The cycle of the Jew's existence revolves around a very
precise and marvelously exact orbit between "And for all the
mighty hand and for all the great fear which Moshe did before
the eyes of all Yisroel," which concludes the Torah, and "In
the beginning Elokim created the heavens and the
earth" at the beginning of the Torah. There is not even one
moment's pause from "the mighty hand" -- which, notes Rashi,
"received the Torah as the Tablets, in his hands" -- until
"Bereishis boro . . . "
"For the sake of the Torah which is called reishis
darko, and Yisroel, who are called reishis
tevu'oso."
This is the unique structure of the Jewish life system, which
is based on a cycle of completion and resumption. Each day is
also a disparate spiritual unit, with beginning and end, an
ongoing cycle, as is each week, each month and each year. All
of these units are governed by laws bound up with completion
and commencement. This is the vitality which emanates from
the eternal world, which is beyond our understanding, but
which was given to us to vitalize us in a continuous fashion,
as we say, "And an eternal life did He implant in us."
Once a year we complete the reading of the Torah, and resume
it immediately anew. We complete a tractate and immediately
commence the first mishna of the succeeding one. Every
beginning has its roots in its predecessor and every
siyum is bound up with what follows it. There is a
flowing, non-ending continuity, in the eternal aspect of the
heavenly creatures which are in a constant state of rotzo
voshov, as described in Yechezkel.
The Torah is by no means an appendix or addenda to our lives,
but the very gist and core of our being. The entire creation
exists "for the sake of Torah and Yisroel," both of which are
reishis, prime. It was established according to this
divine plan. "The Holy One looked into the Torah and created
the world [from this blueprint]," says the Zohar.
Yisroel is vested with the mission to uphold the world
through the Torah. By studying it and fulfilling its
precepts, man is upholding the world, as the Zohar
elaborates. Without it, he has no justification, no
purpose in this world. And without the fulfillment of this
mission, the world has no existence, as well. "If you agree
to accept the Torah," declared Hashem at Sinai, "fine. If
not, there will be your burial place" (Shabbos
88a).
Numerous questions were asked how this ultimatum can be
reconciled with Free Choice of man in this world. How could
Hashem coerce Yisroel to accept the Torah unconditionally?
The classic answer is the reality of millennia of Jewish
existence. History has borne out the truth that where there
is Torah, there is Jewish survival. Wherever Torah has been
shunted aside, Jewry has atrophied and disintegrated.
If so, of what meaning is the polemics of "religious
coercion" at Mt. Sinai? It was not a threat, but rather a
statement of fact. Indeed, history has proven that wherever
Torah is lacking, Jewry has been buried. It is a realistic
process of cause and effect; a result, not a punishment.
Throughout the millennia of history, Jews have roused
themselves each year with the tidings of "Bereishis
boro," knowing that this is the principle underlying the
statement, "For the sake of the Torah and for the sake of
Yisroel." This is the magic and unique formula of Jewish
survival. "So that the entire creation be cleaved together,
cohered by virtue of this primary, elemental and fundamental
root which is the starting point from which Hashem gives life
and existence to all creations" (Sfas Emes Bereishis
2). With our adherence to this reishis, we are
invested with new vitality, new re- creation, new fusion with
the source of our lifeblood, the revelation of an additional
level in the marvelous, sublime and ineffable secret of the
Eternity of Yisroel, which does not mislead.
*
One cannot argue with facts and figures. From all the
statistics and studies carried on regarding the Jewish world
population in various places, even the gloomiest studies,
what emerges is one illuminating realization: despite the
dismaying drop in the number of Jews and the most pessimistic
predictions for the future that the overall number in the
diaspora will, in the coming three decades, drop from 8.6
million to 4.4 million -- there is a constant rise in the
numbers of the loyalist ranks, the Torah-true faithful.
Those who makes these surveys cannot hide this blatant fact.
Side by side, the downward trend of the secular Jews who will
eventually assimilate themselves into nothingness is matched
by the constant upward spiral of those who pursue the
traditional Torah-oriented life as lived by our ancestors all
the way back in time. And for those who stand on the
crossroads of oblivion and survival, there is only one guide
post: a return to the roots, a rejoining of the Torah
structure of life. Thank G-d, many read the writing on this
signpost and make the choice of pursuing the right path, that
of Torah and life.
They are cleaving to the life force of reishis, the
prime and source. They realize that their only hope for
survival is to continue moving along the eternal unending
circle of end-and-beginning. Nonstop Judaism. For the only
alternative is, "There shall be your burial place."
