Developing Our 6th Sense

By Rabbi Pinchas Winston

The Rock! Perfect is His work, for all his paths are justice; a G-d of faith without with sin, righteous and fair He is. (Devarim 32:4)

After that earth-stopping attack on the United States of America, in which so many innocent people were ruthlessly and brutally murdered by terrorists who have absolutely no value for human life, the above posuk is more difficult to read. I say “earth-stopping” because it is startling how in such a short time the perpetrators of this grossly evil attack were able to paralyze and humble the mightiest nation on earth, and send shock waves around the entire civilized world. Talking about hitting an “Achilles’ heel!”

To make matters even more difficult, the attack was one big black miracle. According to all accounts, if the attack should have been “successful” at all, it should only have been in a limited way. Too many things could have and should have gone wrong. Too many things went RIGHT for the terrorists, which were WRONG for civilization.

For the U.S. government, the implication may be that it was an “inside job,” meaning that the conspirators had contacts in key places that helped them to carry out their affront against humanity. However, for a believing Jew, an “inside job” has a different connotation: they had help from Heaven. G-d had a role in all of this, and even though He always does, in this case, His hand was so incredibly obvious.

It always feels very uncomfortable saying such a thing. G-d helps terrorists?! G-d forbid!

G-d does NOT help evil to perform evil, NEVER! Then what do we mean, and where was the justice, if there was any at all, in any attack against seemingly innocent people?

The answer is that success or failure is not measured from Heaven’s point of view, by short-term gains or losses, as we often measure success and failure. When it comes to Heaven, our idea of the end of something is often, no usually, only the beginning of something else, something BIGGER, the effect of which we may not notice for some time to come.

In other words, the attack on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington was not only an effect, but a cause as well, and knowing that changes everything. For, though it may be very difficult to find a reason in the PAST for what just happened, it may be easier to find a reason in the FUTURE for the event in question. Hard as that may seem to be to grasp at this time, it was even harder to imagine the events of two weeks ago happening – even five minutes before they occurred.

All events of history must be viewed in the context of the goal of history – the purpose of creation. Like a person who needs to travel from Point A to Point B, his decision about when to travel and how to travel will depend upon where he is going, and by when he has to arrive at his destination, and how. History works the same way.

What happened two weeks ago happened when it did and how it did because history is not stationary, as people would like to believe, but in motion and on the road to a certain destination to arrive by a certain time. What happened is leading to something very big and very important, and I say “leading” as opposed to the past tense “led,” because it is not over yet, and won’t be for some time to come.

Unable to fully understand the events of two weeks ago, how it happened and why it happened because they were so out of the context of everyday life as we have become accustomed to it, there will be a great longing and effort on the part of millions to return to “normal.” There will be a desire to emotionally deny what happened, though intellectually we will be unable to, and when that happens, people will just stop asking questions and let time heal their wounds.

While that is a healthy approach to some things in life, this time it is not. What happened in New York and Washington two weeks ago represents a paradigm shift. The world changed then and it cannot go back to the way things once were, and to try to go back is to live with an illusion, a VERY dangerous illusion.

All explanations and excuses aside, the King is coming, and I don’t just mean this Rosh Hashanah. Two weeks ago G-d stepped directly into history, and I don’t think He plans to leave again.

The Rock! — perfect is His work, for all His paths are justice…

We are about to find out just how true this really is.

Remember the days of the world, understand the years of generation after generation. (Devarim 32:7)

It is not a coincidence that this posuk follows the previous ones. It is both a lesson and a warning. If people were truly shocked by the fact that such a calamity COULD occur in the heart of the United States of America and to two of its most prominent symbols – the World TRADE Center and the Pentagon, the symbol of American financial prowess and the symbol of American military might – then they are not students of history.

This week’s parshah commands us to BE students of history. It changes your whole perspective of the present and the future when you are aware of the past. You can’t believe how blind and naive we become when we ignore history, and do not know it in detail.

I found it particularly interesting that even the president of the United States came to view this attack on the American public as one that stepped up the war between the forces of good and the forces of evil, the side of light against the side of darkness. He is 100% correct, though he might be quite mistaken about exactly what that means.

