Serving as a Shlucha DeRabbanan for many years, across a broad spectrum of issues foundational to both Torah values and the needs of the Jewish community, I'd like to share some thoughts pertaining to Asarah BeTevet, the fast of the Tenth of Tevet, this year.
The saintly Chassam Sofer (Drashos for Adar 7th, printed in Toras Moshe) identifies the magnitude of this fast day, marking the onset of the siege against Yerushalayim by Nevuchadnetzar, as the day each year on which the Heavenly Court adjudicates whether we will merit the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash in that very year.
It's for this reason that if, theoretically, the Tenth of Tevet would ever be able to fall out on a Shabbos (it cannot), we'd actually fast on Shabbos (the view of the Avudraham, dissenting from Rashi). The Chassam Sofer explains that inasmuch as fasting on this particular fast day is primarily preventative - namely, aimed at Teshuva (repentance) - in order to avoid a virtual "re-enactment" of the Destruction, the Churban HaBayit that year - we'd be allowed - and required - to fast (akin to fasting on Shabbos for a Ta'anit Chalom, which is similarly pre-emptive in nature).
Accordingly, given all that's at stake on Asarah BeTevet, we would greatly benefit from preparing something akin to a communal "report-card," identifying needed improvements on the pivotal concerns that Chazal (our Sages) specify as impediments to the Final Redemption. Perhaps this communal report-card need not be completed by the Tenth of Tevet. However, we clearly ought to immediately commit to working on it going forward, if we're at all serious about meriting the Redemption.
Those who may be reluctant to invest much effort out of a sense of frustration with the broader tzibbur (public) ought to bear in mind what Rav Yeshaya HaCohen zts"l writes (at the end of his commentary published in his reprint of the Tonnah De'Vei Eliyahu: - namely, that if an individual ensures that the Redemption is not being impeded on his own account, then - even if the Jewish People does not merit the much-awaited communal Redemption - he may individually merit his own personal redemption.
For the benefit of the esteemed tzibbur, we present a non-comprehensive list of issues that require communal attention, not necessarily in order. Even if individuals are free of an aveirah (sin) on their own, nevertheless, in the Vidui, we can all accurately proclaim "Ti'avnu" ("we have sinned via abominations") et.al. - due to our numerous shortfalls in addressing communal failures in these areas, such as allowing or enabling legalization and/or institutionalization of these very severe sins to occur, or continue.
° Firstly, Tanach and Tefillah (liturgy) are replete with references to the all-inclusive, overarching imperative of advancing Kiddush Hashem (Sanctification of the Divine Name), and the role of Kovod Shomayim (the Honor of the Heavens) in bringing the Final Redemption. It follows that the more we distance ourselves from those imperatives, the graver risk we run of delaying the Redemption or/and failing to merit seeing it.
° Chazal exhort us that the first Beit HaMikdash was destroyed due to (1) Avoda Zorah (loosely translated as "foreign Service," aka "idolatry"), (2) Gil'uy Arayot (aka immorality), and (3) She'fichut Do'mim (bloodshed). Unfortunately, we have much work to do in uprooting these dangers, and opposing the many influential people in our midst who are enabling or advancing these cardinal sins. (See further, below.)
° The Second Mikdash was destroyed in wake of Sin'at Chinam and Lashon HaRah (baseless antipathy and improper denigratory speech), which, as the world-renowned Bais HaLevi explains (in Parshas Bo, toward end, p. 133 (5756 ed.)), led the people away from the Sages, and thereby facilitated their succumbing to kefirah, heretical ideas. The latter - heretical shitot - he notes, were actually the direct cause of the Churban.
° The SMA"G (Sefer Mitzvos Gadol) describes Gezel Akum (theft from non-Jews) as another impediment to the Redemption (see Asin 74 (Hashovas Avaidah); cf. Lo-Saaseh 2; B'er Hagolah on Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 348:4).
Perhaps an allusion to that can be found in this week's Parsha, Vayechi, in the aliyah of Shishi (corresponding to the sixth day of the week, Friday, on which Asara Be'Tevet falls this year). Shishi begins with a reference to the right of the Kohanim to Kod'shei HaMikdash (Rashi 48:27, end). It then continues - in unusual detail - describing the purchase of the Me'arat HaMachpeilah burial site by Avrohom Avinu. The latter elaboration may allude to the directive to Klal Yisroel at the End of Days (perhaps alluded to via the final moments of Yaakov Avinu) to remain particularly vigilant in avoiding even the mere perception of financial impropriety vis-à-vis non-Jews.*
{* One simple example is boarding a bus without paying his fair share.}
° The Sefer Yerai'yim (Issur Kishuf) identifies the or presence of the Mechashef (sorcerer) in our midst as "the impediment" to the Final Redemption, citing the Mishna in Sotah 48a, referring to Znus and Keshafim. Sorcerers are known to routinely commit and/or promote several of the aforementioned sins, among others. This holds true whatever position one takes on the effectiveness/power of the prohibited acts of Kishuf.
