I greatly admire Rav Alon Anava. He is a person who was basically holding at the 49th level of tumah and actually went so far as to die from it. But he came back and worked his way up to be an adam tahor, a true yarei Shamayim, a marbitz Torah, mentor, baal mussar and Kabbalist. I do not only admire him, I also envy him.
במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים, אין צדיקים גמורים יכולים לעמוד.
And you can trust me that nobody has ever, ever accused me of being a tzaddik gamur.
He gives countless lectures and all of them are centered around two principles:
- אין עוד מלבדו
Nothing exists besides HKBH and everything that occurs whether to the population or to an individual is always the work of His hand. It doesn’t matter who wins any election and who runs any country or organization, everything that happens is because He wants it to happen and not because these or those people are “in power”.
On a personal note, any calamity that befalls any individual is His doing and not that of whoever caused it. If someone damaged you or cheated you and caused you a loss of money or position or anything else, or if some anti-Semite pulls you off the plane, or whatever, your gripe is with HKBH and not with the people who did you bad. They are just puppets. This does not mean that you cannot take legitimate and reasonable steps for redress, but nothing is going to come out of that, either, unless He wants it to. Of course, the same applies to all of our health, family, and parnassah challenges.
Everybody must do teshuva. Plain and simple.
The only way we can influence what happens in our lives is if we do what He wants us to do. What He wants us to do is to give up our mishugossim, get close to Him, rely on Him for everything, and to start thinking and acting like a Jew.
This includes letting go of petty grudges, respecting other people and forgiving those who did you wrong (as long as they are not still doing it).
There is nothing new about these principles. My entire project of One Above and Seven Below is based on it. It is based on the first pasuk of Parshas Bechukosai which says:
אם בחקתי תלכו ואת מצותי תשמרו ועשיתם אתם.
If you walk in my laws and guard my mitzvos and carry them out.
I wrote that this is not optional. It is the only way to obtain the benefits of the next few pasukim. Nothing else will work. It is an offer we can’t refuse.
Rashi tells us we are obligated to mitzvos with toil in Torah study.
There are no shortcuts.
Many of us are only finding this out now (they didn’t or won’t read my book). But, in light of all the tumultuous events in the world, it’s more important now than ever.
As for the teshuva aspect, our entire future is dependent on it. This is clearly stated in the gemara in Sanhedrin 97b. It states:
אמר רב כלו כל הקיצין ואין הדבר תלוי אלא בתשובה ומעשים טובים… כתנאי ר' אליעזר אומר אם ישראל עושין תשובה נגאלין ואם לאו אין נגאלין. אמר ליה רבי יהושע אם אין עושין תשובה אין נגאלין? אלא הקב"ה מעמיד להן מלך שגזרותיו קשות כהמן וישראל עושין תשובה ומחזירן למוטב:
Says Rav, “All of the deadlines [for the arrival of Moshiach] have passed and the matter is dependent only upon teshuva and good deeds” … This reflects a dispute of the Tanayim. Rabi Eliezer says, “If the Jews do teshuva we will be redeemed and if we do not, we will not be redeemed.” Rabi Yehoshuah said to him, “If we do not do teshuva we will never be redeemed? Rather, [in such a situation] HKBH will appoint a king whose decrees are as cruel as Haman’s and the Jews will do teshuva and return to virtue.”
It is not difficult to see that we are facing some very harsh decrees. Some of these decrees come from the Nations of the World and some of them come from our own government and Supreme Court.
But they do not really come from any of these sources. אין עוד מלבדו, they are coming [in]directly from the Boss, B”H. He wants to wake us up and shake us up and inspire us to do teshuva so that we can finally be redeemed.
And we need to wake up and get serious.
Rav Alon Anava just this week posted two very long lectures to try to deliver to us this message.
Why this week?
It’s because this is a very special week.
This Shabbos is 23 of Sivan. 23 of Sivan is a very important date.
We are taught that any date that is specifically mentioned in Megillas Esther has tremendous significance. 23 of Sivan is one of those dates.
