Divrei Masei
The Global Dimension of Loshon Hora
“These are the journeys of the Children of Israel, who went froth from the land of Mitzrayim according to their legions, under the hand of Moshe and Aharon. Moshe wrote their goings-froth according to their journeys at the bidding of Hashem, and these were the journeys according to their goings forth.” (BaMidbar 33:1-2) So begins this week’s parsha, introducing the 42-stop itinerary of our nation’s convoluted travel from Mitzrayim to Israel. An immediate question must be answered: Since the Torah is the ultimate compendium of eternal truth, what lessons do these names of places teach us? Eastern Europe has become a popular vacation destination for Torah Jews hoping to reconnect with their roots; has anyone ever tried to recreate the path in the Wilderness?
Citing the Moreh HaNevuchim, the Ramban tells us that the areas which these locations carve out are notably uninhabitable. Hashem made sure to guide us through these wildernesses and not more accessible ones in order that future generations could not argue that we had lived off the land in a natural way, like nomadic Bedouins. Rather, all would be forced to admit that Hashem had sustained us miraculously, in an eretz lo zarua, a land incapable on its own of supporting millions of people and their animals.
Another understanding comes from the Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 5:4). There, the Midrash brings a mashal. A man’s son fell ill. Because the malady was quite complex, its cure required traveling to distant places for a cure. The father took his son from doctor to doctor, until the son was healthy. The joyful day arrived, and the father could finally take his son home. On the way back, he pointed out all the places they had stopped along the way for treatment. “See that emergency room?” he said, “I took you there for your infection. And that clinic over there was for your seizures.” Likewise, at each station of our journey through the desert, we were challenged, and prevailed. Kivros HaTa’ava, for example, dealt with our learning to control our physical lusts.
The Sloniner Rav takes another approach to understanding our travels, one that directly takes into account the concept of ma’aseh avos siman l’banim, the eternal messages and lessons of the events recounted in the Torah. Citing the sefer Degel Ephraim, who writes in the name of the Ba’al Shem Tov that these forty-two travel stations correspond to forty-two stations of life that every Jew passes through on his or her way to shleimus, perfection, the purpose for which he or she was brought into this world. Just as our ancestors faced challenges in the wilderness that ultimately improved them, so also is every Jew confronted with a series of challenges in the wilderness of this world.
Just as this process happens upon an individual level, it is not difficult to see how it occurs in an on a national level, over the nearly 3,300 years since we entered Eretz Yisroel. Perhaps parallels can be drawn between our ancestor’s travels through the desert and our own travels through history. For example, when we were encamped at Har Sinai, Station 12, we sinned with the Eigel HaZahav, which involved idol-worship, murder (of Chur), and immorality (when the sinners “got up to ‘revel’” (Shemos 32:6). We lost levels from our close relationship with Hashem (thus we also lost the two crowns of Na’aseh V’Nishma), and journeyed to Kivros HaTa’avah, Station 13, where two major events occurred: First, we complained about the mann, received quail, and while eating it, received a great blow from Hashem as a punishment for rejecting His gift of mann. In addition, Moshe asked for and received help from Hashem in managing the nation; the institute of the Sanhedrin, the seventy elders, was made an official authoritative body of the nation. From there we journeyed to Chatzeros, where Miriam and Aharon spoke loshon hora between themselves about Moshe and were punished. Then we traveled to Risma, where the entire nation sinned because of the spies’ loshon hora and was punished with forty years of exile in the wilderness.
Why was this place called Risma? Rashi there (33:18) tells us that this name teaches us a lesson about the spies’ loshon hora. He refers us to Tehillim 120, where Dovid writes, “Hashem, rescue my soul from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. What can He give you , and what can He add to you, O deceitful tongue? [You are like] the sharp arrows of the mighty; with coals of rosem-wood.” (2-4). Says Rashi there: loshon hora is likened to embers of rosem wood, which glow inwardly, even after they seem to have been fully extinguished. Likewise, those who speak loshon hora tend to put on a face of friendship to their victims while spewing gossip about them behind their backs. Indeed, the spies made themselves appear as if they were utterly concerned for our welfare, but the reality was quite different.) The next twenty-seven stations – nearly all our time in the wilderness -- encompass the many years of wandering that came as a punishment upon the nation for that sin.
