Opinion & Comment
Kabolas HaTorah and The Final Redemption
by HaRav Sholom Schwadron, zt'l

We can further explain this comparison to an eagle. Just like no bird can fly like an eagle because the eagle flies higher than all birds, so too am Yisroel. HaKodosh Boruch Hu raised Bnei Yisroel from the lowest depths in Mitzrayim to the high heavens at kabolas haTorah as it is written, "ve'ovi eschem eilai, and I brought you to Me."

Am Yisroel felt themselves becoming closer to Hashem, because in Mitzrayim they were on the forty-ninth level of tumah and each day after leaving Mitzrayim, for fifty days, they left one level of tumah and ascended one level of kedusha. This is the purpose of sefiras haomer -- to prepare for kabolas haTorah in kedusha and taharo, like we say after counting sefirah, "You commanded us to count Sefiras HaOmer to make us holy and purify us with Your exalted holiness." Chag Ha'azeres is called Shavuos because we prepared our soul by counting the days and weeks to reach kabolas haTorah.

How happy we must be on Shavuos that we were zoche to receive the Torah on this day, as it is written in posuk chof, "Atem re'isem ki min haShomayim dibarti imchem, you saw that I spoke to you from heaven." Rashi explains, "Hirchon Shomayim ushemei shomayim vihitzi'o al hahar, He bent the heavens and spread them out on the mountain." After kabolas haTorah, Klal Yisroel was exalted; they saw with their own eyes that Hashem spread out heaven before them. No other nation was zoche to this, only am Yisroel, the chosen nation.

We bless Hashem in bircas haTorah, "Who has chosen us from all the nations and has given us His Torah." Likewise we say the brocho of shelo osani goy, who had not made me a gentile, everyday. HaRav Yitzchok Aizik Sher zt'l said that even the most simple Jew who goes into shul and says the brocho of shelo osani goy, to which gentile is he referring? Even to a gentile like Aristotle, a great philosopher.

Every single Jew thanks Hashem that He did not make him a gentile like Aristotle who investigated and, at the end of his life, recognized his Creator with his intellect. Still, he was a goy. His recognition of his Creator does not compare to the recognition of the most simple man in Klal Yisroel who was chosen from all other nations because Hashem gave us His Torah.

Chazal say, "I created a yetzer hora, I created Torah as its anecdote." The gentiles, who do not have the Torah, steal and murder worse than wild animals. We saw how their leaders, Stalin and Hitler yemach shemom, killed many millions of Jews with all types of cruelty. Klal Yisroel, who received the Torah, has the ability to overcome the yetzer hora which is why we say the brocho of shelo osani goy.

The Final Redemption

"That will not be measured nor counted."

We are now in the last generation before the upcoming redemption, be'ezras Hashem. I will tell you something I heard from HaRav Isser Zalman Meltzer zt'l and HaRav Elya Lopian zt'l that he heard in London from HaRav Elchonon Wassermann zt'l when he delivered his last speech before returning to Baranovitch.

Reb Elchonon said that many years before World War II, the Chofetz Chaim said, "You should know that a world war will come in a great conflagration; the first world war will seem like a child's game compared to the second world war." HaRav Elya Lopian was present when HaRav Elchonon Wassermann zt'l delivered a speech in London and parted from the people of England and said that England will also suffer from the birth pangs of Moshiach. "And I know," so he said about himself, "that I am travelling to Kovno to be moser nefesh with acheinu bnei Yisroel, al kiddush Hashem."

The day after Shabbos kodesh, he traveled. It is well known that they took him and the people of his city out to be moser nefesh al kiddush Hashem. (The Germans yimach shemom buried the people of Kovno alive Rachmono litzlan.) Before they took them out to slaughter, HaRav Elchonon Wassermann lectured on hilchos kiddush Hashem and told them that a korbon becomes posul with improper thoughts. My dear brothers, please don't think improper thoughts, chas vesholom that will pasul the korbon . . .Noirah ve'oyom!

When HaRav Elchonon Wassermann told the people of England what the Chofetz Chaim said, as was mentioned previously, he continued that the people around the Chofetz Chaim zt'l became very frightened and asked him what will be? The Chofetz Chaim answered that the following posuk will be fulfilled: "Lima'an Tzion lo echeshe veganosi al ho'ir hazos lema'ani ulema'an Dovid avdi, For the sake of Zion, I will not remain silent and I will protect this city for My sake and the sake of My servant Dovid."

