Was Josephus a Traitor to His People or Not?


Now, Mr. Goldgrass asked: If we quote Josephus in praise of the Jewish people, is that not a contradiction to his role, in which he appears to be a traitor?

And the answer is, whether Josephus was a traitor or not, this is discussed, but if he was, Josephus couldn't conceal from the generations that were to read his works, he couldn't conceal the truth of the excellence of the Jewish people.

And the truth is just the opposite.

If a man like Josephus, who was a politician and a soldier – and he was a big politician – if he spoke so warmly, not only of the Torah, he spoke of the Torah very warmly, he spoke, however, very warmly of the virtues of the Jewish nation, then that is the best evidence that it was so.

Josephus is a very important witness for us. If the Chachomim praise our nation, so you have to deduct a little bit, maybe, the Chachomim are partial to our people, but when Josephus speaks – and Josephus, after all, was on the Roman side, and he praises our nation, that if we would make a compendium of all the good things he said about our people, it would be the most patriotic kind of work.

It's remarkable what he said about our nation.

​And that's because it was the truth.

(July 29, 1976)

Source:
#775
Parshas Mattos - Masei 5785
Compiled by Avrohom Tikotzky
Call 201.676.3210 for audio version

The Story of Kamtza & Bar Kamtza like You've Never Heard It Before

Rav Avigdor Miller on the Truth behind Kamtza bar Kamtza

Q [from an anonymous questioner in the audience]:
​
How can you claim the Jews at the time of the churban were so righteous? We know the story of Kamtza bar Kamtza and that the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of sinas chinam?
​
 A [from Rav Avigdor Miller]:
​
Now, there’s a big misconception that the public has about a certain Gemara in Mesichta Yuma.

In Mesichta Yuma (9b) the Gemara asks:

Why was the Beis Hamikdash charuv? Why was it destroyed?

​When we say Beis Hamikdash, we mean not only the Beis Hamikdash – it means the whole setup of Jewish independence and commonwealth. 

So the Gemara says that the first Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of certain reasons and then the Gemara asks:

​What about the second Beis Hamikdash? Why was that destroyed? And the Gemara says because of sinas chinam; because of causeless hatred.

Now, on this there is a great deal of misconception.

I was once in a Orthodox school, a very Orthodox school, and I saw on the wall there were two pictures. One was a picture of a concentration camp. Jews in the concentration camp and they’re being thrown into fire, the crematorium.

And next to it was another picture of Kamtza bar Kamtza in ancient Yerushalayim just before the churban; and the host was ejecting him from a banquet – Kamtza bar Kamtza was being ejected from a banquet. Kamtza bar Kamtza was dressed in a black hat and a kapote; he had a nice beard too.

He was represented as a decent person, maybe even a talmid chochom, and he was being ejected from the banquet.
 
Those were the two pictures and there was a chain with links connecting them; the picture of Jews being killed in the camps linked to the picture of Kamtza bar Kamtza in ancient Yerushalayim. 

And the people who made these pictures understood it as follows:

The Gemara says (Gittin 55b) why was Yerushalayim destroyed?

Because of Kamtza bar Kamtza.

Because a man once wanted to make a banquet and he invited all the talmidei chachomim to the banquet and he sent his servant to invite a certain sage named Kamtza.

But the servant made an error and he invited Kamtza bar Kamtza, a different person.

Now, when Kamtza bar Kamtza came, the host said, “I’m sorry but I didn’t invite you. This is a private gathering and you therefore must leave.”

So Kamtza bar Kamtza said, ”You’re embarrassing me. Let me stay and I’ll give you the cost of my meal.”

But the host wouldn’t allow him to stay at the private banquet and after some haggling Kamtza bar Kamtza offered to pay for the whole banquet if he would be allowed to remain.

But the host said no and he took him by his garment and he led him out; he ejected him. And for that, the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed.

So, underneath the pictures was a statement printed in big letters, that the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of sinas chinam; in other words, these two stories were equated.

They were trying to say that because Kamtza bar Kamtza was ejected, that was sinas chinam, and that was the example of the causeless hatred prevalent in Yerushalayim. 

And therefore that caused a chain that led up to the crematorium, to Jews being burned in Hitlerland.

Now, that really is what most people think. That’s the picture they have.

They put together these two statements, the story of Kamtza bar Kamtza and the statement of sinas chinam that destroyed the Beis Hamikdash and they understand that this is what caused all our troubles from then on. 

It’s a terrible misconception!

​It’s a slander on the Jewish people! A terrible error!

First of all, who was Kamtza bar Kamtza? Who was this character?

Josephus, in his Vita – that’s his own life story – he relates that Kamsus the son of Kamsus was a Herodian.

Which means he was a rasha; he was a member of the clique of the house of Hurdos.

And the house of Hurdos, the Herodians, were our enemies. They were our bitter enemies; we suffered tzaros from them without number.

Now the Gemara tells us that this host had sages at his banquet table. He made a private seudah for the chachomim to gather.

​And we know that נקיי הדעת שבירושלים לא היו יושבים אלא אם כן יודעים עם מי היו יושבים‏ – The pure minded sages of Yerushalayim never sat down at a meal or a meeting unless they knew who was present.

It was a principle of theirs. They didn’t believe in sitting down in a moshav leitzim. 

And sometimes there could be one person, a leitz, who can spoil everything.

