BS"D
YESHIVAT HARA'AYON HAYEHUDI
Jerusalem, Israel
HaRav Yehuda Kroizer SHLIT"A, Rosh Yeshiva
PARSHAT KI TAVO
18 Elul 5767/31 August-1 September 2007
THE DELICATE BALANCE
“Gaze down from Your holy abode, from the heavens, and bless Your people
Israel, and the ground that You gave us, as You swore to our forefathers, a
land flowing with milk and honey.”
The great bond between the Jewish people, the Land and Hashem is
manifested in our parsha though the mitzvah of bringing the first fruits,
those seven fruits which the Land of Israel is known for, to the Holy Temple
in Jerusalem. For the blessing of Hashem is two-fold, not only on the Jewish
people but also on their Land. Rashi points out that as long as the Jewish
people are doing what they are commanded to do - the mitzvot - then Hashem
will take care of His people, as the Torah tells us: “If you will go in My
commandments, then I will provide your rains in their times." Thus the
delicate ecology is kept balanced.
The Midrash teaches us of this great bond: “Let the first bring of the
first, to the first, to the first place, to the First of all". Let the
first - the Jewish people, of whom it says, Holy is Israel to Hashem, the
first fruits of His produce. Bring the first - the fruits. To the first - to
the priests, who are the first and foremost in the service of the Temple. To
the first place - the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, to the “First” of all - G-d,
as it says: “I, Hashem, am first and with the last I am He”.
When Moshe began to cite the words of the reproof, as found in our
parsha, the earth shook, the heavens trembled, the sun and moon darkened,
the stars lost their shine, the forefathers cried out from their graves, the
creatures
became silent and the branches of the trees no longer swayed. Moshe
immediately reassured the people and told them that if they keep the Torah,
then there will be nothing to worry about, for all of this comes about only
if the Jewish people do not hearken to the Torah.
Still, one can see what happens if the great balance is broken between
the Jewish people, their Land and Hashem. In the Book of Psalms (136), known
also as "Hallel Gadol" or the Big Hallel, which we read every Shabbat
morning, King David wrote there about the creation of the world: “He made
the heavens… for His mercies are forever. He formed the earth …for His
mercies are forever." Further on in this chapter, King David wrote: And He
gave the Land to His people …for His mercies are forever.” Here, too, we
find that King David wrote about that delicate balance, the balance between
the Jewish people, their Land and the Torah.
As warned by Moshe, one must not disrupt this delicate balance between
creation and the Jewish people, for the consequences can be deadly for the
Jewish people and the entire world. Especially now, with the “Shmittah”
year - the biblical seventh year - being right around the corner. If one
reviews recent history, one finds a very interesting trend - the Six-Day War
in '67, the Yom Kippur war in '73, the first intifada in 1980, the second
intifada in 1987, the fall of the Twin Towers in 2001- all took place in a
“Shmittah year”. And now, in 2008, we await another Shmittah year. One
certainly does not know what it will bring, but starting off this Shmittah
year is the Middle East conference, put together by President Bush and a
host of other nations, all gathered just for one reason: To pressure Israel
to give up parts of its G-d-given homeland. This, of course, will throw off
the balance, as King David wrote, between the creation of the world and the
Land of Israel. Already we have seen the worst storms, heat waves and
tornadoes hitting parts of Europe and the United States, Greece is burning,
and all of this even before the Shmittah year has begun.
You have been warned, if the balance is thrown off by the Jewish people
and by the nations, the world will not be the same as we know it. Now is the
time to act, the clock has started to tick...
With love of Israel,
Levi Chazen
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