Chukas-Balak - 12 Tammuz | Jews in Golus like a lion in the forest!

00:00 When we look around at the situation Jews have been in throughout this long exile, at what is happening in the world, we think of the well-known words: “Summer has passed, winter has ended, and still we have not been saved.” Jews have been in exile for so many years, surrounded by darkness upon darkness. And when we think about it, the question arises: Where do we get the strength? Where do Jews find the strength to stand firm in Torah, mitzvos, and faith through this long, bitter exile? Where do Jews get these strengths? We see that even after all these years of exile, with all the troubles and suffering and all the darkness upon darkness, Jews still stand firm in their faith, firm in their bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, even to the point of self-sacrifice. There are times when self-sacrifice is required. Even nowadays, when we are not called upon to literally sacrifice our lives—thank G-d, nearly all of us live in countries where we are comfortable, and thank G-d we have food to eat. There are no decrees like those of two generations ago. Nevertheless, even in this situation, self-sacrifice is required in the face of all the challenges surrounding us: the material challenges, and even more so the spiritual challenges, which grow harder from year to year and from month to month,

01:47 harder and harder. Where do we get the strength to overcome all these challenges? We find the answer to that question in today’s Torah reading, Parshas Balak. This is the parsha that tells how Balak and Bilaam came intending, G-d forbid, Heaven protect us, to curse the Jews. But Hakadosh Boruch Hu—“Hashem your G-d refused to listen to Bilaam,” “because Hashem your G-d loves you.” On the contrary, Hakadosh Boruch Hu overturned all of Bilaam’s plans: “Hashem your G-d turned the curse into a blessing for you.” The greatest blessings are found in today’s parsha. But when we look into the parsha, we find more than blessings. It also offers an explanation, helping us understand the strength of Jews in general and the strength of Jews in difficult times, in times of exile. The Rebbe directs us to a verse in Parshas Balak: “He crouches and lies down like a lion, and like a lion cub—who will rouse him?” The verse is explained in Chassidus in a very rich discussion. It helps us understand and can give us the right perspective and the strength we need: how each of us should look at Jews and at the strength we have to overcome every challenge and everything that conceals Hashem from us. As we mentioned earlier, the maamarim connected with 12 Tammuz say that Parshas Balak always falls

03:31 around 12 and 13 Tammuz, the days celebrating the Frierdiker Rebbe’s liberation from prison. There are many stories about this. Let’s begin with one story that illustrates self-sacrifice and will help us delve into the depth of the verse in today’s Torah reading. Among the stories told about the time the Frierdiker Rebbe entered prison—a very harsh prison, as is well known—is this: when they arrested the Frierdiker Rebbe, their aim was to carry out their scheme, Heaven protect us, just one day later. They wanted, Heaven protect us, to sentence him to the opposite of life. Only through Hashem’s abundant mercy, great miracles, and wondrous Divine providence was the situation turned around. Not only did they fail to do what they wanted, but in the end it led to a liberation and a great Yom Tov. One of the stories the Frierdiker Rebbe told and wrote down in his memoirs is that, upon entering prison, he made a decision within himself. It was a prison from which, ordinarily, anyone who entered did not emerge alive. Only a very few managed to survive their imprisonment and come out alive. It was an exceedingly bitter and harsh imprisonment. And when the Frierdiker Rebbe entered the

05:16 prison, as he writes in his notes, he resolved firmly not to be intimidated by them at all, and to regard them as utterly nothing. He placed himself in a state of “there is nothing besides Him”—nothing exists, nothing at all, apart from Hakadosh Boruch Hu alone. With that strength, he was able to prevail. He held to his decision and acted on it in practice. There are many stories that he himself told over the years, some of which he wrote down, showing his great and steadfast self-sacrifice: how he stood with tremendous resolve, refusing to be intimidated by them, even though they wielded enormous power and there was a real, immediate danger to his life. Nevertheless, because he stood so firm, it was plain to see how he overcame them and defeated them completely. There are several stories, but I’ll tell one or two here to illustrate the point. One story the Frierdiker Rebbe told was that when they interrogated him—they had to ask him all kinds of questions, and there were many papers with questions—among all the questions about him, his name, and his purpose, there was one about his age.