Recent years have seen a multifront infiltration of a plethora of far-Eastern/ New-Age ideas, practices, and attitudes into our communities - in and beyond the Health arena - under the guise of being natural, safe, and "compatible" with Torah Law and Thought. Many of these infiltrations involve Avoda Zorah or Kefirah (heresy) in some manner. Some also have raised objections pertaining to Kishuf/ Kosaim concerns, independent of whatever position one takes on the contemporary efficacy of Kishuf. We've addressed these issues extensively, fielding Shailos internationally for over twenty years (email [email protected] for free information). This entire arena needs far more attention and care than is being provided, in great measure due to lack of accurate guidance and information.
° As Chazal emphasize at the end of Gemara Makkos (24a), the core mission of Jews in our age is to focus on fortifying ourselves in "Emunah" (loosely translated as unwavering, unequivocal conviction in the immutable truth of Yiddishkeit, as transmitted by our Sages from Har Sinai; see Bais HaLevi, Bo, ibid., p. 134).*
Note: Perhaps this too is especially alluded to this year by the response of Yosef (50:19-20) - highlighting his epic Emunah and Bitachon - being at the very end of Shishi (again, corresponding to Friday.
As we presented on our weekly Levin-At-Eleven radio broadcast (WSNR620AM) last Thursday night, simply recognizing where we need improvement on these matters is a big step forward. Such honest introspection directs us away from a prevailing self-adulatory obliviousness to our shortfalls, which itself endangers us. As Rabbeinu Yeruchum Levovitz ZT"L explains (in Sefer Da'as Torah, Parshas Mishpatim), by acceptingMishpot - meaning, by truly acknowledging the Divine Judgment we actually deserve - we can avert the need to actually endure that Mishpot (Divine Retribution).
There are a multitude of practical applications of the above observations, all of which provide valuable growth opportunities - demanding our compliance.
A few specific areas of potential improvement, primarily for readers in the U.S., include the following - again, not necessarily in order:
° 1) Bloodshed:
A. Assisted Suicide: ימינם ימין שקר (תהילים קמד)
Jews must mobilize against attempts to legalize, legitimize, or otherwise advance Assisted Suicide/"Euthanasia" - which seriously threatens numerous localities, including NY State.
This is more incumbent on us in the wake of our overall communal silence over the inexcusable, undemocratic removal of all opposition to Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia from the Republican Party Platform several months ago at the GOP convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
B. Abortion-at-Whim:
Similar observations can be made in regard to abortion-on-demand. The previously wide-ranging GOP opposition to abortion-on-demand was undemocratically decimated in the 2024 Platform.
Here's a a very brief FRC document comparing the two and here's the 2024 GOP platform as originally publicized by Trump.
° The over-celebrated US Supreme Court "Dobbs" decision to send the abortion battle back to the states did exactly that. Thereby, the justices released a predictable torrent of advocacy for abortion-at-whim around the US, and beyond. We as Jews need to be in the forefront of advocacy against the current abortion-on-demand cult, especially in light of how much ongoing, public Chillul HaShem and distortion of Torah is regularly perpetrated by those who agitate for flippant abortionism - and often do so in the name of Judaism, be they shrill teleprompters from the leftist National Council Of Jewish Women, or morally-compromised lobbyists representing ostensibly Orthodox financial interests.
Eretz Yisroel:
In Israel, where perhaps over two million Jewish babies have been killed by abortion there are monumental challenges to overcome. There is abortion-on-demand in the Army.
° 2)Avoda Zorah:
For one pervasive example, see above, regarding the infiltration of New-Age/ far-Eastern influences. For some specific contemporary concerns, see:
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/08/bsd-insights-from-parshas-shoftim-on-of.html
https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/07/is-energy-healing-form-of-avodah-zarah.html
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-shitah-of-chi-is-foundational-god.html
° 3)Immorality:
This topic requires far more space than we have here, especially pertaining to the "LGBTQ" agenda.
