'And Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, and Moab became very afraid of the people.' Israel’s victory over the Amorites brought heightened deterrence against Moab.
'And Moab became very afraid of the people.' Therefore, when Balak understood that conventional military means were ineffective, he changed strategy and turned to spiritual warfare against the people of Israel, using Balaam, the prophet of the nations. It was certainly Balaam who would identify the points of spiritual vulnerability among the people, in order to bring about spiritual decay within Israel. And indeed, in a certain sense, his path succeeded when Israel sinned with the women of Moab. This brings to mind, to some extent, the attempts of the enemy to undermine Israel through smartphones, or through the smuggling of drugs from Lebanon, as means of weakening both the people and the army.
Against spiritual warfare, Israel has synagogues and study halls on the one hand, and the virtue of modesty on the other. Rabbi Yochanan said: From the blessings of that wicked person we learn what was in his heart when he set out to curse. He intended to say that they should not have synagogues and study halls, so he said: "How goodly are your tents, Jacob" , meaning that the Divine Presence would not rest upon them, "Your dwelling places, Israel," etc. [Sanhedrin 105a]. And why so? Rashi says: because he saw that their entrances were not oriented directly opposite each other. Rabbi Ovadia Sforno, about 550 years ago, also says: "How goodly are your tents, Jacob" - these are the study halls, as in the phrase "those who dwell in tents" and as in "He will dwell in the tents of Shem." "Your dwelling places, Israel" - these are synagogues and the special Temple sanctuaries designated for the Divine Presence to dwell there and for those who pray to receive their prayers.
The Gemara in Berachot [8b] states that when Rabbi Yochanan heard that there were elders in Babylonia, more than in Eretz Yisrael [Penei Yehoshua], he was astonished and said: The verse says, "So that your days and the days of your children may be increased upon the land that the Lord swore to give your fathers, like the days of the heavens above the earth" - namely, that specifically in Eretz Yisrael your days and your children’s days will increase. How could it be that even in Babylonia there are elderly people? But when he heard that the people of Babylonia rise early and stay late for synagogues, his mind was put at ease. He understood that the connection of Israel to the place where the Divine Presence rests has an influence on them, as written in Proverbs: "For whoever finds Me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord" . Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin said that in synagogues and study halls there is the sanctity of Eretz Yisrael [Tzadkat HaTzadik, letter 156]. Similarly, by way of comparison, in the building of a foreign embassy, the laws of the embassy-state apply, not the laws of the host country.
In that context, Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen cites the well-known Gemara in Megillah [29a], where Tanna Rabbi Eliezer HaKappar says: In the future, synagogues and study halls in Babylonia will be established in Eretz Yisrael. The Gemara explains this through a logical argument - a kal vachomer - based on the learning. Since Rabbi Eliezer HaKappar bases his statement on the verse in Jeremiah: "Like Tabor among the mountains and Carmel by the sea shall come" . According to a midrash of the Sages, Tavor and Carmel reached the status of Mount Sinai and asked that the Torah being given to the people of Israel be given upon them. Indeed, as is known, the Torah was ultimately given at the modest Mount Sinai; but because these mountains "came" so that the Torah would be taught and given upon them, they were granted a reward - their reward being that they would be established in Eretz Yisrael [even though originally they were not there, according to the midrash]. From here Rabbi Eliezer HaKappar derives: If Tavor and Carmel - who came only for a limited time in order to learn Torah - were set in Eretz Yisrael, then all the more so synagogues and study halls that are used for prayer and Torah study [regularly] are set in Eretz Yisrael.
Yet even so, it is puzzling: not only in this week’s Torah portion is it an animal that speaks - that is the donkey - but now feelings and rights are attributed to something inanimate, to synagogues? And there is yet another puzzling question: about three Shemitah cycles before the expulsion from Gush Katif, there was debate over whether to destroy synagogues in Gush Katif following the expulsion, or to leave them to the murderers. My friend, attorney Gilad Korinaldi, dealt with this extensively. To our sorrow, not only were those synagogues not established in Eretz Yisrael, they were also slated for destruction - or to be handed over to the wicked.
