1.
At first, when I saw the picture of Aharon Barak wearing tefillin in the newspaper 'Mishpacha', I was sure it was a parody. Although Barak said last week that in order to continue his judicial legacy he would even stand in front of a firing squad, but to that extent? Putting on tefillin? What's the next step? Esther Hayut, wearing a headscarf, breaking challah, on the cover of 'Pnima' magazine?
And then, when I realized it wasn't a photomontage - I was moved. Not so much by Mahron Barak as by the interviewer Aryeh Erlich, who is first and foremost a Chabadnik and only then a journalist. He sees a Jew, no matter how far away he is, and honestly thinks about how he can merit him with the commandments, because after all, he is a part of God from above.
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As for Barak himself: I have no doubt that putting on tefillin had an impact on him. Every mitzvah, certainly one this important, has a special effect on the one who performs it. That's what we believe. But I fear another effect: the media impact of this exciting putting on on the most important public struggle in the history of the State of Israel, in the midst of which we find ourselves in these historic days.
This was not a secret assumption. This is, ultimately, a media event, which President Barak - a genius of law and media - understands well and manages well. The idea is to convey a message: Look at me, I'm not that anti-Jewish. I even wear tefillin. Or: I agree to wear tefillin.
But let's not be confused. Barak is the bitterest opponent of the Jewish identity of the State of Israel in the last thirty years. That is precisely what the struggle is about now. Who will determine the identity of the State of Israel: the majority, which wants tradition and Shabbat and family and Passover and the Land of Israel and security and nationalism, or a small, mega-progressive minority that wants to forcefully, with activism, transform Israel into a state for all its citizens.
2.
And one more thing: In a video released the next day, Aryeh Erlich and Aharon Kliger from Mishpacha are seen placing tefillin on Barak as he struggles to complete the words of the first part of Shema Yisrael. They have to say it word for word with him.
This is amazing. The man who has had the most influence on the legal system in Israel since the founding of the state, the great genius, the great innovator, to whom no secret has been revealed, both in Israeli law and in the laws of the world - does not know how to complete what every three-year-old child knows. The man who rules in the most sensitive Jewish matters like conversion, does not himself know what is taught on the first day in the conversion school. So let's say that he does not see religious importance in this text, because he is not an observant Jew. Let's say. But not even historical importance? Cultural? Literary? To what extent is he disconnected from his Jewish roots?
Would you say that it is impossible to judge a Jewish child who, at school age, hid in a niche in the wall of a farmer's house in the Kovno ghetto from the terror of the Children's Aktion? That is true. Very true. The story of his life and miraculous rescue is an amazing and moving Jewish story.
But let's not be confused: Aharon Barak is not a "captured baby," but a "captured baby." He is responsible, through his countless rulings, and in particular through the judicial activism he invented and led, for the severe damage to the country's Judaism. I very much hope that this moving picture will not let go of the hands of any of the elected representatives of the majority of the public, in the historic and important process that is currently underway to correct Aharon Barak's great corruption.
And from the abundance of the commandment of tefillin, a holy abundance will flow to the State of Israel.
3.
And hence to a completely different (private) matter.
The following was written a few days ago by Assaf Weiss, founder of the educational organization 'Maaglim': "About a month ago, I boarded a flight back from New York to Israel and saw that sitting next to me was a well-known man, an artist and creator sweet as honey, Yonatan Razel. We started talking pre-flight... After a few minutes, I asked him: Tell me, Yonatan, do your wife's parents live in Moshav Ramot in the Golan Heights?"
Jonathan is interested: Why are you asking? And I tell him: Listen to a story. About seven and a half years ago, we were a group of families, good friends from Lod, on a weekend during the high holidays in a B&B in Moshav Ramot. On Saturday morning, after prayer, when everyone had left, you stayed to study a daily page in the synagogue. I asked you if I could join you and study with you. You said yes and we studied together. Personally, I came away from this study with a very strong experience. I remembered (after a very long break) how much I love studying Gemara.
It was such a powerful experience that a few days later I suggested to my friends at the synagogue in Lod that we form a group that would stay after the Sabbath morning prayer to study Gemara for an hour. At first there were 3-4 of us. It wasn't easy to change our schedule and arrive home an hour later on Sabbath morning, but little by little the group grew, and today, seven and a half years later, we are about 25 people in the Gemara group! And how did it all start? By accidentally studying one daily page with you on vacation in the Golan Heights.
