I'd like to continue today with the Pasuk (verse) we've been learning: Hashem is Shomer Yisrael. Hashem watches over Yisrael. If you remember, we learned that this means when Yisrael is not doing so well, Hashem doesn't give up on them. Even when they're doing terribly, Hashem doesn't give up on Am Yisrael (the Jewish people). It's non-negotiable.
So Hashem is Shomer Yisrael. This means that even when Am Yisrael is not in a good place, when they're not living like Am Yisrael, Hashem doesn't dispose of them. Shomer Yisrael. He's Shomer—not just Yisrael, meaning He protects them from enemies. Shomer Yisrael means He's always making sure to put them on some sort of path to remain Yisrael, not to remain alive. He's Shomer Yisrael. Yisrael is referring to the greatness of our people. Shomer Yisrael.
It's not as simple as saying, "Oh, we have an enemy, so Hashem watches over us so we stay safe." It's much deeper than that. Shomer Yisrael means that no matter where we are, no matter what we're doing, and even when we're behaving in the worst ways, Hashem is always Shomer. He is figuring out a way to preserve Yisrael—not to preserve our lives, but to preserve the spiritual greatness of Am Yisrael that we've been speaking about, even when we're not behaving that way. Even when we were punished, we'll call it, quote unquote, and had to be reprimanded, as we have been for the last few thousand years, Hashem is still Shomer Yisrael. He is involved in making sure to preserve the great spiritual status of the Jewish people.
I'd like to give you an example, or a few examples, of how Chazal, how our rabbis, viewed events in history—and, of course, current events. It's important to know how to understand the events that take place in our lives, whether they're in the past or happening now.
Let me share with you a Gemara in Masechet Pesachim (Tractate Pesachim). The Gemara says that our people went into exile to Bavel (Babylonia) for three reasons. This is just to give you an example and a little historical perspective. Am Yisrael was in Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) after 40 years in the desert. That was approximately 3,300 years ago. They stayed in Eretz Yisrael. There was a period of the Bet HaMikdash (Holy Temple) in Eretz Yisrael. There was a 70-year period between the first Bet HaMikdash and the second Bet HaMikdash. The time of Purim was between the first and second Bet HaMikdash. Then, about 2,000 years ago, we were sent out of Eretz Yisrael. The land disposed of us. We were not behaving the way Yisrael is supposed to behave. As we learned before, the land of Israel can't hold on for very long to a nation that is not living up to the standards Am Yisrael is supposed to meet. Therefore, it threw us out of the land.
Just as a father and mother can keep a child who is not behaving in the home for a very long time, they have a lot of patience with him. So too, Hashem has a lot of patience with us. I don't think Hashem threw us out of the land because one morning we woke up and did something wrong. It's obviously not like that. Hashem has a lot of patience. Any patience a father and mother have for a child is only a little example, a little glimpse of Hashem's patience with Am Yisrael.
After some time, it may no longer be good for the child to be in the father's home. A father will hold on to his son, even if he's doing the wrong thing, in the hope that while he holds on to him, his son will find his way. Any father or son dealing with a difficult child knows exactly what I'm talking about. You hold on to him. He's getting worse; you hold on to him more. He's getting worse; now you start to love him even more. It's all with the hope that, as you hold on to him, he will be influenced by you, by his siblings, by his family. Maybe one day he'll have a calling; his heart will awaken him. Who knows? He'll see the light. You hold on. But there comes a time when holding on to a child is to his detriment. There comes a moment when the only solution, the only hope, is to let him go. That doesn't mean that if you let him go, he'll definitely come back to you right away. But that would be the only possibility. Again, it's free choice. He still has to make the right choices. But as a father and mother, we need to put our children in the best place for them to make the best choice.
For a very long time, we'll keep him in the house. In the house, they have much more influence and a lot of good things. They have things that can happen to them. They have support. They have people who believe in them. They need all that. But there is a situation—not a good situation—but there definitely is a good situation where a father and mother are advised, "You need to let your son out. You've got to get him out of the house," because it is the only way he could possibly see, realize, and come back. Again, not a great situation, but a necessary one. A necessary situation.
