Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander is President and Rosh HaYeshiva of Ohr Torah Stone
On this dramatic Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as we read the impassioned pleas of the prophet Hoshea for repentance, one verse in particular stands out as speaking to the moment we find ourselves in as a nation. Denouncing the Israelites for putting their trust in foreign powers rather than in God, the prophet holds up the divine word as the true author of every person’s destiny - for good and, strikingly, for ill: “He who is wise will fathom these words; the insightful will grasp them, for the ways of the Lord are just, and the righteous will walk in them, but sinners will stumble over them” (Hosea 14:10).
What does it mean that sinners “stumble” over God’s ways? The Sages offer two interpretations. The first, formulated by the Targum Yonatan and quoted by Rashi, is straightforward: “The evil are judged for Gehinnom because they did not follow” God’s ways. That is, one “stumbles” simply by ignoring God’s commands and flouting one’s obligations.
But another approach views “God’s ways” themselves as the very cause of stumbling. To help us understand how this could be, the Talmud in Bava Batra (89b) provides an example of someone who assiduously studies the halakhot governing fraud, mining them for ways to exploit their customers and business partners. The apparent usefulness of the Torah’s laws in learning how to sin drives Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai to exclaim: “Woe to me if I teach these halakhot, and woe unto me if I do not! If I teach them, perhaps swindlers will learn new methods of cheating. And if I do not share them, perhaps swindlers will say: Torah scholars are not well versed in our handiwork.”
This line of thought, that the words of the Torah can be misused by insincere students with corrupt intentions, is expressed eloquently elsewhere in the Talmud (Yoma 72b): “Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: What is the meaning of that which is written: ‘And this is the Torah which Moses put [sam] before the children of Israel’ (Deuteronomy 4:44)? If one is deserving, the Torah becomes a potion [sam] of life for him. If one is not deserving, the Torah becomes a potion [sam] of death for him.” When misused - whether by accident or with cynicism - the Torah can be a resource for wrongdoing, flouting responsibilities, and squandering spiritual capital, all under the guise of piety.
Over the past two years, my colleagues and I have faced the deaths of students and alumni who sacrificed themselves on the battlefield defending their brethren, their nation, and their people. But their sacrifice was equally for the sake of God and the Torah, which explicitly command us to fight when necessary to preserve what we hold dear. In the truest sense, these were sacrifices made by “the righteous walking in God’s ways,” and the supernal mitzva that they performed was without a question a potion of life for their souls in the world to come.
At the same time, I cannot keep silent when witnessing how many of our fellow Jews who ostensibly study the Torah do not uphold it by observing the commandment to fight to defend their brothers and sisters in this just and divinely mandated war [מלחמת מצווה]. Rather, they incomprehensibly use the beit midrash as a city of refuge, a shelter in which they can shirk their responsibilities to God and the Jewish people.
Some do not even go through the motions of entering the study hall physically, simply leaning on some abstract conception of the Jewish religion as a prop on which they claim to base personal exemptions from the most important demands of the Torah. To witness this is disappointing and painful, and it plainly evokes associations in my mind with the “sinners who stumble” over their own knowledge and observance of God’s ways.
Still, the most important aspect of any personal response to this is not judgment or resentment, even when our consciences cry out against part of the religious community that has removed itself from history and its own responsibilities.
Instead, we must transform that pain into a personal reminder of how we ourselves must continue to live. I must strive to uphold my commitment to the Torah and to Am Yisrael, even as I recognize my own shortcomings and moments of faltering. I must not waver in respecting the beit midrash as a place of integrity and spiritual growth, engaging with society according to God’s wishes.
And foremost, I must recommit to the perennial mitzva of loving our fellow Jews, continuing to embrace and support all, whatever their failings and imperfections. Even the “sinners who stumble over the ways of God” are our brothers, and together we will hold them close in the synagogue on Yom Kippur, when we recite: “In the yeshiva on high, in the yeshiva below, we permit praying with transgressors.”