How can it be that close to nine million Jews will be reduced
to half that number in a mere thirty years? This is a
shocking statistic by any standard! The Jewish people is in
danger of losing four and a half million of its members? This
is because they loosen the ties that bind them to
reishis, and because their birth rate stands at a
minus Zero Population Growth that cannot even fill in the
ranks of those who naturally die. Worst, however, is that
those who do remain are plagued by the cancer of mixed
marriages and assimilation. Must we seek other explanations
for the explicit rule of "if you accept the Torah, fine, but
if not . . . "
There is a vivid example of this: the very famous four
generation table drawn up by Anthony Gordon and Richard
Horowitz which is based on an extensive study carried out
over a period of three years on American Jewry. The table
presents five groups of Jews, beginning with one hundred
apiece, according to these classifications: ultra-orthodox,
modern orthodox, conservative, reform and secular. It follows
this initial hundred through three consecutive generations
with a total result in the fourth generation of 2588
chareidi Jews, 346 modern orthodox, 24 conservative,
13 reform, and only 5 Jews remaining from the initial 100 non-
religious, secular Jews.
*
The positive figure is the saving grace of this gloomy and
shocking prognosis, that is, the blessed increase of those
who are nurtured by the life-giving force of reishis,
the initial starting point which is the gift from Hashem Who
gives life and existence to all of Creation, as the Sfas Emes
noted in the previous quote.
Here lies the deep significance in our annual return to the
starting point of Bereishis. A new commencement, not
because this is the routine cycle which begins with this
first portion, but because through this return to the
starting point we rejuvenate ourselves with the divine power
that is inherent in Creation, in this world. "He created the
heavens and bends them, anchors down the earth and its
offsprings. He gives soul to the people upon it and spirit to
those who walk with Hashem" (Yeshaya 42 -- Haftoras
Bereishis).
When we return to the point of origin, to "Bereishis boro
Elokim" and a belief in the constant renewal of Creation,
we focus our will to carry out the initial design of the
Creator "Who gives soul to the nation upon it." Thanks to
this, we merit the gift of life and the unbroken continuity
to this very day, despite all that overtook our nation
throughout all the periods of our difficult, often terrible,
exile. This is the greatest marvel of all, that "A nation,
despoiled and persecuted" survives. Not by virtue of any
might or power, but because Hashem "gives soul to the nation
upon it, and spirit to those who walk with Hashem." Those who
pursue His path survive and merit, as history and statistics
bear out: "For even if you cross the waters, I am with you,
and the rivers shall not overwhelm you. If you walk in fire,
you will not be burnt, and flame shall not consume you"
(ibid.), while those who go astray have no hope save
for a return to the source of spiritual vitality of Judaism,
else they will disappear.
Some fifty years ago, the Chazon Ish predicted that chareidi
Jewry would eventually become the majority of the Jewish
people, since the secular Jews are cutting off their very
tree limb. They decree their own annihilation. He said this
long before any studies were made by sociologists and
statisticians; he did not need any demographic projections to
know the truth that is anchored in the eternity of the Torah,
in the promise of "And you who adhere to Hashem your G-d are
all alive today." Conversely, those who do not cleave to the
Torah must perish.
Actually, we don't need these charts, either; each one of us
can infer the same just by looking around and studying his
extended family and neighbors. Compare the single Torah Jews
of two generations back and their progeny and numbers of
today, to those beyond our circles who were not affiliated
with the Torah world, or those few who went astray, and how
many Jewish offspring they produced -- to what numbers they
have shrunk.
*
The most amazing phenomenon is that even in Eretz Yisroel,
many of those who were distant and ignorant are beginning to
feel a stirring for Yiddishkeit. They have come to a
realization that the only hope for our future existence lies
in the tents of the faithful, those who adhere to Hashem,
study Torah and keep its mitzvos. This is most remarkable
since it is precisely here, in the past century and more
profoundly so since the establishment of the State, where the
battle of the anti-religious forces vs. the few faithful has
taken center stage. It is precisely here that the spotlight
has shone upon the clash, with the Zionist streams determined
to oust Hashem and His Torah, as it were, from the domain of
Jewry and to create a new type of Jew tailored after the
Western model of the goy.
They did call it "Eretz Yisroel," but they veered completely
off the path we have followed since the dawn of our existence
as a nation, when Eretz Yisroel was promised to us only on
condition that we keep the Torah faithfully. "Be strong and
courageous, for you shall give this people to inherit the
land which I promised your forefathers to give to them,"
Hashem said to Yehoshua as he was about to cross the Jordan
and conquer the land. But this promise was immediately
followed by a condition and reminder, "But -- be strong and
courageous indeed to heed and keep the entire Torah . . .
