Why O'Lord do we suffer so much at the hands of our enemies? Indeed this is the rhetorical question , that I am sure so many of us are asking, especially those innocent Jews in the kosher market in Paris. How pathetic those images were as they were shopping for there Shabbat needs, as so many of us do week in and week out. This time, the hatred and evil sprung it's ugly head once again, as Jews have experienced for so many years.
It is true that I sound like I am overwhelmed as the victim of our society , and this may be true , but I need to stop thinking of ourselves as the people who dwell alone, for this will not help in finding the Nechamah that we all need at this time. Rather we are to see Judaism as a way of life and as a faith that espouses our religion, as the voice of hope in the condescension of humankind. In face of these tragedies, we must respond with greater feelings of hope and confidence in mankind , that most people down deep in their inner souls are good and that these radicals must not be permitted to speak for humanity.
Let us search for the positives in life and in doing so we will show the world how to act in times of disaster.
Our Torah portion this Shabbat speaks of how G-D relates to Moshe in respect to dealing with Pharoah.
ויחזק לב פרעה. And the heart of Pharoah was hardened
One wonders , how Hashem takes away the free will of a person and causes him to act in a certain way.
The Rambam in his introduction to Avot states,"that there are times in a persons life when the offence is so grave that he is penalized by not being granted the opportunity to turn from his wickedness , so that he dies with the sin that he committed."
In a like manner, Pharoah sinned greatly on his behalf and through his own free will. G-D did not force Pharoah to do evil to the Jewish People , but rather he sinned on his own accord whereby he forfeited his right to repent.
There have been many people in history who, like Pharoah, acted with such evil that they are truly the incarnate of evil and deserve no opportunity to repent or to be forgiven.
Such, are those that murder indiscriminately and who speak of doing so in the name of their religion. They do not deserve to be shown any mercy and even more so are to be treated like the ferocious and wild animals that they represent.
The Rav, Rav Solveitchik זצ׳ל , reflects on the description of Pharoah ויכבד לבו
There was no sensitivity at all to Pharoah's action. He didn't care, he didn't even want to apologize to himself. When the heart is insensitive , there is no Bechirah. When a person forfeits his very moral sensitivity, he looses the Koach Hateshuvah, for when there is no moral sensitivity there is no Bechirah.
This reminds me of the story of a frog and a scorpion meeting by a river. When the scorpion asks to ride across the river on the frog's back, the frog demurs,"If I take you on my back, you will sting me and your sting is fatal." The scorpion responds with a plausible argument:"where is the logic in that? If I sting you, we will both go down."
The frog, a logical creature, agrees to transport the scorpion. No sooner then they reach the middle of the river than the frog feels a deadly sting in his back. "Where is the logic in this?" croaks the dying frog as he begins to sink below the surface. "This is my character", replies the doomed scorpion, and there is no logic to character.
The world needs to realize that this is tha character of these fanatics. Nothing will stop them from continuing there bloody thirst of destruction, short of going on the offensive and removing their prescence before they act again.
Hashem took care of business with Pharoah, and it is time that all democratic loving countries unite under the banner of freedom by removing all vestige of such evil incarnate.
We have the wherewithal and now is the time for action. We dare not wait for another tragedy.
May Hashem protects us all and may He extend nechamah to all the bereaved families and
הי יברך את עמו בשלום.
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