At that very time, for me, a small consolation in light of the terrible desecration of God’s Name caused by the destruction of settlements and synagogues in Gush Katif was that we inaugurated a synagogue in Achuzat Brakfeld in Modiin Illit for the Yeshuaat David community, in memory of the Gaon Rabbi Yehoshua Dovid Povarsky, of blessed memory, a leader of Ponovezh Yeshiva. At that event, the book Shalem Beit Hashem was published, containing Torah and halachic innovations on matters of prayer and synagogue. It pained me to see that the public - dear and precious - was disconnected from the events experienced by the Jewish people in those days. All the Torah insights and innovations in the book dealt with questions such as how to break windows for the purpose of creating an opening for a room, and the like, without addressing the essence of Torah - the painful question of the terrible destruction of the synagogues in Gush Katif. However, an interesting point I received was in response to a question posed by the Gaon Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, of blessed memory, in this book - a question similar to our own puzzlement about feelings and rights attributed to something inanimate.
The Gaon Rabbi Aharon asked, regarding Rabbi Eliezer HaKappar’s statement: what is the advantage in this - that synagogues in Babylonia are destined to be established in Eretz Yisrael? After all, either way, even in the Diaspora, wherever ten people pray, the Divine Presence rests - whether in Babylonia or in Eretz Yisrael. Rather, the matter can be explained according to the midrash in Kohelet Rabbah, which says: At the time the Holy One, blessed be He, created Adam HaRishon, He took him and showed him - and then returned him - to all the trees of the Garden of Eden, and said to him: See how beautiful and commendable My deeds are, and that everything I created for you, I created...
The lesson is that the purpose and role of both the living and the growing vegetation is to serve man, the chosen of creation. And the greater the holiness of a living being and of an inanimate object in the case of a Jewish person who fulfills Torah and mitzvot, the more fully its purpose is achieved. And even more so is the holiness of inanimate matter when it serves a Jewish person who guards Torah and mitzvot, in Eretz Yisrael, where there are more mitzvot. In his words: "All the creations of the world strive for greater holiness, and the inanimate and the growing vegetation have nothing besides fulfilling the will of God - 'For He commanded and they were created' . And in Eretz Yisrael they will reach even greater completeness because Israel there fulfills more mitzvot, such as the mitzvot dependent on the land."
Based on this, perhaps - according to our question - it emerges that since the Jewish residents were uprooted from Gush Katif, that inanimate matter did not have the same highest level of fulfilling God’s will, the category of "He commanded and they were created," because there was no one for whom to serve. In this approach, the sanctity of Eretz Yisrael derives from the abundance of mitzvot in it. But of course, many of our Rabbis hold that sanctity is inherent in the body of the land itself. Maran HaRav Kook writes in *Orot*: "Eretz Yisrael is not an external matter - an external acquisition for the nation - only as a means for the goal of the general unification and maintaining the material, or even the spiritual, existence. Eretz Yisrael is an inseparable unity, bound by a living connection to the nation, and interwoven with its inner qualities and with reality..." "The sanctity of Eretz Yisrael is intrinsic sanctity," and therefore its sanctity exists even when there are no Jews on their land. The Jewish people are the ones who reveal and bring its sanctity into actualization through settling it and through fulfilling the Creator’s mitzvot in it.
In that same chapter, Rabbi Eliezer HaKappar says that indeed synagogues in Babylonia are destined to be established in Eretz Yisrael [Megillah 29a], and it states: "They were exiled to Babylonia - the Shechina went with them." First, synagogues were called only a temporary sanctuary, "a small sanctuary" in accordance with the prophet Ezekiel, who says: "Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: Although I have removed them far away among the nations and scattered them among the lands, I have been for them a small sanctuary in the lands where they have gone" . Synagogues thus served as temporary dwellings for the Divine Presence that accompanied the people of Israel during their exile. Therefore, since these structures - the stones and trees - absorbed immense sanctity due to the prayers and Torah study carried out there across generations, that sanctity was imprinted in them. In the future, when the Holy One, blessed be He, redeems Israel, He will not leave the places where His Divine Presence rested on impure foreign soil, but will also "redeem" them and transfer them to the sacred land of Eretz Yisrael.
