Stories Of Greatness

Wednesday, 28 Iyar, June 8, 1967, was the third day of the Six-Day War, and it was the first time that residents of Jerusalem felt that the Yad Hashem was guiding the Jewish Nation to victory. Many people ventured outside and saw jeeps filled with smiling soldiers traveling toward Har HaTzofim (Mt. Scopus). The peak of joy came at dusk when the news came that the Kosel HaMaaravi, the Western Wall, had been liberated. People poured out of their shelters. The streets teemed with celebrating and emotion-laden people. The first ones to merit reaching the Kosel brought back small stones, which were passed from hand to hand. Their joy was indescribable – what a miracle Hashem had wrought for His beloved people.

As a young man, Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz chose to spend a few summers helping the local shluchim at Chabad-Lubavitch of Alaska. He would routinely stand outside the Alaska Visitors Center in downtown Anchorage with a pair of t’filin and packets of information about Jewish programs, greeting tourists disembarking from the scenic cruises along the Alaskan coastline. If they were Jewish, he would let them know where they could find a minyan or a good kosher meal.

Klal Yisrael sang a special shirah upon learning of the hidden miracle Hashem performed for them, as they passed through the mountains of Arnon. The Emoriyim lay in ambush, hoping to destroy the nation as they crossed the canyon; but instead, Hashem caused the mountains on both sides to come together, crushing the would-be attackers and saving the Jewish people.

As a young man, Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz chose to spend a few summers helping the local shluchim at Chabad-Lubavitch of Alaska. He would routinely stand outside the Alaska Visitors Center in downtown Anchorage with a pair of t’filin and packets of information about Jewish programs, greeting tourists disembarking from the scenic cruises along the Alaskan coastline. If they were Jewish, he would let them know where they could find a minyan or a good kosher meal.

The Torah describes in vivid detail how Moshe reacted to the inflammatory words of Korach followed by Dasan and Aviram, and their pathetic attempt to usurp power and rebel against the word of Hashem. “Moshe was exceedingly angry, and he said to Hashem, ‘Do not accept their offering. I have not taken a donkey from a single one of them, and I have not harmed a single one of them.’”

The Torah makes it very clear that the plague of Tzaraas (“Leprosy”) that afflicts one who speaks lashon ha’ra, is not a natural occurrence, but rather a Divine retribution that is meant to punish the sinner. His only recourse is to absolve himself of this disease through repentance and a sincere effort to distance himself from his sin. The sooner he does t’shuvah, the sooner the plague will go away, and no medication, ointment, or healing remedy will have any effect on his ailing body, since this disease is not a natural one. This, says the Alshich HaKadosh zt”l, is the deeper understanding of the pasuk: “And behold, the tzaraas affliction has been healed…from the m’tzora.” In other words, it is up to the m’tzora to rid himself of this plague through t’shuvah – not through medicinal or restorative means.