We watched in horror as the Gulf of Mexico filled with oil. Then in June, near
the Red Sea in Egypt,
oil was discovered washing ashore. In July, a pipeline exploded in China causing
torrents of oil to gush out. Two world powers, America
and China,
during the same time period have experienced their biggest oil spill; what is
going on?!
Rav Shmuel Brazil, the head of Yeshiva Zeev HaTorah in Jerusalem, in his
article, “BP,” quoted a passage from the Talmud that can change the way we view
these events. The Daf Yomi cycle, followed by thousands of Jews around
the world, focuses daily study on a page of the Talmud. On May 21st, the
day BP launched a live webcam of the leaking oil, the Daf Yomi reached page 98a
in Tractate Sanhedrin. The Talmud there, interpreting a prophecy of
Ezekiel, states that we will know the Messiah is coming imminently when waters
will be like oil and masses of fish will die, leading to a shortage.
Why did G-d choose such an
unwelcomed harbinger of the Messiah’s coming?
A possible answer is that
this sign warns us of the challenges leading up to the redemption. The
Jewish people are compared to fish and our Torah is compared to water (Midrash
Rabbah, Genesis 97). Fish only thrive in pristine waters and the Jewish
nation can only thrive when immersed in the pristine waters of Torah. Oil
can symbolize spiritual estrangement (Deuteronomy 32:15). When foreign
influences – the oil – mix with and supersede our Torah – the water – we see consequences to the fish and symbolically to
our people, who have been severely diminished due to rampant
assimilation. What is the essence of our nation, and why is the Torah so
essential to our survival?
G-d calls us a holy nation
(Exodus 19:6); we are close to the source of all holiness, G-d Himself.
Although we have this exhilarating connection, specific acts outlined in His
Torah intensify or damage our bond. The laws and guard-rails in the Torah
act as filters, keeping pollutants out and the sanctity of our people in.
Assuming that one does not need all the guard-rails is like BP deciding for
themselves that they can safely breach guidelines without causing a blowout.
In my article on the BP oil
spill, available at JewishPress.com, I discussed parallels between the spill
and the flood during Noah’s time. A significant difference – the fish
survived the flood whereas oil spills devastate their numbers. Rabbi Elie
Munk in his The Call of the Torah writes that a main sin preceding the
flood was immorality. Even the animals copied people’s sinful behavior
with unnatural coupling; except for the fish, and that was why they were
unaffected by the flood. As mentioned above, fish can be symbolic of our
people and oil can exemplify spiritual pollution. Our Rabbis have pointed
out that in the present generation, even some fish – committed Jews, have been
affected by the “oil” that floods society. G-d is alerting us to this
danger, by choosing fish threatened with oil as a sign of the Messiah’s
forthcoming arrival. The message is clear; the Messiah is
fast-approaching and we need to prepare.
The essence of our people is
sanctity. When we allow impurity into our lives, it is a form of
unnatural coupling; an existential threat to our raison d’être.
Therefore, we need to check if our mantle of holiness, that cloaks every Jew,
has become sullied. Have we allowed defilement into our homes?
Perhaps in the things we look at, listen to, or read. Have our standards
of modesty in dress or behavior lapsed? Do we occasionally stoop to the
dog-eat-dog business practices that are beneath us? For centuries, our
crowning glory has been our morality and ethics which stood in stark contrast
to the conduct around us. Yet, recently we have witnessed disturbing
breaches in our sacrosanct values. The words of the Prophet Jeremiah have
acquired new meaning (Lamentations 4:16), “The crown of our head has
fallen…”
We are among the select few
in the entire world who embody G-d’s teachings given on Mount
Sinai. The sacrifices we make to uphold His Torah are very
precious to Him; more precious than we can ever imagine. As children of
G-d, we can and must reach higher, achieving even greater closeness to our
Father by not letting anything dampen that connection.
The Vilna Goan, a renowned
eighteenth century scholar, quoted by Rabbi Yechiel Weitzman in his book, The
Ishmaelite Exile, discussed the period before the Messiah. He wrote
that the number of people who are of average conduct will decrease.
Slowly, two camps will emerge, those unconditionally committed to G-d and His
Torah, no matter the challenge, and those who reject limits on their
behavior. A question to ask ourselves, with possibly frightening
implications, “Am I among those moving ever closer to G-d?”
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai and saw Jews worshiping the Golden Calf, he
wanted those who had shielded themselves from sin to pledge total allegiance to
G-d. He cried out, (Exodus 32:26), “…Me LaShem, A-loy!” “Whoever is
for the Lord, come to me!” This was not a one time plea; he is speaking
to each one of us, every day of our lives, encouraging us to flee from
contamination and cling tenaciously to G-d and to the Torah of Moses our
teacher. Perhaps the Messiah will also cry out, “Me LaShem, A-loy!”
Those who answered Moses’ call will be ready.
With the High Holidays
rapidly approaching, now is the time to ask ourselves, “Is there an area where
I, or my family, have been tainted by ‘oil’ – spiritual impurity?” If
yes, then we must strengthen our commitment to the guidelines of the Torah that
addresses the issue with which we struggle. When we stay within the
Torah’s guard-rails, we spread holiness everywhere we go and we feel G-d’s
pride when our Father says (Exodus 3:5), “…The place upon which you are
standing is holy ground.”
A goal of life is to achieve
deveikus, closeness with G-d. The above verse shows us how. The
Hebrew word used in this verse for “The place” is “Ha-makom,” also a name of
G-d. If we translate “Ha-makom” as “G-d”, the verse now reads, “G-d, upon
which you are standing, is holy ground.” We are nothing without Him;
anything we accomplish is because He lifts us up and we stand on our Father’s
shoulders. This state of oneness, of standing with G-d, is constant; if
we were separate from Him we would not exist, as Moses said (Deuteronomy 4:35),
“…There is nothing besides Him.” How do we integrate this
awareness? The previous part of the verse explains how, “…Remove your
shoes from your feet...” The first step is to remove our shoes, symbolic
of impurity which makes us feel separate from G-d, upon whose shoulders we are
standing. Then, we can come to the realization that we are one with G-d
and always standing on, “holy ground.”
Oil continues to infiltrate
miles of coastline around the world; a different type of menace is occurring
simultaneously as Israel
struggles with flotillas attempting to infiltrate her borders. We all
realize the extreme danger of letting unfiltered supplies into an enemy
territory. An even greater threat is posed by the unfiltered lures of
society, slowly seeping in and eating away at the moral fiber of our people.
Israel has been steadfast in opposing the flotillas; so to
must we be in our own lives, never surrendering our mantle of holiness
or love of Israel,
even if the entire world clamors for us to do just that. We must be, as
King David says in Psalms (103:20), “…Mighty warriors, who do His
word...” When we show G-d that we are willing to fight for His land and
to protect the sanctity of His people, then G-d will say to us as He said when
redeeming our nation from Egypt (Exodus 14:14), “The Lord will fight for
you…” G-d is ready, are we willing?