This is somewhat similar to the sanctity of Rachel’s Tomb, due to the huge volume of tears shed by the crowds of those who pray at the site - even for those who maintain that this is not the place of Rachel's burial. Likewise, it is similar to the story of a woman who came to the Jerusalem tzaddik, Rabbi Aryeh Levin, of blessed memory, and asked him: "Rabbi, my husband passed away a number of days ago after a difficult and prolonged illness. And I am asking you, Rabbi, where are those tears that I shed? Where are all those chapters of Psalms that I recited from the depths of my soul?"
Looking at her with Rabbi Aryeh Levin’s kind eyes, he answered: "Know that the Holy One, blessed be He, has in Heaven a sack of tears... In that sack, He gathers all the tears of Israel, and all the sobs, and all the chapters of Psalms since we became a people until this day, and in the end, all the contents of the sack will be poured out and will flood the world with His great goodness." Every tear is counted and recorded, and every sob is collected, and no prayer returns empty!
Many sacks of tears were filled during the expulsion from Gush Katif, and no prayer returns empty. With God’s help, those synagogues will be rebuilt and established again with the renewal of settlement in that region. Then, in the synagogues as well - according to the opinion of the Gaon Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, of blessed memory - there will be longing when they reach the elevated destination as a "small sanctuary" in Eretz Yisrael for the many congregants of the renewed Gush Katif.
The Maharsha and the Ritva add an additional layer and say that the ascent of synagogues to Eretz Yisrael symbolizes not only the redemption of the people, but also the redemption of the Torah and spiritual accomplishments of the exile. The spiritual labor, devotion, and prayers spoken out of the darkness and difficulty of Babylonia and the wider Diaspora are not lost when redemption comes. The Maharsha explains that these synagogues are destined to stand near the Third Temple. That is, the Torah of the Diaspora rises and is incorporated into the higher sanctity of Eretz Yisrael and the days of the Messiah. In other words, the spiritual effort that Jews invested over the generations outside Eretz Yisrael was not in vain, and it does not remain behind; it will be fixed forever within the Holy Land.
But some believe that in going into exile, it involves actual physical stones brought by Israel during their exile. Like that synagogue in that same Gemara in Megillah [29a], and as Rashi says: In the case of Jeconiah and his group - stones and earth that they brought with them into exile, to fulfill what is stated: "For Your servants desired its stones and favored its dust" [Psalms 102]. The exiles took physical stones from Eretz Yisrael, built a synagogue from them in the Diaspora, and the Divine Presence rested there.
And with God’s help, in our days, about two decades ago, when Breslov Hasidim sought to build a synagogue at Achuzat Brakfeld in Modiin Illit, I encouraged them to build according to the same model that Rabbi Nachman of Breslov had in Uman. I also brought them a wood engraving of the model that I had purchased in Uman. They indeed took some of the stones from the site and brought them to Israel, and incorporated them into the laying of the cornerstone of the synagogue that was built according to the model, to fulfill in practice Rabbi Eliezer’s statement that "synagogues in Babylonia will be established in Eretz Yisrael" - not only in the spiritual sense, but also in the physical sense. Incidentally, some parts of the Torah ark of that wonderful synagogue in Gan Tel were also installed in Jerusalem, in the synagogue "Migdal Asher" in Kiryat Moshe, named for our late mentor.
And with God’s help, Gan Tel will be restored, rebuilt, and established soon in our days, together with all the Gush Katif communities that will be re-established. Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, the "Ben Ish Hai," explicitly writes that what Rabbi Eliezer’s words refer to is a spiritual ascent - "not that they mean to uproot the body of the ground, but rather the air which is the shadow cast and is resting in the synagogues... and similarly, the matter of Tavor and Carmel - it was their shadow that came, not the bodies of the mountains," as stated by Ben Yehoyada on Tractate Megillah [29a].
There is no dispute that the current war has led many to strengthen themselves spiritually, in the way those synagogues and study halls stood for Israel against Balaam and Balak. This is the ultimate weapon that Israel has alongside the self-sacrifice of our fighters in the war against our enemies, and alongside that measure of modesty whereby their entrances were not oriented toward one another. And with God’s help, may we soon merit the rebuilding of the Temple, as Rashi says: "How goodly are your tents, Jacob" - these are the tents of Shiloh and the eternal House [the Temple] in its place, where sacrifices are offered for atonement.
The author is the chairman of Tziha International Real Estate Company.