Parashat & Current Events

At the heart of our parasha is one of the most emotionally charged human dramas in history, before which the greatest plays of Shakespeare pale. It is the story of the child with the Hebrew name Tuvia, who later became the Egyptian called Moshe.

But as is the way of the Torah, the words tell us little with much more alluded to between the verses.

The following are only a few of the mysteries hidden in the parasha…

President Trump, may HaShem grant him long life, announced that in the wake of the deliberate neglect of the Obama administration of the US military and the threatening dangers of Moslem radical nations and others, the United States has spent two trillion dollars (that is 2,000,000,000,000) on upgrading the US armed forces over the last three years. New and repaired planes, ships, submarines and “stuff” we don’t talk about.

I am quite certain that the next phase in strengthening the military will, by necessity, be the re-introduction of the Selective Service Act (draft) which was ended in the late 1970s. I have often written of the pending reinstatement of the draft, but now it is imminent.

To my holy brothers and sisters in the Chareidi Chassidic centers of Monsey, Williamsburg, Boro Park and Crown Heights.

The initial steps in solving a problem are to define it, then to measure its intensity and its implications. In your case the problem suffers from an additional complexity, in that you have no one who can help you; because those who should be holding the light at the end of the tunnel are the very ones who cannot discern between light and darkness.

A short story to illustrate the point…

Pirsumei nisa, our duty to propagate HaShem’s miracles, constitutes a major element in many mitzvot. When reading the Megillat Esther, we publicly proclaim that HaShem saved us from Haman and Achashverosh. At the Pesach Seder, we lean in comfort as we consume our matzah and drink wine to proclaim that we were freed through HaShem’s great miracles in Egypt. Yet there is no mitzvah in which pirsumei nisa is as emphasized as it is at Chanukah.

On Chanuka we extol and celebrate two miracles which HaShem had brought about in those times for Am Yisrael: the seemingly impossible military victory over the super-power Greece and the miracle of the oil in the Bet Hamikdash. However, it appears to me that we are missing the real implications of the holiday: the regime change from the Greco-Hellenistic governmental agenda and values to a proactive Torah regime of king, kohen gadol and Bet Hamikdash which returned to center stage in the life of the Jewish nation in the holy land.

Today we might be witnessing a Chanuka replay where there will be a regime change of extreme proportions.

Following his wrestling match with the stranger (Bereishiet 32), Ya’akov returned home enjoying a sense of victory, “intact physically, emotionally, and with his wealth” (as Rashi comments). Yet a heavy cloud darkened his joy, for his brother Esav was waiting for him with 400 men.

The unavoidable encounter would not just be between two quarreling brothers, but would be a conflict between two worldviews destined to influence the entire course of history. Ya’akov prepared a gift for Esav, prayed and, as a last recourse, readied for war. He also divided his family and property into two camps so that should Esav smite one, the other could escape.