"NOT ALL HATE IS CREATED EQUAL"- p. Tazria-Metzora

Beit Midrash

Torah Portion and Tanach
Vayikra
Tazria

קטגוריה משנית

Shabbat and Holidays
Jewish Holidays
Yom Haatzmaut

Female Lesson Parashat Hashavua Series'Library Piskei Din (Hebrew)Test Yourself

We read in this parsha about how part of the Tikkun of tzara'at, or punishment for Lashon Harah is that in the olden days, one had to leave his city and even family (Vayikra 13, 46). Man is defined in creation as "M'daber", a "speaker", for our essence is our ability to speak (Targum of Br. 2, 7), which is something we do with our fellows. One of the central tragedies of galut we commemorated on Yom HaShoah is that we are reduced to live as vulnerable individuals, and lost our national self and respect, and part of our essence as people and Am Yisrael. Galut is a 2,000 year Tikkun & punishment, where we were like the leper, away from our nation, City, and often even splitting our own families! The Jew "fought with his passport", on which there is only YOUR picture. When on the run, you can't even save your parents, spouse or child, how much more so, your fellow Jew from outside your family!
We always comforted mourners that they should be comforted "together with all of the mourners of Tzion and Yerushalayim: (Prisha, Y.D. 393), for the real comfort is to be with YOUR own. Unfortunately for 2,000 years that comfort did not come (until now)!
Perhaps because of the universality of anti-Semitism, as expressed in chazal ("[It's a] halacha that Esav hates Ya'akov", Sifre Bamidbar 69), we unfortunately sometimes tend to make simplistic associations, & lump all this hatred together, for in fact "in every generation the [gentiles] rise up to eradicate us" ("והיא שעמדה"). Similarly, as Jewish history is somewhat cyclical, we somewhat justifiably associate our present war with Iran as just another link in that chain of "Anti-Semites".
On the other hand, Rav Kook (Ayn Aya Brachot 7, 15) explains that just as it's important to learn history ("זכור ימות עולם") for it somewhat repeats itself, but the continuation is "בינו שנות דור ודור" (=examine and notice the differences between every generation).
As we've written previously, although they are so close on the calendar, there is no comparison between Yom HaShoa and Yom HaZikaron, and how much more so, the systematic eradication of 6,000,000 Jews in the Shoah is totally different on almost all accounts from our present war with Iran. There's no comparison between having to occasionally carry our children to the shelter just to be safe, and the child (later Prof.) Yaffa Eliach's baby brother being suffocated so the Nazis won't hear his crying reveal the family's hiding place.
Not only are we Jews comforted today in being back together again "in Tzion and Yerushalayim", and not only are we stronger than we were 80 years ago, but even compared to 2 years ago, before Oct. 7th/Simchat Torah. Hamas is hiding like mice in their tunnels, Lebanon and Syria are begging us for peace treaties, and even the giant Iran is helpless against our air-force. Our status in the Mid-East, the world and the present President Trump, the most influential person in the world, is stronger than it ever has been for the past 3,000 years (with some specific exceptions right after the Six Day War), and approaching what it was in the time of David HaMelech. With Hashem's help, "we've come a long way"!
According to the US News, we are the 10th strongest country in the world (militarily and economically) out of 193 in the United Nations (ahead of England, Canada and almost everyone)! We hope that the present cease-fire will lead to good peace agreements, because BH they are out of a position of strength and not weakness. We surely have a lot to thank Hashem for on this coming יום ד'/Wed., Yom haAtzma'ut! Chodesh Tov & Shabbat Shalom! Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)

Yom Haatzmaut

Tazria