So when we speak about Galut (exile), do not think for a moment that Am Yisrael did something wrong and Hashem said, "You know what? I'm mad at you. I'm upset with you. Get out of here." Chas V'Shalom—God forbid. Hashem had a tremendous amount of savlanut, patience. Remember, the land of Israel cannot hold on to a nation that is not living according to the spiritual heights it's supposed to reach. It's called Eretz HaKodesh, the holy land. The holy land is Kedushah (holiness) and Eretz Yisrael. And in the same way, He got rid of the Kena'anim (Canaanites) who were there. The Torah says: Why were the Kena'anim thrown out of Israel? Not only because Am Yisrael was coming. The Kena'anim were thrown out of Israel because they were not behaving in a way that would allow them to stay in that land.
So this country could not hold us anymore. But Hashem held on to us for hundreds of years. Hundreds of years—not one day, not one month, not one year. But it got to the point that the only solution for Yisrael was to get us out of Israel. That means even Galut is called Shomer Yisrael. You understand? Even when we're thrown into Galut, into exile, and we're experiencing a very terrible, terrible disaster, even there it's also called Shomer Yisrael. Hashem is trying to preserve our people. And there came a time when He threw us out of the country. We're done.
So the Gemara says that when we went into Galut for the first time—the Galut that we're in now—we were taken to Bavel, to Babylonia. Now, why did we end up in Bavel? It's like somebody asking you, "Why'd you end up in New York? Why'd you end up in Colombia? Why'd you end up in Brazil? Why'd you end up in Panama?" I don't know. Whatever, the boat docked somewhere and you got out. That's it. "Oh, I had a great uncle who had a sister who thought maybe it was good to live here." I don't know. "Why?" "That's the visa they gave me." Everyone's got a story.
Wherever a Jew is today, the majority of Am Yisrael in the world haven't been wherever they are for more than a hundred years. It's an amazing thing, by the way, when you think about it: the majority of the Jewish people today haven't been in their place for more than a hundred years. The majority. You understand the kind of movement that's going on in the world? So why did you end up where you ended up? Who knows?
If somebody asked you, "Why did Am Yisrael end up in Bavel?" you'd say, "That's just what happened. The Babylonians threw us out, and we ended up in Bavel. I don't know why." Is that a real question? But the Gemara in Masechet Pesachim asks why Am Yisrael ended up in Bavel. I think the question itself is a class of its own. We were never asked that question. But they're teaching us how to think, because they know the Pasuk, Shomer Yisrael. The difference between me and you and them is that we don't live with the Pasuk, Shomer Yisrael. We don't realize that Hashem is always watching over Yisrael.
So when we're thrown out of a country, when we're in Halab (Aleppo), in Europe, wherever we were, and we're thrown out and have to escape and end up somewhere, we don't realize that there's a Shomer Yisrael looking to put us in a certain place to preserve us. They're teaching us how to look not only at Bavel; they're teaching us how to study every time we go from place to place. We're supposed to open our eyes and see the hand of Hashem: why He put us in that place. Show me the Shomer Yisrael of that place. You follow?
All events in the history of the Jewish people must be viewed through the lens of this Pasuk in Tehillim (Psalms). Could you imagine how powerful this Pasuk is? He knows that there is no God except for the Shomer Yisrael. That means every point in our people's history must be viewed through the lens of, "Oh wow, Hashem is always looking to preserve our Yisrael status." So how did He do it in that situation?
What happened in that terrible tragedy that we experienced, as Jack just mentioned, on October 7th? The way we're supposed to view that tragedy: of course there's an enemy, of course there are haters, of course we have to fight them, and of course we have to protect ourselves. Those are the obvious things that everybody knows. You don't need to be a big genius for that. But a great Jew views those events on a deeper level, through a lens called the Shomer Yisrael lens.
