Tag: Hebrew Kingdom

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Giving Gratitude and Drawing Close to the Creator

VAYIKRA opens with an explanation of the various korbanot. And like many other Hebrew words and ideas, the concept of a korban loses its true meaning and essence when translated into the English language. While some might mistakenly translate the term korban as “sacrifice” the word actually comes from the Hebrew root karov (near), indicating that a more literal translation into English might be “that which brings near.” Korbanot brought to the Mishkan (and later to the Temple in Jerusalem) essentially serve the purpose of enhancing a person’s overall closeness to the Divine.

VAYIKRA’s fourth aliyah specifically features the korban shlamim, which Sforno explains as korbanot voluntarily brought when one feels personally motivated to express gratitude to HaShem. This korban, brought from a sense of love and appreciation, is an expression of recognition for the Kadosh Barukh Hu’s constant generosity and eternal connection to the Children of Israel.

According to Rashi, the name shlamim is derived from the word Shalom, because the shlamim has the ability to increase peace in our world. Living in a generation without a Mishkan or Temple makes it difficult to understand how bringing korbanot – a seemingly primitive act by Western standards – could have any meaningful impact on the universe. When judged by the wrong yardstick, mitzvot like the ritual slaughter of animals can appear insignificant or even barbaric. But while Western thought measures things according to the present reality as perceived through our limited senses, Israel’s Torah views life according to the standard of our reality’s deeper inner workings, as well as where we understand the world to be heading. Only by viewing reality through a pure Hebrew lens can one attain the necessary vision to appreciate how each korban serves to release Divine energies that flow into this world and uplift Creation to a higher plane of existence.




Torah concepts of mitzvot, especially those pertaining to the Temple in Jerusalem, come from a higher dimension of reality that our world is meant to exist on and will certainly reach as history progresses towards a more advanced state. The individual stages that bring about this higher goal can only be perceived when one achieves a broader view of the amazing reality mankind is currently approaching. In order for a person to appreciate the significance of an individual piece of any given puzzle, he must first have an idea of what the entire picture should look like. Only then can he realize the necessity and value of each piece – each phase of the process leading up to the complete picture.

Each korban brought to the Temple in Zion has a ripple effect that adds incredible blessing to the world – curing diseases, alleviating suffering and influencing random acts of kindness across the globe. Jerusalem’s chain reaction of Divine goodness demonstrates how all of existence is connected at the source.

Korban Aharon supports Rashi’s understanding of the shlamim by explaining that the peace expressed through its name is the harmony between the heavenly world of the spirit and the earthly material world. Bringing a korban shlamim to the Temple works to unite the spiritual and material facets of existence. Israel is meant to serve as a national bridge between the holy and seemingly mundane spheres of life. The Jewish people is tasked with revealing kedusha in every aspect of this world in order to uplift existence to its highest potential. This Divine mission necessitates Israeli self-determination in Eretz Yisrael, as only by existing as an independent nation in our homeland can we reach and elevate every facet of life to its highest ideal. And only through a Hebrew Kingdom in the Land of Israel can we bring mankind to the awareness of HaShem as the timeless ultimate Reality without end that creates, sustains and empowers all with His love.

The Ramban offers a special explanation for the word shlamim, teaching that it is derived from the Hebrew word shleimut (completeness). He further explains that a person who brings this offering is not motivated by a need to atone for past sin, but rather by a sense of completeness and free-willed desire for universal perfection. He is not apologizing for any wrongdoing but expressing an idealistic drive to elevate the world. His service to HaShem stems from an active Torah that aspires him to revolutionize human civilization and bring history to completion. Instead of living an individual “Judaism” of personal reward and punishment, he is involved with a macro-level Torah of cosmic proportions that harmoniously connects him to all of Creation.

