Opinion & Comment
The Reason for the Churban
by HaRav Boruch Shmuel Deutsch

Part I

Yirmiyohu the novi laments (9:11-12), "Who is the wise man who may understand this, and who is he to whom the mouth of Hashem has spoken, that he may declare it? Why did the land perish, and is burned up like a wilderness that none passes through? And Hashem says, `Because they have forsaken My Torah which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked therein, but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Ba'alim, as their fathers taught them.'"

The gemora (Nedorim 81a) writes, "The sages and nevi'im were asked [what `nor walked therein' means], but they could not explain it, until HaKodosh Boruch Hu Himself explained that [the Jews at the time of the churban] did not make a brocho on the Torah before they studied it." The rishonim revealed to us the depth of this sin, one that the sages and nevi'im at the time of the churban could not grasp. See the Ran (ibid.) in the name of Rabbenu Yonah, who interprets the sin as being that the Torah was not sufficiently important for them to make a brocho on it.

The Rambam seems to rule that bircas HaTorah is derabonon, since he does not cite bircas HaTorah in his Sefer Hamitzvos. The Shaagas Arye (chap. 24) asks that from the above gemora we can infer that bircas HaTorah is mideOraisa. If it were derabonon, having been initiated by the Anshei Knesses Hagedola who lived several generations after Yirmiyohu, it would have been impossible for it to have any connection to the churban. If, on the other hand, bircas HaTorah is mideOraisa, Jews were obligated to say it long before the destruction.

This kushya on the Rambam can be resolved, since the Rambam had another way of interpreting the above-mentioned gemora. In Teshuvos Pe'er Hador the Rambam himself writes that at the time of the churban, "even if there were several talmidei chachomim in the beis knesses, [those present] would give an aliya to a Cohen who was an am ha'aretz or who was lesser than they in wisdom . . . and [by doing so] they caused this [churban], since they diminished the honor of a talmid chochom and those who study the Torah." The sin's depth was their diminishing kvod HaTorah by honoring those with less Torah knowledge.

The Chidushei Chasam Sofer (ibid.) writes: "I understand that the [people living at the time of the churban] considered the Torah as being inferior -- only like the wisdom of other nations. Someone priding himself on his knowledge of wisdom would first tell about his knowing other wisdoms, and would conclude by saying, `And I am proficient in Torah too.' The Torah writes `towards the body of the menora' -- the Torah's light -- `the seven lamps shall give light' (Bamidbar 8:2) -- referring to the other seven wisdoms of the world, indicating that they should serve the Torah's wisdom, as the Rambam writes." Although the Chasam Sofer is stating a chidush, his fundamental principle, that degrading lomdei Torah can, chas vesholom, cause a churban, is surely unarguable.

In fact, to reach a recognition of the value of lomdei Torah we are first obliged to correctly value the Torah itself.

The Torah declared a special day of matan Torah for us. But is there not a daily mitzvah of "teach your sons and your son's sons the day that you stood before Hashem your Elokim in Choreiv" (Devorim 4:9)? The Chida in fact considers this mitzvah of remembering the revelation on Mount Sinai, when Hashem gave us the Torah, to be one of the Torah's constant mitzvos.

If so, why do we have a special mitzvah to remember Matan Torah on Shavuos? It is understandable that on Succos the Torah declared a special yom tov, "that your generations may know that I caused bnei Yisroel to dwell in succos when I brought them out of the land of Egypt" (Vayikro 23:43), but to remember our receiving the Torah we do not need another mitzvah. We have such a mitzvah every day anyway.

This question is actually relevant to Pesach too. We are commanded on the Seder night to remember yetzias Mitzrayim. This too is difficult to understand. Are we not anyhow commanded to remember our leaving Egypt "all the days of your life" (Devorim 16:3) -- by day and by night? Why do we need a special mitzvah to remember it on Pesach night? (It is possible that this too is included in the meaning of mah nishtanah that children ask, "Why is this night different from all other nights?")

We find the answer to this question in the Haggodo: "We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt... and if HaKodosh Boruch Hu had not taken us out of Egypt, we and our children and our children's children would have remained enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt." On this night we do not remember only the bare fact of our leaving Egypt. We remember that if we had not left we would have continued to be Pharaoh's slaves. In this way we reach the state where we fulfill: "In every generation a person is obligated to see himself as if he left Egypt." The Rambam (Hilchos Chometz Umatzah 7:6) explains this as meaning that a person must feel, "as if you yourself were a slave who was freed and redeemed."

It seems to me that matan Torah was given to us so that -- besides the actual remembering of matan Torah - - we will remember what would have happened to us without matan Torah. Likewise, the whole mitzvah of remembering our emergence from bondage to freedom on Pesach is because of yetzias Mitzrayim's main objective: "When you have brought the people out of Egypt you shall serve Elokim upon this mountain" (Shemos 3:12). Without matan Torah we and our children would have remained embedded and immersed in the forty-nine gates of tumah.

Chazal (Pesochim 68b) write, "All agree that on Atzeres (Shavuos) a person's own pleasure is needed too, since it was the day on which the Torah was given." Rashi (ibid.) explains that "this day is pleasant and well- accepted in the estimation of Yisroel, for whom the Torah was given." There is a special simcha in that bnei Yisroel were not left immersed in tumah and without Torah. This is why Rav Yosef (ibid.) would make a special meal on Shavuos, since he said, "Without that day, how many `Yosefs' would there be in the marketplace?"

