An Unstoppable Force vs. an Immovable Object – Acharei Mot-Kedoshim
דַּבֵּר אֶל כָּל עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי ה' אֱ-לֹקֵיכֶם (ויקרא יט, ב).
The Midrash (ויקרא רבה כד, ה) on the above passuk says –
תַּנֵּי ר' חִיָּא פָּרָשָׁה זוֹ נֶאֶמְרָה בְּהַקְהֵל מִפְּנֵי שֶׁרֹב גּוּפֵי תוֹרָה תְּלוּיִין בָּהּ. ר' לֵוִי אָמַר מִפְּנֵי שֶׁעֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְּרוֹת כְּלוּלִין בְּתוֹכָהּ.
"אָנֹכִי ה' אֱ-לֹקֶיךָ" וּכְתִיב הָכָא "אֲנִי ה' אֱ-לֹקֵיכֶם"
"לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ" וּכְתִיב הָכָא "וֵאלֹהֵי מַסֵּכָה לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ לָכֶם"
"לֹא תִּשָּׂא" וּכְתִיב הָכָא "וְלֹא תִשָּׁבְעוּ בִּשְׁמִי"
"זָכוֹר אֶת יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת" וּכְתִיב הָכָא "אֶת שַׁבְּתֹתַי תִּשְׁמֹרוּ"
"כַּבֵּד אֶת אָבִיךָ וְאֶת אִמֶּךָ" וּכְתִיב הָכָא "אִישׁ אִמּוֹ וְאָבִיו תִּירָאוּ"
"לֹא תִּרְצַח" וּכְתִיב הָכָא "לֹא תַעֲמוֹד עַל דַּם רֵעֶךָ"
"לֹא תִּנְאַף" וּכְתִיב הָכָא "מוֹת יוּמַת הַנֹּאֵף וְהַנֹּאָפֶת"
"לֹא תִגְנֹב" וּכְתִיב הָכָא "לא תִּגְנֹבוּ"
"לֹא תַּעֲנֶה" וּכְתִיב הָכָא "לֹא תֵּלֵךְ רָכִיל בְּעַמֶּיךָ"
"לֹא תַחְמֹד" וּכְתִיב הָכָא "וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ".
According to the Midrash above, the parsha of Kedoshim was transmitted by Moshe to Am Yisrael as part of a Hakhel ceremony, where the entire Am Yisrael had to be present, men, women and children. The Midrash gives two reasons for this.
R' Chiya says it is because Kedoshim includes most of the גּוּפֵי תוֹרָה, the cornerstone principles of the Torah. What are these "cornerstone" principles? The commandment of וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ (ויקרא יט, יח), for example, which R' Akiva (ירושלמי נדרים ט, ד) says is a cornerstone principle of the Torah, from which all other principles are derived (An interesting thing to note is this passuk is יח or חַי, as in אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה אֹתָם הָאָדָם וָחַי בָּהֶם). Another interpretation of גּוּפֵי תוֹרָה is given in the Mishna (חגיגה א, ח) which lists them - דִּינִין the halachot mentioned in parshat Mishpatim, הָעֲבוֹדוֹת the halachot of avodah in the Mikdash and korbanot, הַטְּהָרוֹת the halachot of purification like in Tazria-Metzorah etc, הַטֻּמְאוֹת the halachot of impurity (Tazria-Metzorah, etc.) and הָעֲרָיוֹת the halachot of forbidden relationships, like in Acharei Mot.
R' Levi says that the reason this parsha was given in a Hakhel ceremony is because it is a repeat of the Ten Commandments, and he lists the Ten Commandments given on Har Sinai and their counterparts in parshat Kedoshim (see above).
