Formula for Jewish Survival

From the vantage point of one of the bustling streets of the Old City of Jerusalem, I look down at the Cardo, a partially-restored site of an ancient Roman road, built when Jewish Jerusalem lay in ruins. And I marvel: the Roman conquerors and their remains are nothing more than a popular tourist stop, while the Jews, defeated and exiled, are here; a pulsing, growing and vibrant people.

The Jewish ability to survive is amazing. So many attempts to wipe us out, so much persecution and destruction – yet we are still here. What’s the secret?

I found some answers in the Talmud, on the page that so poignantly describes the last days of Jerusalem before it was destroyed by the Romans.

The Talmud tells us that one of the Jewish leaders of the time, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, had smuggled himself out of the besieged city of Jerusalem. His mission: To meet with the commander of the Roman forces, Vespasian, to try to save the Jewish people.

The Talmud [Gittin 56b] relates what happened.

Rabbi Yochanan greeted the commander: “Peace be upon you, King.”

Vespasian responded: “You deserve to be put to death, as I am not the King.”

Moments later a messenger from Rome arrived and announced to Vespasian: “Rise. The emperor is dead, and the Senate has appointed you leader.”

Vespasian, impressed by Rabbi Yochanan’s prediction, tells him: “Ask me for something and I will give it to you.”

Rabbi Yochanan makes three requests from the newly-appointed emperor of Rome:

Spare the yeshivah in the city of Yavneh and its sages from destruction.

Spare the family of Rabbi Gamliel [descendants of King David].

Give me doctors to heal Rabbi Tzadok [a holy man who fasted and prayed for 40 years to stave off the Temple’s destruction].

What’s going on? Imagine the moment. The Jews are on the brink of national disaster and all he asks for is a small yeshiva, an old sick rabbi and a family of blue bloods?

What was this rabbi thinking?

On the other hand, you can’t argue with success; Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai’s plan worked – the Jewish people indeed survived. Why?

Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai asked for things that are the essence of the Jewish people: The Torah, their desire to have a relationship with the Almighty and connect with God, and the unyielding Jewish belief in a better and peaceful future.

The Torah has an amazing power of regeneration. A small group of Jews studying Torah will grow and expand. Inevitably, their ideas will spread throughout the Diaspora, inspiring the Jews to remain Jews.

We witnessed this amazing phenomenon in our own times. In the Soviet Union a small group of dedicated Jews began to study Torah despite the danger. Eventually this clandestine network of study groups turned into thousands, becoming an important part of the resurgence of Russian Jewry.

In the space of two generations the few surviving refugees saw an almost miraculous renaissance in Torah study.

Before the Holocaust there were a few thousand Jews enrolled in all the yeshivas of Europe. Hitler destroyed the yeshivas of Europe, burned their sacred books and killed their rabbinic leaders. In the space of two generations the few surviving refugees, beginning anew in America and Israel with a handful of students, saw an almost miraculous renaissance in Torah study. There are now more students studying in one major yeshiva in Jerusalem than in all the yeshivas of pre-war Europe combined!

Similarly, the movement to teach ba’alei teshuvah (returnees to Judaism) was started in the late sixties by a few individuals who wanted to teach Torah to young Jews in English speaking countries. Their first few students became tens of thousands, through the awesome power of Torah.

Back to the future

Rabbi Yochanan’s second request was to preserve the Davidic line, the line that would produce the Messiah, the future King of Israel. With this request Rabbi Yochanan was giving voice to the belief and the hope that sustained and energized the Jewish people for millennia – that a peace-filled universe is not only possible, but inevitable.

Learning to Connect

The Temple had been the Jews’ place of worship for over 400 years, the place where they came to pray and satisfy their desire to connect with God. With its destruction the survivors and the generations to follow would need new strategies and skills to build a relationship with God.

Rabbi Tzadok, a holy man who had spent so many years praying, would teach them. He was the expert, a national treasure who needed to be nursed back to health so the Jews could learn how to maintain their connection with the Almighty, how to pray even after the destruction.

Prayer is an integral part of the Jewish arsenal. Throughout the centuries the Jews persevered, overcame and survived in their houses of prayer.