Likewise, we lost Bayis Rishon for the sins of idol-worship, murder, and immorality (Yuma 9b), lost our especial closeness with Hashem through navua, and were forced into exile in Bavel, Madai, and Paras, lands whose owners were know for their gluttony. Indeed, the sin which precipitated the need for the miracles of Purim was our presence at Achashverous’s feast. Our three days of fasting buried our lusts, and we were able to journey back to Eretz Yisroel under the aegis of the Anshei Knesses HaGedola, the Men of the Great Assembly, and rebuild the Bais HaMikdash, with all its chatzeros, or courtyards. While there we witnesses firsthand the destructive power of being divided, as nether elements such as the Misyavnin and the Tzaddukim preyed upon us. Finally, we lost Bayis Sheini because of sinas chinam, senseless hatred, which goes hand-in-hand with loshon hora, (Yuma ibid.) The rest of our history – most of our history -- has been spent wandering throughout the world, atoning in one way or another for that sin.
We must ask ourselves: There are three hundred sixty-five negative mitzvos, sins to be avoided, in the Torah. Yet it seems that the effect of loshon hora far outweighs the others. After all, it kept our ancestors out of Eretz Yisroel for forty years, and it has been keeping the geulah shleimah away from us for millennia. Why is that?
Says Rabbi Mendel Kessin, there is yet another dimension of loshon hora, even worse than the first (as described in Divrei Metzorah), incredible as that may seem. Because we have been unaware of this dimension, the Soton has been able to stride among us with impunity, inflicting death and destruction wherever he goes.
Rabbi Kessin explains based upon the Kotzker. Ever since the beginning of time, Hashem has been sending down a shefah, a flow of Divine energy, which constantly creates and maintains every aspect of our universe. One could imagine it as an infinite series of cables which connect everything to its source of power Above; if something’s cable were to be cut, it would immediately cease to exist. Both Adom HaRishon and the Nachash, a physical manifestation of the Soton, had their own cables of shefah. When Adom listened to the advice of the Soton, reality was changed in many ways. We know that death was brought into the world, but there were other changes, as well. Among them was that Adom gave the Soton a unique level of existence. From this time on, Adom’s purpose would no longer be to merely reject the Soton by not allowing it to convince him to eat from the Tree of Knowledge; now that he had indeed been convinced by the Soton, he had to destroy it. How? Hashem so to speak cut the cable leading from Himself to the Soton and reattached it to Adom’s cable, forming an inverted “Y” shape, with one strand going to Adom and the other to the Soton. Hashem then sent down only enough shefa for one side to flourish. Should Adom do mitzvos, he would receive the shefa and therefore both grow and succeed in spirituality and even develop an appetite for more mitzvos. Likewise, the Soton would grow weak and eventually die. However, should Adom sin, he would weaken in his spirituality and therefore feel more attached to the physical world, and the Soton would receive the shefa and grow strong. In any case, however, it was Adom, not the Soton, who determined which way the shefa flowed
At Har Sinai, the Jewish nation took over Adom’s role. In fact, from this perspective, the entire history of Klal Yisroel takes on a new dimension. Every time a Jew does a mitzvoh, he brings down even more shefa from Hashem to himself and to Klal Yisroel. On the other hand, when a Jew does an aveira, the Soton is able to take that nourishment. We see this inverse relationship spelled out in Shem’s prophecy to Rivka about her yet-to-be-born twins. Rashi there (Breishis 25:23) states: “They [Yaakov and Esav, whose corresponding malach is the Soton] will never be equal in power; when one rises, the other falls.”
Now in order to survive, the Soton must get the Jews to sin. In addition, the Soton can take from this shefa only when a Jew is judged and convicted in Bais Din, and that process depends upon that Jew participating in loshon hora (as described in Divrei Metzorah). Therefore, while the Soton will of course try to get a Jew to sin in any manner that the Torah prohibits, he focuses upon the sin of loshon hora, for that enables him to open his cases against Jews, prosecute them, get convictions, punish them, and take from their shefa and grow in power.
Still, what happens when the Soton grows? What does he do with his newfound power? Look at the destruction of the First Bais HaMikdash. Within a century after that terrible day, a number of significant developments occurred in the non-Jewish world. For one thing, the city of Rome became a republic and began its ascent to power. In addition, Greece entered its “Golden Era” of knowledge and philosophy, with such individuals as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagoras laying the foundations for what is today called Western civilization. To the east, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism were all founded in that century.
