A young boy enters a barbershop and the barber whispers to his customer, "This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you."
The barber puts a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, then calls the boy over and asks, "Which do you want, son?" The boy takes the quarters and leaves.
"What did I tell you?" said the barber. "That kid never learns!" Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store. "Hey, son! May I ask you a question? Why did you take the quarters instead of the dollar bill?"
The boy licked his ice cream cone and replied, "Because the day I take the dollar, the game's over!"
Yechezkel, or Ezekiel, was one of the greatest prophets in the history of Judaism. His prophecies, according to the book of Yechezkel in the Hebrew Bible, span some 22 years from 592 BCE till 570 BCE.
These were fateful years in Jewish history, as it was in the year 597 when the Babylonian Emperor, Nebuchadnezzar, exiled thousands of Jews from Jerusalem to Babylon, including the prophet Yechezkel, King Yechanya, Mordechai, and other great leaders and sages. Eleven years later, in 586 BCE, the king destroyed the First Holy Temple, decimated Jerusalem, and exiled the survivors to Babylonia.
At the time of the destruction, Jews had two great prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Jeremiah was in Jerusalem. He witnessed firsthand the collapse of the Jewish Empire and the destruction of the Temple and wrote the book Eicha, Lamentations. Ezekiel and his wife lived on the bank of the Chebar River, in present-day Iraq, together with other exiled Jews.
The last recorded prophecy of Ezekiel chronologically—presented to him on the first of Nissan in 570 BCE, 16 years after the destruction of the Temple constitutes the end of the Haftarah of this week’s portion. It is in Yechezkel chapter 29 and it tells a deeply enigmatic story.
During that period of history, Babylon and Egypt were the two Super Powers, and the Land of Israel, situated between Babylon in the North and Egypt in the South, was the strategic bridge between these two mighty Empires.
In the sixth century BCE, the Babylonian Empire (centered in present-day Iraq) rose to great power. In his ambition to conquer the world, Nebuchadnezzar marched toward the West. He subjugated Judea and destroyed the First Temple. But his ambitions were not for Judea alone. He also went to war with the wealthy and corrupt Empire of Tyre in today’s Lebanon. The mighty Tyrians held off Nebuchadnezzar's siege for thirteen years, resupplying the walled island city from its two harbors. In the end, Tyre fell to Babylonia.
In the 29th chapter of the book of Ezekiel, the haftarah of the week, G-d speaks to the prophet Ezekiel, about this event. He says to Ezekiel that as a reward for Nebuchadnezzar taking down Tyre, Babylonia will be successful in conquering Egypt, the second Super Power of the day, and amassing all its fortune. The arrogance and selfishness of Egypt have reached a peak, and its time has come. In addition, Egypt has deceived Israel. Pharaoh promised the Jewish king Tzedkeyahu that he would assist him against Babylonia and the Jews trusted him and fought Nebuchadnezzar which turns out disastrous.
As a grand finale to this entire story, the Tanach states one more Divine objective in the conflict between Babylon and Egypt: So that Jews would start believing in Ezekiel!
So G-d says to Ezekiel, I want you to know that as you are watching gigantic world events unfolding do not think this is happening only for the “big guys” playing “big league,” getting ready for “playoffs.” No! G-d is interested in a few Jews who are skeptical about the authenticity of Ezekiel that they should finally start trusting G-d’s prophet to His people!
But there is something deeply enigmatic here.
What causes the great events of history? Why do Empires rise and fall? What causes the rumblings that generate conflict and victory and the change of empires and monarchs?
How do we make sense of this? On Shabbat Vaeira 1967, the Rebbe offered a remarkable explanation. Few realized that only five months later the Six-Day War would break out—and the entire story would repeat itself!
So G-d says to Ezekiel, I want you to know that as you are watching gigantic world events unfolding do not think this is happening only for the “big guys” playing “big league,” getting ready for “playoffs.” No! G-d is interested in a few Jews who are skeptical about the authenticity of Ezekiel that they should finally start trusting G-d’s prophet to His people!
How do we make sense of this? Babylonia and Egypt, as we recall, were the two mightiest Empires of the day, each of them fierce and massive. They numbered in the millions. Their conflict was a global event, affecting the lives of millions. Even if as a result a few Jews began believing in Ezekiel, this seems to be a footnote in the story, not its grand finale!
