Rabbi Yekusiel Yehuda Halberstam, the Klausenberger Rebbe

The following is from the Klausenberger Rebbe’s Chumash Rashi shiur, Metzora 5736 (1976).

The main principle of emunah that a Jew must have is to realize that we are nothing. As we say in the Siddur, “What are we? What is our lives? What is our kindness? What is our righteousness? What is our salvation? What is our strength? What is our might? Are not all the mighty ones like nothing before you and the famous ones are as if they were not and the sages are as if they had no knowledge and the understanding ones are as if they had no logic because most of their deeds are empty and the days of their lives are empty before you for all is emptiness.” All plans of humans and the power of humanity is like nothing and vanity.

And when someone is on this level of emunah, no one can beat him because who can stand up and fight against Hashem Yisborach? And as a person acts, so he is treated by Hashem (Sotah 8b). When he knows that he cannot do anything without Hashem and everything is the finger of G-d, everything that he wants is given to him by Hashem. We only conquered Eretz Yisrael because Hashem gave it to us. So no creature in the world could go against Hashem and take it from us, take away from us what He gave us.

This is what Rashi means (Bereishis 1:1): “Why did the Torah begin with Bereishis? Because it says in the posuk, the power of His deeds He told His people to give them the inheritance of nations, that if the nations of the world say to the Jewish people, you are robbers because you conquered the land of the seven nations, they will say back to them, all of the earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed is He. He created it, He gave it to whoever He wanted. He decided to give it to them and He decided to take it from them and give it to us.” This means that if someone comes to conquer with his own power, with the most updated weapons, then we can say he is a robber. But if he doesn’t do anything himself, but just takes what Hashem gives him, then you can’t come with that accusation against him. Aren’t the Jewish people allowed to surround the walls of Jericho and say Viyehi Noam and blow the shofar? And if Hashem knocked down the wall in front of them, then why shouldn’t they continue inward? When the angel of Hashem went out and smote the camp of Sancheriv, killing 185,000 men, and they woke up in the morning and they were all dead (Yeshayah 37:36) – is it possible to blame us for that? Therefore, when they come with the argument that we are robbers for conquering with our own power the land of the seven nations, we answer to them: you are lying, not we took it – because we have no power on our own – but Hashem gave it to us, and is it our job to figure out where He took it and from whom He took it?

And indeed, as long as the Jewish people believed this, with strong bitachon in Hashem Yisborach that everything we have was given to us by Him, we had no fear of anything because whatever Hashem gave us was eternal. “The blessing of Hashem is what makes us rich and there is no nervousness with it” (Mishlei 10:22). If wealth came from the blessing of Hashem, then there’s no need to be nervous and afraid of robbers because Hashem is the one blessing us and He’s also the one guarding His gift. And there is no need to have nervousness and worry that maybe tomorrow we won’t have it because the word of our G-d will last forever.

However, the problem is that the Sitra Achra became powerful, over the Jewish people as a whole and over every individual Jew, and he put into them a spirit of apikorsus and heresy, saying “the strength and the might of my hand made me this wealth,” as if Hashem is not the one giving, but we have to take it ourselves with our own hands, with power, with wars, with various schemes. They think the old approach to the world, when our fathers sat peacefully with emunah in Hashem hoping for the coming of moshiach bimhera vyameinu, is already outdated. No, we must go out with a sword and a spear to conquer on our own. But this is what brought the worst destruction upon the world. Anyone who is not blind sees this clearly how this approach led to danger and tragedy, because Hashem annuls the goyishe eitzos and changes the thoughts of nations.