Is all this a coincidence? Certainly not. As the Jews continued to sin during the period leading up to the Destruction, the Soton grew in power until he was able to approach Hashem and declare, “The Jews do not want you, but I do!” Now, once the Soton controlled the shefa, he distorted it and gave it to the non-Jewish nations, which then acquired earth-bound philosophies which reflected their physical-based perceptions of reality. In this case, we lost our extraordinarily high level of Torah learning (in the days of Chizkiyah HaMelech, every single Jew -- even children – had known every single halacha) at the very same time that Western civilization, a collection of humanistic philosophies, came to the forefront. We also lost nevuah, the ability to attain a certain high perception of Hashem and His Will -- and at the same time, in the East there arose meditation-based philosophies, which focus upon using inward direction for avodah zarah.
This is one level of meaning in the verse in Eichah, “Her princes and kings are amongst the nations, there is no Torah, and even her neviim find no vision.” In other words, the powers of Torah and nevuah that we lost now appear in a perverted way among the nations. This is the concept of “sechintah begalusah.” Yechezkel begins his prophecies with a description of the siluk Shechinah, that the Divine Presence left the Bais HaMikdash. Where did it go? Not to shamayim, but into exile, as the posuk in Devarim (30:3) testifies that when we will return to Tziyun, v’shav Hashem es shevuscha, that Hashem himself will return with us. However, when the Shechina is in exile, others have access to it, through the Soton.
What is the Soton’s ultimate purpose? He desires to eventually expose Jews to these perversions of Yiddishkeit, cause them to abandon Torah, and then turn like cancers upon their still-loyal brethren.
This process happened again during Churban Bayis Sheini. Once again, we lost a level of closeness to Hashem, and once again, the nations came up with a new religion – Christianity. Isn’t it bizarre that of all religions for the dying Roman empire to adopt, that it would take on, of all things, a hollowed-out version of Judaism, which came from their own worst enemy, Israel? Yet here is a religion based loosely upon the Torah, to the point that Christians consider themselves the new chosen people! The same case could be made for Islam. And to this day, Christians and Muslims have considered it their sacred duty to convert Jews and to mercilessly persecute them should they refuse.
The past millennium has seen this pattern in an extraordinary way. The Yeshayahu says, (60:22) “B’ito Achishena –In its time, I will hasten it.” The Zohar tells us of a hidden message: “B’eis hay,” in the time of five, after the fifth millennium since Creation, I will hasten the coming of Moshiach by beginning to bring the light of Moshiach down to earth. Says Rabbi Kessin, this light refers to great hidden wisdom, “chochmah penimius,” which reveals the inner workings of the universe. Through this wisdom, a person could be able to see how this physical world emanates from the countless spiritual worlds above it, and how they in turn emanate from Hashem.
Now, this wisdom actually began to come down in the year 5000, which corresponds to the year 1240 C.E. If we were to understand the seven millennia of world history as an elaboration of the six days of creation, with the seventh day, Shabbos, corresponding to the time of Moshiach, then the year 5000 corresponds to Thursday at sundown. Indeed, it is no coincidence that the Zohar, the classic sefer of kabala, which describes the spiritual components of reality, was revealed at this time, for that is in fact the beginning of the wisdom of the light of Moshiach. Other great writers, such as the Ramban, began to incorporate kabala into their works at this time, and not long afterwards, the city of Tzfas became a center for Kabalistic learning, with such luminaries as the Ari z”l, Rav Chaim Vital, and the Ramak delving into the treasures of hidden wisdom.
