The Forbidden Speech of Chodesh Addar

(Credit Niflaos M’Torasecha)

The hallmark of Amalek is the concept of “keri” – happenstance or occurrence. The notion that everything happens by chance – there is no Conductor to the orchestra. All is coincidence.

So the Torah says about Amalek: אשר קרך בדרך

They occurred upon you when you were traveling. A coincidence.

Of course we don’t believe in coincidence. As such, the first occurrence of the word keri - קרי - encoded in the Torah as a Sofei Teivos is (Shmos 17:9):

בחר לך אנשים וצא הלחם בעמלק מחר אנכי נצב...

(Note – there are only three occurrences of this word as a Sofei Teivos in the entire Torah and not a single occurrence as a Roshei Teivos)

Coincidence?

Amalek may think so, but we think not!

Hence, Haman was very happy when his lots just happened to fall out on the month of Adar. It was not our best month. Moshe Rabenu died in this month. This is what we all learn in cheder.

But there may have been another reason why Haman was so thrilled that his lots fell out on Adar. Something that we don’t learn in cheder. Haman may have known something else about the month of Adar.

Adar is the month of malshinus, rechilus and loshon hara!

Haman may have known another “coincidence”. There are only two “occurrences” in the Torah where the word Adar (אדר) is encoded as a Roshei Teivos. And one of them is this pasuk (Breishis 37:3):

ויבא יוסף את דבתם רעה אל אביהם

And Yosef brought their evil reports to their father. 

Ther first thing we note is the association of Yosef to this encoded word.

The Arizal writes that each month corresponds to one of the Shevatim. The month of Adar corresponds to Yosef. Yosef was granted two tribal portions and was immune to the ayin hara. As such, the mazal for Adar is Dagim, fish, which multiply freely and are not subject to an ayin hara. And this is why the month Adar gets two appearances on leap years.

But what is the significance of the reference to malshinus?

The commentaries (See Kli Yakar – Breishis 37:26) explain that the brothers conspired to kill Yosef because he was a הולך רכיל. He was a rodef and a moser.

Although their assessment may have ultimately been erroneous, it was not totally baseless. The Torah indeed testifies in our pasuk that Yosef brought the “evil report” to their father. And it had all the divisiveness and ugliness of rechilus. Even though most of the brothers participated in the mechira, they were not of one mind. Shimon and Levy wanted blood. Yehudah wanted cash. The younger ones went along for the ride. Reuven abstained.

The brothers were divided. Each had a different motive.  מפוזר ומפורד. And all this, as we know, brought about the first of a series of bitter exiles.

Such is the price of malshinus. And the hidden word in the pasuk seems to relate it to the month of Adar.

Coincidence?

[Incidentally, the other pasuk where Adar occurs in Roshei Teivos is Breishis 24:30 which states:

ויהי כראת את הנזם ואת הצמדים על ידי אחתו וכשמעו את דברי רבקה אחתו לאמר כה דבר אלי האיש

Here we see Rivka relaying to Lavan what was told to her by Eliezer. Although there does not seem to be anything derogatory or sinful about this exchange, it was nevertheless an act of one person telling over what they heard from another. Technically rechilus. And perhaps it was not so benign as the Midrash indeed tells us that Besuel subsequently attempted to poison Eliezer.

Lots of דיבור in this pasuk. Coincidence?]

Perhaps, Haman, who loved “coincidences”, was aware of this connection. Adar is a month where Loshon Hara does its damage. Adar is a great month to destroy Klal Yisrael

The gemara in Megillah 13b tells us:

אמר רבא ליכא דידע לישנא בישא כהמן 

Rava says, “There was none who could speak Loshon Hara as smoothly as Haman”. And the gemara goes on to relate a lengthy dialog of just that.

Haman was the king of rechilus. The gemara says (Chullin 139b):

המן מן התורה מנין ? המן העץ... (בראשית ג' יא)

Where is a reference to Haman in the Torah? Hamin ha-etz… (Breishis 3:11).

What is this pasuk? Let’s see the whole thing:

ויאמר מי הגיד לך כי עירם אתה המן העץ אשר צויתיך לבלתי אכל ממנו אכלת  

HKBH asks Adam HaRishon: Have you eaten from the forbidden tree? The Tree of Knowledge? Knowledge of what’s good and knowledge of what’s evil? Knowledge of what’s good about you and what’s evil about “him”?

Have you conspired with the snake? The same snake that Shlomo Hamelech is referring to when he will write:

    אם ישך הנחש בלוא לחש ואין יתרון לבעל הלשון  ?

The snake that bites and kills for no purpose?

And who is hiding in this pasuk - in plain sight?

המן העץ אשר צויתיך לבלתי אכל ממנו אכלת…

Yep, this is Haman’s “reference” in the Torah. His Hollywood “credit”.

And what else is hiding in this pasuk? Very well concealed, I might add. You see it? Look. Still not? Look closer:

המן העץ אשר צויתיכ לבלתי אכל ממנו אכלת…

Rechilus (only such occurrence in the Torah). Haman’s master craft!

כי משרש נחש יצא צפע

From the root of the snake emerged the viper… (Yeshaya 14:29)

עמלק = 240 = צפע  as if to say:  כי משרש נחש יצא עמלק

וירא בלעם כי טוב בעיני ה' לברך את ישראל ולא הלך כפעם בפעמ לקראת נחשים 

Coincidence?

Haman, the star disciple of the snake, understood better than anyone what rechilus can do. And so, he was thrilled that he could ply his trade in the most auspicious month – Adar.

