Shabbat Shalom - Parshat Yitro

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YESHIVAT HARA'AYON HAYEHUDI

Jerusalem, Israel

HaRav Yehuda Kreuser SHLIT"A, Rosh Yeshiva

PARSHAT YITRO

17 Shevat 5771/21-22 January 2011

THE DAY HATRED CAME INTO THE WORLD

The Talmud teaches us that on the day the Torah was given to the Jewish people on Mount Sinai, hatred came into the world. Hatred for the Jewish people, that is.

But why should that be? The world had been waiting for the holy Torah to descend for the past 26 generationa, for over 2,200 years, from the time of Creation. As we know, the Torah is the remedy for all the ills of this world, the ultimate fix -"tikun olam". We are taught that during Creation, after the work of each day was complete, the days were counted in the following manner - one day, second day, third day, etc. But on the sixth day the Torah states "the sixth day". Why does the sixth day have the prefix "the" in front of it, and is not counted as the other days of the week? It seems that the Torah is alluding to a particular day. That day was none other than the Sixth of Sivan, the day the Torah was given to the Jewish people. G-d said: "If the Jewish people accept the Torah, all is well, for that is the purpose of Creation, but if they reject the Torah the world will go back to nothingness."

We see that with the acceptance of the Torah by the Jewish people, the world was on its way to fulfill its ultimate purpose. That certainly was a good thing; why, then, should the nations of the world feel such hatred towards the Jewish people?

The answer lies in the fact that G-d had first asked the nations of the world if they wanted to accept the Torah. Each and every one of them, after hearing what was in it, rejected G-d's offer. But when they saw that there was a nation, the nation of Israel who was not only willing but did not even question G-d as to what was written in it - their hatred for the Jews rose to extreme heights. How can it be, they cried, that there is a nation in this world that rose to the occasion? For they, the nations, would surely rather leave the world in a state of chaos, without a "Master", than to have the Torah descend and better mankind.

And this hatred of theirs knows no bounds. Since that day, the nations have been chasing after us, trying to extinguish our light - whether it be the Christians, the children of Esau, or the Muslims, the children of Ishmael. And besides their attempt to physically wipe us out, spiritually, too, they claim the "chosenness" for themselves. The Christians, by stating that G-d has rejected the Jewish people and that they themselves are now the "new-Jewish people". They have never tired, throughout the centuries,of trying to convert us, for as long as the Jewish people remain in this world, the truth remains: That it is they who have rejected G-d's Torah. The Muslims, on the other hand, lie straight out and claim that it was they who received the Torah from G-d.

As world history plays itself out and we get closer day-by-day to the arrival of a new era, the Final Redemption, we will see more and more how the nations will claim that they are the "chosen ones", the ones who accepted the Torah. Their claim will manifest itself in the Land of Israel. As the Muslims claim it for themselves, the Christians will try to divide the land, as long as the Jews don't get any part of it. They will gather together, all the nations of the world, to try to finally put an end to the Jewish people once and for all, to cut us off forever. For we, the Jewish people, had accepted the very Torah, the yoke of heaven, which they did not.

But all this will be to no avail, for the bond that was encoded by G-d many years ago with the Jewish people when they accepted the Torah, is an everlasting one, never to be broken, never to be exchanged for another nation. Try as they might, the Great Defender of the Jewish people neither sleeps or slumbers, as we watch the final chapter of world history unfolding before us.

Blessings,

Levi Hazan