Jonathan looks at me in surprise. He hears for the first time about the class that was founded thanks to him. Then I see that he is studying even now, on the plane, a daily page. The tractate they are studying is Nedarim. And suddenly I remember. Listen, I tell him, it is almost certain that what we studied with you that Shabbat in the Golan was Nedarim.
I send the story in our WhatsApp group and ask my friends to send me pictures from that weekend in Ramot so I can remember exactly when we were there. Suddenly, Ohad Noy, a friend of mine, tells me: Listen, I checked the Daf Yomi calendar, and according to the date of that Shabbat in the Golan, seven and a half years ago, we studied Daf Aw in Tractate Nedarim.
I show Jonathan the message on his cell phone, and in response he opens the Gemara to page 6 of the Gemara in front of him and shows me what is written there in his handwriting: 'Moshav Ramot between times.' It turns out that Jonathan has some kind of custom. He writes on the Gemara page every time he studies it outside of his kollel.
Before landing, I told Jonathan: Listen, when you arrive at Daf O Benedir, a month from now, you are invited to do the study at my house with the entire Gemara group that was formed thanks to you. Jonathan was very excited about the invitation, and yesterday it happened. He canceled everything and came to Lod to meet with his Gemara group.".
4.
Wow. An exciting story from so many angles. First of all, the fact that a Jew stayed after the Shabbat prayer in between times to study a page of Gemara in the synagogue. Just that part of the story is exciting. It's not obvious. Then the desire that it makes another Jew. Well, that's more understandable. If you see with what joy and enthusiasm Yonatan Razel studies, you too will probably want to be part of this joy of life. And then the effect of studying this page, one short page in Tractate Nedarim, on the one who studied it. First of all, the thoughts about returning to study. But mostly – the actual action that follows the thoughts. Assaf Weiss did not remain immersed in mournful reflections about his years of study that will never return. He decided to simply return them.
Just this week I read a talk by Rabbi Avigader Nebenzall on the parsha, in the wonderful book 'Sichot Sefer Shemot' (edited by Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu), in which he writes: "The point of difference between a righteous man and a wicked man is not that one repents and the other does not. Both repent. Pharaoh also had good thoughts of improvement, as do all of us. The main difference is in the application of those good thoughts in practical life.".
We read the parasha in amazement about this Pharaoh, who keeps promising that, oh my, he'll repent. And in the end, he doesn't. How does this happen to him over and over again? After all, he made a clear decision. This Pharaoh is such a personalityless person. But in fact, says Rabbi Nebenzel, there's a little Pharaoh hiding in each of us. What, hasn't it happened to us that we made a clear decision and didn't stick to it?
And pay attention to the next paragraph: "When a good thought occurs to us - we must immediately prepare for the main campaign that will begin tomorrow morning, when the impression of the things will naturally fade. To think about how to grant eternity to the decisions of the heart. The difference between a righteous person and a wicked person is the distance between one awakening and the next. With the wicked person, there is a great gap between them. Every reflection on repentance passes in a flash, and until the next reflection - he goes at the whim of his heart. Whereas the righteous person seeks permanence and longevity for the awakening of the heart. He draws out the influence over as long a time as possible. To 'grasp' the feelings and embrace them to the heart, to preserve the moments of truth.".
What a poignant definition of the difference between a righteous person and a wicked person. So that we may be like Assaf Weiss, who took that momentary awakening in the synagogue on vacation in Moshav Ramot, and turned it into something most permanent and stable. And not only for himself but for 25 other constant friends who stay for an hour every Shabbat after prayer for a meaningful encounter with the Gemara. How moving.
5.
But do you know what's most exciting? On Tuesday of this week, hundreds of thousands of Daf Yomi students around the world will successfully and successfully complete Tractate Nedarim. The next day, Wednesday, the study of Tractate Nazir will begin. As you know, you can join this Daf Yomi club any day, but a new Tractate is always a good opportunity. Especially if you are the firstborn who wants to come with a Tractate Siyum for Passover Eve. It's a big deal for you. But forget about Siyum. Don't think big. Think small.
This coming Wednesday, pick up a Gemara (preferably from Mengisha: Steinsaltz, Schottenstein, Metivata of Oz and Hadar - according to your taste) or go to the Daf Yomi portal - and study one page. Just one page. And if you feel like it, then the next day you will study another page. And who knows, maybe someone will see you studying and it will make them want to. They will study one page too. And another one. And who knows, maybe they will also start a class.
So good luck on Wednesday with this one page in Tractate Nazir. And keep this column. Maybe in a few years it will be worth a private performance by Yonatan Razel at some Tractate conclusion in the living room (just don't forget to invite a presenter too).