06:48 How old was he? The Frierdiker Rebbe was then forty-six, almost forty-seven. On 12 Tammuz, when he was released from prison, he turned forty-seven that very day. After all, 12 Tammuz is the Frierdiker Rebbe’s birthday, and on that day in 5687 he emerged from confinement into freedom. So he was almost that age. They asked him how old he was, and he answered that he was a hundred and eighty-something years old. They became very angry and agitated, and began speaking to him very sternly, saying that if he spoke that way, they could punish him, and so on and so forth. The Frierdiker Rebbe replied: You didn’t arrest me as a private individual. You arrested me as someone who represents Lubavitch. Lubavitch didn’t begin with me. Lubavitch began with the Alter Rebbe, my great-grandfather, who was born a hundred and eighty-two years ago. Since I’m here as his representative, the entire line of Rebbeim, beginning with the Alter Rebbe, is here now. So that is my age. This was one example of the firmness and strength with which the Frierdiker Rebbe faced the authorities and spoke openly as he did. Another story the Rebbe

08:28 told years later, in the early years of his leadership, was that once, as was customary in prison, they had to photograph a prisoner. They came in to photograph the Frierdiker Rebbe. It was Shabbos, and he was sitting with his tallis over his head, davening. The Frierdiker Rebbe related that in prison he would daven at great length. He would daven for an hour [unclear]; it went on for many hours. It was already late in the day, and he was sitting with his tallis over his head, davening. The group that was supposed to photograph him came in. This was quite an undertaking. Yes, it was a whole group with equipment. Taking a photograph was no small matter. It was quite a job [unclear]. They came in to take the picture and saw him sitting covered by his tallis. They waited a few minutes, and when they saw that he was davening, they left. They returned an hour later, and he was still davening. When they came back again some time later, he was already at the end of davening, and the tallis was on his shoulder. In other words, he was still sitting with his tallis, but he had already

09:55 taken the tallis off his head and placed it on his shoulder. They came in and told him, “We’ve come to photograph you.” The Frierdiker Rebbe said, “Today is Shabbos, and one may not take photographs on Shabbos.” They left and did not come back that day. Anyone with even a little familiarity with the history of the imprisonment and how prisons operated in Russia in those days, with the relentless war they waged against Judaism, understands what an extraordinary wonder this was. The very fact that they saw him with a tallis and did not disturb him, and then left when he told them it was Shabbos, was the opposite of how things worked in that prison, especially during the days of his imprisonment. What’s more, as the Rebbe said when telling the story at a farbrengen on 12 Tammuz, or perhaps 11 Tammuz, that was the whole point here: when the Frierdiker Rebbe stood with the greatest firmness, even in prison, the unique power of his soul, the power of self-sacrifice, was revealed in him even more strongly. His essential firmness, as the Rebbe put it. The firmness that comes from the essence of a Jew’s soul. It comes from essential self-nullification, from the genuine self-nullification with which a Jewish soul wants to devote itself to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, together with the essential firmness that comes from that essential self-nullification. And

11:18 So he says that this was expressed with the greatest force, because even among them—the nations of the world and those who were utterly opposed—their entire sense of self was completely nullified. When they saw a Jew sitting with a tallis over his head and davening, they felt afraid and could not interfere. On the contrary, they were completely subdued. As we know, when the Frierdiker Rebbe left prison, it was on Gimmel Tammuz, and he left prison then to go into exile. That was his sentence at the time. They released him from prison; at first, he had been sentenced to the opposite of life. Then they changed it to ten years in Siberia, or [unclear], a place so physically dangerous that one could not survive there. Then they changed the sentence to three years in Kostroma. That, too, is a place in Russia, but one where a person could live—though the sentence was for three years. In fact, you know how the story ended: he stayed there for only eight or nine days, and on 12 Tammuz, his birthday, he went free. That is well known. When they arrived there on Sunday, Gimmel Tammuz, and the Frierdiker Rebbe was preparing to travel by train to Kostroma, he boarded the train. In Russia, trains had a step you could stand on,

