פרשת שופטים

THE GENOCIDE COMMANDMENT

In this week’s Parsha we read a possuk that at first glance is a difficult one for our modern day, democratic minds to understand. No matter how frumwe may be, we’re living in America and we think like Americans. And therefore, our minds have a hard time accepting the following possuk: מערי העמים האלה אשר השם אלוקיך נתן לך נחלה לא תחיה כל נשמה כי החרם תחרימם – “From the cities of these peoples that Hashem your G-d is giving you as an inheritance, you are not to leave any person alive. Rather, you shall surely annihilate them” (D’varim 20: 16-17). As they prepared to enter into Eretz Yisroel the Am Yisroel was commanded to wipe out the men, women and children of the nations that were inhabiting the land.

They weren’t given the option of allowing the Canaanite nations to remain in the land, even if the Canaanim would commit to peaceful coexistence. Hakodosh Boruch Hu warned us: לא תכרות ברית ליושבי הארץ – “Don’t make any peace treaties with those who are living in the land.” No peace treaties with the goyim in the land. Now, the gentiles outside of Eretz Canaan, you could make peace with them; sure, why not? Nothing wrong. But the gentile nations in Eretz Canaan? Absolutely not! Nothing doing! We have to force them to move out, to run away. Either move or be destroyed!

THE WISE MEN OF AFRICA

To destroy people?! To kill women and children because they didn’t move out of their homes, because they didn’t leave their land?! Yes! That’s what Hashem told us: Either they move or they get destroyed. Now the Girgashi, one of the tribes of Canaan, were smart. They saw that the Jews meant business and so they picked up and moved away; they made their way to Africa. But the other tribes didn’t move; they wanted to stay. And once they made that fateful decision, it became our duty to wipe them out. It’s hard for us to even say such a thing, and there’s no question that it wasn’t easy for the Am Yisroel to take such drastic measures. But Hakodosh Boruch Hu said it had to be done. And that begs the question: Why such viciousness? Why did Hakodosh Boruch Hu demand such drastic measures from us?

THE FOUNDATION OF OUR LIVES

A few weeks ago we read the following two pesukim in Parshas Eikev. And they are so important. These two pesukim are the foundation of our lives. You can repeat these words to yourselves over and over all day long, and it wouldn’t be enough: הן להשם אלוקיך השמים ושמי השמים – “Behold to Hashem your G-d belong the heavens and the heaven above the heavens.” The whole universe, it all belongs to Him. הארץ וכל אשר עליה, the whole world and everything in it is Hashem’s. Why is Hashem saying that? Is He trying to show off?

Now pay attention because that possuk is only an introduction for the following words, the next few words. רק באבותיך חשק השם לאהבה אותם – “Only in your forefathers did Hashem delight to love them.” Only your forefathers! The universe is Mine, all of it. And in the whole universe there is nothing like your forefathers; they are all that I care about. ויבחר בזרעם אחריהם – “And He chose their children after them, בכם כיום הזה, you as of this day.” “I love you to this day!” says Hashem.  (ibid. 10:14-15). This implies clearly that Hashem created the Universe solely because of the Fathers and their seed after them. They, and they alone, are the fulfillment of the purpose of Creation; and they justify the existence of the Universe.

EVERYONE IS NOT CREATED EQUAL

Hashem is saying that it is only the Am Yisroel that matters to him. We’re the nation that is beloved to Him, nobody else. What does the Torah talk about? There’s one Torah after all; and what’s it all about? It’s all about us! Two subjects – Hashem and the Am Yisroel, that’s all! Nothing is said about the Irishmen, nothing about Polish people. Only Jews! Only us! Am Yisroel! from the beginning of the Tanach until the end!

Shema Yisroel Hashem Elokeinu – Listen to me, Hashem is our G-d. What does that mean, He’s ours? It means He’s only for us. He chose us and that’s it! He didn’t choose anybody else. Hashem says, “I don’t believe in democracy. I don’t believe in pluralism. I chose you and that’s it!” We are His people no matter what the world says. They don’t like to hear it, but we don’t care.

WE NEED TO TALK TO OURSELVES IN SHUL

Now, we shouldn’t be advertising this today in public. In public we should be cautious with such things. But to ourselves we should be making these statements! And it’s not being said enough. In the shuls it must be said. In the homes you should always be telling your children who we are. Among ourselves, we’ll say it. And most importantly you should be telling this truth to yourself.