Due to the terrible persecution Israel suffered throughout nearly two thousand years of exile from our soil, many Jews have turned inward and developed a warped sense of our collective national mission. Some have come to genuinely believe that the goal of the Jewish people is to merely serve G-D quietly without distractions or the threat of outside aggression. The very concept of the korban shlamim clearly exposes the error of this perspective. The mission of the Hebrew Nation is to revolutionize the world, bringing it to perfection as determined by the Kadosh Barukh Hu. Israel is to serve as HaShem’s instrument in leading mankind to a lofty state of total blessing and everlasting peace incomprehensible to the leading thinkers of contemporary Western civilization.

Israel is to bring humankind to its highest state of universal perfection. If properly trained, we can learn to perceive the realization of this objective in our own generation through events bringing history closer to its ultimate goal. The redemption process is currently materializing with the rebirth of a sovereign Hebrew state in portions of our homeland, a still yet to be completed ingathering of our exiles and a spiritual revolution reacquainting many Jews with our Torah. After centuries of bitter oppression and exposure to external cultural influences, a decolonization of Jewish identity is taking place. Our generation has been Divinely chosen and blessed with the opportunity to participate in and contribute to the present stages of redemption – to recognize the miraculous developmental process unfolding and to facilitate the building of HaShem’s Divine Kingdom in our world.

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Israel, a Light to All Nations

After learning of Moshe’s stunning victory against the Amorites, King Balak of Moav forged an alliance with Midian in order to wage war together against the Children of Israel. Once realizing the extent of Israel’s strength, however, Moav and Midian enlisted the infamous Bilaam to attack the Hebrew tribes through spiritual means.

Rabbi Shmuel Bornsztain – the second Admor of the Sokhatshov Ḥasidic dynasty – teaches in his Shem MiShmuel that Balak did not necessarily seek Israel’s destruction but was determined “to strike it and drive it away from the land” (BAMIDBAR 22:6). Pointing out that Israel posed no direct threat to either Moav or Midian, as neither people’s territory was en route to the Promised Land, the Shem MiShmuel quotes our Sages as teaching that Balak’s primary goal was to prevent the Hebrew tribes from entering the Land of Israel (Tanḥuma Balak 4, Bamidbar Rabbah 20:7).

The Shem MiShmuel further quotes the explanation of the Ḥidushei HaRim – the first Ger Admor Rabbi Yitzḥak Meir Alter – on the verse “the heavens are HaShem’s but the earth He gave to mankind” (TEHILLIM 115:16), where he teaches that man is tasked with creating heaven from earth by giving concrete physical expressions to the Divine Ideal. This is accomplished through the performance of the mitzvot that uplift all aspects of the material world to their highest functions in existence. According to theḤidushei HaRim, this verse reveals the entire purpose of Creation.

Israel is charged with establishing a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (SHEMOT 19:6) that will elevate every sphere of national life and reveal the kedusha inherent in our material world. The Shem MiShmuel explains that Israel’s task is not to live monastic spiritual lives in the desert but to express the Divine Ideal in all areas of human endeavor. This goal necessitates the establishment of a Hebrew Kingdom inEretz Yisrael that will serve as a light unto nations and reveal HaShem’s Oneness to all humankind.

According to the Shem MiShmuel, Balak and Bilaam desperately sought to avoid such a kingdom for fear Israel’s example would force them to apply a Divine moral standard to governance, commerce and other features of the material world, ultimately stripping them of the benefits they enjoyed from the corruption permeating the political realm. Having no objection to Hebrews living lives of individual piety disconnected from national life, Moav and Midian feared the establishment of a Hebrew Kingdom because they intuitively understood that if Am Yisrael were to achieve political sovereignty overEretz Yisrael, we would eliminate the illusory separation of “religion” and “state” and influence humankind to ultimately adopt policies that reflect a higher moral standard. Through Bilaam’s ability to curse, they hoped to keep Israel forever stranded in the desert where we could live ascetic spiritual lives disconnected from national issues. But while our enemies championed a separation of kedusha and statecraft, Israel’s historic mission demands that we materialize our spiritual ideals on a national level so that the Torah’s deepest values attain full expression in this world.

