We are up to class number 80, a special Chol HaMoed (intermediate days of the festival) edition. We are going to continue with the story of Gidon, who is going to be our hero, from Shoftim, Judges, Chapter 6. So, the basic background is that the Jewish people are straying from God. They are put into the hands of Midyan for seven years, and Midyan is overpowering the Jews to the point that they keep ravaging their produce. We have to start hiding in tunnels and caves because they are creating economic sanctions on us and attacking us, and we are dwindling. They come in like marauders and steal everything we have, to the point of Vayidal Yisrael me'od: We became extremely impoverished. There is a famine, and the Jewish people cry out to God. Hashem sends a Navi (prophet) to the B'nai Yisrael, and Rashi says this Navi is Pinchas, also known as Eliyahu HaNavi. He comes to the people and tells them, “I took you out of Egypt. I saved you from the Egyptians. I sent everyone out of the land of Israel for you. I told you I am your God. And what are you doing following other gods?” End of speech. Seemingly, the speech does not make an impact.
Then an angel of God sits down or delays under an elm tree in the town of Ofra. There is a man by the name of Yoash, an older man. His son Gidon is threshing the wheat in a winepress area so that the Midyanites do not realize what he is doing, and he can at least thresh the wheat. An angel of God appears to him and says, “Hashem, God is with you.” Gidon says, “Please, is Hashem really with us? Why are all these things happening to us? Why are the Midyanites attacking us? Where are all God's wonders that our forefathers told us about, when they told us, ‘God took us out’? Now God has deserted us and given us into the hand of Midyan.” So that is Gidon's claim.
Then, as we mentioned yesterday, he gets upgraded. God says to him, “Go with this strength you have.” What strength does he have? What are we referring to? What is this strength? Rashi tells us, “You know what the strength is? You know what your strength is? Your power is: You were defending my children.” God calls the Jewish people, “We're God's children.” He took his children out of Egypt. And you know, a parent loves when they go to parent-teacher night and one teacher says, “Your kid is impossible.” The other teacher says, “No, he's really creative. He's this, he's that.” They love that teacher: “The teacher's sticking up for my boy.” Hashem says, “Gidon, I like what you just did.” What did Gidon say exactly?
As we mentioned yesterday, it was the day after Pesach, and he said, “Yesterday my father read the Hallel to me.” He was so impacted by the words of the Hallel. He said to himself—he took this very seriously—“We got out of Egypt.” He said, “If they were righteous—in their merit. If they were wicked, well, You did it for them, and they're wicked. Do it for us.” Gidon had the power of being a defense attorney for the Jewish people. Hashem says, “You have that trait? Take that trait and go with it.” The Pele Yoetz brings down this story on the topic of Sanegoria, which means being a defense attorney for Klal Yisrael (the Jewish people). He says that Eliyahu HaNavi lost his position because kano kineiti—he was zealous. He was Pinchas. He had stabbed Zimri, and he went on with an approach of zealousness. Zealousness is necessary. It is necessary at a time, but it cannot be your constant approach. It is not a constant approach. Therefore, it seems that although Pinchas came to speak to them over here, it did not make an impact. Eliyahu HaNavi, Pinchas, did not make an impact. We needed Gidon.
And I would like to suggest that Gidon's feeling for learning the Zechut (merit) for Klal Yisrael came specifically from that night of Pesach. The feeling of, “Hey, we're God's children.” Firstly, the rabbis explained the Kan haben sho'el: Here the son asks. Who is the son? The son is the Jewish people. We're asking God, “Why is this night different from all other nights? Why is this Galut (exile) different from all other nights? We're God's children.” We start off the Seder night with Ha lachma anya, inviting the guests into the house, because we're saying it is not about me alone. It is about the Jewish people at large. It is about Klal Yisrael. Gidon says, “I've got to worry about Klal Yisrael. I've got to worry about everybody.” That feeling of B'ni bechori Yisrael—we are, we are God's children. And if I am God's child and you are God's child, we're brothers. We have to take care of each other. That is the feeling that Gidon took away from the Seder. That was his takeaway. My father read Hallel, and he also learned from that the need to look out for the Jewish people and say positive things about them. The Pele Yoetz says that when you say positive things about the Jewish people, it makes an impact in the heavens.
I'll give you a simple example. A lot of people go away for the holidays. They go to hotels. There are two ways to look at it. You say, “Wow, you know, it's money wasted. We take all the money for the trips and put it together. We could burn the tuition crisis for the whole year and more.” Or you could say, “Look how beautiful it is. People have money, Baruch Hashem (thank God), and they're spending it on good things.” You have wealthy goyim (non-Jews). They buy submarines for their kids. I don't know what they do. And what are we doing? We're going to a hotel with the family together to spend the studying together, to keep our family connections. How beautiful it is. God bless them. They should continue to do it till ad me'ah ve'esrim (until 120). That's what God wants you to say. That's the koach (power) called Lamed, Sanigor, Yisrael. That was the power of Gidon. And God says, “Take that power and you'll save the Jewish people.”