12:54 where everyone could see you. Hundreds of chassidim had come from all around. There were also many spies and government officials there. The Frierdiker Rebbe came out and delivered the well-known sicha that begins: “May Hashem our G-d be with us as He was with our fathers; may He not leave us or forsake us.” He spoke then about mesirus nefesh—that a Jew must have mesirus nefesh, and that our fathers had mesirus nefesh. He said that one can ask for mesirus nefesh, too, because that is how it was with our fathers. So we ask the Master of the Universe: “May Hashem our G-d be with us”—with every Jew—“as He was with our fathers; may He not leave us or forsake us.” He emphasized what his father, the Rebbe Rashab, had said on another occasion that was also a time for mesirus nefesh. The Rebbe Rashab was considering speaking out about the matter and taking a stand against the government, and said then: “Only our bodies were placed in exile; our souls were not placed in exile.” A Jew must know this, and make it known to all the Jewish people: a Jew’s soul is not in exile. Consequently, in all matters connected with Torah and mitzvos, no one has authority over us. A Jew can stand with full strength when he engages in Torah and mitzvos, teaches Jewish children and educates them, and so on. He spoke with great force to the chassidim about their role and their responsibility to actually work with mesirus nefesh to spread Judaism. For that was the greatest mesirus nefesh at that moment: to stand there, among them, still under their rule, before leaving for exile that very day. And he was not finished yet; he still had to board the train, because he knew that, in practice, this could not be changed. So he did not speak any longer, but said these things with full force. He went on to explain the verse: “He crouched, lay down like a lion, and like a young lion—who will rouse him?” There was

15:00 a very interesting passage in the Gemara. The Gemara says in Berachos, page 12, that “they sought to establish Parshas Balak as part of the recitation of Shema.” The Sages considered including the section about Balak and Bilaam in Shema. In other words, alongside the passages of Shema said every day, people would also say the section about Balak and Bilaam. And the Gemara asks: Why? The Gemara ultimately gives the explanation that it is because of that verse, which says: “He crouched, lay down like a lion, and like a young lion—who will rouse him?” This relates to the times for reciting Shema; it is connected with “when you lie down and when you rise.” Both ideas appear there: “He crouched, lay down” and “who will rouse him?” When Jews go to sleep at night and get up in the morning, they are like lions. In other words, even then they have the strength of a lion and a young lion. Before going to sleep at night, they say Shema, and when they get up in the morning, they say Shema, and that gives them strength and resolve. Because of this verse, they wanted to institute the recitation of the entire section about Balak and Bilaam. The Gemara goes on to explain why, in practice, they did not do so. But the Midrash continues: From Tzidkiyahu until Moshiach—that is the period beginning with the destruction of the First Beis Hamikdash. Since then, we have always been under the rule of the nations of the world, subjugated to them. Even when Jews returned to Eretz Yisroel, they were still in exile. Jews were in the Babylonian exile, then under Persia and Media and Greece, and in the exile of Edom, down to the final exile—the long exile of Edom. The entire period of exile, from Tzidkiyahu until Moshiach, is “He crouched, lay down.” What does “lay down” mean? “Lying down” has two meanings, the Midrash says. It can refer to sleep, and

19:56 it can also refer to illness, when a person is bedridden. During exile, Jews are in a state of sleep: “I am asleep.” During exile, Jews are in a state of illness—the illness of exile. After all, “the Shechinah is in exile”; the Jews are in exile, and so is the Shechinah. This is a condition of illness. And that is what the verse says: “He crouched, lay down like a lion, and like a young lion—who will rouse him?” What is the question here? According to this Midrash, how could they have wanted to say this verse as part of Shema? Specifically this verse—not a verse from Parshas Vayechi, but specifically a verse from Parshas Balak, a verse that speaks of Jews being in a state of “lying down.” How could the Sages have wanted to include the section about Balak and Bilaam, which describes the state of Jews during exile, in Shema? What is the point of that? What is the verse telling us with “He crouched, lay down like a lion, and like a young lion—who will rouse him?” At first glance, it expresses weakness: during exile, Jews are in a state of “lying down.” But this is where the allusion lies: on the contrary, the verse expresses the strength, the tremendous strength, within a Jew. Even in a state of “lying down,” as someone looking at a Jew during exile might see him—when exile is at its most intense and he is in a state of “lying down”—a Jew’s essence has nevertheless not really changed.

