בס''ד l Parashat Pinhas English version THE ART OF PRESERVING JEWISH IDENTITY The greatest cause of Jewish destruction is never entering will not recognize you! (Eiruvin 19a) The ,מגן אברהם explosion. It is implosion. Explosion is when biggest shield we have, as a nation, is something from outside destructs what is inside. being shielded by our Jewish identity, inheriting Implosion is to self-destruct. You might even not our identity, being part of the Jewish Nation, realize it, but the foundations of what you stand on keeping our marital relations to our own nation. A may be the most important thing to focus on, much person who sins, even the worst sins, still remains a more than external threats. Jew. Even if he has a child from an extramarital affair, and the child will be a Mamzer, he is still a .אף על פי שחטא, ישראל הוא .Jewish Mamzer ,הרשע ,This was the secret advice, plot, of Bilaam possibly the most wicked man ever, to walk the (Sanhedrin 44a) But when a Jewish man sleeps with a gentile woman, the child is a non-Jew! This כָּל־כְּלִ֞ י יוּצַ ֤ר ﬠָלַ֨ יִ�֙ ֣לֹא יִצְ לָ֔ ח וְכָל־לָשׁ֛ וֹן .face of the earth Jew caused by this relationship, that a part of him תָּ קוּם־אִתָּ ֥ � לַמִּשְׁפָּ ֖ט תַּרְשִׁ ֑ יﬠִ י זֹ֡ את נַחֲלַת֩ ﬠַבְדֵ֨ י יְקֹוָ ֧ק וְ צִ דְ ָ ק תָ ֛ ם !The words we say at the highest became, non-Jewish :מֵ אִ תִּ ֖ י נְ אֻ ם־יְ קֹ וָֽ ק moments of the High Holidays demonstrate how וָאֶ ﬠֱבֹ֤ ר ﬠָלַ֨ יִ�֙ וָֽאֶרְ אֵ֔ � מִתְ בּוֹסֶ ֖סֶ ת בְּדָמָ ֑יִ� וָאֹ֤ מַ ר לָ �֙ בְּ דָ מַ ֣ יִ � חֲ יִ֔ י the Jews are not open to destruction from outside Yehezkel 16;6). All we had to be) וָאֹ֥ מַ ר לָ ֖� בְּדָמַ ֥יִ� חֲיִֽ י׃ forces and persecutions: No weapon that is formed against you, will succeed, and any tongue that redeemed from Egypt were two Mitzvoth, Pesach rises against you in judgment, you will condemn. and Milah. But the passuk tells us what really got גַּ֥ ן׀ נָﬠ֖וּל אֲחֹתִ֣י כַלָּ֑ ה - This is the inherited portion of the servants of G-d, us out of the Egyptian mess was The Midrashim tell us that it was :גַּ ֥ל נָﬠ֖ וּל מַﬠְיָ֥ ן חָתֽ וּם and their righteousness will be from Me, says YKVK. (Yeshayahu 54;17) Bilaam knew that that the “locked gardens”. That the Jews did not the Jews could pay a “discounted price” for any sin assimilate: we did not change the way we dressed, they would commit. They would be able to cry, we did not use Egyptian names to call our children, pray, find some justification, repent, give charity, we did not change the way we spoke, without etc. Bilaam knew that the best way to get the Jews gossip: in short, we maintained our identity. (Shir punished was not to curse them, but for them to Hashirim 4;12, see Shir H. Rabba) What got the bring upon themselves destruction, and not even Jews out of Egypt was not the Mitzvoth they did, with sin, for which they could repent, but by losing but the identity they kept. their Jewish identity. That is why Bilaam suggested that the Jews be seduced to sin with gentile There is no commandment not to dress like Gucci, women, something that is not even punishable in Armani, Louis Vuitton, or Ferragamo. But, do you Jewish courts, according to the Torah! But it is look like a Jew? It doesn’t say anywhere in the much worse than sin: it is giving up the Jew in you, Torah not to call your son the name of a gentile. in such a way that even Avraham Avinu who sits But we bless the child at his Brit, with a play on כשם שנכנס לברית כך יזכה לתורה ולחופה ולמעשים ,on the gates of Gehinom to save all Jews from words With the same name that he was called at his ,טובים 1 Brit, he should merit to go to yeshiva, to marry, The last prophecies we received, in the pessukim at and to build his own eternity. Mordechai, not Max. the end of Malachi (a.k.a Ezra HaSofer), G-d Yosef, not Joe. Shmuel, not Sam. There is no place warned us one last time before He finished in the Torah that it says that you can’t speak communicating with us through prophecy: To English, Spanish or French. But, is your speech marry only within our nation, to keep our Jewish refined in a way, do you communicate in a way, identity. (See Malachi 2;10- 3;1) These are the last different than from the average American, pessukim before the prophecies of the coming of Mexican, or Frenchie? Mashiach, and how the last words of Malachi’s הִנֵּ֤ה אָֽ נֹכִי֙ שֹׁלֵ֣חַ לָכֶ֔ ם אֵ֖ ת אֵלִיָּ֣ה הַנָּבִ ֑ יא לִפְ נֵ֗י .prophecy end We can deduce that before :בּ֚ וֹא י֣וֹם יְקֹ וָ֔ ק הַגָּד֖ וֹל וְהַנּוֹרָֽ א ,The foundation of Judaism, our Orthodox identity can sometimes carry more weight than the Eliyahu Hanavi is sent to announce that Mashiach Shulchan Aruch, itself! And identifying with your will come tomorrow, the Jewish Nation will be at Judaism is not enforced by the Jewish courts, the peak of its struggle with intermarriage. because your decision as to your identity needs to come from a place of choice, not a place of Eliyahu Hanavi, a.k.a. Pinhas, merited not only to obligation. Just as a woman needs to accept have a covenant of peace, of priesthood, of eternal And I have betrothed life, but also, that forever, he would bring , וְאֵרַשְׂתִּ ֥ י� לִ ֖י לְעוֹלָ ֑ם marriage you to Me forever. (Hoshea 2,21) Although marital atonement to our nation. As the Midrash deduces, but , לכפר על בני ישראל relations with a gentile is not necessarily a the passuk does not say that he will bring atonement to , וַיְכַפֵּ֖ר ﬠַל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂ רָ אֵֽל punishable sin, it is, in fact, worse than the worse sin! You are giving up your Jewishness! In the the Jews, until the days of the resurrection of the times of Bilaam, when there was mass assimilation, dead. (Sifri, Pesikta) How? we lost 24,000 Jews, much worse than the worst sin, the sin of the Golden Calf, where we lost Every bris you attend, Eliyahu is there too. You 3,000!! stand close up to his chair, and you are forgiven for all your sins. (Bnei Yissaschar brings Midrash) R’ The Holocaust started, specifically, from when and Chaim Kanievsky says there is no such Midrash. where intermarriage was at its worst. Studies from (Derech Sicha) But all agree that one who attends ten years ago showed the following frightening the Seuda is saved from Gehinom. (Tosefot rates of assimilation, where assimilation jumped Pesachim 114a). There are certain things that make 200% in just 30 years, until 2010: United States it possible for a person to be saved from Gehinom, 58% of all Jews, and 71% of non-orthodox Jews or that make it possible for a person to have (Pew 2013). Australia, Canada and Turkey forgiveness for all his sins: when a man gets fluctuate between 25%-30%. A rate of 35%-45% in married, he is forgiven for all sins (Yerushalmi France, Britain and most of Latin America. Eastern Bikurim 3;3); when one keeps Shabbat (Shabbat Europe and the former Soviet Union, 65 percent. 118b). When a person is careful in annunciating the Russia, with the highest rate of 75%. Mexico, with words of Kriat Shema, separating between words he is promised that , ﬠֵ ֥ שֶׂ ב בְּ שָׂ דְ �֖ and , בְּ כָ ל ־ לְ בָ בְ �֥ the lowest, with 15%. The reason why Avraham like Avinu will not save the assimilated Jew from Gehimon will be cooled down for him. (Berachot Gehinom, is because part of being a Jew, is being 15b) different in Exile, and part of the covenant between Avraham and G-d is that Avraham’s descendants It is not clear, though, if the person gets will go through four exiles. When one assimilates, forgiveness, without actually repenting. After all, it means he is not willing to be in Exile, to be even on Yom Kippur, according to the Rabbis who different, and that means, he is not willing to be dispute with R’ Yehuda one needs to repent, in Avraham’s descendants. A Jew who has marital order for the Day of Forgiveness to do its thing. relations is cut off from the Tent of Yaakov. (Shavuot 13a) What is the power, then, of keeping (Malachi 2;12) The Jewish identity is lost. Shabbat, brit Milah, getting married to a woman Ultimately, Avraham will not save him from from a good lineage, or keeping Yom Kippur, Gehinom. (Meshech Hochma Ber. 15;17) according to R’ Yehuda, that even without repentance, that your sin is forgiven? 2 The answer is having the foundation, having a who brings about atonement for the Jewish nation, Jewish identity. Shabbat is what makes us Jewish: all in the merit, of keeping Jewish identity strong. we received it, in Egypt, as we were formed into a nation. Brit Milah is the covenant, stamping Similar to the only two mitzvoth we had that got us Judaism into our bodies. Marrying the woman that out of Egypt, the two mitzvoth that are kept most you are allowed to, etc.