Now, after eighty years, the truth is coming out before the eyes of everyone, that the entire idea of Zionism is emptiness and vanity. Vanity of vanities, there is nothing to it. They preached all these years with different methods of convincing and different mistaken ideas that now have been shown to be baseless and purposeless. Because they themselves are in fear of death from the nations, just like they were afraid of the pogroms in Russia. What did the wise men accomplish with their “improvement,” when after all the trouble they have come up with failure? And in our great sins, the acts of the Satan have prevailed. And we’re not talking about irreligious Jews because it’s not our way to speak to them. Regarding them, Chazal say (Sanhedrin 38b) on the Mishnah in Avos 2:14, “Know what to answer an apikores,” that this is only talking about a non-Jewish heretic, but to a Jewish heretic, one should not answer because he will just become worse. But this poison has unfortunately has penetrated among religious Jews because they have gotten so used to reading in the newspapers and hearing the words of the non-Jews and the deniers, that they themselves have fallen into the error that one cannot sit with folded hands and one needs to “do something” and make a war.

And so one thing leads to the next, and they walk one step after another down the ladder of decline as the spirit of heresy is eaten into them. Instead of crying and praying day and night, “When will You have mercy on Zion and build the walls of Jerusalem? When will You reign in Zion soon in our days forever and ever You will dwell,” they are busy with words of political vanity, and coming up with new schemes.

And in heaven Hashem does not want this. Therefore everything is getting worse and the danger is increasing every single day – may Hashem spare us. Because if a person wants to take something on his own, then He who sits in heaven laughs and says to him, go, do whatever you can with your own power, let’s see what you can do on your own, when against the one bomb that you have, the Arabs have hundreds and thousands.

All this was foreseen long ago by the sages of the Torah and the holy tzadikkim. Anyone who was smart could have seen it back then too. But these Zionists erred and caused others to sin and therefore the posuk has been fulfilled, “He turns the wise backward and foils their plans” (Yeshaya 44:25). And we don’t mean the wise of the sinners, but those among the Chareidim who have been convinced to follow them. On the day of their holiday they put on holiday clothing and they said Hallel, with or without a brocha, and they danced and made merry with happiness. And now everyone sees that this simcha was pointless. Because after all that, they find themselves surrounded by enemies who say every day: “Let us go and destroy them out of nationhood, and let the name of Israel not be mentioned anymore.” The saying goes, the mountain gave birth to the mouse. But from all of their great mountain, they didn’t even produce one mosquito. They gathered Jews from all four corners of the world, where Hakadosh Baruch Hu had placed them in His kindness (Pesachim 87b), so that they should not be easy for an anti-Semite to destroy (Rashi), and they gathered them together to the most dangerous place in the world, may Hashem spare us.

If only now they would do teshuvah and recognize that the hand of Hashem has smitten them, they would cry and pray and repent of their evil ways. Maybe then Hashem would relent and change the evil that is coming upon them. Then I would be silent. But these wicked people see it and do not take the lesson. And all their days and nights, they think and plan how they can rebel against the King of the Universe and how they can increase their rebellion against the Kingdom of Heaven, chas veshalom.

In the Gemara (Yoma 9b) we find that the Jews in the First Temple were wicked, but they had faith in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. But today’s wicked people don’t even put their faith in Hakadosh Baruch Hu and not only that, they make an effort to spread the spirit of heresy: that we do not need to rely and trust in Hashem. Is there any greater danger than this? They take it upon themselves to fight against all the countries in the world from east to west, from north to south, and against Hashem too, chas veshalom.

The wicked people of the past mentioned in the Gemara at least spoke logically when they put their trust in Hashem, because all the nations are like nothing against Him. They said, “Hashem is with me, I will not fear.” “Hashem is with my helpers and then I can face my enemies.” But these fools, in whom do they trust? They stand up naked and empty handed, and they go shnorring with the pushka. And then they have the chutzpah to fight a war against three billion non-Jews. Don’t they see clearly that their plan has failed and that they are not intelligent? No intelligent person thinks he will be able to naturally defeat the whole world, unless Hashem is with him.

But no one is raising this subject to inspire the believers and those who follow Hashem’s word to open their eyes, to stop being blind and see how all these troubles have come in a supernatural way.