20 October 2023

Fear Only Hashem!

5 Marcheshvan 5784
Erev Shabbat Kodesh
Parashat Noach 

"Now the earth had become corrupt before God; and the earth had become filled with robbery.  And God saw the earth and behold it was corrupted, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth." (Bereishit 6.11-12)

We are there again and not only that, the nearly 8 billion people in this world are ready to kill each other off.  More importantly, the nations of the world fervently desire to rid this world of its Jews, for whom the world exists.   Only a very, very small minority of this world's inhabitants care about ratzon Hashem and giving Him the honor due Him as Creator, King and Father.

We, the faithful of Hashem, may be few in number, but we have a glorious future ahead of us...

...For your Master is your Maker - Hashem, Master of Legions is His Name; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel - God of all the world shall He be called.  ....For but a brief moment have I forsaken you [the Shoah], and with abundant mercy shall I gather you in [to Eretz Yisrael].  With a slight wrath have I concealed My countenance from you for a moment, but with eternal kindness shall I show you mercy, said your Redeemer, Hashem.

For like the waters of Noah shall this be to Me:  As I have sworn never again to pass the waters of Noah over the earth, so have I sworn not to be wrathful with you or rebuke you.  For My kindness shall not be removed from you and My covenant of peace shall not falter, says the One Who shows mercy, Hashem.  (Haftarah, Parashat Noach)

Ayn Od Milevado  

"'My children, do not fear.  All that I have done, I have done only for your sake.  Why are you afraid?  The time for your redemption has come.  And there is no need to fear."

  ~  SHABBAT SHALOM  ~

6 comments:

  1. yes, this is good....but, i can't help thinking that if the Shoah happened then perhaps something bad can happen again....before the good. from the northern border of israel.

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    1. Lisa, the sages say that the final redemption mirrors in some (or many?) ways the first redemption from Egypt. Unlike exile, redemption operates under different rules. Instead of the righteous being taken away to suffer the same fate as the unrighteous, the righteous are spared while the unrighteous are taken away. How Hashem determines that is not in our capacity to know. I tend to think it depends simply on the recognition of Hashem's just sovereignty and the determination and commitment to submit to Him and to His Laws.

      A lot, a lot, of people died in the last two plagues - the vast majority of the Israelite population (by their poor choices) in the plague of darkness - but the righteous - the ones glued to HKB"H as opposed to being glued to Egypt and its culture - survived and merited to cross Yam Suf. That's how it's going to be again. We are not going again into the punishment of exile. We are being redeemed!

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  2. "For your Master is your Maker..."

    Even though the word usually translated as "master" in context in this posuk, it really means "husband." We are often likened to Hashem's wife, so this makes sense.

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  3. Just thought you’d like to know that Rabbi Winston didn’t use the “U” in Gog UMagog (maybe just for English readers, but maybe he was thinking of “two” evils), instead he wrote: after the War of Gog AND Magog. Given the prophecies describing it and Chazal’s warnings about it, those living at the time will need shemirah, a level of miraculous Divine protection to survive it. [ i capitalized the “AND”.

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