ישנו עם אחד מפוזר ומפורד

There is a nation that is scattered and disconnected. They are scattered in cliques that denigrate one another…they are guilty of rechilus…

Adar is the month of Yosef who brought evil reports to his father. את דבתם רעה … and caused his brothers to shun and hate him.

Thus, Haman’s plan could only be nullified by a descendent of Binyamin. Binyamin heard the bad reports that Yosef brought and he also knew what his brothers did as a result. This would have been a juicier report to bring to their father. But he was silent. He told nobody.

Binyamin’s stone in the choshen is Jasper – ישפה. Yesh peh v’shosek. He has a mouth and is able to speak, but he is silent. And so his descendant Esther saves Klal Yisroel by: אין אסתר מגדת

Coincidence?

We have learned that the month of Adar is the month of malshinus. We will live or die at the mercy of our tongues. So it was in the days of Yosef and so it was in the days of Haman and Esther and so it is today.

Malshinus, Rechilus, Lashon Hara and Mesira!

The saga and Chillul Hashem of the Malka Leifer episode continues –and grows.

I have summarized the episode numerous times. See HERE for the original post. But, in this post, I want to reframe the episode this way:

Three Jewish women, all sisters, two of whom are non-observant, are spearheading a campaign to extradite to Australia another Jewish woman, who is observant, on the pretense that she molested them ten years earlier. Their intention is to have her judged and punished by the non-Jewish Australian authorities for the crimes that they claim she committed.

To accomplish this, one of the sisters, Dassi Erlich has opened up a Facebook page devoted exclusively for her campaign to moser this Israeli woman to the goyim in Australia. They have also instigated at least two petitions to that were delivered to the powers-that-be in Eretz Yisroel to cooperate in this mesira. In both cases the aim is to enlist the aid and support of ingenuous well-meaning Jews.

The petitions garnered between 16,000-17,000 signatures total; although there were surely numerous duplicates and double-dippers. The Facebook page dedicated to mesira is now holding at 1557 “Likes” – up from 1316 a mere two months ago.

1557 people “Liking” a campaign to moser an Israeli Jew and citizen to Australia for no toelles except to satisfy these sisters’ quest for personal “justice”. It is certainly not to protect anybody in Australia, and if anybody thinks people are in danger here in Eretz Yisroel, we have a fine, quite aggressive, local police force that serves and protects.

These Jews have absolutely no way of knowing if any of the accusations are true and, even if they are, to what degree. There is absolutely nothing of substance supporting the claims of these three sisters.

Yet it seems that all they need to do is call out “Rape!” and “Pedophile!” and point to the villain and, without offering a shred of evidence, they will have hundreds, if not thousands, of do-gooders screaming for the blood of another Jew! Ready, not only to cheer them on, but to actively participate in this bloodletting and to pray for their success.

Just because these three sisters said so!

If this is all it takes to get thousands of Jews, some very observant ones, to ignore all of the Halachos of Mesira, Gonev ish u’mecharo, Lo tasgir eved, and more, then we have a much bigger problem than “child” abuse on our hands. (I am in no way undermining the problem of child abuse.)

Anybody who follows my blog knows that I have been writing about this debacle for close to two years. My main thrust is that the issue of whether the accusations are indeed true is irrelevant. There is no reason or justification to involve Australian authorities in this matter regardless. And it is only because of the impetus of Jews that it is taking place.

In my previous post on this subject I noted a few facts. One is that the accused Mrs. Leifer had left Australia in 2008 with no intention to ever return. Subsequently, it was only in 2011 – three years after Malka Leifer left Australia and after three years that nobody in Australia was molested or hurt in any way that these saintly Jewish sisters first approached the Australian police and opened up the case. Not the Israeli police, but the Australian police!

These actions instigated the senseless, Halachically forbidden, and arguably illegal (for lack of Prima Facie evidence) extradition request that has generated so much publicity and Chillul Hashem.

And, at least 1557 people are so very proud of them!

Now, here is the latest.

Up to very recently, the extradition campaign has hit a few snags. The main one is that for a while, Mrs. Leifer was able to avoid the hearings by claiming mental incapacity. To most of us (including myself), it seems like a ruse. But I was happy for it because I strongly maintain that this extradition should not be on the table under any circumstances.

At or around February 12, Mrs. Leifer was rearrested for “obstruction of justice” in the wake of her heretofore successful evasion of the extradition hearings (that should not be held in the first place).

Now, technically, the charges may be legitimate. However, the Israelis are very choosey about when they apply these obscure technical “offenses” and when they don’t. When they want to, they let these things slide. This time they didn’t.

Why?

Because so many Jews put pressure on the government to see to it that a Jewish Israeli citizen is extradited to Australia for crimes for which, aside from the word of the accusers, there is no proof that they ever took place!

February 12 was the 27 of Shvat. A mere three days before Rosh Chodesh Adar.

Coincidence?

MiShenichnas Adar Marbim B’Simcha!

And all the Jews on Dassi Erlich’s Facebook page are so-o-o happy! Just look at all of the comments. So happy that “finally” a Jew can get extradited to Australia! So happy that the long-standing mesira may actually bear fruit!

It’s a Purim miracle!

MiShenichnas Adar  - את דבתם רעה - Marbim B’Mesira!

והעיר מלבורן צהלה ושמחה!

The Jews in Australia and in 126 other lands are rejoicing.

And so is the serpent  -  and so is Amalek!

Coincidence? I am afraid not.

And, as for me…

ידנו לא שפכו את הדם הזה...כפר לעמכ ישראל אשר פדית...