The Happiest Day in History

Our Sages teach that since the Creation of the world, G-d was never as joyous as today, the first day of Nissan, when the Mishkan was erected in the wilderness after the sin of the Golden Calf.

The Divine Presence shines over the Children of Israel

Truly, one can feel a special simcha on this day. Last night, after saying Psalms at the Kotel with Rav Leon Levi, we sang and sang to greet the month of our Redemption, confident that just as we were redeemed from the bondage of Egypt in this month, we shall also be redeemed now from the last vestiges of the exiles of Europe and the USA.

Rosh Chodesh with Rav Leon

In the morning, after singing Hallel, and asking G-d in the Musaf prayer to return all of our scattered outcasts to the Land of Israel from Brooklyn and England and South Africa, we went into a neighborhood orchard to recite the blessing over the first budding of fruit trees, thanking G-d for providing for all of our needs.

Thanking G-d for His goodness

Russian immigrants boxing matzah

Then, it was time to make matzot with a group of Rabbis from Mercaz HaRav, accompanied with more singing and the heightening joy of the mitzvah and Pesach’s approach.  

The cause of G-d’s original joy when He created the world was that He now had a place to bestow the goodness of His Divine Presence, the Shechinah, on His creations. But the sins of mankind, culminating in the sin of the Golden Calf, caused the Divine Presence to flee. With the establishment of the Mishkan (Tabernacle), G-d’s Presence returned once again, along with His original joy in being able to “dwell” amongst his Chosen Nation, the Children of Israel.

With the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (the Holy Temple in Jerusalem), the Divine Presence once again went into a long and painful exile, and joy ceased from the world. “How can we sing the L-rd’s song in a foreign land,” the Psalmist bitterly exclaimed (Tehillim, 137:4). Ever since His People’s departure from His Land, G-d has been shedding anguished tears.  

Certainly, in the last 2000 years, G-d’s happiest day was the foundation of the Jewish State in Israel, when the Shechinah returned to the world.

Happiest Day in 2000 Years

All other historic events are dwarfed in its light. In comparison with the incredible sanctification of Hashem that occurred in Tel Aviv with the dramatic declaration of Jewish statehood, all other historic milestones are like pages scattered in the wind, whether it be the discovery of America, Bastille Day, or the landing of man on the moon. On that day, joy returned to the word after nearly 2000 years as the Psalmist declares: “When the L-rd brought the exiles back to Zion, we were like those who dream. Our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with ringing song” (Tehillim, 126:1-2).  

Columbus and the beginning of assimilation

We have already written a few blogs back that the ingathering of the exiles is the greatest sanctification of G-d that there is, as the Psalmist verifies in the continuation of his Psalm: “Then it was said amongst the nations, ‘The L-rd has done great things for them.’”

As if sensing the inner spiritual connection between the month of Nissan and Israel Independence Day, Israeli flags began appearing this morning all over the city, on cars, terraces, store windows and rooftops. The joy of spring, of renewal and redemption, is in the air. My wife even grabbed me and spun me around in a small dance, as if suddenly possessed by the joyous spirit of the month.

Like Spring Flowers

Of course, we are still in the Redemption’s beginning. As more exiles return to our Land, the Divine Presence will shine ever brighter over our borders. As the Torah returns to its full glory, our joy will increase. For those of us who have been blessed to reach the Land, we have to strengthen the joy that we feel in being here. And for the unfortunate others who have not yet arrived, they must do everything they can to join in the Redemption. Their joy and the joy of the nation depend on it.

Greatest Threat to the Jews

The Number 1 threat to the Jewish People isn’t the missile arsenal of Iran, the Hizballah, and Hamas; or the increasing assimilation in the Diaspora; or the unwillingness of Western Jews to make aliyah.  The Number 1 threat to the Jewish People is the Internet.

That’s right – the Internet. Sure there are lots of good things on the Internet like IsraelNationalNews.com, and Torah lessons, but there is a lot more poisonous trash. Every day, thousands, tens of thousands, maybe even a few hundred thousand Jews fall prey to pornography on the Internet.

When a person watches pornography, he severs his connection to G-d. Figuratively speaking, he pulls out the plug.

Unplugged Jew

He pollutes his holy being and the Divine Presence leaves him. He looks the same as before, but he has short-circuited his Jewish spirituality. In effect he has turned himself into a zombie. If a person is a regular porn watcher (studies suggest that 60% of regular Internet users click on to porn), it won’t be long before his feeling for Judaism is dulled, and problems begin to arise with his health, his children, his marriage, his job.

Zombied out on porn

The G-d of the Jewish People is a zealous G-d, and He hates promiscuity and whoredom. It doesn’t matter if a surfer is only flirting with “cybersex,” our Sages have told us that when it comes to sexual matters, forbidden thoughts and fantasies are worse than performing the forbidden deed (Yoma 29A).

The Jews knew it was a lot of bull

Let me give you an example. Recently, we read in the Torah about the sin of the Golden Calf. Outside of the sin of refusing to come on aliyah, this was the greatest sin of the Jews in the wilderness after the exodus from Egypt. Our Sages tell us that we are punished for the sin of the Golden Calf in every generation. But it was only the “Eruv Rav” (the non-Jews who left Egypt with the Israelites) who worshipped the Calf. The Jews didn’t believe that the silly statue was Divine. So what was their terrible sin? 