Once Bilaam is recruited for Balak’s war effort, the Torah recounts a bizarre situation in which the very laws of nature were temporarily altered. Although nevua as it is generally understood is an exclusively Hebrew trait, the gentile Bilaam possessed some level of prophecy and even attempted to use this gift to assist Israel’s enemies. When HaShem obstructed Bilaam’s path and he in turn began to beat his donkey, another abnormal occurrence took place.

“HaShem opened the mouth of the she-donkey and it said to Bilaam, ‘What have I done to you that you struck me these three times?’” (BAMIDBAR 22:28)

Bilaam’s donkey actually spoke as if she were human, complaining to her master for his abusive treatment and humiliating him before the elders of Moav. Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi teaches in The Kuzari that there are five levels of Creation (inanimate objects, plant life, animals, human beings, Israel). One attribute that separates between the third and fourth levels – between animals and humans – is the power of speech. And the major trait differentiating Israel from human beings is the potential to attain nevua (or at least prophecy that can transcend one’s own national experience). Bilaam’s donkey was able to speak only for the sake of clarifying the significance of Bilaam’s prophecy. Just as HaShem bent the laws of nature in order that a donkey could possess the ability to speak, so too was He bending the laws of nature in order that a gentile could possess the ability to prophesy regarding Israel. And rather than allow him to utter a curse against the Hebrews as Balak had instructed, HaShem forced Bilaam to bless His treasured nation.

The Maharal of Prague teaches in Netzaḥ Yisrael that the greatness of Bilaam’s blessing exceeded even those of Yaakov and Moshe, possessing no rebuke or distraction from pure brakha (Yalkut Shimoni Balak 25). Bilaam represented the extreme opposite of Israel’s spiritual power and the intensity of his desire to curse the Hebrew tribes made him the ideal candidate to serve as the conduit for HaShem’s abundant blessing, illustrating the Kadosh Barukh Hu’s mastery over even those forces that appear to stand in the way of Israel’s national mission. But to fully grasp why HaShem would suspend the world’s natural order by granting Bilaam such a uniquely Hebrew trait, we must examine a piece of his final message and understand what Divine benefit could be extracted from the anomaly.

“I shall see him, but not now, I shall look at him, but it is not near. A star has issued from Yaakov and a tribe has risen from Israel, and he shall pierce the nobles of Moav and undermine the children of Shet. Edom shall be a conquest and Seir shall be the conquest of his enemies – and Israel will attain success. One from Yaakov shall rule and destroy the remnant of the city.’” (BAMIDBAR 24:17-19)

The holy Ohr HaḤaim explains these verses to mean that if the redemption occurs due to Israel’s merit, it will come as a supernatural event with the messianic redeemer being revealed through great wonders. But if the redemption comes in its time – without the Hebrew Nation necessarily deserving it – there will rise up a group of Jews who come together and – through human endeavor – will assist HaShem (so to speak) in bringing the redemption through natural means.

The redemption can occur in one of two ways. The first option, known as aḥishena(hastened), is a miraculous supernatural event that would occur if the Nation of Israel shows itself righteous and deserving. The second possibility, where Israel is unworthy, is generally referred to as bi’eta (in its time). This second option exists because as the predetermined goal of all human history, the redemption of Israel must ultimately come about and therefore has a set time if we do not merit it sooner. The Ohr HaḤaim understands from Bilaam’s prophecy that the redemption will most likely unfold through activists uniting to bring the Jewish people back to the Land of Israel through practical human means.

This understanding – which sheds light on much of what has been taking place in modern times – is well worth HaShem temporarily altering the laws of nature and allowing a gentile to attain a uniquely Hebrew form of prophecy. Israel must internalize this crucial message in order to not only gain a heightened perspective of current events but also to fulfill our national objective of establishing the Hebrew Kingdom that will ultimately reveal the kedusha inherent in all of Creation and bring humanity to recognize HaShem as the Divine Author of the story in which we are all characters.