This sefer Torah shall not budge from your mouth, and
you shall pore over it day and night." Metzudos Dovid
comments, "For without this, you shall not avail in
anything."
After half a century of the State's existence, it has become
apparent that something went wrong with regard to the central
point of the promise of Jewish survival. Not only did the
State not solve the Jewish problem, but it actually
aggravated it and caused our situation to deteriorate. At
this point, they can no longer bluff their way through or
distort the truth by flaunting the material success of the
State. The process of dissociation that has gripped world
Jewry as a whole is also plaguing the secular society in
Israel. Many feel that they have no ties to the land. The
secularists succeeded in uprooting the past, as they wished,
but they failed to replace this with a different set of
roots. There is no [moral, cultural or social] foundation for
the State at all, and the typical Israeli youth is still far
from returning to his true roots. He does realize that he has
been gypped, robbed of something important, as is evident
from the following excerpt that appeared in a secular
newspaper:
"For years we have felt a sensation of detachment, of life
without a past. I am an Ashkenazi, son of an Ashkenazic
family, descendant of all those who left everything behind at
the turn of the century in order to create something new in
this land of Israel. They voluntarily cut off their own roots
and willingly severed themselves from every vestige of our
glorious culture . . . I had the actual problem of identity,
of self-definition, of attaching myself to a framework of
time and place. I felt that those Ashkenazic pioneers who
came here in order to establish a state, eradicated too many
roots. The best example of this is the relationship towards a
subject like the Holocaust: instead of talking about the
outstanding Jewish culture that was destroyed and that
vanished completely, they tried to sell us stories about
rebellion [the Warsaw ghetto] and partisan warfare . . . We
Ashkenazim demanded total, absolute assimilation in the model
of the new Israeli. Today, they already realize that it
simply doesn't work."
*
Those who are latched on to the yearly Jewish cycle which
begins with Bereishis boro may also, at some period
during the year, succumb to the lure of the yetzer
hora which works full time and is alert to all possible
prey. This is why we return to the starting point and repeat
to ourselves that it is for the sake of Israel, which is
called reishis, that the world was created. "This
nation which I created for Me, shall relate My praises"
(Yeshaya 43:21). And it is this nation which Hashem
created, comments the Abarbanel, that is the very raison
d'etre of the world; this is their mission on earth.
This only holds true when the beginning of the circle links
on to the end, when there is no break. Those who severed
themselves, even if partially, by joining the holy with the
secular, deceiving themselves that Jewish survival is
possible even without the dividing partition between holy and
profane (or who reversed their priorities and put Torah in
second place) disappointed us, and were disappointed in turn.
This is what happens over the years in circles that created
the national-religious stream, and this is what is happening
lately, according to the media, in these religious Zionist
settlements, when the youth remove their kippas and
abandon the religious lifestyle as an emotional reaction to
the explosion of the dream that a ruling right wing would
prevent the return of the territories and would be able to
withstand the pressures of foreign powers.
There is an ideological crisis amongst the people who were
educated to regard Eretz Yisroel as the supreme value, the be-
all end-all of Judaism which even superseded the Torah
itself. They suddenly discover that they are standing before
a broken trough. Regarding this, HaRav Shraga Feivel
Mendelowitz zt'l, pioneer founder of Torah
institutions in America, once said:
"They (the Mizrachi) seem to have a wonderful motto:
`Eretz Yisroel le'Am Yisroel al pi Toras Yisroel.' Who
can question the validity of such a fine motto? But here lies
the error: they transposed the priorities. Instead, they
should have formulated it as `Toras Yisroel le'Am Yisroel
be'Eretz Yisroel.' You may ask what the difference is.
"The answer is that the difference is the whole crux of the
matter. It is a question of priorities, of primary vs.
secondary, of what is shunted aside because of what, and what
must be withheld at all cost. The Zionists maintain, for
example, that a sovereign country can only be achieved at the
cost of bloodshed, and this is a means that justifies the end
. . . In other words, Eretz Yisroel supersedes Am Yisroel in
importance, and Am Yisroel supersedes the Torah.
Consequently, they feel justified in making all kinds of
compromises at the expense of the Torah!
Our outlook differs: Torah was not created for the sake of
Yisroel, but the very opposite: Yisroel for the Torah, for
the Ribono Shel Olom, as the prophet says, `This
nation which I created for me, shall retell My praises'"
(Shlucha deRachmono p. 283).
