contents TRUE STRENGTH 4 D’var Malchus | Sichos In English MOSHIACH: BEYOND BROTHERLY 6 LOVE Thought | Rabbi Zvi Homnick WHAT FEIGLIN DOES QUIETLY, WE 9 MUST DO AT FULL VOLUME Shleimus HaAretz | Sholom Ber Crombie A NEW BRAIN FOR THE SUMMER 12 Moshiach & Science | Dr. Aryeh Gotfryd, PhD STRAIGHT TALK ON B’SURAS HA’GEULA 14 Moshiach & Geula | Interview by Menachem Ziegelboim USA 744 Eastern Parkway Brooklyn, NY 11213-3409 Tel: (718) 778-8000 Fax: (718) 778-0800 B’SURAS HA’GEULA IN MEVO CHORON [email protected] 24 Shlichus | Nosson Avrohom www.beismoshiach.org EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: M.M. 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Beis Moshiach is not responsible for the content of the advertisements. d’var malchus TRUE STRENGTH Sichos In English AN APPROACH- the tribes of the Jewish people, within our material world that a AVOIDANCE CONFLICT because the leader of each of the person’s strength of resolve is tribes was distinguished by his staff of revealed. The character traits of strength leadership. [2] For to observe the Torah and its and firmness evoke mixed responses. For similar reasons, the word mitzvos despite the challenges of our On one hand, everyone admires shevet, literally, meaning “rod,” is surrounding environment requires personal fortitude, and respects an also used as a synonym for “tribe.” steadfast resolution that stems from individual who has the power to What is the difference between an inner awareness of the truth of persevere in his convictions despite these two terms? one’s mission. challenges. A rod is supple, able to be bent, Moreover, when a person makes And yet, a strong person can also while a staff is firm and unyielding. such a commitment, he is granted be identified with the undesirable For a rod is freshly cut - or still strength that surpasses his personal traits of rigidity and insensitivity, connected to the tree from which it resources; the power of the essence sticking to his own views without grew - and the life-giving nurture it of the soul expresses itself within his bending in consideration of others. received makes it pliant. efforts. Counseling against this tendency, A staff, by contrast, has been This reflects a deeper spiritual our Sages commented, [1] “A person detached from its tree long ago, and source than the level of the soul should always be pliant like a reed, over time has become dry, hard, and which is revealed in the spiritual and not hard like a cedar.” firm. worlds. For in the spiritual realms, Although the image of personal Both terms serve as analogies for the soul’s powers of perception are of strength projected by popular society different levels in the expression of primary importance. The essence, the sometimes muddles the distinctions our souls’ potential. [3] very core of the soul, however, between these two types of firmness, The term “rod” refers to the soul transcends all perception, for it is an a discerning person should not as it exists in the spiritual realms actual part of G-d, [4] a spiritual become confused. where its connection to G-dliness is potential that cannot be contained The hardness of insensitivity palpably appreciated. within any limitations, even the more reflects a lack of life, an inability to It shares an active bond with the subtle restraints of spiritual existence. respond to the cues one receives. life-giving, G-dly nurture it receives. It is this essential potential which Positive inner strength, by “Staff,” by contrast, refers to the endows powerful resources of contrast, involves making an active soul as it exists in our material world, strength to the soul as it is enclothed response to those cues, but having enclothed in a physical body. in the body, enabling it to persevere that response determined, not by the On a conscious level, it has been in its Divine service. [5] demands of one’s surrounding severed from its spiritual source and This reflects the uniqueness of environment, but by the depth of its connection to G-dliness is no our world, “the garden” [6] which one’s own convictions. longer felt. grows the trees from which these In this setting, there is the staffs are cut. SUPPLE FLEXIBILITY VS. possibility for both positive and Although the material setting UNFAILING FIRMNESS negative types of strength and causes the soul to feel separate from These concepts are reflected in