The Chofetz Chaim also spoke about -- many years before the Holocaust -- the reason that this generation suffers more than previous generations, and he was referring to the Holocaust in which more than six million Jews were slaughtered in a horrible manner Rachmono litzlan. He compared it to a wholesaler who would give merchandise on credit. One time he said that he will no longer give credit, but only sell for cash; only one who pays in cash will receive merchandise. Why? Because he was closing up his wholesale business. He was, therefore, collecting cash and demanding payment for all the debts of the past years.

The Chofetz Chaim zt'l said the nimshal! In every generation that was obligated for its sins, Hashem waited patiently until the next generation, like Chazal said, "Kol ho'omer HaKodosh Boruch Hu vatron, yevatru mei'ov, Whoever says that Hashem overlooks, his intestines will be overlooked." But still, in each generation Hashem was slow to anger until the next generation and so on. He demanded a little payment in each generation of the golus. But in this generation, Hashem is closing up the burden of golus and is therefore demanding payment of all the previous generations' debts Hashem yeracheim.

But we hope that the debts have already been collected. The Soton is only dancing before his expiration and seducing the reshoim of am Yisroel to sin. But he will not succeed, and in the end they will do teshuvah. And the posuk of ubehar Tzion tihiye pleito vehoyo kodesh, and on Mt. Zion will be a refuge and it will be holy," will be fulfilled. On this posuk the Chofetz Chaim said that vehoyo kodesh is written with a dot in the final hei because in the end they will be holy and do a complete teshuvah.

In the haftorah of Parshas Bamidbor it is written, "Vehoyo mispar Bnei Yisroel kechol hayom asher lo yimad velo yisofeir, and the number of bnei Yisroel will be like the sand on the seashore that cannot be measured nor counted" (Hoshea 2,1) In Yuma 22b they ask, if it is written "and the number of bnei Yisroel . . .," then bnei Yisroel are numbered, but the posuk contradicts itself because it says "that cannot be measured nor counted." The answer is that when Yisroel does not do Hashem's will, they are numbered, and when Yisroel does Hashem's will, they cannot be measured nor counted!

The Maggid of Dubno asks, doesn't it say in the very same posuk that bnei Yisroel are numbered and that they can not be counted? It also says in the same posuk, vehoyo bemokom asher yomar lohem lo ami atem, yomar lohem bnei Keil chai, and it was in the place that He said to them you are not My nation, He will say to them the children of a living G-d." Is it not a self contradiction? We can learn the pshat in the gemora's answer.

The Dubno Maggid said a moshol to a guest who came to shul on Shabbos and saw how they were giving aliyos -- the first to someone on the eastern part of shul and the second, to someone on the west. The guest wondered, "Why don't they give aliyos in the order of the seats?"

The gabbai answered, "When did you get here?"

He answered, "On Thursday."

"And when are you leaving?"

"On Sunday."

"If so, why are you asking why this one didn't get an aliya? I already gave him an aliya last week. The other one got an aliya two weeks ago. There is an order here, according to a plan . . ."

So too, people ask, why doesn't Hashem do such and such? HaKodosh Boruch Hu created all the worlds and you, mortal man, when were you born and how long are you on this earth -- seventy, eighty years? Hashem created a world that exists six thousand years, and he conducts all the matters of the world and man's actions and plans -- everything. If so, why are you asking questions? Can a creation understand the actions of the Creator!

The Maggid of Dubno explains the aforementioned gemora: Even when bnei Yisroel are not doing Hashem's will and they are numbered, still they can not be measured nor counted. Why? Because, like the posuk finishes, "In the place that He said to them you are not my nation," like we saw at the Holocaust Rachmono litzlan, still, in the end it will be good, and "He will say to them the children of a living G-d."

Understand! It says, "Shir hama'alos beshuv Hashem es shivas Tzion hoyinu kecholmim" (Tehillim 126,1) When someone is sleeping and has a bad dream, he gets very scared as if it were real, but when he wakes up in the morning he sees it was just a dream. So too, when Hashem returns the captives of Zion, "we were like dreamers" -- then we will realize that all the afflictions we endured when bnei Yisroel were numbered, will be for the good, that cannot be measured nor counted. And the following posuk will be fulfilled: "Vehasirosi es lev ho'even venosati lochem lev bosor, and I will remove the heart of stone from you and give you a heart of flesh."

Speedily in our days.