Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach ztz’l BS’D Essential for Being in Eretz Yisrael When I love someone the most, two things come up. The first thing is I like to have a special place where I can meet them. It’s true, I may meet them on 42nd Street and 5th Avenue, but then I say, “I know a sweet place just for me and you.” The second thing is, when I love somebody very much, it’s clear to me that there is nobody like them in the whole world. You can tell me stories that everyone is very special, and it’s cute and sweet. This is not what I mean. I mean something so much deeper. Now listen to this. Here the children of Israel are in the desert, wandering for forty years, and are ready to go into the Holy Land. I want you to open your hearts in the deepest way. And just know, I’m talking about every one of us, because the Torah talks about all of Israel. It talks about every person in the world. Gevalt are we wandering until we find our place. The Zohar Hakadosh says that every person in the world has to make in his life or her life 42 stops until you get to where G-d wants you to be, just like we went through the 42 different journeys in the desert. So finally it’s the last stop. The next stop is the Holy land. It’s a very delicate time. I am just about to cross over the last part of the journey. I don’t know how many life times I have been already. I don’t know how many stops I have made in my life. How many u-turns have I taken? How many times did I not continue and move on because I just didn’t believe anymore that I will make it. This time, Baruch HaShem, I’m right by the border. Here comes brother Balak and brother Bilaam and they want to turn you off. But they are not even talking to you. They do it behind your back. They are talking to G-d. What was Bilaam’s claim? Bilaam’s claim to G-d was, why are you hanging on to the Jews? There are so many people in the world. What is so special about them? And friends, do you think he is wrong? He’s right. Every nation is special.. Every person is special. It’s true. What is so special about Israel? Every nation is special. So again, here I am in love with this beautiful girl. And someone says to me, “Yeah, she’s beautiful but you should see my sister, she is just as beautiful, maybe even more beautiful.” Then I say, ‘but I love her’. And then they point out to me thast she is stupid here and stupid there. Bilaam was pointing out to G-d everything we do wrong. Prophetically, he knew everything that B’nei Yisrael would do wrong from now until the Messiah is coming. And he wasn’t wrong. We really did. But ‘Velo Ava Hashem Elokecha Lishmo’a El Bilaam’. G-d doesn’t want to hear it! I’m not interested. Why wasn’t G-d interested, even if Bilaam was right? You know sweetest friends, Reb Leibale Eiger says that the first time the Holy Land is mentioned is when G-d spoke to Avraham Avinu, because until Avraham Avinu, nobody was that special to G-d that G-d needed a special place to meet that person. But after Avraham Avinu shows up, G-d says, “Avraham, I need a special place where you and I will meet.” This is Eretz Yisrael. Everything which is special needs a special place. When you have children, why don’t you move into the subway? The subway is sweet, and I’d like to share my children with the world. It’s cute and sweet, but because children are special they need a special place. They need a special bed. They need a special little pillow. They need a special little towel. Everything has to be special. Bilaam wanted to take away this specialness from the world. The whole world is the same. All people are the same. Sweetest friends, I want you to know the deepest depths. What gives me the strength to pray before G-d? What happens to me when I pray? Basically, what is prayer all about? Open your hearts in the deepest way. You know why I am standing before G-d and praying? Because it’s clear to me that I am special to G-d. And despite everything wrong I am doing, all my wrongdoings cannot take away this unbelievable specialty which exists between me and G-d. This is the deepest depths in the world. If you don’t have anyone special in your life, then you don’t taste this. How do I know what ‘special’ is? Because I know how special my children are to me. And then I can have a glimpse of how special children are to G-d. Gevalt! Do you think that Avraham Avinu only wanted to have a child just to have a child? He wanted to have a child anyway. But Avraham Avinu was claiming to G-d ‘how do I know how special I am to you unless I have a baby who means so much to me?’ The minute Avraham was told that he was going to have a baby - the Torah says that Avraham Avinu started to pray. What was Avraham Avinu praying for? For Sdom. “Ribbono shel Olam, now I know what it is to be special. And even the people of Sdom, with all their evil, there has to be somebody special there. Maybe there are 50 special people there? Maybe there are 10 special people there?” G-d revealed to him there is only one special person there. And this one special person isn’t even born yet. It’s Ruth, the great great-great-grand daughter of Balak. Now listen to this. It’s so strange. When G-d punishes, he punishes by showing you how wrong you did. Balak and Bilaam want to tear out the specialty from the world. So G-d punishes them by giving them a special, special granddaughter who will bring back to the world how special is. What will happen when Messiah comes? It will be revealed to us how special everything is. Reb Nachman says that Balak’s Rashei Tevios are ‘Beino Levein Kono’, between him and G-d. There was something about Balak, Balak had this crazy idea that the whole world should serve G-d, but on the same level. The only thing is, for us Yidden it’s clear if you want to serve G-d, you really have to work on yourself, just a little bit. You cannot get drunk every night and do everything in the world and then the next morning.... Even Reb Mottele Chernobler says you can daven like it’s Yom Kippur, but if you make it a habit, it’s not such a good habit. It stops being Yom Kippur, it stops being special. You see, what Balak wanted, you should be a pagan and do anything you want to and still be a servant of G-d. It’s hard. But he had a good idea that every one should serve G-d. Therefore he was building seventy altars. So you know something friends, when somebody has a good idea, even if he doesn’t know how to do it, he has to get credit for it. So his grand daughter is Ruth, the mother of Mashiach, who will really make the world one. One day, the world will really be one and everyone will feel so special.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 20:13:28 +0000
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