hardness. its spiritual source, this challenge the name of this week’s Torah There is a tendency for spiritual evokes the expression of our deepest reading: Matos. insensitivity, a brittle lack of spiritual potentials. The singular form, matteh, responsiveness to the G-dliness This, in turn, endows a person literally means “staff.” invested within creation. with the strength of a ruler, the ability This term is also used to refer to On the other hand, it is also to master his environment and shape 4 27 Tammuz 5770 BEIS MOSHIACH it according to the Torah’s desires. by the name Massei. our people will reap the fruit of their For it is through the descent into determined resolution to carry out EXPRESSING POWER this material realm that the soul G-d’s will despite the challenges of acquires the potential for an exile; and The concept of strength is also unparalleled upward impetus. B) it is in the Era of the reflected in the content of the Torah For the connection to the essence Redemption, that G-d’s essence, the reading which begins with the laws of the soul - and the essence of G-d - ultimate source of strength, will regarding vows. achieved in this world lifts the soul to become manifest in our world, His Here we see the power possessed a far higher rung than that on which dwelling. by every Jew. it existed previously. Adapted from: Likkutei Sichos, Vol. XVIII, p. Each member of our people, even Moreover, when Parshas Matos is 378ff; Vol. XXIII, p. 206ff; Seifer HaSichos 5748, p. a youth who has not yet reached the 554ff; Seifer HaSichos 5751, p. 709ff; Sichos read together with Parshas Massei, Shabbos Matos-Massei, 5742 age of Bar Mitzvah has the potential the Shabbos is called Shabbos to invest holiness into the entities of NOTES: Chazak, “the Shabbos of our material world, endowing them 1. Taanis 20a. reinforcement,” because of the with the sanctity of the sacrifices 2. See Likkutei Torah, BaMidbar 83b. custom [8] of declaring, Chazak, offered in the Beis HaMikdash. 3. See Seifer Maamarei Admur HaZakein Chazak, V’Nis’chazeik (“Be strong, And these laws apply not only in 5562, p. 237ff. be strong, and may you be the era of the Beis HaMikdash, but 4. Tanya, ch. 2. strengthened”) at the conclusion of even during our exile at present. 5. See the maamer V’Ata Tetzaveh, 5752, the Torah reading, in The Torah reading continues, (Seifer HaMaamarim Meluket, Vol. VI, acknowledgment of the completion English translation, Anticipating the describing the war against Midyan, of the Book of Numbers. Redemption, SIE, N.Y., 1994), which which as explained in Chassidic This couples the strength of explains that the power endowed by the thought, serves as an analogy for our essence of the essence of the soul far Parshas Matos with the strength efforts to nullify the forces of strife surpasses the power endowed by the soul’s achieved by the Jewish people perception in the spiritual realms. and discord. through their completion of one of 6. For explanation of the simile, see Basi By spreading unbounded love, we the books of the Chumash. L’Gani, 5750 (English translation, Kehot, have the power to wipe out these N.Y., 1990). traits totally, [7] as the war against 7. Herein, we see a connection to the period Midyan caused the utter annihilation STRENGTH IN EXILE of Bein HaMeitzarim, the Three Weeks of that nation. Parshas Matos is always read between the Seventeenth of Tammuz and during Bein HaMeitzarim, the three Tisha B’Av, for our Sages (Yoma 9b, Gittin 55b) teach that the Beis HaMikdash was A TWOFOLD MESSAGE weeks between the fasts of the destroyed because of unwarranted hatred. Seventeenth of Tammuz and Tisha Nullifying the reason for the exile by Parshas Matos is often read B’Av (the Ninth of Av), which are spreading love will cause the exile itself to together with Parshas Massei. cease to exist. associated with the destruction of Massei means “journeys.” Moreover, at present, we have been granted Jerusalem and the Beis HaMikdash. This Torah reading describes the the potential to anticipate the Redemption This recalls the negative journeys of the Jewish people through and experience a foretaste of the love and dimension of a staff’s firmness, the peace that will characterize that age. the desert, which serve as an analogy severed connection to the source for See the essay entitled, “Living with the for the journey of the soul from the vitality.