Part II
(Part I of this shmuess was printed in the issue of
parshas Eikev.)
The medrash (Medrash Rabbah Eikev parsha 3:7),
continues its comments on the posuk at the beginning
of parshas Eikev (7:9), " . . . [then] Hashem your G-d
will guard the covenant and the kindness for you that He
promised to your forefathers," with the following parable.
Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta said, "This is comparable to a king
who married a noblewoman (as queen) and she brought him [as
her dowry] two pieces of jewelry, for which the king
undertook to give her a further two pieces of jewelry. The
noblewoman lost hers, so the king also took his back. After a
time, she arose and made herself worthy and brought [back]
the two pieces of jewelry, so the king also brought his
[back]. The king said, `Both pairs should be made into a
crown and placed on the noblewoman's head.'
"In the same way you find that Avrohom Ovinu bequeathed two
adornments to his descendants, as the posuk (Bereishis
18:19) says, `For I love him because he instructs his
sons and his household who will follow him . . . to behave
righteously and to carry out judgment . . . ' for which
Hakodosh Boruch Hu undertook to give them two further
adornments, kindness and compassion, as the posuk
says, ` . . . [then] Hashem your G-d will guard the covenant
and the kindness for you . . . ' and ` . . . He will bestow
mercy on you and will have compassion over you . . .
'(Devorim 13:18).
"Yisroel lost theirs, as the posuk (Amos 6:12) says, `
. . . for you have changed judgment (i.e. the Torah's laws)
into poison (by adopting foreign laws) and the fruit of
righteousness into gall,' and Hakodosh Boruch Hu also
took away His, as the posuk (Yirmiyohu 16:5) says,
`For I have gathered in My peace . . . kindness and
compassion.'
"Yisroel arose and made themselves worthy and brought their
two adornments. How do we know? Because it is written
(Yeshaya 1:27), `Tzion will be redeemed in judgment
and her returners in tzedokoh!' This is a promise to
the latter day generation that Tzion will be
redeemed in judgment. There has never yet been a generation
like our own that has had such a fearsome and terrible
judgment meted out to it: six and a half million Jews were
slaughtered and killed abnormally and cruelly. We therefore
have to pay attention to the end of the posuk: `and
her returners in charity,' for then Hashem's kindness and
mercy will once again be bestowed upon us.
"A great man once pointed out to me that in our
tefilla we say, `Return our judges as in earlier times
. . . and rule over us in kindness and in mercy' -- in other
words, Hakodosh Boruch Hu bestows kindness and mercy
upon us. And we conclude, `Boruch . . . the King who
loves charity and judgment' -- meaning that Hakodosh
Boruch Hu loves the two adornments of charity and
judgment and we will thus merit the kindness and mercy of
which we are in such great need.
The medrash concludes, "Once Yisroel [will] have
brought theirs, Hakodosh Boruch Hu gives His . . . and
says, `Let both pairs be made into a crown upon the head of
Yisroel' -- that is, all these four good attributes,
kindness, mercy, charity and judgment -- as the posuk
(Hoshea 2:21-2) says, `And I will betroth you to Me
forever, and I will betroth you to Me in charity and judgment
and in kindness and mercy' -- the betrothal in this
posuk refers to matan Torah -- `and I will
betroth you to Me in faith, and you will know Hashem.' "
The medrash is telling us that all the good attributes
that it enumerates have to come through faith in Hashem, for
without this, even a good attribute has no value whatsoever.
This is explicitly stated in Ovos DeRabbi Nosson, perek
37. Rabban Gamliel said, "What does the posuk,
`And I will betroth you . . . and you will know Hashem' mean?
It refers to all who possess these traits and who know
Hashem . . . "
Elul Beckons
All this is particularly appropriate to the month of Elul,
when we ought to cultivate these good traits within
ourselves, despite the fact that we are still holidaying up
in the mountains, being bitten by mosquitoes . . . but this
week is already the month of Elul.
I was told by an old man who lived in Yerushalayim ir
hakodesh, in the Strauss courtyard together with the
gaon and tzaddik HaRav Yitzchok Blazer zt'l,
(one of Rav Yisroel Salanter's zt'l, five
talmidim, whom Rav Yisroel said was a gaon and
a chochom), that when Shabbos Mevorchin Elul
arrived, HaRav Blazer arose before the tzibur and
opened the oron hakodesh and said, "Ribono Shel
Olom, we are bringing in chodesh Elul, the month
of mercy . . . " and at this, the entire congregation
was overcome with weeping.