A major element of the challenge we face is to rescue the Torah-observant public from the harmful influence of the terrible messaging many are imbibing from faux-frum agenda-proponents - posing as news reporters. One recent example impossible to overlook is this outrageous headline on YWN - fawning over Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana. MK Ohana is a homosexual living with another man - along with two adopted children (!). And here's what YWN posted, for the consumption of his clueless Orthodox Jewish readers:
"HISTORIC: Knesset Holds First-Ever Chanukah Hadlakah in Plenum"
In the video YWN posted, Ohana, a same-sex-"marriage" perpetrator, and same-sex-adoption perpetrator. comes across to the average uniformed viewer as heroic, by virtue of defying a leftist female MK protesting his unprecedented lighting of the Menorah in the Knesset (which took place because a debate lasted until the time for lighting). He holds a position of importance and did defend the candle lighting, so he must be honored for that, but no more.
For background on Amir Ohana, click here.
The Orthodox Jewish public is, overall, simply mal-informed and misdirected by misleading influencers. This scenario is described in high relief in Sefer Yechezkel 34 (encapsulated in 34:2). And we are at fault for tolerating this ongoing degradation of the Tzibbur. They could not accomplish such "feats" without our enabling thereof.
Making Americans Gay All-Over...
Going forward into the upcoming US Administration, it's vital we dispel some dangerous misconceptions pertaining to who our allies are - and are not - in regard to foundational moral battles.
° Contrary to popular misconception, Trump and his supporters gutted all opposition to the homosexualist agenda from the GOP platform, at the Convention in Milwaukee.
° Contrary to popular misconception, while Trump and his enablers have been ostentatiously grandstanding against some of the extremes of transgender wickedness - these are threats which we confront in part due to Trump's own compromises on all of the other aspects of the LGBTQ agenda that led directly into the trans-lunacy extremes we're seeing now.
° Trump has already appointed at least three openly LGBT persons to serve in his second term, most recently Ms. Tammy Bruce, an openly lesbian, pro-abortion former head of NOW -- for a prominent position at the State Department.
This follows Trump's appointment of Scott Besent and Ric Grennell, to Treasury and for "Special Missions," respectively.
There is hope, however, as long as some keep up the fight As Rav Shamshon Refoel Hirsch ZT"L (d. 1888, Germany) writes, the Truth never lost due to its opposition. The only time that Truth loses beyond recall is when its' advocates fail to properly articulate it and fight for it (Collected Writings, Vol.6, p. 104).
~~~
ימינם ימין שקר (תהילים קמד)
For more information on the GOP Platform saga, and Trump's undermining of morality, one may want to see the most recent Catholic Action League statement, at the top of their site:
{* no individual links to the news releases on that site}.
Two more relevant statements appear on Catholicism.org:
As Torah-devotees, we must lead, not follow. Unfortunately, we can expect numerous influential, Trump-devoted Christian advocacy organizations -- to exchange their core moral values for a seat at the Trump-table -- almost as much as we can expect Trump to continue to escalate his efforts to transform the Republican Party base into a homosexual-friendly, abortionism-compatible vision.
We must realize that we cannot possibly afford to rely on the ostensibly conservative media - or even on the profamily establishment - for either active leadership, operational guidance, or accurate perspectives...
עם לבדד ישכון (דברים לב:יב)
When we fully acknowledge this reality, we'll be on our way to forging a productive path forward. Even if we succeed only in getting the Truth to those who seek it, we'll have accomplished a monumental task.
In closing, we ought appreciate the immense value of simply withstanding tests, nisyonot, even in the absence of other attainments, from a quote attributed to Rav Avigdor Miller zts"l, in today's daily email from Toras Avigdor.
* ## Fair Use ##
"Rav Avigdor Miller on the Merit of Osnas bas Potiphar
Q: In what merit did Osnas the daughter of Potiphar come to marry such a tzaddik as Joseph considering that there is no indication that she ever did anything worthwhile?
A: And the answer is that she was able to withstand the negative influence of her home and grow up to be a virtuous person. And therefore Hakadosh Baruch Hu saw that she was similar to Yosef. Yosef was able to be omed benisayon – he withstood tests and temptations, and so did she. And therefore she was chosen as worthy of being a mate to him. " (TAPE # 247 (December 1978)
May we fully utilize this Ta'anit, along with its' aftermath, and merit the Ge'ulah Shelaimah speedily in our days.
Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter is Executive Director of Help Rescue Our Children 845.642.1679 Direct: 771.215.8892 Israeli Helpline: 03.721.3337, Rabbi Leiter is heard weekly on New Jersey's WSNR Radio 620AM, co-hosting the renowned "Levin-At-Eleven" program of Rabbi Yehuda Levin, every Thursday evening, 11pm to midnight (ET). and Presentations on New-Age dangers: 605-313-6831 ext. 2