It is the season of teshuvah! To awaken from our regular routine and try to improve ourselves in all areas before Rosh HaShanah. To strengthen ourselves in Torah and mitzvos, and to protect ourselves from aveiros. Even in Hezbollah, they are strengthening and protecting themselves from the dangers of technology - especially regarding shemiras einayim (guarding their eyes)! It’s a hot, explosive topic now.
Jokes aside, we are witnessing and are experiencing incredible events right now in Eretz Yisrael. From the exploding beepers and radios (which Israel has not claimed responsibility for), to the destruction of many of the enemy’s weapons and the successful elimination of many of their commanders, things are looking better for us! And with the overall success of the various anti-missile systems, there’s a lot to be proud of!
All these successes are truly amazing. There is still one major danger though. And I don’t mean Iran or any of the others, even though those are all around. Actually, something far more dangerous.
The danger is that there is a big place for one to believe that the success comes from us - our brains, our bravery. We can rely on the military, on the security forces, on the intelligence, on the government’s decisions…kochi v’otzem yadi asa li et hachayil hazeh- my strength gave me all this success. If it deducts even a little bit from our reliance on Hashem, then there’s a big problem. If we rely on something else, then Hashem won’t be there for us.
We will return to this topic momentarily.
In parshas Vayeilech the Torah tells us that Klal Yisrael will abandon serving Hashem and they will follow foreign ways. Terrible difficulties will afflict them, and they will wonder “where is Hashem”? The Torah answers that hastir astir panei - I will hide my face from them. It will seem as if Hashem isn’t there.
The gemara in Chullin asks: Where is there a hint to Esther in the Torah? The gemara answers that the hint is from this pasuk, hastir astir panei. Rashi explains that the time of Purim was a time of great suffering for Klal Yisrael, and seemed like Hashem wasn’t there. The time of the Purim story was exactly that. Coresh gave permission to return to Eretz Yisrael and to rebuild the Beis HaMikdash. Then along came Achashverosh, who stopped it. A while later (this took place over 12 years), along came Haman with his decree to annihilate Klal Yisrael. Everything had changed over the years from great to terrible. What was happening? Where was Hashem? There was a big hester panim. It was only after Mordechai and Esther were able to awaken Klal Yisrael to teshuvah that there was a salvation.
We are living in a time of hester panim, where we are very lost as to where things are going, and as to what we should be doing.
Another major point that we learned from the Purim story is the danger of relying on someone or something other than Hashem. The gemara asks: Why did Esther invite Haman to her party? Chazal give many answers. They asked Eliyahu Hanavi: Which one is correct? He responded that she had all the reasons in mind. One of the answers is, that Esther did not want Klal Yisrael to say that our sister is in the palace, we can rely on her. (The Jews knew she was Jewish; Achashveirosh did not know.) She’ll save us! Esther knew that if they relied on her, then they would not be having full bitachon in Hashem, which would not be a merit to bring the salvation. It would do the opposite! Extremely dangerous! That’s why she needed to invite Haman, so that Klal Yisrael would despair from relying on her.
Hishtadlus - putting in the effort - is one thing. Relying on it is another. We need to try. The army, intelligence, government, etc. need to try. However, for us to rely on them is the challenge. We need to work on only relying on Hashem.
The Chareidi community in Eretz Yisrael is currently facing enormous challenges coming from the government, supreme court, the army, etc. And this is when the two Charedi parties are in the government, and there are the most religious and traditional Jews in the government! People complain that the ministers aren’t doing enough. Perhaps the point is that they need to try, but we need to work on relying only on Hashem!
We can bring many examples, but it’s all the same point: bitachon on Hashem, especially during this time of hester panim. A practical suggestion would be to focus a little bit more during the Aleinu tefilah. To declare with a drop more concentration efes zulato - there is no who can help us except for Him!
Let’s now return to the earlier topic. Is there a solution to get by this hester panim?
Yes, there is. The very next pasuk after hastir astir panei is v’ata kisvu lachem - and now, to write a song and teach it to B’nei Yisrael. What song? Chazal learn from here the mitzvah to write a sefer Torah. Sefer HaChinuch says that the purpose of writing is to learn and teach from it - limud Torah, learning Torah. When Haman came to get Mordechai to lead him on the horse through Shushan, he found Mordechai learning and teaching Torah, after the three days of fasting and praying. It was the teshuvah of Klal Yisrael, with the limud Torah, which gave the power to overcome Haman!
When Amalek came to attack, Rashi brings the Medrash that Amalek (who comes from Esav and Yishmael) is always ready to hurt us, but his power is strengthened and he is able to attack and damage us when we are weak in our Torah learning.
I had the following thought, and after receiving the permission of a great talmid chacham, I would like to share it with you. Due to the troubles from the supreme court in Eretz Yisrael, the Gedolim and Roshei Yeshivos from Eretz Yisrael have been traveling all around the world to fundraise for the yeshivos. They were in the U.S., England, Mexico, South Africa, South America, France, etc. Besides for the fundraising, they are also trying to strengthen and encourage all the lomdei Torah around the world. Is this not exactly what we need right now to overcome the hester panim?! To be strengthened in this way during these difficult times, with limud Torah!
May we merit to do a complete teshuvah, accompanied by strengthening our reliance only on Hashem, and strengthening our Torah learning. Through these, we should merit salvation and a sweet new year!
Adapted from shiurim given by R’ Yisrael Altusky shlita, Yeshivas Torah Ore, Yerushalayim. Shiurim can be heard at the Kol Halashon website.
By R’ Dovi Chaitovsky
