A short anecdote to introduce this week’s message.
Several days ago, I chanced upon a group of Americans enjoying the Old City’s atmosphere.
As is my habit, I asked them from where they came, and they replied that they were from Texas. “Then we have something in common,” I said. “We both have a single star on our flags.”
They were impressed that an Israeli knew of the ‘Lone Star State’. Then a woman asked me if I was Jewish?
I replied that I am not Jewish…
Did you ever consider, why we Jews, the cleverest people on earth, abide by a God-given Torah which no one understands?
We know when to perform the respective mitzvot and how to perform them to the most minute detail, but even the greatest rabbi cannot explain the essence of any mitzva.
Countless numbers of Jews from time immemorial have sacrificed their lives in defense of their right to keep the Torah; yet no one knew why shrimp is prohibited, or why a mikva drives away tuma, or why leavened bread causes the dire punishment of karet on Pesach.
Sunday of this week, the 28th of Iyar, the citizens of Medinat Yisrael celebrated the 49th anniversary of HaShem’s liberation of Yerushalayim and the Temple Mount from its Arab-Nazi occupiers, through His holy messengers of Tzahal.
I was invited to a celebration at the Almiya Hall situated near the beautiful promenade in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in the south of Yerushalayim.
Three thousand five hundred years ago, this area witnessed a most significant, even critical, event in the creation of our holy Jewish nation – Akeidat Yitzchak – the binding of Yitzchak.
HaShem commands Moshe to conduct a national census of men of military age – 20 to 60 (excluding the tribe of Levi), resulting in the final number of 603,550.
There was probably a similar number of women, and at least 10 times as many children and adult men above the age of 60, bringing the total number of Jews who were supported in the 40 years of desert life by the Manna and traveling water well to around the number of Jews in the Medina today.
Rashi comments that HaShem commanded Moshe to conduct a national census several times during our desert sojourn because of His love for Am Yisrael; as a man repeatedly counts his beloved wealth.
Now one might ask: Why did HaShem command Moshe to count the nation, in the light of what was taught in Rabbi Yishmael’s yeshiva and quoted in the Gemara (Ta’anit 8b)?
The rebuke and warning to the Jewish nation of the punishments which would be our lot if we forsake the Torah characterizes our parsha. Moshe relates to the nation the suffering of individual and of the nation as a whole in graphic detail, culminating in our being expelled from the Holy Land to suffer in galut.
To our chagrin and disgrace all of Moshe’s abstract scenarios have come about, with the grim reality even worse than what was predicted.
However, there is one punishment inherent in galut which was not mentioned by Moshe, but stands as one of the most depressing and ominous. It is our inability to deal with complex halachic issues in the absence of a Sanhedrin and the ru’ah hakodesh (holy spirit) that nurtured the spiritual capabilities and needs of the rabbis in Eretz Yisrael, as I will explain.
Religious disputations between Jews and gentiles have a long and mostly tragic history for the Jewish side, especially when we came out victorious in the debates.
The first religious disputation is recorded in the book of Shemot, when Moshe in the name of HaShem demanded that Paro permit the Jews to worship HaShem in the desert.