The Baal Shem Tov once said: “A soul comes down for 70-80 years just to do a favor to another Jew—a material favor, or a spiritual favor.”
Really? 80 years my soul needed to toil in this world with all of the anxiety and agony that comes with life, to do one favor for one person? Where did this Baal Shem Tov get this from?
The Baal Shem Tov deduced this principle from the final verse of Ezekiel chapter 29, the final verse of this week’s Haftorah. G-d states clearly that cataclysmic earth-shattering world events, a massive showdown between the two great superpowers of the time, contain one major purpose: that a few Jews should realize that Yechezkel was an authentic prophet of G-d.
We do not always profess the proper perspective of what is significant, and what is meaningless. What we consider the “news not fit to print,” may be as important as the front-page headlines in all newspapers and websites. “The stone that the builders rejected became a cornerstone,” says the Psalmist.
In 1840 the First Opium War took place between China and Britain, it was a conflict about foreign trade in China. Finally, in 1842, the treaty of Nanjing was signed, which turned Shanghai into an international city, open freely for trade for people of all countries.
If you were reading a newspaper in 1842, you would not see in this story anything essential world-shattering, or significant to you as a Jew. But exactly 100 years later, we all discovered that this was part of a tapestry of events that saved generations of Jews. There was only ONE CITY in the world where Jews, fleeing Hitler, can enter and stay without a Visa. IT WAS SHANGHAI! They were refused entry into every other country, including the US, Britain, and Palestine. As a result, some 60,000 Jews were saved from the gas chambers by fleeing to Japan and from there to China where they remained during the Holocaust. There are hundreds of thousands of Jews alive today because, in 1840, a war between Britain and China opened the gates of Shanghai to refugees.
So can I ever know what newspaper story is really significant?
On the night of April 14, 1912, the watchman assigned to the crow’s nest post atop the Titanic had a problem. The binoculars he needed to keep an eye out for large obstacles (icebergs, say), were inside a locked locker—and the key was missing. Right before the ship left port, the cruise company made a last-minute decision to replace the ship’s second officer David Blair with Charles Lightroller. In his haste to make the switch, Blair forgot to hand over the keys to the locker.
So do I ever know what a significant story is? Forgetting to give you the key to the binoculars seems quite trivial to me. But, as it turns out, it changed the lives of thousands of people forever and is seared into the imagination of millions.
We often make the mistake of seeing major significance only in “big events” that unfold in the lives of “big people.” Judaism teaches otherwise. The center of spiritual gravity can sometimes be found in an isolated, apparently small gesture or act.
It was Maimonides who wrote:
A person must see himself and the world as equally balanced on two ends of the scale; by doing one good deed, he tips the scale and brings for himself and the entire world redemption and salvation.
As stated above, this address of the Rebbe was presented On Shabbat Vaeira, January 6, 1967, exactly five months before the onset of the Six-Day War.
In May and June 1967, seven Arab countries vowed to destroy Israel. The Jewish world, in Israel and abroad, was gripped in dread and fear. Some feared a second Auschwitz. The Rebbe, in the weeks before the War, predicted that the Jewish people would emerge victoriously, that there is no need to worry, and that Israel was about to experience stupendous miracles. It was a shocking prediction. The Rebbe even instructed all who asked not to leave the Holy Land.
With the stunning victory in merely Six Days, all of the Rebbe’s words and predictions were materialized.
It was then that some people recalled that five months earlier, the Rebbe explained that sometimes grand battles are fought so that the few doubtful Jews should have the merit to discover G-d’s true prophets.
There is more to the story.
Four days after the Rebbe published this talk, on January 16, 1991, the first Gulf War broke out. In the months and weeks preceding the seven-week war, many Jews in Israel were terrified, due to Saddam Hussein’s threats to send gas missiles to Israel. Gas masks were distributed and the atmosphere was tense. It was during those weeks that the Rebbe, again, declared that “Eretz Yisrael is the safest place on earth” and that there is no reason for fear. He would not allow anyone to leave and encouraged people to travel to the Holy Land. As the war broke out, the threats turned out futile and the damage of the scud missiles minimal. All of the Rebbe’s predictions materialized. Even the few cynical Jews would discover the sanctity of the Rebbe’s words.
Shabbat Shalom and a happy new month of SHVAT
Chodesh Tov,
Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky
Jason Bennett wrote...