And in truth, every Jewish heart trembles -- in the sense of
the posuk, "And rejoice in trembling" (Tehillim
2:11) -- on hearing the voice of the ba'al tefilla
announcing "Elul!" As Rav Yisroel Salanter writes that
everyone is gripped by spasms of fear when Elul is
proclaimed. It is indeed the month of mercy and we are closer
to Hashem but . . . "rejoice in trembling!"
A Story: Justice in Tzedokoh
The combination "charity and judgment" implies that there is
a fairness and justice about the charity. In other words,
when giving tzedokoh, it should not be in any way to
anybody else's detriment. Here is a story about HaRav Yonoson
Eibuschitz zt'l, who, in his youth, was a great
prodigy, as is known.
When the time came for him to marry, the other side gave a
very large dowry. Rav Yonoson's father-in-law was a very
wealthy man and besides the dowry, he also gave him an
allowance for his daily needs, known as kest.
Rav Yonoson had a chavrusa with whom he learned. The
gentiles erected a monastery opposite the beis
haknesses, a place for their unclean practices. Rav
Yonoson's chavrusa -- a fifteen year old
avreich -- was irascible by nature and he was always
highly incensed at the place of tumah having been
built opposite the beis haknesses. One day he could no
longer contain himself, and that night, after midnight, he
climbed up onto the roof of the monastery and smashed the
cross that stood there.
Inside the monastery, a priest was on guard. The priest
grabbed the avreich, took him into his room and shut
him up there. He called for the avreich to be tried
and the verdict of the priests was that he should be burned
Rachmono litzlan.
The priest who had been on guard and had captured the
avreich -- who had actually been stealing large sums
of golden coins himself for the past forty years -- entered
the beis haknesses and informed the few people he
found there, Rav Yonoson among them, that they had captured
one of the Jews who had broken the cross and that he had been
condemned to burning. This priest-guard knew the great
importance of the mitzvah of redeeming captives and he
offered to let the Jew escape from the monastery for the sum
of three thousand golden coins, after which he would have to
flee the city.
Of course, when everybody there heard what had happened, they
went out to collect the money from the Jews of the town. Rav
Yonoson thought to himself, that much time would still pass
before the money was collected and in the meantime there was
a danger that the priests would carry out their verdict. He
deliberated and then went to his home and took all the money
he had been given as a dowry, gave it to the guard and set
his chavrusa free.
The men who had gone to collect the ransom money eventually
returned with it and Rav Yonoson told them that he had
already merited to perform the mitzvah and that nobody else's
money was needed. Rav Yonoson then considered what to do
about his wife who, when she found out that all the dowry
money had disappeared, would certainly be annoyed. He decided
to travel away for several days, on the pretext of needing a
rest, until his wife would have a chance to calm down.
When the other priests discovered that the guard had allowed
the Jew to escape, they decided that he should be put
to death. The priest ran to Rav Yonoson's home and brought
with him all the gold and silver that he had stolen from
others over the past forty years, telling the
rebbetzin that he had to flee the city because his
life was in danger and, having seen Rav Yonoson's
righteousness in giving his own money to rescue his friend --
he told her the whole story -- he had decided to deposit all
his money in their home, as well as returning the three
thousand gold coins that he had received as ransom, to them
as a gift. The priest-guard then fled and was pursued by the
gentiles, who caught up with him on the bridge over the
river. They threw him into the water, where he drowned --
Hashem, may all Your enemies come to such an end!
When Rav Yonoson returned home a few weeks later, his
rebbetzin came out to meet him joyfully and told him,
"Now I know where the dowry money disappeared to and now
we've become wealthy, for the guard left all his money here
and he has been killed . . . "
On hearing this, Rav Yonoson began to cry, bemoaning the fact
that the mitzvah he had done had been flung back in his face.
He meant that having been rewarded for his mitzvah in this
world was a sign to him that Heaven did not agree with what
he had done. He fasted for three days and asked a question
about the incident to be answered in a dream. The answer he
received was that indeed, Heaven did not agree with what he
had done. The reason was that he had not wanted others to
have a share in the mitzvah of redeeming the captive.
This is an example of what we mentioned earlier -- that there
has to be justice within charity. Although such a
`shortcoming' is only applicable on the level of a great
person, of the stature of Rav Yonoson Eibuschitz, everybody
on their own level should try to fulfill both tzedokoh
and mishpat.
May we merit kindness and mercy from Hakodosh Boruch
Hu and may we merit the rebuilding of our Beis
Hamikdosh and the complete redemption, Omein!