The Torah says that “the people sat down to eat and to drink, and they rose up to make merry” (Shemot, 32:6). Rashi explains that “make merry”  ìöç÷ implies sexual transgression, and he cites the use of the same word by Potifar’s wife when she falsely accuses Yosef of sexually molesting her (Bereshit, 39:17).

This is further suggested by the verse stating, “thy people have dealt corruptly” where the same word for “dealing corruptly” ùçú  is used elsewhere in the Torah to describe the sexual sins in the time of Noach (Bereshit, 6:12), and the sexual infractions of Onan and Er (Bershit, 38:9).

We learn from this that the Jewish People participated vicariously in the sexual orgies of the Eruv Rav by watching and applauding from the sidelines. This “virtual sin” was the forerunner of the “virtual sex” of Internet pornography today, whether it be watching hard porn sites, or googling Google girls, or yahooing Yahoo yoo-hoos.

Bowing down to today's Golden Calf

The moral of the lesson? Install an anti-porn filter today. Make sure only the mother knows the code so Dad won’t be tempted. And if the yoo-hoos get the better of you, Rebbe Nachman’s famous “Tikun HaKlali” is now up on the web to help you do t’shuva, along with an explanatory Preface. If you’ve never said it, here’s your chance – without having to buy a ticket to Uman.

The Prayer of Prayers

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov emphasizes the importance of pouring out one’s heart before G-d in words of heartfelt, personal prayer, for all of our problems and needs. Here’s a sample prayer you can say for coming to the Land of Israel. Say it every day, or something similar in your own words, and with G-d's help, you will be one of the lucky ones to make it:

The greatest joy and blessing - coming home to the Land of Israel

My G-d and G-d of my Fathers, teach me how to pray in a way to draw down Your compassion, put words of fire in my mouth that will pierce through the darkness of my exile and shatter all of the barriers that stand between us, for I feel so far away from You. Fill my heart with a burning desire to come to Your Holy Land, where I can become the Jew that I was destined to be, to play my share in the great Redemption of Your people. For I know in my heart of hearts that only in the Land of Israel can I be who I really am, by retuning to my roots, to the homeland of the Jewish people, to the Land of my Forefathers, the Land of the Torah, where the Torah is meant to be kept, to the place that the Patriarchs longed to live, even when there were savages, and dangers, and idol worship throughout the Land.

Please, dear Father and King, fasten the call of the Psalmist firmly in my heart, that I set “Jerusalem above my highest joy,” and may my longing to be in the pleasant Land increase each day, so that wherever I travel, I will always be longing to come to the Land of Israel, as opposed to remaining here in the exile, in a foreign land, amongst foreign peoples, where we have been scattered in punishment for our sins, and the sins of our forefathers.

Help me, my Father in Heaven, to overcome all of the obstacles, all of the fears, all of the excuses, all of the voices within and without which talk against Your Holy Land, in an effort from discourage me from reaching my goal, which is the true purpose of the life of a Jew, to live a life of Torah in Your Holy Land. Grant me the privilege to achieve the great tikun and rectification that I came into the world to accomplish - by returning my Jewish body and soul to the Land of G-d, the Land of Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaacov, the Land of our Matriarchs, the Land that the eyes of Hashem watch over from the beginning of the year to the end. Deafen my ears to the complaints and criticisms of all the modern day Spies who speak badly against Your chosen Land. Let me run away from them and their evil advice. Give me the strength to cling to what I know is the truth in my heart of hearts, to love the Land of Israel with all of my heart, and to set my path in a straight course for Zion, the dream of our people for three thousand years, looking neither to the left nor the right, in order to reach the golden shores of the Land of Israel and to roll in its dust, just like our Sages of old.

Please G-d, give me the exalted honor of coming to Israel, even though I be small in merit and filled with fears and worries about the unknown. But I know that you are Master of the World, Creator of the universe, and that You surely can provide for me and for my family, especially for someone who longs to please You by giving up everything he has known, in order to perform Your will by coming to the Land of Israel.

Open my eyes to see all of the miracles of the past hundred years, how You have brought Your people home from the four corners of the world, granted us triumph over our enemies, rebuilt the barren wasteland, and raised the Nation of Israel from out of the ashes of the Holocaust to become a marvel in the eyes of the nations, thus restoring honor to Your Name. Let me always remember that it is You who has done all this incredible rebuilding, that this is the realization of the words of our Prophets of old, who all promised that G-d would bring us back to our eternal homeland.

Save me, Hashem, from the bondage of my exile in a foreign land, and rescue me. Grant me the fortitude and the inner will and conviction to come to Eretz Yisrael, knowing that You are with me, to help me in everything I need, and to give me the strength and blessing to overcome all challenges, that are really designed to elevate me in Your service and make me a better, more complete person and Jew.       

Thank You, Hashem, for making me realize and understand the vital importance of coming to Israel. It has lit up my life like a bolt of lightning in the depth of the night of my exile. Please, my G-d, strengthen my desire each day, and in Your infinite kindness, bring me home soon to the Land of Life, to the Land of Israel. Amen.