Those learning Daf HaYomi have just learned several very interesting gemaras in Baba Basra (73b). The gemara brings several peculiar stories involving wondrous sights that were seen by Rabba bar bar Chana. Of course, there is the simple translation and the simple explanation. That’s what makes all these stories incredibly difficult to understand. However, all the commentators explain that the stories all carry a much deeper explanation and message.
In one story, Rabba bar bar Chana said - we were sailing, and we saw a giant fish which had sand gathered on to its back, and grass was growing in a swamp. We thought it was dry land and went ashore. We lit fires and began to bake and cook. The fish felt the heat and began to roll over. Had the ship not been nearby, we all would have drowned.
What does that mean?
The Maharsha explains that this is referring to the times before Moshiach. Things will get so bad, that only Moshiach’s arrival will save us.
Rabbi Yaakov from Lisa, (who lived from the late 1700s thru the early 1800s) was a rav and a massive talmid chacham. He was known as the Nesivos, called so after one of the many s’forim he authored (he wrote on all areas of Torah). One work is called Emes L’Yaakov, in which he explains many stories found throughout the gemaras. He wrote the following explanation on this gemara: Rabba bar bar Chana said this story with ruach hakodesh - a Divine spirit. He was telling us what will happen before the arrival of Moshiach. The passengers on the ship are Klal Yisrael. They will try to settle and rule over a weak people (that’s the sand) who have no hope (the swamp). They’ll think it’s safe to do so (the dry land), and will begin to build up and rule over them (lighting the fire and cooking). But then, those people will rise up against them (the fish turning over), and if not for Moshiach being near (the ship), Klal Yisrael would be drowned.
Rav Boruch Ber Lebowitz zts”l (Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Kamenitz before WWII) said that the Nesivos wrote this with ruach hakodesh. (Rabbi Eli Stefansky of the Daf-Hayomi shiur quoted Rav Nochum Partzovitz zts”l of the Mir, who spoke after the Yom Kippur War saying that the Nesivos said this with ruach hakodesh.) The Nesivos explained that the gemara spoke with ruach hakodesh, and they’re saying that the Nesivos wrote this with ruach hakodesh.
Either way, the Nesivos lived when a Jewish state wasn’t even a thought. Sure, returning to Eretz Yisrael had always been our dream, but having a state wasn’t. And having a country where they would rule over a lowly people who wouldn’t cause trouble, but who would then rise up (Intifada) and cause untold suffering, was even a thought? And to have such a situation that seems so hopeless, with no real solution in sight, was even a thought?
I heard the following suggested explanation from Rav Yisrael Altusky shlita. He explains the idea of the sand and swamp. The lowly people are trampled on like sand. Sand gathers together and clumps up to be stepped on. A swamp is a place where water sits and is unhabitable. The Palestinians are a whole assortment of various peoples, not from the upper class, who migrated to this area in the late 1800s and 1900s looking for work. The Jews had come and life miraculously began to blossom in this land, so the Arabs came looking for opportunities. There is no nation of “Palestinians.” The entire area was part of the Ottoman Empire. The leading elite in pre-Israel, and then Israel, thought that these Arabs would be satisfied to live under Jewish rule, even if they’d be treated less than the Ashkenazi elite. (Sephardic Jews were also treated as low-class citizens by the Ashkenazi elite.)
But then, from the beginning, there were all the minor acts of uprising and terror. These lead to bigger and more murderous terrorism, all leading up to the difficult situation we have today.
What should Israel do now? From all those arguing on the correct course of action, no one really knows what should be done. The situation truly seems to have no good solution!
This Nesivos isn’t describing our times?
So, we should despair? Give up? No! Just the opposite. On one hand, when we see the difficult situations being fulfilled, how much more so that the good thing will also be fulfilled. Like when Rebbi Akiva saw the fox running across Har Habayis, he laughed. If this part of the prophecy is fulfilled, then the part about the redemption will also be fulfilled!
Secondly, there’s the Mishna at the end of meseches Sota, which brings a long list of happenings that will take place before Moshiach comes. The Mishna keeps repeating that we have no one to rely on except for our Father in heaven. It might sound like a cry of despair. But that’s incorrect! It’s a statement that we will declare with clarity and confidence! We have no one to rely on except for our Father in heaven who will unquestionably save us! A declaration of faith and trust!
That’s what the Nesivos is telling us. The situation will be impossible, and we will have no one to save us except for the arrival of Moshiach. Having trust only in Hashem Yisborach.
I’d like to connect this to another idea here. In a previous piece in this same gemara, there is another interesting story, which I won’t bring here (as it’s very long and involves a giant frog and a giant bird which sat on a tree), except for the very end of it. The gemara says that Rav Papa bar Shmuel said about that story: Had I not been there - had I not seen it - I would never have believed it. The Nesivos explains that Rav Papa was referring to the very end of that story, the tree, which he explains refers to Yishmael. Together with his mother Hagar, they had been expelled from the home of Avraham Avinu. Yishmael was deathly ill, and Hagar left him under a bush to die, as she moved away to cry. Lying there, he did teshuvah. Because of his teshuvah, his descendants would have the merit to control Eretz Yisrael until the end of this galus. The Baal Haturim at the end of parshas Toldos (after the Torah goes through the family of Yishmael) says that at the end of days, at the end of this galus, when Yishmael falls, Moshiach ben Dovid will come. Rav Papa was declaring in amazement that had he not seen with ruach hakodesh the reward for Yishmael’s teshuvah, he would have never fully understood the power that teshuvah has.
We are now in the month of Elul, the month of teshuvah, the special time we were given to work on returning to Hashem. Yishmael did teshuvah, and we can see the great reward he received. How much more can we gain from a complete, heartfelt teshuvah?
Our strength and power against Yishmael, especially in Elul, is to try and return to a level where we are completely reliant on Hashem, with emunah and bitachon, that He will accept our teshuvah with true love and not despair, and save us from this galus! May we merit to greet Moshiach very soon!
Adapted from a shiur given by R’ Yisrael Altusky shlita. Shiurim can be heard at the Kol Halashon website.
By R’ Dovi Chaitovsky
