It has been a busy but extra-fulfilling week for me. Monday was spent driving to drop Mendel off at Newark Airport for his Israel Summer Program. Tuesday was my actual birthday and a last push for the 1st Annual Raffle (See winners below). Wednesday was teaching JLI and Thursday was a beautiful Whiskey and Torah event for my b-day and raffle drawing (see winners below).
One story that I read this week (from the JLI course) moved me so deeply that I shared it last night at my b-day event and I feel I have to share it with you here. Oh, and it ties well into this week's Torah portion Balak.
It is about Natan Sharansky and is from his book with Shira Wolosky Weiss, Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy, pp.24-25. For those unfamiliar, Natan Sharansky is famous for being a refusnik who spent 9 years in Soviet prison as he defied the USSR and tried to emigrate to Israel. Here is the excerpt in Natan Sharansky's words:
"A few days before my arrest, an American tourist gave me a small book of Psalms from my wife, along with a letter she had written. In it Avital explained that she had carried the Psalms with her all year, during her travels around the world to fight for my freedom and for the freedom of Soviet Jewry. Now, she wrote, I feel that you should have it so I am sending it to you. Back then, my Hebrew was in no way adequate to read that book. After I was arrested, the book, along with all my other belongings, was confiscated. Then I began to think about the Psalms and about the note from Avital. The book soon took on an almost mythical meaning for me. I started to fight to have it returned, a battle that continued for three years. I finally received the book along with the news that my father had passed away. I tried to read it, but I still understood little. I had to work my way through it slowly, page by page, comparing different lines, trying to recognize patterns and connect words to each other. The first lines I understood were those of Psalm 23: “Although I walk through the valley of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.”
I noticed that in the Psalms, the word fear kept appearing. On the one hand, fear was something to be overcome, such as not fearing evil. But as Yirat Hashem, or the fear/awe of G-d, it had a positive connotation. It took me time to understand what this fear of G-d meant. My understanding was at first very vague and uncertain. But at some moment it occurred to me, seeing it many times, that this fear was connected not simply to G-d the Creator but to the image of G-d in which man was created. Mankind was created to be worthy of that image and to be true to it. This required me to go forward in an honest and direct way, without compromising principles. This fear, the fear of not being worthy of the Divine image, not the fear of death, was what I was most afraid of in my interrogations with the KGB. I was afraid to lose the world of inner freedom I had found, to fail to stay true to my inner self, to no longer conduct myself in a way that was worthy of the divine image."
Wow. To me this is gold. This is what it means to be a real religious person with faith and reverence for G-d. It is not fear of something out there but rather respecting something deep inside our core. This is what gave Sharansky the power to resist the KGB dictatorship.
This is what Jews have brought to the world. Many dictators don't like this but it is the truth and by standing strong we teach all of humanity what it means to be a human being, that we are all created with deep powers that stem from our soul being created in the image of G-d.
This week's parsha is Parshat Balak. The Torah tells us that Balak was a non-Jewish king who hated the Jews. This Jew-hater hired a prophet by the name of Balaam to curse the Jewish people. Balaam was a person with great spiritual powers who was able to curse and bless, and Balak expected him to inflict much harm on the Jewish people using his curses. Balak and Balaam both couldn't stand the Jewish people and that G-d chose them for a historic mission to be a light unto the nations.
In the end - you guessed it - the plan backfired. Not only didn't Balaam curse the Jews, he ended up blessing them.
Let this be a message to Jews everywhere and the world at large: We must and will continue shining the light that Sharansky was talking about.
No one will be able to stop this mission and destiny. People can try to imitate Balak and Balaam , but in the end we saw what happens - not curses but blessings will come to the Jewish people, and we will extend those blessings to all of humanity.
Good Shabbos/Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yitzi and Rishi Hein