What is interesting to note is that on Har Sinai, the commandments were given in the singular, while in Kedoshim they mostly (all except one) appear in the plural. The Midrash (שמות רבה מג, ה) explains why. After the sin of the egel, Moshe davened to HKB"H to forgive Am Yisrael and he said "Ribon HaOlam, when You gave the Ten Commandments on Har Sinai, You gave them in the singular - אָנֹכִי ה' אֱ-לֹקֶיךָ, not in the plural אֱ-לֹקֵיכֶם. Am Yisrael might have misunderstood - that you were instructing me (Moshe) alone and not them! This is why HKB"H repeated them here in the plural, so there would be no room for doubt.
The Zohar HaKadosh (חלק ג, פרשת קדושים פד, ע"ב) gives a different explanation. At Har Sinai Am Yisrael were united בְּלִבָּא חַד וּבִרְעוּתָא חֲדָא (בְּלֵב אֶחָד וּכְאִישׁ אֶחָד) and therefore the commandments were given in the singular, However, after we sinned with the egel, we became divided and therefore the commandments are repeated here in Kedoshim, in the plural.
In this shiur I would like to focus on this perush of the Zohar and develop the principle further. Before doing so, however, let's backtrack a little to the ten plagues in Egypt and try obtain an important insight from the plague of חֹשֶׁךְ.
There is a machloket between the Mefarshim whether the plagues affected only the Egyptians and not Bnei Yisrael (Rashbam), or if some of the plagues also affected Bnei Yisrael (Ibn Ezra). Notwithstanding this machloket, there is one plague in which Bnei Yisrael were undisputedly affected and that is מַכַּת חֹשֶׁךְ.
The Israelites were not affected by the darkness in the same way the Egyptians were, that they could not see and they could not move. Instead, during this plague, the vast majority of Bnei Yisrael were decimated. There is a debate over what percentage died (מכילתא, מסכתא דפסחא, פרשת בא, פרק יב) – 80% (4 out of 5), 98% (49 out of 50), 99.8% (499 out of 500) or (what is considered the halacha - רַבִּי נְהוֹרַי) – 99.9% (999 out of 1000).
When you read this Mechilta, it completely alters the perception of Bnei Yisrael's slavery in Egypt. Firstly, it places the words פָּרוּ וַיִּשְׁרְצוּ וַיִּרְבּוּ וַיַּעַצְמוּ בִּמְאֹד מְאֹד in a completely different light. If we take the above (רַבִּי נְהוֹרַי) as indicative, we are not talking about the total population of Bnei Yisrael comprising a few million, we are talking about around 5 billion! If we take the most populous country in the world today (India, not China – with 1.42 billion, China has 1.40 billion), Bnei Yisrael in Egypt were more than three times the population of India today! If you think that is not physically feasible, that so many could fit into the landmass of Egypt, or how in a few hundred years Bnei Yisrael could multiply from 70 souls into 5 billion, you are welcome to view this video by HaRav Chen Shaulov שליט"א that explains how it is absolutely feasible.
When you think on that scale, it suddenly becomes clear how Ancient Egypt was built - the pyramids, the temples, the cities, etc. (which some researchers attribute to aliens). They had at their disposal a workforce of slaves numbering in the billions!
What I will attempt to understand is why so many of Bnei Yisrael died in Egypt during מַכַּת חֹשֶׁךְ. We are talking about a Holocaust a thousand times greater than that which occurred during WWII.
Who were those that died? According to Rashi (שמות י, כב) they were רְשָׁעִים and did not want to leave Egypt. According to another opinion (מושב זקנים מבעלי התוספות, במדבר טז, א; רא"ש על התורה, שמות י, כב) the fact that they were רְשָׁעִים was not the reason they died (we see that some רְשָׁעִים left and did not die, like Datan and Aviram). The reason was because they did not believe in HKB"H, they despaired of the Geulah and they did not want to leave.
The 600,000 (men over 20-years-old + women + children, etc = approx. 5 million) who survived מַכַּת חֹשֶׁךְ, were not all tzaddikim, in fact most of them still worshipped idols (until the day before יְצִיאַת מִצְרַיִם when they sacrificed the קָרְבַּן פֶּסַח).
