirmiyahu Ben Chilkiyahu, Min HaKohanim Asher BauAnasos, B’Eretz Binyamin”. “The words of Jeremiah son, of Chilkiyahu, one of the priests in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin”. Chilkiyahu was the Kohen Gadol in Yoshia’s time. Chilkiyahu found the Torah scroll in the Beis HaMikdash, as described in Kings II 23:24. Anathoth was a Levite city located about five miles northeast of Yerushalayim. 

The Yalkut Shimoni (Midrash) asks about the significance of mentioning that Yirmiyahu came from the land of Binyamin? The Yalkut connects the meaning of Binyamin’s birth and the impact of Yirmiyahu’s actions. The Yalkut Shimoni Yirmiyahu 1:258 relates that Yirmiyahu’s portion was placed in the region of Binyamin. The significance of Binyamin’s birth was not clear to Yaakov Avinu until he was actually born. Yaakov Avinu did not really know he would give birth to twelve tribes until the birth of Binyamin. So too, all of the prophets who prophesied about Jerusalem did not have clarity about their prophecy until Yirmiyahu came and stood up. 

The analogy from Binyamin to Yirmiyahu goes as follows: All the days Binyamin was in his mother’s womb (Rachel Immeinu), his mother did not die. Once Binyamin was born, leaving his mother’s womb , Rachel died. As it says in Bereishis 35:18 “Vayehi B’Tzeis Nafsha Ki Meisa” “And it came to pass, as Rachel’s soul was departing that she called his name Ben-Oni, but his father called him Benjamin”. So too all the days that Yirmiyahu was in Yerushalayim the Temple stood; as soon as Yirmiyahu left Jerusalem, the destruction took place. As mentioned in Yirmiyahu 20:7 “Pitisani Hashem Va’Epas, You enticed me, O Lord, and I was enticed”. As soon as he was kicked out of the house, the house was destroyed. In an ironic interpretation we could say the ‘ends justified the means’. Yaakov realized the potential of Am Yisrael only through the birth of his last child; the Prophets only came to realize the truth of their prophecies when the end prophecy of the destruction of Yerushalayim took place at the moment Yirmiyahu is exiled. 

Quite often in life we can’t understand why certain events take place. If we are lucky enough and have earned the merit, we sometimes live long enough to see how events later on bring clarity and good reason to clarify events which had transpired earlier in life. During the last century Jewish Jewry has lived and experienced this phenomena. The most recent are the events in Eretz Yisrael whereby we can’t see the outcome, but we believe that whatever transpired these last six weeks will become apparent and clear as to why they did occur. 

Chazal teach us that we do not have clear vision and understanding of why and what happens in this world. Whether the issues are about each one of us personally, our families living in Eretz Yisrael, the Jewish people at large, or the entire world, it is only at the time of Moshiach that we will be able to truly see the entire picture and understand why certain things had to happen. In the time of Moshiach this world that we live in today will become clear, not only to the Jews but to all the other nations as well. With clarity and certainty the nations of the world and the Jewish people will see everything. At the conclusion of every service we stand to say “Aleinu”. The final lines of Aleinu proclaim, “Through the Sovereignty of the Almighty … all humanity will call upon Your Name, to turn toward you all the wicked of the earth. …They will offer and accept the yoke of your Kingship that You may reign over them. Then will Hashem be King over all the world. On that day shall Hashem be One and His Name One.” 

Ah Gut Shabbos 

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky