The ceasefire with Hamas continues, and more hostages are being released in exchange for murderous terrorists. There is disappointment but understanding, as Israel needs to agree to these terms in order to save lives. There are still many who claim Israel was never able to halt the humanitarian aid being flooded into Gaza, and that would have pressured Hamas even more. Why couldn’t they stop it? There are too many people around the world crying over the plight of the poor Palestinian population. All the innocent bystanders, the uninvolved Gazan civilians. (Too quote one of the recently-released hostages: there are 2 million terrorists in Gaza, no civilians.) And as the released hostages begin to share their experiences, we are truly seeing how horrific the enemy is.
How can we stomach hearing all this? Remember all those pro-humanitarian-aid protestors? How they were and still are still crying over the terrible suffering of the Palestinians? They have turned the Jewish victims into the aggressors, and the evil ones into victims! Doesn’t it make your blood boil?!
There are fascinating medrashim found in the Yalkut Shemoni, which are appropriate for our times and will hopefully give us some encouragement.
At the end of parshas Shemos, the story of Rachel is told. It was during the three months of gezeidas hakash, when Pharoh decreed to stop providing straw for the brick-making, that Rachel was helping her husband to complete his quota of bricks. She was pregnant, but sadly miscarried into the mud. In the hectic movement, the fetus was mixed in the mud and was formed into a brick. They all cried out to Hashem from the anguish of their desperate situation. The malach (angel) Micho’el came down, and brought the brick up to Shamayim and placed it before the Kisei Hakavod. On that night, the bechorim were killed.
Now, it can’t be that this story happened right before makas bechoros. The back-breaking labor had already ended by makas kinim when all the dust disappeared, and did not resume afterwords. As well, the gezeiras hakash was before the makos began. (Additionally, there’s another source which places this story as happening while Moshe was in Midyan). Either way, the malach Micho’el had taken the brick and was saving it. For when? To bring out by makas bechoros, to highlight the Mitzriim’s extreme guilt and justification for receiving such dreadful punishments.
In parshas Beshalach, the medrash brings several claims and arguments from the malach of Mitzrayim, Uzah (every nation has a malach, or sa’ar, officer, in Shamayim). He came before Hashem to argue his nation’s defense, and their right to return Bnei Yisrael to slavery as they were leaving Mitzrayim. He called for Micho’el, the sa’ar of Klal Yisrael, to hear his accusations and arguments before Hashem. Hashem called upon Micho’el to take the case.
Uzah began: B’nei Yisrael are supposed to be by me for 400 years, and that has not yet happened! Allow me to return them to Mitzrayim!
Micho’el didn’t have what to answer. Hashem said, “I have what to say in their defense.” He responded to Uzah: “I told Avraham Avinu that they would be in a land which was not their own. I never said Mitzrayim. As well, I calculated the time from the birth of Yitzchak when Avraham came from the Plishtim, so they were already foreigners. Now they could leave.” Uzah backed down.
By the Yam Suf, Uzah again came to argue. He said, “Hashem, you want to drown the Mitzriim in the Yam Suf? Why? They didn’t hurt, drown, or kill any of B’nei Yisrael! (Slaves need to be busy and kept in line, so any deaths aren’t counted. That’s just part of the business!) Just because B’nei Yisrael were enslaved, you’re going to drown the Mitzriim?! That’s not fair! Additionally, Klal Yisrael already received their payment, as they took all the wealth from Mitzrayim!
Hashem called together all the malachim and said, please judge between Uzah and I.
Hashem said: I brought a famine to Mitzrayim, and I sent Yosef to save them. B’nei Yisrael came down to join him as honored guests. Then, the Mitzriim decided to enslave them with great cruelty! I heard B’nei Yisrael’s pained wails and desperate cries. (Who told Pharoh to enslave them? They would have suffered enough by just being strangers in your land. The slavery itself was wrong!) I sent Moshe and Ahron to Pharoh, and he mocked them. He checked his list of gods but couldn’t find me on his list. He denied my existence. Moshe said, “Hashem created the world and controls it. He creates babies inside their mother’s stomach…” Pharoh responded, “I created myself and the Nile!” Since he denied my existence, I sent ten makos to show him my power. Finally, at the end, he was forced to release Bnei Yisrael. Now he’s chasing them to force them back to Mitzrayim. Him and his army aren’t deserving to be drowned?!
The malachim all responded: Mitzrayim is guilty as charged!
Uzah said: Fine, I agree - the Mitzriim are guilty. But, please have rachmanus, mercy, on them anyway!
That’s when the malach Gavriel brought out that brick and said to Hashem, “Aren’t the Mitzriim the ones who enslaved and tortured your children? Just look at this! For them, he’s asking for mercy?!”
Immediately, Hashem switched to midas hadin, the trait of exact judgment, and drowned them.
The Mitzriim cried for rachmanus over their own pain and suffering. Their cry for rachmanus, after everything they did to B’nei Yisrael, is what sealed their fate. That is what gave the push for their destruction. The Beis Haleivi says that rachmanus is the worst cry the Mitzriim could have made. When they knew they were guilty, and they cried for mercy anyway, that’s what unleashed the full force of din on them.
Perhaps this is why it was Gavriel who brought the brick before Hashem. Gavriel is the midah of gevurah, strength, which is necessary to bring out the midas hadin in this situation, to bring the punishment the Mitzriim were so deserving, even while they begged for rachmanus.
As well, these two midrashim, one saying it was by makas bechoros and the other by the Yam Suf, are the same. They were both at times that the midas hadin needed to be displayed with its full power.
The rule is that whatever we see happening in this world is a reflection of what’s happening in Shamayim. And the real action is happening Above. If the nations are riled up down here, antagonizing and attacking each other, then it means that Upstairs their malachim are fighting. When the nations are attacking Klal Yisrael, in Shamayim they are attacking us. And when we hear all the cries for mercy for the obvious enemy, then we should realize that Upstairs that’s what is happening. They are all behaving just like Mitzrayim did!
We should realize that everything we’ve seen this past period - all the pro-Palestinian supporters - are sealing their own fate. They are all 100% guilty. Their cries of “rachmanus” are exactly what will bring about their complete downfall.
Let us all pray that we are zoche to see the grand finale very soon, with the coming of Moshiach!
Based upon shiurim heard from Rav Yisrael Altusky shlita, Yeshiva Torah Ore, Yerushalayim.
