Message from R’ Schonfeld: R’ Yoel Schonfeld

Years ago, during some other war that Israel was engaged in, the great Shlomo Carlebach began a song with: “The holy people of Israel are all alone. Am l’vadad yishkon!” (“A nation that will dwell in solitude” – BaMidbar 23:9). These words were first uttered by none other than our biblical nemesis Bilaam, who was commissioned by the king of Moav, Balak, to curse the Jewish people.

I did not think I would be able to write this week. Like most Jews, my head has been spinning since the news of the atrocities in Israel broke out on Sh’mini Atzeres. “If only someone would turn my head to water and my eyes to a spring of tears, then I would cry all day and all night for the slain of my daughter’s people” (Yirmiyahu 8:23).

The Megillah of Purim tells the dramatic story of the post-First-Temple Jews in Persia threatened with annihilation at the hands of Haman and King Achashveirosh. In the end, under the leadership of Mordechai and Esther, the tables were turned, and the Jews vanquished their oppressors. “V’nahafoch hu... and it was turned about, the Jews gained the upper hand over their enemies (Esther 9:1).” This has become one of the most noted phrases in the Megillah, and a very lively song containing those words is a Purim favorite.

The world reacted with universal condemnation to the widely reported, openly anti-Semitic address delivered by Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to a recent Fatah conference. He so blatantly said the quiet part out loud that a series of anti-Israel individuals and organizations, from Americans for Peace Now to James Zogby, rushed to distance themselves from Abbas with strident condemnations of their own.

We are all familiar with the teaching of Chazal, the Sages, that the Second Beis HaMikdash fell, not due to any specific sin, but rather because Jews were guilty of sin’as chinam, baseless hatred.

The very opening line uttered by the chazan on Kol Nidrei concludes with: “We give way to pray with the transgressors among us.” This is based on the Gemara (K’risus 6b): “Any fast that does not include the transgressors of Israel is not a fast.” The meaning of this is that the Jewish people are the sum of its parts. To be whole, we cannot discount any of our parts, even if they do not match the rest of the body, unseemly as they may be.