Parshas Ki Tisah – 5773
In this parsha, Ki Tisah, we read of the making of the Golden Calf, the chait ha’egel. Only a few weeks after the seminal event in world history, maton Torah, a segment of the Jewish People pointed to this man-made object and announced: “These are your gods, Israel, that took you out of the land of Egypt.” How could Klal Yisroel have sunk so low and come to such a grave sin? One source of error was a mistaken calculation as to when Moshe Rabbenu should have descended the mountain; they were expecting him to come back one day earlier. But that alone would not have caused this sin. It was mainly the work of the Satan, as Rashi explains; he made the world appear dark and gloomy, signifying that something very bad had happened, namely the death of Moshe Rabbenu. Chazal also say that the Satan caused the figure of a bed to appear in the Heavens, representing the funeral bier of Moshe Rabbenu. Chazal even add that the Satan went around whispering into the ears of Klal Yisroel that Moshe Rabbenu had died. All these statements leave us with a big question: Why would Hashem give the Satan the strength to change reality, bringing darkness in summer and creating illusions in the sky, all for the purpose of causing people to sin? Is this just?
Rav Eliyahu Dessler cites the Mesilas Yesharim that says that the purpose of this world is to test a person. Only through tests does a man grow and complete himself. Sometimes a person is tested while still in the early stages of his spiritual growth. But sometimes a person is given enormous assistance from Hashem to grow spiritually, but afterwards is given nisyonos to see if he is truly fit for what he received. Klal Yisroel experienced matan Torah and declared na’aseh venishmah, but afterwards Hashem gave the Satan power to see if Klal Yisroel was immovable in their devotion to Hashem. There is a well-known chazal (Sukkah 52) that the greater a man, the greater his yetzer horo. This means that when a person is given tremendous gifts, he has to prove that he is worthy of them. On one occasion, the Brisker Rov had claims against a great scholar. People asked the Brisker Rov,”Is it right to treat a great man thusly?” The Brisker Rov’s answer was short and to-the-point: King Achav was a tremendous talmid chochom, but he was also one of the wickedest men in Klal Yisroel. A talmid chochom often undergoes tremendous tests. The successful completion of these tests brings him to spiritual completion.
This answer leaves us with a big problem. If the Satan has such strengths, how can a person survive spiritually when being challenged by such tremendous tests? Rav Yechezkel Levenstein gives us some practical advice: run away from nisyonos, and pray to be saved from challenges. For example, we find that chazal didn’t look outside their four amos, and the gemara relates that Rav Sheshes blinded himself rather than be exposed to an indecent sight. We also find that Rabbenu HaKadosh, after his Shmone Esreh, asked to be saved from the yetzer haro. These chazals serves as a lesson to us: we know own weak spots, and should avoid those environments that challenge us, and pray that we should not be exposed to them.
Rav Yechezkel adds that a person doesn’t always realize that there is a yetzer haro that he needs to avoid. Sometimes the Ma’aseh Satan appears to the man as normal daily events. For example, things come up in the middle of seder – the person thinks that this is a happenstance, but really this is the work of the Satan. Alternatively, a person gets a strong desire for something, thinking that this is a legitimate need of the body, but this also is a temptation set before him by the Satan. Rav Yechezkel also cites the Chovos HaLevavos (Sha’ar HaYichud perek heh), who says that if a doubt in emunah enters a person’s mind, he should not view this as an innocent thought, but should recognize it as the yetzer haro. The person should try to push aside the doubt and pray that it leave him. A person should try to identify all the Satan’s wiles, and distance himself from them.
Rav Yeruchem Bordiansky, the Mashgiach of Kol Torah, says that the best way for a ben Torah to run away from nisyonos is to immerse himself in the Yeshiva. In the Yeshiva, the Satan is weaker. As the Gemara says in Kiddushin (30): If this menuval (the Satan) meets you, then pull him to the beis medrash. We only need to look around to see everything the Satan has done to keep a person out of Yeshiva: the haskalah movement, videos, internet, etc. From this we can see how crucial the Yeshiva is in the war against the Satan. But the Satan never gives up. Perhaps the most insidious attempt to pull us out of the Yeshiva is the current movement to draft Yeshiva students into the army. My Rebbe, Rav Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik, who almost never involves himself in public affairs, wrote a public letter stating that drafting Yeshiva students is a gezeirah of shmad. Rav Meshulam Dovid says that anyone who can do anything to avert this terrible decree must do it. But for those of us in a Yeshiva environment, we must firstly pray to be saved from this trap of the yetzer horo. But we must also show how much we value Torah learning, by increasing our hasmodoh, and clinging with all our strength to the Torah. To merit this great gift of Torah protection, we have to demonstrate how precious it is to us.
On Purim, Klal Yisroel accepted the Torah with love. Let’s immerse ourselves totally in it, and save ourselves from the wiles of the Satan.