Here I have a book in front of me right now. I can't read it. I put on the beautiful glasses you've bought for me. All of a sudden, by heat, all I could see. You have to know that if it were possible, we would manufacture Shomer Yisrael glasses. Without Shomer Yisrael glasses, you look at the world in darkness. You see that there are things going on, but you don't see. Just as when I look at this book, I see letters, ink, letters, things, but I don't really see anything. I see very, very simple things. I don't see the depth and the words of what I'm looking at. The same way in the world: if you don't have your Shomer Yisrael glasses, you're looking at history and current events in a very, very blurry way. At best, you're seeing the obvious. Tell me what's in front of you. "It's a book." Okay, it's obvious. I don't have to see so well for that. I see ink. Okay, great. I see pages. You don't need to be a genius for that. But if you put on your Shomer Yisrael glasses, all of a sudden you see world events—not that they're different from what you see, but you see much deeper. You understand them much better.
And this Gemara in Masechet Pesachim—you see, I'm sorry, I veered off. Jack mentioned October 7th. Absolutely, you have to look at that event with Shomer Yisrael glasses. What was Hashem looking to preserve in that event? It was a terrible tragedy, a terrible, horrible tragedy in so many ways. But Chazal taught us that even in tragedies, there are more terrible tragedies than our entire nation being thrown out of Eretz Yisrael. That's also a great tragedy. The obvious reasons are that we had enemies: they didn't like us, they wanted our land. There were many simple answers, and they're all true.
But you put on your Shomer Yisrael glasses, and all of a sudden you have a whole new lens. You ask questions like, "Why did Hashem send us to Bavel?" Meaning, what was the Shomer Yisrael thinking when He did this to us?
For October 7th, you don't even have to be a big Talmid Chacham (Torah scholar) to see what Hashem did to us. How long it'll last, I don't know. But for sure, for sure, anybody here knows—you don't have to be so well-versed in current events to know that Am Yisrael was in terrible, terrible separation, terrible fighting. A few months ago, they were talking about a civil war in Eretz Yisrael. Who would have dreamt that Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael would be fighting a war of brothers? Unimaginable. Yes, do we have disagreements? Yes. Do we have disagreements? Yes. But there were discussions of a civil war. There were people just going from city to city to demonstrate against their brother. It was out of this world. Am Yisrael can't live without being together. It's part of being Yisrael.
So for sure, again, I'm sure there are deeper things about October 7th. But even the simple thing is, if we see through the lens of Shomer Yisrael, we'll see, "Oh wow, it brought us together." It did bring us together, in Israel and out of Israel. It created a sense of Ahdut (unity), preserving Am Yisrael.
So the Gemara asks: What's the reason our nation went to Bavel? Again, they're not asking for the systematic reason for the war, how we ended up on the boat and one did it. That's not what we're asking. We're asking: Since Hashem is Shomer Yisrael, could we see the Shomer Yisrael in Bavel? It's good to see, because then you understand things much deeper, and then you'll live your responsibility.
The Gemara says they found not just one reason, but three reasons—reasons we would never in our wildest dreams think of. But again, as I told you, just the question itself is worthy of a class. Whenever you see events in your life and in Am Yisrael, in your community, in your city, you must ask this question: Why is the Shomer Yisrael doing this to me? Why is the Shomer Yisrael doing this to my family? Why is this happening to my community? Why did I end up in New York? Why? What was in New York for me?
They asked. They said there are three reasons. One—listen to this reason. You'd never believe this reason. You would never in your dreams think of such a reason. The Gemara says, "So they should eat dates and they'll be able to learn Torah."
Imagine—I'm going to repeat that so you don't think I made a mistake. The Gemara says, reason number one: "So they should eat dates and learn Torah." Where are the dates? Shalom, you need dates to learn Torah? What does that mean? What is it talking about? It's only the first item. That's reason number one. We'll get back to it right now. Clearly, we don't understand what Shomer Yisrael has to do with having dates, but it seems that Bavel is a place where they have a lot of dates.
Second reason: the language of the people is similar to the language of the Torah. We have the language of the Talmud Babli (Babylonian Talmud) from Bavel. The language of the people is similar to the Lashon, the language of the Torah. When you read the Gemara's language, you see it's similar. That's number two.
Number three means that our great-grandfathers came from there. We came from that area. Abraham and his father—we came from there. Three things.
