Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily.
There are many people today that are disturbed by the rise in antisemitism, the acts of vandalism and the like. They're getting down from it, getting anxious etc. So, I'd like to give what we call a reframe, based on the Gemara in Masechet Yevamot 47A. It's brought down in Shulcham Aruch L’Halacha that when a person wants to convert, we start off by asking, “What did you see that caused you to convert?” In other words, Are you converting to Judaism because Jews are wealthy; because they go on nice trips and they have great eateries? That's a mistake. Don't think you're going to convert because it's better. Don’t you know that Jews these days are sickly, pushed around, dragged around…they’re in a state of confusion, and suffering comes upon them?”
That's one version. The Chida sends us to Masechet Gerim, one of the smaller Masechtot, which is not so well known. The tractate discusses conversion, and in the first chapter, the first Halacha says, “Don't you see that this nation is bent over and lowly and diseases and suffering are upon them?”
Forget about antisemitism. There's sicknesses and disease.
(Lo alenu, they supposedly once asked in Sloan Kettering where there were so many Jews there)
Heaven forbid, they bury children and grandchildren and they can't act in public like other nations do.
They're afraid to gather in public. They need security guards in front of their synagogues.
Don't you understand that?
What is the would-be convert supposed to answer to this question? It says, “If he answers that, “I know that the, and I'm not deserving,” we accept him immediately.
What does it mean that he says, “I know, and I'm not deserving?” You might think that we tell him all of this because we don't want to fool him. We don't want to sell him a bill of goods. We don't want what is called a sale based on false pretenses.
No, we want more than that. We want him to realize it's a merit.
Rashi says it means, “I don't deserve, I'm not fit to be part of their suffering. I wish I should merit to the suffering of a Jewish person. I wish I could be part of that special club, to suffer like that.” This convert understands that this suffering is a sign that we're in a different league. We're in a different world. We're led into an elite club.
We're Navy Seals. We're going to be doing calisthenics and burpees and who knows what. It's a different league.
That suffering means we're in that group. That's what it means to be a Jew.
And if that is what a convert is supposed to say and understand, than surely we, who are part of this club, should understand this.
We've been spoiled by living in America, which is a wonderful land, where they give us all these privileges. But this is not the way it was for many years, in most countries, whether in the Middle East or in Europe. Jews had difficult lives. We have to realize that's the norm.
Rav Haskel Levenstein was the Mashgiach of the Mir Yeshiva. He led them through Shanghai where they spent the six years escaping the Holocaust.
The Japanese took them in originally, as the book, The Fuji Plan, explains. They thought that Jews would help them become a world power, but they eventually realized that the Mir Yeshiva was not the university that they thought they were getting, they were actually a liability. So their plan was to put them on a boat, and when they were out in sea, they would have the boat sunk and call it an accident. But one of the Japanese, pious among the nations, felt bad. He told the Mir Yeshiva what the plan was, and they never got on the boat. They were saved. The Japanese, realizing that someone had leaked their plan, did some research. When they found out who it was, they beat him to death.
Two of the boys in the Mir Yeshiva were very upset about this.
This was the reward for a man that saved Jewish people, who saved the Mir Yeshiva, who saved so many righteous great men (the Jewish world has been impacted to this day by these great men)?
They decided to go ask Rav Haskel what was going on.
As they stood outside of his office, about to enter and ask him, they heard him talking to Hashem saying, “Hashem, it's not fair.”
They thought, “Great. He's thinking just like we are.”
But then he continued,
“I've been serving You my whole life. I've been a good Jew. And I didn't merit to die Al Kiddush Hashem. I didn't merit to die for the cause. Yet this Japanese man did one good deed, and he gets to die Al kiddush Hashem? He gets to be killed for helping the Jews. It's not fair!”
Rav Levenstein looked at things with a whole different outlook! He understood.
That's our reframe here. When we see these things happening, we should say to ourselves, “Wow, I belong to that special club!”
Have a wonderful day and a successful reframe.