You Fell?  At Least Don’t Rejoice in It!  The Daily Chizzuk by Rabbi Eliezer

THE GREAT PROBLEM WITH TRANSGRESSION IS NOT THE FALL IN ITSELF, BUT WHAT HAPPENS AFTERWARD. IT'S NOT MERELY THAT A PERSON FAILED—BUT THAT HE LEARNS TO LIVE WITH IT. HE GETS USED TO IT. ACCEPTS IT CALMLY—PERHAPS EVEN JOYFULLY. AS LONG AS THERE IS REMORSE, THERE IS A CHANCE FOR TIKKUN. BUT WHEN A PERSON REJOICES IN EVIL, WHEN HE STOPS FIGHTING AND STARTS DANCING WITH THE SIN—THAT IS WHEN THERE IS NO FORGIVENESS. NOT BECAUSE OF THE SIN ITSELF, BUT BECAUSE OF THE INDIFFERENCE THAT FOLLOWS. ONE WHO FALLS AND FEELS SHAME STILL HAS A PATH BACK. BUT ONE WHO FALLS AND FEELS AT PEACE WITH IT, NO LONGER SEEKS A WAY TO RETURN. FROM THERE, THE DESCENT ONLY DEEPENS.

MONDAY, 25 TAMMUZ 5785 – THE DAILY CHIZZUK FROM MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A, FROM AN EMOTIONAL SHIUR HELD IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LATE RABBI ELIYAHU MERAV ZT”L BEFORE HIS PASSING

From Korach to Chukat is a span of 38 years—we suddenly jump forward 38 years. I don’t understand it. “And not a man among them remained” (Bamidbar 26:65). From here we learn that not even a single woman died in the wilderness.

The women don’t die—the women live forever.  A woman does not sin; it is only the man who sins. The woman sits quietly at home with ten children—she doesn’t even know there’s an outside world, that there are other matters, that there is another world.

Rashi says [about the verse], “And not a man among them remained” [1]that not a single woman died. For forty years in the wilderness, not a single woman died. The women remained poor widows, because they did not protest the sin of the Golden Calf. The women were supposed to protest. The husband said: now you must bow down to the calf. They saw the people dancing in front of the calf. It was the dancing that Moshe got angry about. Okay, you made a calf—fine, it’s still possible to understand. You were confused. You came from Egypt where they bowed to a lamb. Now you make a calf—maybe you were in India, where they bow to a cow, so you made a calf. That, we can still understand. But you’re dancing as well?

THAT MOSHE COULD NOT FORGIVE! “WHEN YOU DO EVIL, THEN YOU REJOICE” (YIRMIYAHU 11:15). FOR THE EVIL, HASHEM IS WILLING TO FORGIVE. BUT FOR THE JOY [IN THE EVIL]—HASHEM BECOMES ANGRY. IN TRUTH, YOU STUMBLED, BECAUSE YOU HAVE AN EVIL INCLINATION. BUT YOU'RE ALSO REJOICING, DANCING, AND BOASTING [AFTERWARD]? AND THEN YOU PERSECUTE THE RELIGIOUS? FOR THAT, HASHEM DOES NOT FORGIVE.

Any soldier who goes to war—all his sins are atoned for in a second. Afterward, he mocks the religious: “You go to the army also!” What do you care? You went and returned alive—be happy! If not, you'd be in Gan Eden now. A person gets a bullet in the head—now he’s in Gan Eden. We want him to live 120 years.

But why did they go to Be’eri? Because they wanted to enter Gan Eden!

1,500 holy and pure young men—without even knowing why—Hashem took them so they would no longer transgress. That’s it. They will enter Gan Eden. Today, five young men were killed—and four of them were yeshivah students. Just now, a boy from Itamar was killed—and he was the best one there. Two months ago, an eighteen-year-old boy was killed in Eli. It all connects. Every day another boy falls—only yeshivah students enlist. The secular don’t enlist. 70% from Tel Aviv don’t enlist. Draft Tel Aviv first.

Also they’re not lacking soldiers—next week 35,000 will enlist. They’re being told to go home. They're missing one division; they don’t need ten more!

https://vimeo.com/1102987011?fl=pl&fe=sh

[1] The Women Were Not Involved in the Sin of the Generation of the Wilderness – The Daughters of Tzelafchad approached

That generation—the women were repairing what the men were breaching. For you find that Aharon told them: “Remove the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives” (Shemot 32:2)—but the women refused and protested to their husbands, as it says: “All the people took off their gold rings…”—but the women did not participate with them in the incident of the calf.

And likewise with the spies who slandered the Land: “They returned and caused the whole congregation to complain” (Bamidbar 14:36). The decree was issued against them for saying,“We cannot go up”—but the women were not part of that counsel, as it says earlier in the passage: “For Hashem said of them, ‘They shall surely die in the wilderness,’ and not a man was left of them, except for Kalev ben Yefuneh” (ibid. 26:65).

A man—not a woman. Why? Because they did want to enter the Land. But the women approached in order to request a portion in the Land. That is why this section [about the daughters of Tzelafchad] is written adjacent to the account of the death of the generation of the wilderness—from there we learn that the men were breaching and the women repairing.