What I mean is brought out in this week’s parshah, and Rashi’s explanation of the above posuk:

REMEMBER THE DAYS OF THE WORLD: What the earlier generations did and how they angered Him. UNDERSTAND THE YEARS OF GENERATION AFTER GENERATION: The Generation of Enosh, and how G-d brought the Mediterranean waters upon them, and the Generation of the Flood and how they were washed away. (Rashi)

And, why should we do that:

UNDERSTAND THE YEARS OF GENERATION AFTER GENERATION: To recognize for the FUTURE that you have the ability to do better for yourselves, to inherit the Days of Moshiach and the World-to-Come. (Ibid.)

In other words, the Torah is explaining that, in order to live safely in G-d’s creation, one must constantly distinguish between causes and effects. Was the terrorist attack a cause or an effect? I’m sure there were many people in Enosh’s time, and the time of the Great Flood who were shocked by what was happening to them, just as we have been by the “punishments” of our days.

To many of us, what happened in the States was a cause, and not an effect. After all, what could possibly have been so wrong with American society for G-d to allow that kind of thing to happen in the first place? G-d doesn’t help evil be successful, He just doesn’t interfere with it when the merit to do so doesn’t exist on behalf of the potential victims. I’m not talking about individuals; I’m talking about society as a whole.

It says in Tehillim:

Praise G-d, all peoples; praise Him, all the nations! (Tehillim 117:1)

Someone once asked the Vilna Gaon why King David wrote this posuk? What praise can the nations of the world offer to G-d that the Jewish people cannot? He answered: Only they will know how many times they had wanted to inflict suffering on the Jewish people, but were prevented from doing so by G-d!

I strongly disagree with Bin Laden and his partners-in-crime. We have not been exposed to such brutality because of crimes against Allah and the Islamic people. We have simply tasted what it means when it says, “Those who forget are doomed to repeat.”

Enosh’s generation was guilty of idol worship, even though, in the beginning, they may have meant well. Idol worship means placing your trust in false gods, be they made of stone or metal, be they made of green paper, be they men of flesh-and-blood. What was the source of our perception of American invincibility? Money and military might.

“It could never happen in America! They’re too… well… too big… and too smart… and too rich… and too well-equipped…” So was the generation of Enosh, in their own way in their own time.

The Generation of the Flood was guilty of a different violation of creation. As Rashi points out at the beginning of Parashas Noach, the people of Noach’s time knew no boundaries when it came to enjoying the physical world. “To each his own” and “do as you please” correctly described the theme of that sorry period of mankind.

To many in the Western world, that is the meaning of “America, land of the free…” that is, free to do as you please, no matter how offensive your actions might be to the Master of the Universe.

“In G-d we trust” on American money, I am sure, has been the source of much of America’s success. However, when this remains only to be lip service to the Creator of the world, then it ceases to impress the Power Above. And, when Jews learn to mimic this way of the non-Jews, to the point that they feel safer and more secure in a society built on these values, then they add insult to injury, even if they are Torah-observant.

As I write this very essay, the nations are forming into a coalition that could easily evolve into Gog and Magog. They don’t have to know it, and they don’t have to even get together, IN THE BEGINNING, to go to war against the Jewish people. They only have to be willing to go to war, and that they are… that they are.

If you think that I am just waving my finger at the Americans and saying, “You see! You had it coming to you!” and that I am gleeful that “justice” has been done, you are VERY wrong. An awful lot of good people suffered, and are still suffering as a result of the horrific attack. Furthermore, I have heard stories of heroism even by Torah standards that I cannot, personally, imagine performing in similar circumstances. I do not find it difficult at all, two weeks later, to still cry for the people who were unfortunate to have been involved one way or another in what happened.

Something terrible has happened, something that my mind still has difficulty understanding and my heart still has trouble accepting. On the other hand, we have this week’s parshah, and others like it. The Torah was given to help us draw conclusions about the past, so that we can improve in the present, and protect our future.

We would be wise to return to the classroom of history, and start learning in earnest. Now, at this late and unstable time of history, it is not only a mitzvah, but the basis of the security of the Jewish people, present and future.