However, at this time, some unusual developments began in the non-Jewish world. An English monk, Roger Bacon, turned twenty in the year 1240. He went on to revive the Aristotelian view of the world (chochma yavanis), speculating upon lighter-than-air flying machines, microscopes, and telescopes, and popularizing the word “experimental science.” At the same time, the first flowerings of the Renaissance began in northern Italy, eventually spreading throughout Europe over the next several centuries. While Renaissance art is the most visible product of that time, the most potent result came from the many thinkers who began to inductively probe into the natural world. At the same time that the sages of Tzfas were exploring the hidden wisdom of the Zohar, Desiderius Erasmus was rejecting church dogma in favor of the study of human nature, and Leonardo da Vinci was penning his treatises on architecture, cartography, mechanics, and anatomy, filling them with concepts of remarkable inventions such as the submarine. At the end of the seventeenth century, the father of modern science, Sir Isaac Newton, formulated his theories of gravitation and motion, which directly precipitated the Industrial Revolution. He also laid the foundations for calculus and optics, building the first reflecting telescope and thereby giving the world its first porthole into the distant heavens.
Where did all this come from? As Rabbi Kessin has pointed out, if the Jews sin, then the Soton receives the flow of Divine energy, twists it into a physical caricature of its spiritual form, and gives it to the nations. In this case, the light of Moshiach, a divine wisdom which gives insight into the spiritual worlds, was converted into a body of knowledge that shows the mechanics of the physical world. And what is that? Science.
As time went on, the Jewish people began to lose more and more shefah to the Soton. The kitrug, the prosecution against us, was so strong that not only did we lose this shefah, but instead of the ohr Moshiach, we received Shabsai Tzvi, the greatest false moshiach in this exile. When we look back, we may wonder how he managed to convince so many thousands of Jews that he was the true Moshiach. What’s more, during this time, the Chelmnicki massacres killed a third of Europe’s Jewry. Only a decree from shamayim could have brought about such tragedies.
Moving ahead to the present time, past 5750 (1990), which takes us past midday on Friday, we see that this process has only accelerated. No one can dispute the utter domination of science in our world. Every area of human endeavor, from geology to sports medicine, has seen incredible advances; and those advances only pile up more rapidly as time goes on. The child who heard by mouth of two shy brothers coaxing their rickety machine a few yards above a North Carolina beach became the senior citizen who watched the Apollo moon landings on TV. Just a 360-degree gaze around our kitchen would bring into view a treasure-trove of technology, the envy of any nineteenth-century king, from the many varieties of easy-to-clean plastics to the time-saving appliances, to the plentiful food which take so long before going bad.
Perhaps the most blatant example of the incredible advance in science can be found in computers. In ’65, a journalist for Electronics magazine asked one Gordon Moore to opine on the trends he saw in the then-nascent semiconductor industry. Moore, who would found Intel Corporation three years later, guessed about the then-implausible fantasies of ”home computers” and “electronic watches.” His most famous prediction, however, was that the number of components on a silicon chip would double every year or so. He wasn’t far off; Moore’s Law, as it is now called, which postulates that computer power doubles every eighteen months, has proven true from that time until now (’05) and shows no signs of letting up, as this year’s computer models make their ’04 versions seem woefully antiquated and inadequate. To work out the numbers, mere personal computers today are thousands of times as powerful as the most advanced systems of the day Moore spoke. As Moore told The Economist magazine (3/26/05), “Moore’s Law is a violation of Murphy’s Law (“Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”). Everything gets better and better.”
And because super-powerful computers are immediately applied to all other areas of human endeavor, their effect is exponentially multiplied. Hospital wards now look like computer control rooms, as flickering screens and handheld devices replace the famous black bags of yesterday’s physicians. Computer-generated weather models are taking the guesswork out of forecasting. Summer camps used to entice parents to send their children by advertising the benefits of fresh air and outdoor living; their main thrust today is “We’ll unwire your kid!” by requiring campers to leave at home their cell phones, instant messengers, IPODs, X-Boxes, and other electronic goodies, and in doing so not only reintroduce them to the natural world, but also force them to actually relate to other people.
Furthermore, this phenomenon has grown far beyond its origins in Europe and then the United States; third-world-country citizens fill the graduate science departments of American universities, and some Indian colleges are several times more selective than Harvard ever was. And there seems to be no end in the near future; in 2004, 65,000 American high-school students participated in science fairs – but China had six million!