21:27 Even when a lion is lying down, it is still a lion. A Jew is, in essence, a lion and a young lion; he has that strength within him. And a Jew’s strength, the essential strength of the yechidah of the soul, exists in its full power even during exile. On the contrary, it is precisely during exile that we see the power of mesirus nefesh revealed among Jews, even more than in brighter periods. To understand the meaning of this verse, Chassidus explains—there is a wonderful maamar of the Rebbe on “He crouched, lay down like a lion,” which the Rebbe delivered at a 12 Tammuz farbrengen, [unclear]. To explain the depth of the verse, he discussed a verse in Shir Hashirim: “On my bed at night, I sought the one whom my soul loves.” The Midrash asks there: “On my bed at night”—what does “my bed” mean? The Midrash explains both meanings: “my bed” refers to sleep, to lying in bed; and it also refers to being confined to bed by illness. “On my bed at night” refers to the long night and darkness of exile. During exile, Jews experience this state of being in bed, of sleep: “I am asleep in exile.” Likewise, during exile there is illness. And the verse says that even “on my bed at night,” nevertheless, “I sought the one whom my soul loves.” A Jew has before his eyes what he thirsts for, what he seeks and yearns for:

23:03 the one whom my soul loves. The natural love, the essential love, the love a Jew has for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The explanation of the verse is that the state of exile is compared to sleep: “I am asleep in exile.” What is sleep? When a person is asleep, all his faculties remain intact. He has all his faculties; he has everything. More than that: while he is sleeping and dreaming, he can see things in a dream and hear things. In other words, the faculties of the soul are present, but they are not functioning properly. His eyes are closed, and the things he sees and hears and understands are not perceived correctly. He can see all kinds of contradictory things, all kinds of things that have no [unclear], things that are contrary to reality and to truth. That is the nature of dreams during sleep. Similarly, during exile there is “I am asleep in exile.” A Jew needs to have open eyes. Open eyes means: “Lift your eyes on high and see Who created these.” To raise one’s eyes and see “Who created these,” to see the “Who,” Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who created all of creation. And likewise, “Hear, O Yisroel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One”—to understand and hear that there is G-d in the world. When there is “I am asleep in exile,” during exile, all these things are still true, and nevertheless one does not see

24:30 the truth. The eyes are blind and do not see what they need to see. Instead of seeing G-dliness, instead of “Lift up your eyes on high and see Who created these,” they see things that are not as they should be in the world of truth. They see things that are the opposite of reality, things that keep a person from seeing G-dliness, from seeing that there is individual Divine providence. He does not understand things properly, as they are in the world of truth; on the contrary, they appear to him in reverse. Instead of seeing, even in exile, “For You have chosen us from all the nations,” he sees the opposite: it seems, G-d forbid, that the situation of the Jewish people is the reverse. This is the meaning of “I sleep in exile.” And from the sleep of exile, a person can descend still lower, to a state of illness. There is an illness that is not life-threatening, and there is an illness that is life-threatening. As the Rebbe explains, an illness that is not life-threatening is a craving for permitted things. This illness concerns the body and the animal soul. A person needs a healthy body and a healthy soul. When he serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu properly, in accordance with the truth, he is healthy. But when he falls into cravings for permitted things, that is an illness that is not life-threatening. When he descends further, beyond cravings for permitted things, and falls into cravings for forbidden things, into prohibitions, that is a life-threatening illness. From there comes all the distance, until a person becomes, G-d forbid, completely ill. This is why we say that during

25:56 exile there is the matter of “my bed.” The verse says that although there is “I sleep in exile,” and even more, the matter of “my bed”—the soul is in exile, in a state of descent, in the darkness of exile, and a person reaches, G-d forbid, a state of illness, not only sleep but illness as well—nevertheless, “I sleep, but my heart is awake.” Although the soul in the body appears to be asleep and ill, “my heart,” the essence of the soul, the Jewish spark, is what is expressed in the words “I sought the One Whom my soul loves.” That deep love, a love [unclear]—the soul always loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and the soul’s love for Him is an essential love, the love of a child for his father. The essential love that Jews have for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and that He has for Jews, is something inherited. It exists in Jews at all times and in every situation. This is what we mean: even when outwardly the situation looks like “on my bed at night,” nevertheless there is “I sought.” From within him, “the One Whom my soul loves” awakens; he searches for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, searches for Him during exile, out of pain and out of “My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and weary land.” This also helps us understand what the Gemara says: “They sought to include Parshas Balak in the recitation of Shema,” but did not include it. What is the strength a Jew has? The matter

