Friday, August 04, 2006

Thoughts about Tisha Baav - Roy Neuberger - Why Lebanon?

 

THOUGHTS FOR TISHA B'AV
WHY LEBANON?

Dear Friends:

            Tonight is Tisha B'Av.

            I realized this week that I had been making a big mistake.  I had not been praying with enough passion because I just assumed that the Israel Defense Forces would take care of our enemies. 

            According to the Mishna B'rura, before one takes any medical treatment or medicine, one should say a prayer acknowledging that nothing can cure us without it being the will of the Creator.  The pill or medical treatment is an attempt on our part, as beings who dwell in a material world, to do everything within our power to get better.  But the cure comes only from G-d.

            Every day we say the blessing, "Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, Who gives sight to the blind."  What do you mean "blind"? I am not blind; I can see.  I once heard Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon explain this blessing.  NO, WE CANNOT SEE!  It is not "normal" for us to see.  It is totally a gift of G-d!  We are nothing!  We have no existence, no vision, no strength, no intelligence, no happiness, no success; we have nothing unless G-d gives it to us!  We should not delude ourselves: only the Master of the Universe saves us in every situation. 

The same is true in Israel.  Our brethren in the Land of Israel are putting their lives on the line.  Only G-d can save us. 

But why are we fighting in Lebanon on Tisha B'Av?  What do Lebanon and Tisha B'Av have to do with each other? 

My friends, you will be amazed. 

 

Last week, I was looking in the Artscroll Tanach at a map of the Biblical boundaries of the Land of Israel.  I noticed two large shaded areas, so I checked to see what they indicated.  I almost fell off my chair.  The shaded areas are the parts of Biblical Israel that were never conquered by Joshua

What are the names of those shaded areas?  Are you ready?

They are ... GAZA AND LEBANON

GAZA AND LEBANON, the exact areas that are giving us such terrible tzouris!  The two areas that Joshua never conquered for Am Yisroel today hold our most vicious enemies, from which deadly missiles, violence and hatred pour out upon us!

For days I tried to understand the meaning of this discovery.  Motzae Shabbos, before going to sleep, I asked G-d to help me.  The following morning I looked at this week's Parsha, Va'eschanan, and I saw in Rashi's commentary the most amazing answer.

The Parsha begins with Moses imploring G-d to allow him to enter the Land of Israel.  "Please let me cross and see the good land that is on the other side of the Jordan, this good mountain and.....

And what?  What is the word that Moses uses to complete this sentence? 

LEBANON!

LEBANON?

What does Lebanon have to do with this? 

Please listen, my friends, to the holy words of Rashi.

What is the "good mountain" to which Moses refers? 

"Jerusalem."

And what is "Lebanon"?

"This is the Bais HaMikdosh, the Holy Temple, which whitens ("lavan" is "white" in Hebrew) Israel's sins."

"Lebanon" is the Holy Temple, which "whitens Israel's sins."

Let us pause for a moment to digest the enormity of this understanding.

We are here, at the end of history, fighting for our lives.  We stand, in the days before Tisha B'Av, the day of the destruction of the HOLY TEMPLE, in a life and death struggle in LEBANON, which stands for the HOLY TEMPLE.

There are no accidents in history, my friends.

The Battle in Lebanon and the battle of our souls on Tisha B'Av are one and the same!  This is the battle to "whiten Israel's sins."  The nations of the world understand that we are all on the verge of the Final Redemption, when all falsehood and evil will be erased from the earth and the Children of Israel will return to our Homeland and the Holy Temple will return to Jerusalem, never to be destroyed again.

The battle in Lebanon is not about land or politics or public opinion polls, but is in fact the final stand of the enemies of the Children of Israel, the enemies of Biblical Destiny.  THE BATTLE OF LEBANON IS THE BATTLE TO PREVENT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL FROM RETURNING TO G-D AND BRINGING ABOUT THE ADVENT OF THE HOLY TEMPLE. 

Of course, we will prevail!   Our prophets have told us that history will end with the coming of Moshiach and the Re-Building of the Holy Temple.  But now it is our turn!  We are all soldiers in this war to cleanse the soul of our people and bring the Temple back forever.  We are all on the front lines with our gallant soldiers and the courageous residents of our Holy Land who are now living in bomb shelters. 

ON THIS TISHA B'AV EVERYTHING IS AT STAKE.  WE CAN NOT TAKE ANYTHING FOR GRANTED.  The footsteps of Moshiach are audible and the Holy Temple is ready to return to the Holy Mountain.  The battle for LEBANON, the "whitening of the sins of Israel" is on, and every one of us is a soldier in this holy war.

May our prayers this Tisha B'Av pierce the heavens and gladden our Father in Heaven with our complete repentance and return to Him in teshuva!

With blessings,

                                                                          Roy S. Neuberger

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