Pesach:
The famous Maggid, Rabbi Shalom Schwadron, would often relate the following story.
For a period of time, Rav Shalom’s grandson was living with him, and this grandson would often go to the Kotel on Shabbat afternoon, to learn and pray, returning home after Shabbat. On one particular Motzei Shabbat, the grandson turned up with a note in his hand. “I’ve got a note that fell out of the Kotel walls,” he announced. “Here, Saba, take it!”
Rav Shalom wasn’t pleased and said, “Why have you brought me something like this?” but his grandson just smiled and replied, “Saba, let me explain!”
“I was standing near to the Kotel and I saw a group of people discussing what to write on a note before they left. Eventually one of them said, ‘I know what to write,’ and he took out a pen (unfortunately it was still Shabbat), wrote some words on the piece of paper, folded it up and squashed it inbetween two stones right near where I was sitting.
“But it would seem that he didn’t squash it in well enough and after a couple of minutes, the note fell out. By this time Shabbat was almost out, so I waited until after Shabbat and I picked up the note. I know I should have just put it back in the Kotel, but to be honest I was really curious as to what the man had written, so I opened up the note and read what it said inside. Here, look for yourself!”
Rav Shalom took the note and saw the words that had been written: ‘May Hapoel Nahariya be promoted to the National League’!
Rav Shalom would relate this story regarding an interesting Midrash on the Exodus. When it came time to take the Israelites out of Egypt, Hashem found that they didn’t have spiritual merit. So what did Hashem do? He instilled the wonderful smell of the Garden of Eden into the Pesach lamb sacrifice, and the ‘wicked’ came to eat.
But Moshe said to them, one is not allowed to eat from the Paschal lamb if one is not circumcised. So these ‘wicked’ people went and circumcised themselves. The blood dripped down and mingled with the blood of the lamb sacrifice, and the combination of these two Mitzvot was enough merit for them to be redeemed – as the verse states in Yechezkel (and which we recite at the Seder) ‘When I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you: “Through your blood you will live.” I said to you: Through your blood you will live.”’ The repeated phrase implies that there were two bloods which gave them merit to live.
Rav Shalom asked the obvious question. We know that the wicked people did not make it out of Egypt for they died undercover during the plague of darkness. From where then did these ‘wicked’ Jews suddenly sprout from?
And he answered; we see clearly that these people were not really wicked. They may not have been keeping the most basic commandments of being a Jew, but we can see that it was only because of their circumstances. Spending years in physical and spiritual slavery had worn these people down until they were just a shell of who they really were. But let them smell a whiff of Gan Eden, give them a glimpse of spirituality, and the deep sacred soul bursts forth.
Yes, there had been really wicked people, those who were actively fighting against Hashem, who would side with the Egyptians and their gods to keep the Israelites from leaving. Those people never made it out. But being so far removed from one’s heritage, even to the extent that they did not have a Brit Milah, is not part of that category, because their distance was due to circumstances beyond their control.
Explained Rav Shalom – Look at our wonderful brothers and sisters. They may be writing on Shabbat, they may have no concept of what is important to ask from the Creator, but see how their neshama is desperate for a sniff of spirituality! Look at their belief that Hashem ‘reads’ every note and answers every prayer!
Nowadays it is difficult to find a real ‘Rasha’. At Seder night we say to the ‘wicked son’, “Had you been there, you wouldn’t have been redeemed,” but we need to understand that this type of ‘Rasha’, the type who lived every day to fight against Hashem and destroy his religion, basically doesn’t really exist in our times. Most people have grown up ‘enslaved’ in whatever culture they are part of, and cannot be classed as a rebel.
This is extremely important to remember when it comes to Lashon Hara, especially at times of division among the Jewish world. We are splintering into many different groups, and each group has got so much to say about the other, this group ‘is trying to destroy Torah’, this group ‘is trying to destroy our country’, this group ‘isn’t contributing’, this group ‘is destroying our values’.
Our primary thought at this time surely must be, “All these groups are my family. They all have a holy sacred soul that is bursting forth. Perhaps I disagree with the way it is expressed, perhaps I strongly oppose their position, but I will still work hard to see their holy internal light shining beneath all the stuff I dislike.”