The fine line that divided the billions that died from those mere 5 million who were redeemed, is that each had to make a choice – מִי לה' אֵלַי, are you with G-d or are you not? Those who managed to break free of the shackles of Egypt, were redeemed and those who didn't, perished.
This is what the Alsheich (תורת משה, שמות א:א, ד) explains was the "melting pot" of Egypt. HKB"H took all the "broken off" neshamot fragments (נִיצוֹצוֹת) from Adam HaRishon after the sin of the עֵץ הַדַּעַת and put them through the final "filter" that was Egypt. Only those neshamot that emerged from that filter were redeemed.
From the time of Adam HaRishon's sin to the time of the Geulah from Egypt, was approximately two and a half thousand years (2448 to be exact). The filtration process spanned almost two and a half thousand years (traversing the generations of Enosh, the Flood, the דּוֹר הַפְּלַגָּה, Sdom, Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, the Twelve Tribes, etc.) and culminated with the final filtration in Egypt. In Egypt, all those neshamot who required completion of tikkun from the preceding two and a half thousand years, returned in the population of 5 billion of Bnei Yisrael. Some of them achieved tikkun by dying in Egypt (being drowned in the Nile, being cemented into the foundations of the buildings), this allowed them to atone for their sins in the previous generations and merit Olam Habah.
The final result of 600,000 men over twenty (5 million people in total) was a condensation of all those pure נִיצוֹצוֹת that comprised Adam HaRishon before the sin. These 5 million achieved that same level when they stood at Har Sinai and received the Torah בְּלֵב אֶחָד וּכְאִישׁ אֶחָד, as the Zohar says. They reconstituted all the broken fragments of the original Adam HaRishon and Chava into one integral unit as they were on the 6th day when HKB"H created them. The unity at Har Sinai, was not simply unity between fellow man, bonhomie. It was a reconstitution of Adam and Chava in Gan Eden and a reset of the world to the 6th day of Creation before the sin.
What differentiated the five million who survived from the almost 5 billion who perished? It can be summarized in a single word – assimilation. The 5 million who survived, did so because they did not change their names to Egyptian names, they did not change their clothing to Egyptian clothing, they did not have sexual relations with the Egyptians (except one – Shlomit bat Divri) and they never betrayed a fellow Jew to the Egyptians.
It was not that they all refrained from all four of the above (we see that Datan and Aviram did betray Moshe to Pharaoh when he killed the Egyptian, and Shlomit bat Divri did have relations with an Egyptian, for example), but rather that they all refrained from at least one (or more). At least one remaining thread that connected them to HKB"H was not severed.
The five million who left Egypt were not all tzaddikim. Chazal tell us that (with the exception of the Tribe of Levi) they were the "pits" - they were at the lowest of the 49 levels of טֻמְאָה. However, a tiny thread remained that still connected them to HKB"H. That was sufficient. As long as a tiny thread still remains, a spark … this may be fanned and reignited into a full-blown flame. HKB"H gave them Mann, the Well of Miriam, the Pillars of Smoke and Fire. He restored "color to their faces" (ילקוט שמעוני, שמות יט) and in 49 days, took them from the "pits" to the greatest heights and reconstituted Adam HaRishon and Chava as they were before the sin.
The remaining almost 5 billion who had assimilated, did not have even a single thread, a faint spark. No matter how much "fanning" you do, there was nothing to reignite.
One would think that oppression would strengthen Bnei Yisrael's bond with HKB"H, not weaken it. So, why were there so few who still retained that bond? The answer is that oppression does return someone to their core, however, Bnei Yisrael were oppressed in Egypt for only the final 86 years (מדרש לקח טוב, שמות טו, כ). Before that they were in exile, but were not oppressed. They became assimilated into the Egyptian culture, they acquired wealth, positions of power, etc. The 86 years of oppression was a wake-up call to them. This was followed by further wake up calls – the ten plagues. By the 9th plague HKB"H said "OK, this is it! Who is with Me and who is not?" It had reached a hairline point of no return, and almost 5 billion people did not return. Those that did were outwardly indistinguishable from those that did not, but HKB"H, who is בּוֹחֵן לְבָבוֹת, can see inside a person's soul, whether a spark remains or not, despite their outward appearance.