27:26 of reciting Shema—that is the matter of mesirus nefesh. The essence of Shema is “Hashem is One.” A Jew recites Shema and contemplates “Hear, O Israel: Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.” As Chassidus explains the word “One” in Hebrew: the alef signifies the Master of the world, based on the words of our Sages, [unclear], the alef of the Master of the world; the ches signifies the seven heavens and the earth; and the daled signifies the four directions of the world, [unclear]—Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present in them all; this world has a Master. When a Jew opens himself to “Hear, O Israel”—and “Hear, O Israel” exists within every Jew by virtue of the yechidah of the soul, “the yechidah to be one with You,” embraced and bound to You, [unclear] “the yechidah to be one with You”; a Jew is connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu even during exile—it naturally awakens strength within him. This is the strength of “like a young lion and a lion”: none of the concealments, none of the doubled and redoubled darkness, can stop him. It gives him the strength to leave his inner exile. This is what the verse says: “Behold, a people rises like a young lion and lifts itself like a lion.” The remarkable thing is that at a time of [unclear], a Jew is “like a lion and a young lion.” And this is what is meant by “Who will rouse him?”—that “Who” is the same...

28:54 “Who” of [unclear] “and see Who created these,” the “Who” of “Who created these,” meaning Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who creates the world at every moment. It is also the “Who” of “Who will bring Israel’s salvation from Zion?” Yes, it is this “Who will bring” that gives a Jew the strength to overcome the doubled and redoubled darkness, and enables Jews to stand with mesirus nefesh and the surrender of their will, even in the most difficult period of the darkness of exile. That is what the verse says, and that is what we see, especially at the time we are in now, the time of 12 Tammuz. There is the well-known saying of the one whose birthday and celebration of liberation we mark on 12–13 Tammuz, which he received from his father. Speaking on 12 Tammuz about serving with mesirus nefesh, he said: What is mesirus nefesh? Mesirus nefesh means this way and no other. Incidentally, we spoke earlier about the fact that now, thank G-d, we are in a time when physical self-sacrifice is not required. We can serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu in peace; no one interferes with us. But there is the soul, and the soul is connected to the will—“my soul, my will”—and there is the surrender of one’s will. Although we are indeed living in a time of freedom and abundance, there are still concealments and challenges all around us.

30:16 These come from the darkness of exile and from all the difficulties of our times, which make it harder for a Jew to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Yet it is precisely in the darkness before dawn that there is the strength of “like a lion and a young lion.” A Jew has that strength. This is what was told in the story: we were told that we do not have our own years, but the years of our Rebbeim and Nesi’im, one Rebbe after another, beginning with the Alter Rebbe. Every Jew and every chossid needs to take all this to heart: when you go out into the street, when you go out into the world, you do not go with strength of your own, but with the strength of “like a lion and a young lion,” the strength of a Jew, the strength of the yechidah of the soul, the strength of mesirus nefesh. In this way, a Jew can live in a state of Geulah even while still in exile. A Jew can then carry out his work: illuminate the world, be a lamp that gives light, illuminate his surroundings. Not only does he avoid falling into the darkness of exile himself; on the contrary, he illuminates the entire world with the light of Geulah. And speedily in our days, as the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote in his well-known letter upon his release from imprisonment, “It was not me alone whom Hakadosh Boruch Hu redeemed on 12 Tammuz,” but every single Jew, including even “one who is called by the name Israel”—even someone who is only called

31:43 by the name Israel, and does not observe Torah and mitzvos, is included in the Geulah. For when the Frierdiker Rebbe stood then before a mighty regime, a mighty regime, and showed how a Jew does not let himself be intimidated, and how all obstacles and all concealments can be overcome, he gave us the strength to be “like a lion and a young lion” in the face of the yetzer hara, in the face of challenges, in the face of all the concealments of exile. Through this, we can leave our inner exile, illuminate our surroundings, and merit, soon in our days, the fulfillment of all the verses of Geulah in our parsha, culminating in the verse “A star shall go forth from Jacob, and a scepter shall arise from Israel,” with the true and complete Geulah. Am Yisroel Chai.