The Additional Sefer

I hope everyone had a wonderful Shavuot. Now we are back to our regular schedules and daily events.

And the news has not settled down. Anti-Semitism and attacks on Jews continue everywhere. A mayor in New York City who is not helping matters. So many countries around the world are against Israel. The threat from Iran remains major — and as I write this, the United States has just announced pre-emptive self-defensive strikes against Iranian targets. And, of course, there is the continued persecution of the Torah world in Eretz Yisrael.

And it is not only about the draft.

Recently, a yeshivah bachur made a personal decision to enlist in the army. As he was returning from the enlistment center, he was confronted by a not-yet-religious older Israeli woman, with her friends looking on. She screamed at him for being a draft evader. He showed her his fresh enlistment papers. She spat in his face, cursing him and all Chareidim, while her friends watched and laughed.

He said, “I’m at peace with my decision, but that showed me that it’s not about the draft. It’s about hatred.”

This is not the first such story I have heard. It is very sad and very challenging.

Even though in Eretz Yisrael we are holding by Parshat Beha’alotcha, and in chutz la’aretz you are holding by Naso, I would like to share an idea we can learn from these parshiot, which will hopefully give us encouragement in these times.

R’ Shlomo Wolbe zt”l said that from Chumash Bamidbar we can see the greatness of am Yisrael, Hashem’s chosen nation. We see how beautifully we were arranged, with the specific encampments around the Mishkan, each shevet with its degel, each family in its proper place. The Leviim were positioned around the Mishkan. We had food, water, shelter, and safety. We had contentment and were close to the home of the Shechinah in this world.

Then, in Beha’alotcha, things began to go downhill for klal Yisrael. Chazal say they were faulted for leaving Har Sinai a bit too eagerly, like children running away from school. Then came the mit’onenim, the complainers about the mon, followed by the meraglim in the next parshah and the decree that klal Yisrael would remain forty years in the desert.

Did klal Yisrael really lose it?

The Gemara in Shabbat (116a) discusses the pesukim in Beha’alotcha of Vayehi binsoa ha’aron — “And when the Aron traveled…” These verses are surrounded by inverted letter nuns.

According to one opinion, these pesukim are out of place and really belong earlier, by the degalim. Rebbi argues and says that this is their correct place, but they form their own sefer. According to this view, Bamidbar is really made up of three sefarim: before Vayehi, Vayehi itself, and after Vayehi. That brings the total number of books of the Torah to seven.

R’ Shimon ben Gamliel says that these verses will eventually be moved to their proper place, but for now they appear in the middle of Beha’alotcha to separate between two tragedies: the “running away” from Har Sinai and the episode of the mit’onenim.

A practical halachah is learned from here as well: the number of missing letters needed to invalidate a sefer Torah is eighty-five — the number of letters in Vayehi binsoa, which is considered its own sefer.

The Chida, citing the Arizal, says that this small sefer is actually gigantic. It is only hinted at here, and it will be revealed in the future.

What does that mean?

Rav Moshe Shapiro zt”l explained that the entire Torah is Hashem’s ratzon (will) in this world, which is revealed through klal Yisrael. Although the Torah is not a history book, it follows the history of klal Yisrael. Neviim and Ketuvim are continuations of this.

Prophecy ended with Ezra, who was Malachi, the last Navi. The Neviim were instructed by Hashem what to record in Tanach. But everything that has happened to klal Yisrael since then is also considered Torah. Even though we no longer have a Navi to record it, it is all Torah — only the sefer remains hidden from us.

Eventually, it will be revealed. And it will all be found in that sefer of Vayehi.

Bamidbar, Naso, and the beginning of Beha’alotcha describe klal Yisrael in their ideal state in the Midbar, with the degalim arranged around the Mishkan. After Vayehi, things seem to begin declining.

But the Torah inserts this small sefer to reveal that everything that happened was always under hashgachat Hashem — Divine guidance. The way it was before is the same as the way it was after: all under Hashem’s hashgachah.

According to the opinion that these pesukim are out of place, the lesson is that certain things will only be revealed later. Despite whatever is happening now, eventually we will see that the Shechinah was there the entire time, and that we were always close to Hashem — just as we were when arranged peacefully before Him with our shevatim and degalim.

There is a famous story about the Berditchever. The tzaddik would pray for the community during times of suffering and pain. After he passed away, they came to his grave, beseeching him in Heaven to pray for them before Hashem. He later appeared to another tzaddik in a dream and said, “I cannot pray anymore. When I was alive, I saw and felt the pain, so I prayed. But from here Above, I see everything clearly. I see how everything is being done in the best possible way, so from this view, there is nothing for me to pray about.”

We are in that same situation.

Hashem sees everything clearly — both the present and the future. We do not need to worry about what is happening or what will be. Hishtadlut (effort) is necessary, and the proper form of hishtadlut depends on many factors. But bitachon is for everyone.

What will be with Iran? What will be in New York? What will be with all the anti-Semitism? What will be with the persecution of talmidei chachamim in Eretz Yisrael? What will be with all the personal hardships and suffering?

Hopefully, very soon, the sefer of Vayehi will be revealed to us. We will see how Hashem was there every step of the way, arranging and guiding everything. We will see how He was always with us, and how we were always in the best situation possible.

May we be zoche to greet Moshiach, with the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash, very soon.

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R’ Dovi Chaitovsky and his family have the zechut to live in Eretz Yisrael, where he dedicates himself to Torah learning and teaching in Yerushalayim Ir HaKodesh. His divrei Torah often draw from the shiurim of Rav Yisrael Altusky, shlit”a, Yeshivas Torah Ore, Yerushalayim which can be heard at www.kolhalashon.com.