Democracy. What is the definition? Why don’t we go to Congress when they’re in the middle of a session and listen to democracy? Each one is allowed to have their opinion, and they shout at each other. Democracy. Beautiful. That’s not democracy. Democracy is supposed to mean listening to one another, paying attention to what each person has to say. Maybe if someone says something I don’t know, I’ll be inspired and change my mind. Did you ever see someone from the right say to someone from the left, “Oh my God, you are so enlightening that I’m changing my mind. I’m going to your side”? And vice versa? It never happens. People talk, but others are not listening.
I would like to introduce something interesting that has to do with the date of the 10th of Tevet. Of course, the 10th of Tevet is known as the beginning of what ends with the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (Temple), when Nebuchadnezzar and his army laid siege to Jerusalem. It ends with the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. We all know that the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash happens because Bnei Yisrael have fights with one another. This is clear historically: every time we had problems in Klal Yisrael (community of Israel), there were fights and problems between people. Fighting with the enemy, we don’t have a problem. Fighting with one another is terrible. And this brought the Churban (destruction) Beit HaMikdash with us.
So it seems that when we fast on Asarah B'Tevet (10th of Tevet), Shiva Asar B'Tammuz, and Tisha B'Av, all the fasts that have to do with the destruction of the Temple have to do with the unity of Klal Yisrael. That’s what we think about. But there is a very interesting Shulchan Aruch. In Orach Chaim, Siman (section) Taf Kuf Peh, 580, he brings several dates on which people should fast, though these are not obligatory fasts. There he says something interesting: B'Shmona B'Tevet, Nichtevah HaTorah Yevanit. The Torah was translated, translated in Greek. Bimei (during the days of) Talmai HaMelech, when Talmai was the king of the Greeks.
And what happened as a result of that, which if you would know, probably the Beraita (early rabbinic teaching) from Megillat Ta'anit, that tells us that 70 sages were summoned by this king. They all wrote the translation of the Torah from Hebrew to Greek, and they all matched. It was a great miracle that 70 versions of the Torah were the same. But instead of being a celebration, the Shulchan Aruch quotes this Beraita in Megillat Ta'anit, which says, “There was darkness in the world three days.” The 8th, the 9th, and the 10th of Tevet. Three days of darkness, as if it were a punishment for what had happened. It culminated with the 10th of Tevet, which means that the 10th of Tevet has two things: the beginning of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, and the third day of this darkness that God miraculously brought to the world as a result of the translation of the Torah.
What is so wrong with the translation of the Torah that God got so upset? I’ll tell you what is so wrong with the translation of the Torah. I’ll give you an example. In this week’s Parashah, Parashat Vayigash, what is the term Vayigash? The simple term Vayigash, Hagashah L'milchamah. It means that Yehuda came to Yosef with the intent of attacking. He had had enough of the blah blah and all the conversations he had, and all these negotiations that led nowhere. At one point, he said, “You know what?” He got an attack and went ready for war. But Vayigash also means to pray. He prayed to whom? To God.
So you see, one word in Hebrew could mean several things. If you translate, you’re going to have to pick one. You cannot pick both. What you do at this point is take all the points, all the possibilities of the richness of the Torah, what we call the Shiv'im Panim LaTorah, the 70 different interpretations of the Torah, and channel them into one. You’re going to have to eliminate 69 in order to cherish one. Now that is beautiful for that one, but it’s a waste of the other 69. The richness of the Torah could only be explored if you do not translate it. Because if you translate it, you lock it into one interpretation, and you waste the other 69.
The Chachamim (sages) saw something terrible in there: locking the Torah into one. It’s as if that were unity, because you’re bringing all the possibilities together and making them one: 70 Chachamim who thought of one interpretation. Well, that kind of unity is not good either. So you have the 10th of Tevet pinpointing the disunity, or, if you want, the division between the people that brought the Temple to be destroyed. And you have the 10th of Tevet pinpointing the disunity, or, if you want, the division between the people that brought the Temple to be destroyed. And you have the 10th of Tevet that brought a crazy unity, bringing everybody together into one interpretation of the Torah. And both are not good! And we fast for both! Which means that we have to go in the middle.
On the 7th of October, we got attacked. There isn’t one Jew in the world who didn’t make the connection with what was happening to the Jews before that. I remember throughout the summer, when they were talking about civil war in Israel, people were fighting with one another. Many people in my community came to me and said, “Rabbi, this doesn’t smell good. Something is going to happen,” because every time historically there have been things like this, similar to this, bad things happen. When we can’t tolerate each other, we can’t respect each other, bad things happen. Sure enough, bad things happen.
Now it’s the opposite. You go to Israel, and everybody is united. The whole crowd is sad; we’re all together, we’re all fighting together, and it’s beautiful. But we have to learn what real unity in democracy is. It’s not translating the Torah into one language. And it’s definitely not giving the back to one another. It’s somewhere in the middle. And you know what it is? It’s respecting each other’s differences. We’re not supposed to think alike. It’s okay. We have to think differently. Every page of Gemara is full of discussions. Every time you ask a rabbi a question, he’s going to tell you, “Ooh, it’s a discussion.” Everything is up for discussion. We’re the number one people who vote for democracy. We’re allowed to have differences of opinion. But just because we have differences of opinion doesn’t mean that we’re not united. We have to learn how to be united and respectful while disagreeing. And that’s Asarah B'Tevet. We take both extremes: the disagreements to the point of fighting, and the unity to the point of having only one voice. And both are wrong. We need to be in the middle. We’re all different, and we’re supposed to think differently and hold different views. But we have to know how to do that respectfully. That’s our message for Asarah B'Tevet.