This recognition needs to be strengthened by us from time to time. We must reach a clear recognition that without accepting Torah and mitzvos, every Jew is, chas vesholom, liable to plummet down into the forty-nine gates of tumah. "If the Creator had not created this one medicine (Torah) for this wound, it would be altogether impossible for a person to cure himself of this wound without that medicine" (Mesilas Yeshorim, chap. 5). Studying Torah is the only way to overcome the yetzer hora, which daily stalks us and tries to kill us. The Chovos Halevovos writes about the yetzer hora: "You are unaware of it but it is aware of you." The main way to escape temptations of lust and thoughts is kabolas HaTorah. Without kabolas HaTorah a person can wander far off the right path.

We must realize that this-worldly desires are not something logical. Someone is not attracted to such things because he thinks they are good. He is drawn to them without a rational explanation of any benefit he can possibly derive from them. An example of this is smoking cigarettes. A person knows that smoking does not bring him any benefit, that it is not healthful, and that it only damages his health, but he anyway wants to smoke.

Maran the Rosh Yeshiva HaRav Elazar Man Shach shlita once said that we see the yetzer's strength in the Torah's statement, "Pharaoh's heart is heavy." Many people are amazed and wonder how Pharaoh could possibly act so foolishly. Maran told us how, when Yerushalayim was besieged and shells were flying between the houses, there were some prominent Jews who wanted to smoke a cigarette and actually went outside to do so. Maran HaRav Shach said: "Didn't they know of the danger involved in what they were doing? They surely did. Did they think that smoking a cigarette overrides pikuach nefesh? Of course not. But they wanted to smoke a cigarette and that's it. Our case is the same," said the Rosh Yeshiva.

When a person is faced with the temptations that Olom Hazeh presents, it is insufficient to explain to himself that succumbing to those temptations is illogical, or that it will harm him, and other such rationalizations. The yetzer hora works on another level altogether. What drives a person to lustful behavior is his animal nefesh, which does not understand arguments. Even if a person's intelligence grasps that something is wrong, the yetzer pulls in the opposite direction.

The only way for a person to fight against his animal nefesh is to accept the yoke of Torah. By doing so, and through engrossing himself in Torah studies and attaining pleasure from them, a person acquires the power to abstain from all the vanities of Olom Hazeh. He feels satisfaction, pleasure and happiness from his Torah study. This is exactly what Chazal (Kiddushin 30b) teach us, that "a person's yetzer tries to overcome him every day, and if not for HaKodosh Boruch Hu helping him he could not subdue it." HaKodosh Boruch Hu gives us the power to resist the yetzer, and that power is the Torah!

The Chossid Ya'avetz said that during the time of the Spanish Inquisition those who were moseir nefesh were those who had emunah peshutah in Hashem, and not those whose belief was based on philosophy. Indeed the best philosophy cannot persuade a person that he needs to martyr himself. Only a person who has emunah peshutah implanted in him is prepared to sacrifice his life, since for him the only life is the one the Torah dictates.

In this way HaRav Eliyahu Dessler zt'l explains why throughout history we see many Jews who sacrificed their lives for Hashem although they were not on a high spiritual level. There are two ways by which a decision between good and evil can be reached: either a person can be intellectually convinced that good is good, or else it is implanted in his nefesh that evil is so evil that life with it is worthless.

This can be compared to telling someone that either he will die or be turned into an animal. A person does not have to be on a high level not to want to live the life of an animal. For those who lived in previous generations, the idea that death was preferable than life without Torah was an unmovable, fundamental principle.

A hundred years ago, in the year 5658, a writer who was one of the first Zionists described how the Jewish State would look. He depicted Jews closing their stores in the afternoon without even locking them. "Why lock the stores? Jews are not thieves."

The question is, what was that writer's mistake?

He lived in the year 5658 (1898). At that time he knew that Jews were not thieves. This was an indisputable fact. I do not know if nobody ever stole anything, but surely they did not commit armed robbery. Murder was never prevalent among Jews.

However, this particular writer thought that the fact that the Jewish Nation observed the Torah's laws had nothing to do with their not being thieves or murderers. The two factors were, for him, merely coincidental. He thought that it was possible to establish a Jewish State without Torah, to uproot the Torah from Klal Yisroel, and still have a country where Jews do not steal or murder. He thought this was an ingrained, natural trait of Jews.

We know differently. Jews are the "most brazen among the nations" (Beitzah 25b). As far as their nature is concerned they are brazen and inclined to do anything and everything. Only the acceptance of Torah and mitzvos is what nullifies that brazenness. The moment a Jew throws off the yoke of Torah and mitzvos he can become a thief, a murderer, and much worse.

Perhaps the Torah is actually telling us not to be misled by such a mistake when it writes, "See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil . . . therefore choose life, that you may live" (Devorim 30:15,19). The obvious question is: What kind of a choice is that? When a person sees life and death, he will certainly choose life. But the Torah is talking to a person who says: "I surely do not want death or evil. What I want is another way to live, without observing the Torah."

HaKodosh Boruch Hu says to that person: "There is only one way to live. If you sanctify yourself and observe what I told you, that `[the Torah] is our life,' you will be saved from death. If instead you look for other ways or segulos, then what is waiting for you is only death and evil."

End of Part I

HaRav Boruch Shmuel Deutsch is a rosh yeshiva in Yeshivas Kol Torah in Yerushalayim.