There are three nexuses in history. The first was the Creation. Then next was almost two and a half thousand years later at Matan Torah where the world was restored to Creation for a brief period of 40 days until Am Yisrael sinned with the egel and doomed the following generations to another period of more than two and a half thousand years until the third and final nexus, the Geulah. This last two and a half thousand years period has been a similar filtration process to that preceding and culminating in Egypt. We are in the final stages of this process, we are in year 5785 out of 6000, which means whatever happens, it is for sure going to happen soon, you don't need a navi to tell you that, it is simple 1st grade math.
Anyone who examines the course of the last century cannot help but discern an acceleration in the filtration process. After 1955 years of exile and "dormancy", in the last century we have seen a sudden return of Am Yisrael to our ancestral homeland. We have seen in the last year and a half another incredible acceleration of the process on a biblical scale, reminiscent of the ten plagues.
The purpose of it all is the same as the process in Egypt – to condense and filter the neshamot. To give those who need it a wake-up call, numerous wake-up calls. The Jewish People today are in a frighteningly similar situation to that back in Egypt. We have a staggering percentage of assimilation, we have a predominancy of רְשָׁעִים who flagrantly defy the Torah – taking names of the goyim, dressing like the goyim, עֲרָיוֹת, betraying fellow Jews to the goyim, avodah zara, and more … Rachmana litzlan.
We are fast approaching the point of no return. Make no mistake, HKB"H is going to issue the call מִי לה' אֵלַי and we are all going to have to make the choice. Until then we are all mixed together, the רְשָׁעִים who still have a faint thread and those who do not. We cannot possibly tell the difference between the two, only HKB"H who is בּוֹחֵן לְבָבוֹת can distinguish between them.
What we do know is that we are all at the "narrow end" of the funnel. We are the שְׁאֵרִית פְּלֵטָה from the past two thousand years of the filtration process, so the neshamot that are present today are those who are approaching the highest purity of distillation. Am Yisrael today, despite outward appearances, is approaching the highest spiritual level of the filtration process.
When we look at ourselves and our fellow Jews, this is what we should see. Not the outer קְלִפָּה of רִשְׁעוּת that most of us have – when Am Yisrael crossed over the Red Sea, the angels could not distinguish between us and the Egyptians - הַלָּלוּ עוֹבְדֵי עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה וְהַלָּלוּ עוֹבְדֵי עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה. Outwardly one would have a hard time being able to tell the difference between most of us and the goyim. However, the fact that we have all reached thus far means that there is more under the surface.
Only HKB"H, בּוֹחֵן לְבָבוֹת, can make the true distinction between those who are lost and those who are not. We have to look at every single Jew בְּחֶזְקַת זְכוּת, as if in each of us that thread, that spark still exists. We have to all reach out and try fan that spark into a flame.
For all of us who consider ourselves close to HKB"H, we have a greater responsibility to make a last-ditch effort and try save as many neshamot as possible, by reaching out with love and truth. We need to be helping HKB"H in the reconstitution process of compiling the neshamot, by building and not tearing down. Sowing disunity among Am Yisrael is tearing down, not building. Perpetuating disunity in Am Yisrael is similarly so. Let us cease trying to label people according to their outward appearance and begin to search out that inner spark.
We have to do this while at the same time uncompromisingly follow the גּוּפֵי תוֹרָה – love and truth. Only through love and truth can the tikkun come about. It cannot be love/unity at the expense of truth, or vice versa.