Let's first analyze the first item. What does it mean that we went to Bavel because they have dates? The answer is that dates are very cheap and very filling. As you said, the Gemara says that it's possible to say Birkat Hamazon (Grace after Meals) on dates because they are very, very filling. So you have cheap food that fills you up. Therefore, in Bavel, our people didn't have to spend a lot of their time on Parnassah (livelihood). It wasn't like America, where people work their whole life just to make money. Bavel was a simpler lifestyle, where they could eat cheap dates, very cheap.
Today, if you want to have dinner, you've got to have a thousand dollars on you. You go with your wife, it's two thousand dollars now. To order two thousand dollars' worth of food, you have to work, invest, put in a lot of time and effort before you can afford that dinner today. Even if you don't go out for dinner and just want to buy a piece of steak that's not even prepared and cooked, it can run to a hundred dollars. To get to a hundred dollars, you're going to have to work, you're going to have to struggle. That means you're going to spend a lot of time traveling, a lot of time investing, a lot of time worrying. Everything adds up. There's no such thing as living in a society where things cost money without that taking away from your energy and your time. It's reality. And if you have to do it, you have to do it. There's no choice.
But Bavel, where Am Yisrael went, was not that kind of place. It was a place where people were able to exist with very little. Dates were common food. You didn't feel weird if today you had dates for dinner in America; you didn't feel like a strange person. But in Bavel it was very normal. "What are you having tonight?" "Dates." "And tomorrow night?" "Dates." Maybe one time they put cinnamon on them, one time sugar, maybe one time they boiled them, maybe one time they roasted them. I'm sure they had many dishes of dates, but dates were the food. Today in America, it's standard to have a different kind of dinner, right? If you tell a guy today, "I'm having bread and cheese for dinner," they say, "What's wrong? What happened?" They're okay. So, yeah, today in our country it's not like that. You can't sit down and have dates. You feel like there's something wrong with you.
So again, in Bavel, just like in every country in the world, whatever they normally do, you're comfortable with. In Bavel it was the norm to eat dates, and therefore Am Yisrael, when they were there, ate dates too. What's so nice about eating dates is that you don't have to work so hard, because dates are abundant in Bavel and cheap. If living in Bavel were costly, it would be a different kind of world. The Gemara says Hashem sent us to a city, to a country where the diet was dates. This way we would be able—He, Shomer Yisrael, on one hand, threw us out of Eretz Yisrael because it was time. There was no way to preserve us in Eretz Yisrael. He threw us out, but when He threw us out, He was Shomer Yisrael. He said, "I have to put them in a place where, through their awakening..." You can imagine they went to Bavel shocked. They were just like we were shocked on October 7th. They were shocked that Hashem threw them out of their land. That's a big shock. Maybe they had all kinds of thoughts of Teshuvah (repentance), of what they would do. But Hashem had to give them the ability to do it, right? So He didn't send them to Italy. He didn't send them to France. He sent them specifically to Bavel, the Gemara says, because of the diet, and this way they'd be able to learn Torah.
And let me tell you something, let me tell you something. You look at this Gemara without explaining it, and it sounds like, okay, they had dates. Do you understand that not only did that period of our history succeed for itself, but the majority of our Torah today came from that period? When we learn today, what do we learn? Talmud Babli. The Talmud Babli was created from this exact position that Hashem put us in. If we had gone to Bavel and it had been a different kind of place, where we had to fight to make money, like many of our forefathers who came to this country or other countries and had to earn a living, where things were expensive and they had to work day and night, morning—how would there be a Talmud Babli in America? Do you think people who move to Panama could write Talmud Babli? The first thing they do is write Talmud Babli? For a hundred years they try to figure out just how to survive, how to find their place. But our people were sent to Bavel, and basically had nothing to do. They didn't have much work to do. Things were cheap. What did that do? It gave us the time to learn.
That means when Hashem woke us up and threw us out of the land, He caught us with the other hand, right? Like it says, "Semolo tachat l'roshi, v'yemino techabekeni"—"His left hand is under my head, and His right hand embraces me," says David in Shir HaShirim. Hashem has Semolo, His left hand, which is not the good hand. Semolo tachat l'roshi is under my head. You know, when someone's falling, you put your hand under his head to catch him, in kindness, before he falls. Semolo—when Hashem threw us out of Eretz Yisrael, He tried to save us before we got destroyed. So, Semolo tachat l'roshi: He put His hand under my head so I wouldn't fall and destroy myself. If you let someone fall backward on their head, it's over. Before He let us fall in Israel, Hashem took His left hand and put it under our head so we wouldn't fall.