Certainly we have benefited from the many advances in science, along with the rest of the world. There has been a terrible price, however. Why does the Soton want the world to be filled with knowledge of science? Until science’s advent, atheism was unheard of; it had no intellectual underpinnings. Science, however, can be construed to present a form of reality that does not include Hashem, chas v’shalom. Once the Soton could influence the nations into giving up their religions (which, twisted they may be, still involve an awareness of a divine being), he could then turn the nations onto the Jews and “enlighten” them. How many millions of Jews abandoned their Torah when confronted with the very real powers of science? From simple shtetl yidden who were bowled over by their first glimpse of a locomotive train, to ambitious university students who felt obligated to drop their “backwardness” in order to get ahead, the fires on the altar of science have had no shortage of fuel. Today, nine of ten Jews are nebbuch totally non-religious, with at most a token “seder,” an occasional bagel, and a casual visit to a temple on the High Holidays to show for their heritage. We have no idea how many millions of “gentiles” are in fact lost Jews who fell away from our nation over the centuries. Furthermore, gedolim are becoming a rarity, as the siyatta d’shamaya dries up more and more. What’s more, the sheer effort to become a ben Torah has become a larger and larger mountain. As one rav ruefully observed, “The [primary] purpose of kollel today is to make frum ba’alabatim!”
For generations, Torah leaders have labored for their wayward brethren’s return from the grips of the Soton. The Piasatznah Rebbe (author of Chovos HaTalmidim) did kiruv work on prewar Polish campuses, and the Bostoner Rebbe did kiruv work on postwar Boston campuses. As HaRav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch thundered in his essay, “Next Year may we be in Jerusalem” (found in The Hirsch Haggadah): “Does the telegraph convey only – or even mostly – tidings of joy and peace throughout the world? Does the locomotive transport only wares of blessing and salvation from one land to another? Does the light of knowledge, the magic of technology, bring the world to the peak of happiness? Has the formula been found for resolving the contradictions of science so that, like the seven-branched menorah of Tzion, the heavenly lights are turned towards the earthly and the earthly toward the heavenly, fusing into one flame which illuminates on high?”
We who have either kept ourselves from venturing outside the wings of the Shechinah or have returned underneath them, cannot and should not sit smugly. Every week, major Torah newspapers run multi-page kol korehs, complete with signatures of gedolim, begging us to remove the Internet from our homes and so spare ourselves from the destruction that that has come so many times from exposing our neshamos to the worst the world has to offer. Multi-function cell phones have wreaked demolition among our young. Furthermore, the simple act of working at a computer has proven dangerously addicting; a factory which up to now has specialized in designing parochos for our aronei hakedoshim and mantles for our sifrei Torah now features in its catalog a velvet cloth sewn in the shape of a computer-screen cover and embroidered with “Zachor es yom haShabbos li’kadsho.” Have we become so attached to our flickering screens that one could actually forget the holiest day of the week (and of the year)? Sadly, yes.
Based upon this concept of the Kotzker, however, world history and our relationship to technology take on an entirely different dimension. Since all the advances in science came ultimately from the Soton, who had taken the ohr Moshiach that had been meant for us, had twisted it into a force for understanding the physical world, and had given it to the nations, we must take another attitude every time that we visit one of those big-box electronics stores to buy yet another appliance. As we gaze in wonder at the latest super-small, yet super-speedy computers (far faster than last year’s model) and marvel at the latest that technology has wrought, a sad thought must cross our minds: “All this is but a perverted shadow of what was really meant – for us!”
Says Rabbi Kessin: Look at the damage done by loshon hora. Not only does a Jew’s speaking or believing loshon hora enable the Soton to prosecute him and then punish him, but this sin also gives the Soton the ability to take the kedushah which was meant for us, pervert it, and give it to the nations, who then can use it against us. Furthermore, when the Soton is able to take from the ohr Moshiach, the advent of Moshiach is delayed, and he is able to continue his destruction in ways never imagined before. On the other hand, one who guards his tongue not only preserves his mazal, his good fortune, but continues to direct the shefa of kedushah to Klal Yisroel (to both his and all Israel’s benefit), including the ohr Moshiach, thus directly hastening Moshiach’s arrival.