Because today, this principle is frequently overlooked. I know that many people here read newspapers, they listen to the radio, and watch the TV, so their minds are brainwashed; your brain is dirt washed, bilge water washed. And so it hurts to hear the words I’m saying here. You all are in constant contact with the outside world, all day you’re sitting in your place of work and you’re talking to goyim, you’re dealing with goyim, so you begin to think that we’re the same. Pious Jews will say “Yes, of course, we’re the Am Yisroel, but they are also a nation. We’re chosen to fulfill the commandments, but we have to look at people tolerantly. They also have ways of living, they’re also nations, they also have cultures.” No! You have to know that לא עשנו כגויי הארצות, He did not make us like the nations of the land, שהם משתחווים להבל ולריק, they bow down to foolishness, to empty ideals and attitudes. Their entire cultures are false and foolish.

THIS ISN’T MY TEACHING-IT’S THE TORAH’S

If you don’t believe we’re His people then you don’t belong to us. It’s not “Rabbi Miller” speaking, it’s the Torah. And not just Torah; it’s an elementary teaching of the Torah that we are Hashem’s chosen people. If you don’t believe that, then goodbye, you don’t belong to us. After the principle of belief in Hashem, the very next foundation principle is that we are His people, that we are His only people. And there’s no arguing about that. It’s not up for any discussion; you can’t budge from this principle that we are what matters in this world.

The drastic measure of the destruction of a whole people; men, women, and children, appears wrong in our eyes only because we haven’t yet internalized the prime importance of the Am Yisroel in this world. Once you understand this principle, that to Hashem there is nothing in this universe as precious as the Am Yisroel, you’ll understand that there is nothing more important than maintaining the perfection of His people. and therefore nothing at all can be permitted to stand in the way of our perfection. The perfection of the Am Yisroel is to be preserved at any cost.

THE ORIGINAL HOLLYWOOD

And therefore, even the most extreme measures had to be taken, to remove all traces of such a perilous influence. The land had to be cleared of this danger as soon as the nation of Hashem entered into the land. We don’t mind goyim, we don’t mind them at all. But what we do mind, and that’s what Hashem minds, is anything that might turn us away from Hashem in even the slightest way. The Am Segulah must remain the Am Segulah!

I’m not telling you drashos here. I’m not telling you far-out explanations. Hashem Himself tells us that this is the reason. And He couldn’t have made it any clearer for us: “You are not to leave any person alive; rather you shall surely annihilate the Chitites, and the Emorites, the Canaanites, and the Prezites, the Chivites, and the Yevusites, as Hashem has commanded you” (ibid. 20:16,18) And He explains: למען אשר לא ילמדו אתכם לעשות ככל תועבתם אשר עשו לאלהיהם וחטאתם להשם אלוקיכם – “In order that they should not teach you to do any of their abominations that they did for their gods, and you will then sin to Hashem your G-d” (ibid. 20:18).

We’re not talking here about a massacre by an occupying force. Or of terror for the sake of terror. No, absolutely not! Hashem tells us here that we must remove from our midst the evil-doers, because our perfection is more important than the lives and culture of the wicked nations. The Am Yisroel is what’s important in this world. And the Canaanites forfeited their lives with their wicked behavior because their influence would have been a cancer in the body of our people.

This important idea, that the reason we must drive out the gentile nations from our midst, is for our own spiritual protection is repeated again in this week’s Parsha. כי אתה בא אל הארץ אשר השם אלוקיך נותן לך לא תלמד לעשות כתועבת הגוים ההם… כי תועבת השם כל עושה אלה ובגלל התועבת האלה השם אלוקיך מוריש אותם מפניך – “When you come into the land that Hashem your G-d is giving you, do not learn to perpetrate the abominations of those nations… because anyone who perpetrates these acts is an abomination to Hashem, and it is because of these abominations that Hashem your G-d is expelling them from before you” (D’varim 18: 9-12).

A DIFFERENT REASON FOR VOMITING

Now some have misunderstood these pesukim to merely be telling us that Hashem punished the Canaanite nations because of the abominations they were committing in the holy land, a land that wouldn’t sustain such wickedness. And that therefore they were finally vomited out from the holy land of Eretz Yisroel. But when we read the possuk carefully we see that it is much more than that.