With his three bold requests, Rabbi Yochanan was teaching us the secret of Jewish survival. Without Torah, Judaism would not survive. Without an ironclad hope in the Jewish future, the Jewish people would not survive. And without prayer and a firm connection to God, the Jews would not survive.

My mother-in-law is a Holocaust survivor. When she speaks at family celebrations she often talks about her experiences in Auschwitz. Though what she says varies, her ending is always the same: Am Yisrael Chai, the Jewish nation lives on!

Tisha B’Av is a time to remember the tragedies that befell the Jewish People, but – as Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai saw so clearly – it is also a time to focus on hope, the future and rebirth.

The opinions expressed in the comment section are the personal views of the commenters. Comments are moderated, so please keep it civil.

Visitor Comments: 1

(1)
ruth housman,
July 22, 2012 4:44 PM

humanity

Humanity will save the world meaning all of us together being humane and in accord with 'respect' for each other and the sanctity of the environment.. meaning All Creation. The message is within the words and sacred alphabets crossing Babel which is The Gate (Sanskrit). Ben Zakkai was wise in requests. He was powered by a Divine Source and this story involving the more in Amore itself, meaning Messianic has a Divine Conductor and so promises Will be kept. When? I live in the world of wait and hope. 2020 is a year and also for perfect vision in English and there is a powerful gematria of numbers that might apply.
As to accord: to split the word we get a chord or a cord. We are all tied to a cosmic Divine umbilical chord and this entire greater story is about Echod or One. What's 'Won': world peace. Help this story unfold by doing your part!

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I've been striving to get more into spirituality. But it seems that every time I make some progress, I find myself slipping right back to where I started. I'm getting discouraged and feel like a failure. Can you help?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Spiritual slumps are a natural part of spiritual growth. There is a cycle that people go through when at times they feel closer to God and at times more distant. In the words of the Kabbalists, it is "two steps forward and one step back." So although you feel you are slipping, know that this is a natural process. The main thing is to look at your overall progress (over months or years) and be able to see how far you've come!

This is actually God's ingenious way of motivating us further. The sages compare this to teaching a baby how to walk. When the parent is holding on, the baby shrieks with delight and is under the illusion that he knows how to walk. Yet suddenly, when the parent lets go, the child panics, wobbles and may even fall.

At such times when we feel spiritually "down," that is often because God is letting go, giving us the great gift of independence. In some ways, these are the times when we can actually grow the most. For if we can move ourselves just a little bit forward, we truly acquire a level of sanctity that is ours forever.

Here is a practical tool to help pull you out of the doldrums. The Sefer HaChinuch speaks about a great principle in spiritual growth: "The external awakens the internal." This means that although we may not experience immediate feelings of closeness to God, eventually, by continuing to conduct ourselves in such a manner, this physical behavior will have an impact on our spiritual selves and will help us succeed. (A similar idea is discussed by psychologists who say: "Smile and you will feel happy.")

That is the power of Torah commandments. Even if we may not feel like giving charity or praying at this particular moment, by having a "mitzvah" obligation to do so, we are in a framework to become inspired. At that point we can infuse that act of charity or prayer with all the meaning and lift it can provide. But if we'd wait until being inspired, we might be waiting a very long time.

May the Almighty bless you with the clarity to see your progress, and may you do so with joy.

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

If you seize too much, you are left with nothing. If you take less, you may retain it (Rosh Hashanah 4b).

Sometimes our appetites are insatiable; more accurately, we act as though they were insatiable. The Midrash states that a person may never be satisfied. "If he has one hundred, he wants two hundred. If he gets two hundred, he wants four hundred" (Koheles Rabbah 1:34). How often have we seen people whose insatiable desire for material wealth resulted in their losing everything, much like the gambler whose constant urge to win results in total loss.

People's bodies are finite, and their actual needs are limited. The endless pursuit for more wealth than they can use is nothing more than an elusive belief that they can live forever (Psalms 49:10).

The one part of us which is indeed infinite is our neshamah (soul), which, being of Divine origin, can crave and achieve infinity and eternity, and such craving is characteristic of spiritual growth.

How strange that we tend to give the body much more than it can possibly handle, and the neshamah so much less than it needs!