Torah from Rabbi Saunders

As we know, we're just a few days after the Yahrtzeit of the Kedoshim from October the 7th, Simchas Torah. I want to share an idea of Shalom, of peace, and how we can take that forward from the period of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot we've just had.

In this week's long parshas Noach, the fifth longest parsha in the Torah, after the flood and the rainbow, we get to the situation of the Tower of Bavel, where the people of Bavel come together to try and build a tower to fight with Hashem. Seeing this, Hashem comes down and says, ''What's going on here? I'm going to change their language and add in extra languages. Everyone speaks a different language. Separate them all over the corners of the earth. Therefore, the building of this tower will be stopped.'' Rashi  (11:9) asks which sin was worse: the sin of the Tower of Bavel? or the sin of the Mabal, the flood? In the Mabal, everybody was destroyed. All humans and animals except for Noah and those that were in the ark were destroyed. Whereas at Bavel, not one person died. They just had different languages, they got confused and the building stopped on its own. Which sin was worse? They both served idol worship, so why at one was everyone completely annihilated? At the other everyone was flung to the far corners of the earth? The later doesn't seem like such a terrible punishment.

Rashi, quoting from the Midrash, says: The people at the time of the Mabul were stealing from each other and there was quarreling. Hence, they were destroyed. However, the people building the tower of Bavel had great friendship and camaraderie between them and therefore Hashem didn't kill them. This teaches us that Shalom, peace is so special.

Can you imagine trying to fight with Hashem and try to kill Him like at Bavel? However, Hashem didn't kill them all as a punishment because they had Shalom, peace, amongst them. What was this peace? It was the sharing of one goal, one idea. Yes, it was a terrible idea that they wanted to destroy Hashem. However, they were all unified in their approach and shared a common goal. 

This last year, I think the Jewish people all over the world have been unified. We've been unified in one goal, one common cause, which is to eradicate evil,  win the war, and of course the release of out hostages. We are all unified. We are all together. The challenge is that when the hostages are released and when victory is achieved and the war is over, will we be be able to keep that Shalom, peace, together?

Shalom and harmony together doesn't mean we all think the same or share the same views, and I'll prove it to you. We just took the Lulav, date palm, and the Esrog, Hadasim, the Myrtles, the Aravos, the Willows, and we shook them all together. There's a very well-known saying that these species represent different types of Jews. The Lulav has a taste from the dates it grows, but it has no smell. The Esrog  has a taste and a smell. The Hadassim have a smell and no taste, and the Aravos have neither taste nor smell. These represent different Jews. The Esrog represents those who keep Torah and do mitzvahs. The Lulav represents  those who keep Mitzvahs but don't learn Torah. The Hadasim is the opposite. And the Aravos are those who keep neither the Torah nor learn or study the Torah. We take them together and shake them to all four corners of the world. We shake them all in front of Hashem in unity. We do an action that says to Him that we are one united people. We are one.

The Esrog that keeps the Torah and the Mitzvahs, do they agree with the Aravos that are not keeping the Torah and are not studying the Torah? Of course they don't agree. Do the Hadassim agree? No, because if I'm learning Torah, then you should be learning Torah and you should be keeping the mitzvahs. This doesn't matter though. We can still have unity and peace even if we have a difference of opinions. We are focused on the common goal for peace, tranquility, and of course for the coming of Moshiach.

I said many times in shul over Yom Kippur and it was the theme of my Shabbat Shuvah Drosha, can we as people cope with world peace? We keep davening, we're begging for a time when everything is tranquil and peaceful, and Moshiach is here where there is no war. There is nothing to fight about. Well, could we cope with that as people? We get so agitated so easily. We think we could do better than the President. Yes, if I was the President, if I was the head of the IDF, I would do things differently. On a Sunday afternoon, we all turn into football coaches. "Oh, why did he do this play? Why did he do that play?" We get so agitated, we take it so personally. Therefore I think the challenge after Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot is to make ourselves into the kind of people that can cope with Moshiach and world peace, and in that merit may we seem him speedily in our days.