We are in the midst of a מִלְחֶמֶת קֹדֶשׁ with Amalek. We cannot relinquish the truth of that for love alone. There cannot be a conflict of love. We cannot love HKB"H in preference to our fellow Jew and we cannot love our fellow Jew in preference to HKB"H. It has to be an equal love for both.
We therefore cannot surrender to Amalek out of love of our fellow Jew (the hostages in Gaza) and in so doing defy גּוּפֵי תוֹרָה and our love for HKB"H. Similarly, we cannot abandon our fellow Jew out of love for HKB"H and in so doing defy גּוּפֵי תוֹרָה and our love for Am Yisrael.
Those who love HKB"H, as most of us do, need to get that message out there – love and truth. Uncompromising in truth and also in love.
We must certainly not promote שִׂנְאַת חִנָּם by mocking our fellow Jew, regardless how much they look and act like an "Egyptian". We need to stop participating in and viewing media channels that mock. Mockery is a non-starter. Such channels are not fixing the problem, they are just echoing/reflecting and perpetuating the problem. We need to begin work on establishing media that uncompromisingly speaks the truth, but at the same time respects the opposite opinion, without belittling or mocking.
Right now, Am Yisrael are on a "Moby Dick" path, a convergence of an unstoppable force and an immovable object. If we continue down this path, the result will only be unnecessary suffering on all sides.
We need to strive for at least consensus. To contemplate total singularity of thought at this point is pretentious. We need to seek out the common ground that does exist and strengthen it, while compromising on issues that are not make or break. Winning the war is make or break. Preserving Shabbat in the public sphere is make or break. Zero Charedim being conscripted is not make or break. Waging war more surgically, thereby extending it, to try save the life of a hostage is not make or break.
Only one of the גּוּפֵי תוֹרָה in parshat Kedoshim is in the singular, just like it is in the Ten Commandments, can you guess which one it is?
"לֹא תַחְמֹד" וּכְתִיב הָכָא "וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ".
Do not confuse this with "לֹא תִּרְצַח" וּכְתִיב הָכָא "לֹא תַעֲמוֹד עַל דַּם רֵעֶךָ" – רֵעֲךָ is singular, רֵעֶךָ is plural. If the essence of the "singular" is indicative of בְּלֵב אֶחָד וּכְאִישׁ אֶחָד, unity, then וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ which is the remedy to disunity has to also be in the singular.
They are flip sides of the same coin. לֹא תַחְמֹד - by not coveting that which others have and you do not, you are fostering unity. וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ by not doing to others what you would not like done to you – you are fostering unity.
The dati/religious sector in Am Yisrael has to "change conceptions" just as much as the secular/non-religious sector. We (the dati/religious sector) have to start seeing our fellow Jew through the prism of possibility and not only through outward appearance and behavior. We have to ignore the outward קְלִפָּה and imagine that deep in there somewhere is the thread of a neshama that needs reconstituting. We need to have more respect for ourselves and our fellow Jews of this elevated pre-Geulah generation. We need to uncompromisingly speak the truth and reach out at the same time with love. This applies equally to our brothers and sisters here in Israel and also overseas.
To our brothers and sisters not living in Israel, time is running out, you are going to have to make a choice very soon. Better to initiate and make this choice consciously and calmly, rather than get caught up in a whirlwind that may not be so calm. The narrow end of the funnel ends in Eretz Yisrael.
This is the task of our generation – a furious race to save as many as neshamot as we possibly can before the point of no return, as we approach the third and final nexus.
B"H it will follow the progression of our parshiyot – תַּזְרִיעַ/מְצֹרָע – the sad episode of Am Yisrael speaking lashon harah against one another, prior to October 7. אַחֲרֵי מוֹת/קְדוֹשִׁים – the sacrifice of all those Kedoshim who lost their lives as a result. אֱמֹר – speaking the truth with love. בְּהַר/בְּחֻקֹּתַי, the final Hakhel and the Geulah בבי"א.