וְ֠אַתֶּ֠ם כִּתְב֨וּ עַל־הַיְּהוּדִ֜ים כַּטּ֤וֹב בְּעֵֽינֵיכֶם֙ בְּשֵׁ֣ם הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ וְחִתְמ֖וּ בְּטַבַּ֣עַת הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ כִּֽי־כְתָ֞ב אֲשֶׁר־נִכְתָּ֣ב בְּשֵׁם־הַמֶּ֗לֶךְ וְנַחְתּ֛וֹם בְּטַבַּ֥עַת הַמֶּ֖לֶךְ אֵ֥ין לְהָשִֽׁיב׃ וַיִּקָּרְא֣וּ סֹפְרֵֽי־הַמֶּ֣לֶךְ בָּֽעֵת־הַ֠הִ֠יא בַּחֹ֨דֶשׁ הַשְּׁלִישִׁ֜י הוּא־חֹ֣דֶשׁ סִיוָ֗ן בִּשְׁלוֹשָׁ֣ה וְעֶשְׂרִים֮ בּוֹ֒ וַיִּכָּתֵ֣ב כְּֽכׇל־אֲשֶׁר־צִוָּ֣ה מׇרְדֳּכַ֣י אֶל־הַיְּהוּדִ֡ים וְאֶ֣ל הָאֲחַשְׁדַּרְפְּנִֽים־וְהַפַּחוֹת֩ וְשָׂרֵ֨י הַמְּדִינ֜וֹת אֲשֶׁ֣ר ׀ מֵהֹ֣דּוּ וְעַד־כּ֗וּשׁ שֶׁ֣בַע וְעֶשְׂרִ֤ים וּמֵאָה֙ מְדִינָ֔ה מְדִינָ֤ה וּמְדִינָה֙ כִּכְתָבָ֔הּ וְעַ֥ם וָעָ֖ם כִּלְשֹׁנ֑וֹ וְאֶ֨ל־הַיְּהוּדִ֔ים כִּכְתָבָ֖ם וְכִלְשׁוֹנָֽם׃ אֲשֶׁר֩ נָתַ֨ן הַמֶּ֜לֶךְ לַיְּהוּדִ֣ים ׀ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בְּכׇל־עִיר־וָעִ֗יר לְהִקָּהֵל֮ וְלַעֲמֹ֣ד עַל־נַפְשָׁם֒ לְהַשְׁמִיד֩ וְלַהֲרֹ֨ג ולְאַבֵּ֜ד אֶת־כׇל־חֵ֨יל עַ֧ם וּמְדִינָ֛ה הַצָּרִ֥ים אֹתָ֖ם טַ֣ף וְנָשִׁ֑ים וּשְׁלָלָ֖ם לָבֽוֹז׃
23 of Sivan is the date that King Achashverosh allowed Mordechai and Esther to send out letters to all the nations to overturn the decrees of Haman and to allow the Jews to stand up and defend themselves. Not just from the river to the sea, but from Hodu until Kush.
We have recently learned that it is not to be taken for granted that we are allowed to defend ourselves. We need permission from the most powerful King in the world.
And because אין עוד מלבדו, we know who this King really is. It doesn’t matter who is the most powerful king in the world down here, that king works for Him.
So, on this year, the 23 of Sivan which falls on Shabbos Parshas Shelach is a golden opportunity to nullify the evil decrees of Haman and to merit redemption. But it cannot happen without a good deal of teshuva.
All through the week Rav Anava was posting short videos about the significance of this Shabbos and how to make the most of it. You can see his original short video HERE:
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He refers to a very worthwhile full-length lecture. You can see the first lecture HERE:
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Earlier today, he uploaded another full-length lecture. You can see it HERE:
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His message is that we cannot afford to let the segulah of 23 Sivan to annul evil decrees go to waste. On his website, he gives a recipe of how to make the most of the opportunity. This includes what you can do before Shabbos and what to do on Shabbos.
You can get all that information HERE.
We are in tough times, and we need to get serious. I plan to do my part, bl”n (though I fear that I will not get all that far in the teshuva department). We all need to do whatever we can. At least something.
If you get this blog by email, please forward it to everyone you know.
If you are seeing this on the Web, please share either my URL (https://achaslmaala.blogspot.com/2024/06/nullifying-hamans-decrees-23-sivan.html) or his (https://www.atzmut.org/sivan23/).
If Shabbos has passed, do teshuva anyway. It’s never too late.
אבינו מלכנו בטל מעלינו כל גזרות קשות.
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