Description: Sifsei Chaim - Tisha B'Av 04
Sifsei Chaim
Tisha B’Av 04
The Sifsei Chaim continues to explain, that the fact that we have survived in Galus all these years, throughout such hester panim, throughout such persecution, oppression, and outright slaughter, is perhaps a greater miracle than the miracles of Yetzias Mitzrayim. He quotes the Yaavetz – Rav Yaakov Emden zatzal, in his siddur who writes:
ומי העיור, שאינו רואה קישור עולם התחתון בעליון הסומך ומעמיד ועיני השגחתו עליהם תמיד... אנחנו האומה הגולה שה פזורה אחרי כל מה שעבר עלינו מהצרות והתמורות אלפים מהשנים ואין אומה בעולם נרדפת כמונו מה רבים היו צרינו מה עצמו נשאו ראש עלינו מנעורינו להשמידנו לשרשנו רבת צררונו גם לא יכלו לנו לאבדנו ולכלותנו כל האומות הקדומות העצומות אבד זכרם ואנו הדבקים בה' כולנו חיים היום לא נפקד ממנו בכל תוקף אריכות גלותינו אפילו אות וניקוד אחד מהתורה שבכתב וכל דברי חכמים קיימים... בהתכונני הנפלאות אלה גדלו אצלי יותר מכל נסים ונפלאות שעשה הש"י לאבותינו במצרים ובמדבר ובא"י וכל מה שארך הגלות יותר נתאמת הנם יותר ונודע מעשה תקפו וגבורתו...
Who is so blind, who doesn’t see the way the upper spiritual world is so connected to our world, Hashem supports and upholds this world, and His eyes are always upon us, seeing to our needs… We are the nation exiled, a lone sheep, with everything that has transpired over history, the tzaros, the difficulty, for thousands of years, and there is no nation in the world as oppressed as us. How many were our enemies? How powerful were they? Haven’t they tried to destroy us and uproot us from our youth, and they have not been successful in destroying us. But all those powerful nations are gone without a trace – and we live connected to Hashem, we haven’t forgotten even a letter or a dot of the Torah in all the length of the Galus, and all the words of Chazal remain. When I think of these miracles, they are greater in my eyes than all the miracles and wonders that Hashem performed for our fathers in Mitzrayim and the Midbar and Eretz Yisrael, and as the Galus grows longer, this truth becomes more and more known, and Hashem’s greatness and power becomes apparent.
According to Rav Yaakov Emden, the meaning of the comparison between leaving Mitzrayim and leaving Yerushalayim takes on a new meaning. True, the miracles of Mitzrayim were open and were when we were close to Hashem and things were joyous and good. True, leaving Yerushalayim was surrounded by sorrow, tragedy, death, and destruction. But the Kinah has us look beyond the tragedy, and see Klal Yisrael – their greatness – which created this tremendous chasm between Mitzrayim and Yerushalayim. The Kinah asks us to look beyond all that destruction, and see Hashem’s presence, as we saw it in Mitzrayim, let us see it leaving Yerushalayim, leaving Spain, leaving Europe, and all the pain and suffering that Klal Yisrael endured, and see that Hashem is with us, and performs tremendous miracles to ensure our survival. See that Hashem is with us leaving Yerushalayim, in perhaps a greater and more miraculous way, then that was demonstrated by Mitzrayim. These are not open miracles but they are miracles nevertheless.
Sifsei Chaim
Tisha B’Av 04
The Sifsei Chaim continues to explain, that the fact that we have survived in Galus all these years, throughout such hester panim, throughout such persecution, oppression, and outright slaughter, is perhaps a greater miracle than the miracles of Yetzias Mitzrayim. He quotes the Yaavetz – Rav Yaakov Emden zatzal, in his siddur who writes:
ומי העיור, שאינו רואה קישור עולם התחתון בעליון הסומך ומעמיד ועיני השגחתו עליהם תמיד... אנחנו האומה הגולה שה פזורה אחרי כל מה שעבר עלינו מהצרות והתמורות אלפים מהשנים ואין אומה בעולם נרדפת כמונו מה רבים היו צרינו מה עצמו נשאו ראש עלינו מנעורינו להשמידנו לשרשנו רבת צררונו גם לא יכלו לנו לאבדנו ולכלותנו כל האומות הקדומות העצומות אבד זכרם ואנו הדבקים בה' כולנו חיים היום לא נפקד ממנו בכל תוקף אריכות גלותינו אפילו אות וניקוד אחד מהתורה שבכתב וכל דברי חכמים קיימים... בהתכונני הנפלאות אלה גדלו אצלי יותר מכל נסים ונפלאות שעשה הש"י לאבותינו במצרים ובמדבר ובא"י וכל מה שארך הגלות יותר נתאמת הנם יותר ונודע מעשה תקפו וגבורתו...
Who is so blind, who doesn’t see the way the upper spiritual world is so connected to our world, Hashem supports and upholds this world, and His eyes are always upon us, seeing to our needs… We are the nation exiled, a lone sheep, with everything that has transpired over history, the tzaros, the difficulty, for thousands of years, and there is no nation in the world as oppressed as us. How many were our enemies? How powerful were they? Haven’t they tried to destroy us and uproot us from our youth, and they have not been successful in destroying us. But all those powerful nations are gone without a trace – and we live connected to Hashem, we haven’t forgotten even a letter or a dot of the Torah in all the length of the Galus, and all the words of Chazal remain. When I think of these miracles, they are greater in my eyes than all the miracles and wonders that Hashem performed for our fathers in Mitzrayim and the Midbar and Eretz Yisrael, and as the Galus grows longer, this truth becomes more and more known, and Hashem’s greatness and power becomes apparent.
According to Rav Yaakov Emden, the meaning of the comparison between leaving Mitzrayim and leaving Yerushalayim takes on a new meaning. True, the miracles of Mitzrayim were open and were when we were close to Hashem and things were joyous and good. True, leaving Yerushalayim was surrounded by sorrow, tragedy, death, and destruction. But the Kinah has us look beyond the tragedy, and see Klal Yisrael – their greatness – which created this tremendous chasm between Mitzrayim and Yerushalayim. The Kinah asks us to look beyond all that destruction, and see Hashem’s presence, as we saw it in Mitzrayim, let us see it leaving Yerushalayim, leaving Spain, leaving Europe, and all the pain and suffering that Klal Yisrael endured, and see that Hashem is with us, and performs tremendous miracles to ensure our survival. See that Hashem is with us leaving Yerushalayim, in perhaps a greater and more miraculous way, then that was demonstrated by Mitzrayim. These are not open miracles but they are miracles nevertheless.