And then v'yemino—He takes His right hand—techabekeni, and He hugs me. He's catching me and hugging me. The hug of Bavel, the catch of Bavel, is that Hashem threw us out before we fell on our face, so He caught us in Bavel. Why Bavel? Because He's v'yemino techabekeni. The Talmud Babli is the source of the overwhelming majority of our Torah today. Every Jew today in yeshiva is learning Talmud Babli. Every book that you see on the shelves—the origins and the source are Talmud Babli. Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) comes from Talmud Babli. Musar (ethical teachings) comes from Talmud Babli. All the values that we speak about every morning, when we're sitting here and learning—where are they coming from? They're coming from Talmud Babli. Unbelievable. Chazal understood that when Hashem guides us somewhere, He's looking to preserve us. We must open our eyes and see the preservation of Yisrael.
This means there are two things. Number one, this was a physical advantage and a spiritual advantage. When you go to a country and speak a language that's similar to theirs, you don't look like you're from outer space. A guy comes today from the African Congo and starts making sounds in his language. They come to the new country and say, "This guy—he's not just from out of town, he's from out of this world. He's like a different human being." You feel very low in a foreign place when you're so different from everyone there. Hashem wanted to give us a feeling of wholeness. So He took us to a place where our language and their language were very close. It's like you're speaking Spanish or Portuguese. Okay, it's different, but you don't look at the guy like he's from a different world. You speak English, you speak French. These are Latin languages; they're similar enough. The Hebrew language and the language in Bavel were very similar. This way, He gave our people a sense of comfort. That means when Hashem sends us to another country, He's not only concerned about our spiritual achievements. As much as possible, depending on the need, He also tries to make us comfortable in that situation.
And by the way, the language is also a spiritual advantage, because when you live in a country that speaks the language of Bavel and you open the Torah, you can understand it. It's not so foreign to you. A guy who speaks English opens the Torah and understands nothing, zero. But when you go to a country with a similar language, you open the Torah and it's much more familiar. You understand it better. So again, the second reason has a physical and a spiritual aspect. First, it makes us feel more comfortable. Second, it gives us an advantage in learning Torah, which of course is in Hebrew. And the third reason is that it's a place where our forefathers came from. Again, to make us feel a little more at home, so we're not complete strangers, not complete foreigners. After all, originally, my great-grandpa was here. That's where I came from. So it was a familiar place, a familiar land. All of that is to preserve Shomer Yisrael. And again, it's our duty to study everything every time we go from place to place, and to see the Shomer Yisrael in our lives.
I don't have all the chokhmah (wisdom) right now to study this, but the fact that America opened up for us—America is one of the greatest countries in the history of the world in its opportunity. When our people were suffering in Spain, about 500 years ago, a new world, a new place opened up. And now, 100 years later after it was—excuse me, 400 years later after it was built up—where were we? In Europe. You know how many people in Europe escaped to America? There was nowhere to go. America was this different, safe place where we were leaving Halab, leaving Damascus, Lebanon. America became a safe haven for our people. And look at the Berakha (blessing) that we see in this country. He took us to a place of opportunity. He took you to Bogota or took you to Panama or to...
But you know what? Over there you saw opportunities for financial growth. You went to a land where it was ready for you to go and build it up and make money. Look at what our people had in America in the last 100 years. On this side of the world, there was an opportunity, not like today. Today is a little different. In the earlier days, the opportunity to make money and build up was much more open to a foreigner. He comes in and, boom, he opens a business. Those opportunities were not there over there. That means a lot of the success we see today was built on this place of opportunity that Hashem sent us to. And look at the ability to learn Torah that we have, the yeshivot that we have. Again, it's much deeper than that, but Chazal are teaching us that wherever you are in life—as a person, as a family, as a community, as a nation—you must put on your Shomer Yisrael glasses. You have to see how Hashem preserved your Yisrael by putting you where you are, in that place, in that country, and how you're able to find your way specifically in the place where He put you, even in your day-to-day life.