Most school yearbooks have a page dedicated to predicting how a student will turn out. Sometimes the students will try to project where they think their friends will be in ten, twenty and thirty years down the road. Based upon their interests as a child, they will determine what line of work the person will end up doing - for better or worse. Every class has an overachiever and an underachiever. I think when one goes back to compare where the student was at the time of graduation to the present, about ninety percent of the time the guess will have been wrong. To be honest, I don’t have any data to support this claim, but this is my gut feeling.  

I find it fascinating when I hear about the individuals who, despite all odds against them, made it big, even though while they were in grade or high school had everything going for them yet failed miserably. I’m not sure which scenario I am more surprised at: the one who didn’t end up being successful, or the one who was least likely one to succeed making it big. Regardless of the outcome, I realize today that no one should be surprised when things turn out differently than anticipated early in life. I can easily attribute the ‘not being surprised situation’ to the fact that we are guessing the future of someone who has really not yet fully matured and is not yet developed emotionally or physically. So when it comes to foretelling the future we could easily be far off in our guessing.

 There is another area of life change that when I was younger would surprise and disappoint me.  This applies to someone who, in his or her adult years, was already established religiously, financially, and emotionally but took a turn for the worse. Hearing and reading about men and women in positions of power and influence who are taken down by their own misjudgments was always surprising to me. On the other side of the spectrum, a man who was not successful at times turns around his life spiritually by doing Teshuva and becoming a “Baal Teshuva”. It is impressive to see a person live a non-observant life, enjoying the pleasures of the world without constraint and then literally change their entire life. I used to be surprised at the changes a person can under go in either direction….but I am no longer surprised. When you live long enough you get to see everything in life from the good to the bad and from the believable to the unbelievable. I have witnessed people who were very religious become non-observant and the non-observant become very observant, even during the twilight years of their lives.

In other areas of life such as chinuch/education, I have seen educators, rabbis; do things that are the antithesis of true Jewish education. How can a school/Yeshiva that claims to be the place to deal with the troubled child turn around without cause and not accept such a child into their school? I see now through years of experience that these yeshivos and Menahalim are not doing justice to these children and are not fulfilling their true mission and purpose. I will not go on the record with my theories of why I think this is true. Rather than focusing on the negative side of people and situations, I would like to glean a positive lesson from an unsung hero of the Jewish people.

In the Haftorah to this week’s Parsha Chukas, we read about Yiftach HaGiladi and his role in saving the Jewish people. In Shoftim 11:1 the Navi describes meteoric rise of someone who was an unlikely choice to become a leader. The Passuk in Shoftim 11:1 states: “V’Yiftach HaGiladi Haya Gior Chayil V’Hu Ben Isha Zonah, VaYoled Gilad Es Yiftach”. “Now Yiftach the Giladite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a woman harlot, and Gilad begot Yiftach”. How is it that Yiftach, with his level of character, would rise to be the savior of the Jewish people?The Midrash Rabba in Bamidbar 19 states that Yiftach was not a great Torah scholar, but had many hidden, good middos (character traits). The Baal HaTurim on the verse in Bereishis 48:20 “VaYevorcheim Bayom Hahu Laymor B’cha Y’Varech Yisrael Laymor Y’Simcha Elohim K’ephrayim VCh’Menashe…””So he blessed them that day, saying, “You shall Israel bless saying, “May God make you like Ephraim and Menashe”. Yakov Avinu is blessing the Ephrayim and Menashe”. The word Laymor is spelled ‘full’ – completely - with an extra Vav (value six) corresponding to the six righteous judges who will stand from within them. One of those six was none other than Yiftach who descended from Menashe!

The very last verse of the previous chapter speaks of the Jews of Gilad as they want to repent ask Hashem “who is the man that is fit to fight the Ammonites?” Immediately God informs them it will be Yiftach, a man of might. Pirkei Avos describes in the question “who is a strong man, someone who is able to conquer his evil inclination.  Even though Yiftach is described as having a harlot for a mother (which the commentaries deflect and show it means something else) is treated as a second class citizen by his brothers and peers. We can deduce that Yiftach, described by Hashem as a Gibor, someone who is strong enough to overcome his inclination, will be the one to lead.

Yiftach appears to be the kind of individual who is capable of turning around his life from being viewed as the underdog to being looked up to as the champion. The man who can overcome adversity and change is a candidate to lead the Jewish people. It isn’t necessarily the greatest Torah scholar and sage in the world to lead the Jews, but rather a person who can change himself to become a better person. Everybody goes through changes in their lifetime  - some up and some down. Let’s focus on the strong individuals, those inwardly-directed mighty ones who can lead, upgrade, and change their lives through their good middos and character. Ultimately, nothing should surprise you anymore, even if that great change occurs within YOU!           

Ah Gut Shabbos

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky

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