Returning to the ma’aseh of the Chofetz Chaim and the besotted yet ambitious bochur (see Divrei Metzorah), now we can understand how the Chofetz Chaim could promise that anyone, even the simplest Jew, who avoids loshon hora would merit a level of Gan Eden comparable to his own. Rabbi Kessin brings a mashal. Imagine a lake owned by a royal family. One day, the queen and her children were out boating, when their craft overturned. The king, who was standing at the shore on the far end, had to watch in anguish as his family began to drown. Suddenly, he spied a palace official on the other side. He screamed out, “Save my family!” The officer heard, jumped into a rowboat, and pulled the queen and all her children from the water. Is this king going to give this official a mere token reward for obeying his orders? Certainly not! He saved the royal family! That official is going to be set for life! Likewise, says Rabbi Kessin, Hashem is our King, and we are His children; any Jew who guards his tongue is in effect saving many other Jews, for he is weakening the Soton’s power on a global scale and therefore is helping to end the galus and bring Moshiach, who will bring back all the Jews, even the most lost, as the Rambam declares in The Yad HaChazakah (Sefer Shoftim, Hilchos Melachim 11:4). And likewise, Hashem will reward us in the greatest way possible. While we cannot imagine the greatness of this reward, the Chofetz Chaim estimated it by comparing it to his level of olam habah.
In Kitzur Kavanos, the Ramchal notes that of the required 100 tekios of the shofar, the first thirty are to atone for immorality, the second thirty are for spilling blood, the third thirty are for idol-worship, and the last ten – blown at the end of Mussaf, when we have reached a pinnacle of closeness to Hashem – are dedicated solely to atone for loshon hora. Nine torrid days of teshuva later, on Yom Kippur, the Cohen Gadol enters the Kodesh HaKadashim. Can there be a more exalted moment in Israel? Yet what is such a holy man trying to accomplish while in such a holy place, on such a holy day? He is burning ketores – an atonement for loshon hora! Why do we focus our spiritual energies so much upon cleansing ourselves of loshon hora? We hope to stop the Soton from diverting our kedushah for his nefarious ends.
Furthermore, the Kli Yakar (Shemos 4:3) comments upon Moshe Rabeinu’s famous dialogue with Hashem at the burning bush. Why did Moshe initially refuse Hashem’s command to lead Klal Yisroel out of Mitzrayim? His last contact with his nation had been Dasan and Aviram’s malshinus upon him, when they informed Pharaoh that Moshe had killed a Mitzri. Moshe had then understood the reason behind Klal Yisroel’s sufferings – loshon hora was still rampant among them. Therefore, Moshe still assumed that the situation had not changed. Hashem then informed Moshe that indeed, Klal Yisroel had done teshuva and had cleansed themselves of loshon hora. To prove His point to Moshe, Hashem gave him a sign of his hand becoming afflicted with tzara’as, then being cured. Says Rabbi Kessin: when the Creator and Guide of the Universe and the greatest person who ever lived planned together the greatest event in human history (until the advent of Moshiach), they focused their strategies upon the sin of loshon hora. Why? What about the other mitzvos? When two generals discuss strategy for an upcoming battle, they do not focus upon trivia. Only loshon hora enables the Soton to strengthen himself with kedushah and give it to the nations. In this case, he was sapping Israel’s strength and giving it to Mitzrayim, who were then enslaving Israel more and more as time went on. In fact, the Midrash says three times that the reason we merited to leave Mitzrayim was because we had no “delaturia” – no more ba’alei loshon hora -- among us.
During every Kedushah of every Shabbos Mussaf, we remind ourselves of Hashem’s assurance, namely, that the Second Redemption will be like the First. (See Rashi on Yeshaya 11:11) Likewise, just as our ancestors’ guarding their tongues brought them out of Mitzrayim 190 years early, so also can our avoidance of loshon hora bring Moshiach. How? Just as our ancestors silenced the Soton with their own silence, so can we. And when Moshiach does come, we will gather round him and beg to know, “What took you so long?” He will take out of his pocket a list of those who refrained from loshon hora and thereby brought his coming. The Chofetz Chaim tells us that there is a place in Gan Eden so lofty that even those who dwell in other areas there have no concept of its greatness. That place is reserved only for those who avoided loshon hora.
As we look beyond this Shabbos into yet another Nine Days of aveilus, culminating in Tisha B’Av, now is the time for action After all, says Rabbi Kessin, who is the posek hador on shmiras haloshon? The Soton, of course! Therefore, we must beat him at his own game and both learn and implement the laws set forth in now-numerous sefarim, notably the Chofetz Chaim and those works based upon it, so that we may soon joyously announce, “This year in Yerushalayim!”