Listen to the words of the Torah: “It is because of these abominations that Hashem your G-d is expelling them from before you.” “From before you,” says Hashem! Because of you! Their sins were not enough to cause them to be expelled. They had lived on the land for hundreds of years – steeped in their wickedness – and they could have continued to live there for hundreds more. But now My people are coming into the land, and what was once Eretz Canaan must now be a place of potential perfection for the holy nation. And the people would not be able to climb the ladder of perfection in a land saturated with wicked people and their false and foolish attitudes and ideals.  And any impediment to their holiness is an impediment to My plan and purpose in the creation of this world and everything in it. And therefore I am expelling them “from before you.” From before my precious children.

THE CENTRALITY PRINCIPLE

A nation that has been chosen by Hashem to be His “treasure” must do everything possible, they must take all measures available to them, to remain worthy of this distinction. The perfect nation must remain perfect. And therefore, we must remove from our midst, even in the most extreme manner, any influence that might turn us away from Hashem.

The centrality-principle, the principle that we, the Jewish People, stand at the center of the Universe and are the purpose of all existence, demands such extremism. The most kind-hearted and perfect people must sometimes take the most extreme measures, על פי השם , if we wish to remain forever the most kind-hearted and perfect people.

THE REAL REASON FOR THE CHURBAN

Now what happened? In Sefer Shoftim it says that the Jews were reluctant to kill goyim. Jews are kind hearted, compassionate people. They were reluctant; they didn’t want to kill. But we learn here that even a man’s emotions are subject to the will of Hashem. The commandment to destroy the Canaanim was the greatest act of compassion – upon the people the matter most in this world, the Am Yisroel. And when the Am Yisroel, were lax in fulfilling the will of Hashem to preserve their perfection, they weren’t praised for their compassion. No, the results were terrible. At the end of Melachim when it talks about the Churban, the churban of the first Beis Hamikdash, it says that it was because they didn’t drive out the goyim. The darshanim like to tell you about sinas chinam, and other sins – it’s true, it’s also true – but look at the end of Melachim and you’ll see it describes that the Churban came because they let the goyim survive and it spoiled the Am Yisroel. They were ruined just because they allowed the gentile influence to remain, and eventually seep into their homes.

The uprooting of the wicked from our midst is not rooted in the hatred of gentiles, chas v’shalom. Why should we have anything against the goyim?! As long as they’re not hurting us, we have nothing against them. Let them be happy! But they are hurting us; maybe not always in a physical way, but the disastrous influence of their culture – their materialism and immorality is more damaging than any physical harm they could possibly inflict upon us. And therefore we need to do whatever possible to preserve the greatness of the Am Yisroel.

IT’S A B’FEIRUSHE RAMBAM

When discussing this mitzvah of destroying the avodah zarah from Eretz Canaan, the Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim 1:35) teaches us this idea succinctly: “For it is the principal objective of the Torah, as well as the axis around which the Torah revolves, to blot out all of the empty ideals and foolish attitudes from the minds of the Am Yisroel, and to make the existence and ideals of these falsehoods impossible to exist. This is the fundamental principle of the entire Torah.”

Here the Rambam is telling us that the fundamental purpose of our stay in this world is to purge falsehood from our minds. And the reason why it is so fundamental is because we are in this world only as a preparation for the Next World. And the way we prepare is by perfecting our minds. The more you fill your mind with Torah attitudes, the ideals of Hashem, the more prepared you will be to stand before Hashem on that great and fearful day when you leave this world.

THE FIRST STEP TO PERFECTION

And the first step in perfection of your mind is to stand guard dutifully against the false ideas that are always encroaching upon your mind from the outside environment. Because a mind that is an irbuvyah, an admixture of foreign ideas and attitudes, is not the mind that Hashem desires from you. And it is not the mind that you will wish to stand with before Hashem in the Next World.

And therefore, the Rambam tells us that not only was it urgently important to smash to pieces all of the images and symbols of idolatry that the Am Yisroel came upon when entering the land, as commanded in Parshas Vaeschanan (7:5), but there was something even much more essential. The obliteration of the altars and figurines that the Am Yisroel found in Eretz Canaan was merely a mashal, a symbol, for what Hashem really wants from us. And that is to smash to pieces all of the foreign ideas and attitudes that permeate into our minds. It is that destruction that is actually the most essential element required for living lives of service of Hashem.

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From Toras Avigdor, here.