25 Iyar 5768 – Parshas Bamidbar 30 May 2008

Yechezkel Perokim 25 – 31

Hi, this week I have decided to take a different look on things as we read over this weeks chapters we learn that the destruction is coming and how is going to be done.

A question that I have be thinking about all week is, the person who is coming to destroy the temple what type of person would he be. He is clearly a messenger of Hashem and what he is doing needs to be, therefore perhaps he has lost free will, in a similar way to what happened in Egypt? Or perhaps the person has complete free will and is just simply an evil person. What type of personality would he be? Is he strong or weak? I think that these questions help us understand who these people are.

So if we take a number of different quotes from Chazal about who Nebuchanezter was, perhaps things might be slightly clearer and we can try to understand why he was chosen to destroy the House of God, and leave the Jewish people destroyed and desolate.

Chazal offer a number of different comments, I have only chosen a few and I am aware that some contradict at first glance. These are quotes which interested me and helped me to understand a little more about Nebuchanezter.

The man that truly ruled the whole known world of the time, he was, "haughty and a short person, during his travel he would be greeted by people, who would comment and snicker to each other, 'what a short person who rules the complete world.’” Please be clear that I have nothing against short people, some of my best friends are short people! Anyway, to try and get a visual picture of this man, perhaps picture him like Napoleon who was also short. Nebuchanezter was not this six-foot well built man, he was short and was had a peasant up bringing. He was neither from a noble household, nor brought up educated; he was a fighter, a man who came from nowhere, just like Haman.

We are also told that he would serve the sun as a god, a thought that seems so strange. But a man who has conquered the whole world and travels throughout his kingdom has nothing that remains constant in his world, can only relate to the sun, but even that disappears.

Just to focus on this for a brief moment. When we travel a Jews there are two main thoughts that we are worried about; where will we daven and where will we eat (not sure what order)? To travel to another city or country, the travelling can be a lonely time. I was alone travelling to my sister who lives in Melbourne and on the flight from London which takes about 24 hours, I had to daven Shachris. The intense feeling of being lonely on a plane of some 400 plus people but yet I found comfort when I put my tefilin on and davened. This really made an imprint on me and I think that it is the real feeling of being a Jew that no matter were we are or when it is we can turn to Hashem and feel that closeness. This feeling ensures that we never need to turn to the sun claiming that it is the only thing we can always turn to no matter where we are in the world.

However, one of the most interesting quotes from Chazal about Nebuchanezter is that "while Nebuchanezter was alive no laughed." Now I am not sure if this quote is meant to be taken for real that during the life span of Nebuchanezter, no laughed. Or perhaps it is describing a state of the peoples mind.

The obvious place to look for a description of laughter is with Avraham and Sarah when they are told in Lech L'cha that they are to have a child. The laughter of Avraham is one of uncontrollable happiness while Sarah is slightly cynical of the proposal. To laugh is to express ones inner most feeling and thoughts, any sound that is made which is not in a specific language is the deepest sound of all. The shofar is the sound of a crying baby; it does not matter from where or when in history but the sound remain constant. The same by laughter, to express ones inner most feeling of excitement, breaks all boundaries. So, to say that in the times of Nebuchanezter it was not allowed to express this feeling or perhaps it was not a feeling that one wanted to express opens a window to the assumption that those people did not feel the ability to feel the inner happiness to see the wider picture.

To draw these thoughts together, we must know the enemy and understand where they come from and what they do to the world. I am sure, but can’t prove it, that there must be a link between the effect that the enemy has on the Jewish people/the world and what aspect of Teshuva that the Jewish people need to do. Any ideas please let me know.

So now we have a better understanding of this rashah, we can feel more the build up to the destruction. Please let me know your thoughts. I am interested.

Have a great shabbos,

By Natan Rickman