One careless person who shoots his mouth off, he spoils the whole atmosphere.

So the נקיי הדעת שבירושלים, the people whose minds were pure, would only associate with other pure minded people. They wouldn’t be impolite to others.

​They didn’t demonstrate that they were standoffish, but they made it their business not to be around when the wrong people were around.

Now, this host invited the pure-minded people, the chachomim.

It says in the Gemara that all the chachomim were there.

And who marches in?

None other than Kamsus bar Kamsus who is famous as a member of the Herodian clique – an enemy of the sages.

He was a moser, an informer, and he was delighted that he was invited there.

Because now he could sit and listen to the deliberation of the sages.

That’s what he wanted – to sit and listen in so he could know their plans.

​This would be his chance; otherwise he could never get in because the sages would never discuss things publicly.

But here some mistake was made and Kamtza bar Kamtza hastened to utilize it.

So he hurried and dressed up and he came to the banquet. Here he is!

And he wants to sit down with the chachomim and listen in to what’s going on.

And naturally he’s going to bring all the information he has to the Herodian clique who are waiting in order to undo any good things that the chachomim wanted for do for the people.

So the host was now in a dilemma. What could he do?

Either he could send away all of his guests, or he could send away this informant, this rasha.

Now, you have to understand that the Torah is very just.

The Gemara is extremely fair.

In fact, the Gemara leans all the way over for fairness.

And so when this low character – and he was a low character.

That we know because what did he do subsequently out of revenge when he was ejected from the banquet?

​He went to the Romans and he told them that the Jews are in revolt against you.

That’s the worst thing you can say. It’s like throwing a spark in dynamite.

Because the Romans were afraid of revolt and they punished most cruelly any small sign of revolt.

So this man Kamtza bar Kamtza was an enemy of the Jews; you could see that.

​Because he started all the trouble.

And still when this host got up and he remonstrated with Kamtza bar Kamtza and finally he had to take him by his lapels and lead him out, our sages said it was wrong. It was a sin.

Now how was it a sin?

That’s too much for us to understand. What would we have done?!

Otherwise Kamtza bar Kamtza would be sitting there and the sages wouldn’t say a word.

​The whole evening would be wasted.

You couldn’t open your mouth when this informant was sitting there.

And still, such is the judgment of the Gemara. It’s fair and severe, and therefore it says there that this is what caused the destruction of Yerushalayim.

It doesn’t mean that this is really a sin; that this was the cause.

Yerushalayim would have been destroyed anyhow.

But when Hakodosh Boruch Hu sought a match that would set the fire, He chose this to be the match. It was a poetic justice.

Don’t misunderstand this! It wasn’t this that caused the Churban. This was just a spark that set off the fire.

Yerushalayim wasn’t destroyed because of this.

But when Hakodosh Boruch Hu had already decided forty years earlier to destroy Yerushalayim – that’s what the Gemara says; forty years before He had already decided to destroy Yerushalayim – so He waited for an opportunity and He utilized this opportunity to teach a lesson.

So when Kamtza bar Kamtza was heard to have gone to the Romans and he started the trouble, it was a parable; it was meant to be used as a lesson – that we shouldn’t have embarrassed him. 

Now we don’t really understand that lesson – it’s too fair for us to understand.

But that’s what the Gemara does – the Gemara uses a magnifying glass and the smallest thing is magnified as if it’s a sin.

You shouldn’t have ejected him; you should’ve let the evening be ruined. And all the sages should have just sat there in silence and that’s all.

You couldn’t cancel the banquet. All the food would have gone lost. There were no refrigerators in those days. All the food would go lost! It can’t be helped. It was an expensive banquet but it can’t be helped.

Don’t put a man to shame.

And that’s why this poetic lesson was utilized – to teach the people a lesson. You shouldn’t have embarrassed him.

So what is this business that sinas chinam, that causeless hatred caused the churban.

It says in the Gemara that causeless hatred caused the destruction.

So many Jews think it means that the Jews hated each other, that frum Jews hated each other. That’s what they think.

They think that the whole nation at that time were all frum Jews, all talmidei chachomim, and they were all busy hating each other. And that’s why the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed! 

But that’s as silly as could be. It’s not realistic at all!

They didn’t hate; the frum Jews loved each other!

In those days, the whole nation, the Am Hatorah was divided into followers of Beis Shammai and followers of Beis Hillel. The entire Jewish nation was divided into those who followed Beis Shammai and those who followed Beis Hillel.

​These were the two great assemblies of Torah sages.

There wasn’t anybody else that was of the shelomei emunei Yisroel, of frum Jews. We’re not talking about the reshaim. 

​True Jews all were talmidim of Beis Shammai or of Beis Hillel. 

And the Gemara (Yevamos 14b) says openly that the talmidim of Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel loved each other.

These two schools, although they had different opinions on some things, even on very important things, but they loved each other. שהיו אוהבים זה את זה – They loved one another, לקיים מה שנאמר – in order to fulfill the possuk of, האמת והשלום אהבו – Love the truth but love peace too. 

They loved the truth; that’s why each one stuck to his opinions but they loved peace too.

And the Gemara talks about that. The Gemara dilates on how they loved each other.

Now if Beis Shammai loved Beis Hillel and vice versa so Beis Shammai certainly loved Beis Shammai. And Beis Hillel loved Beis Hillel.

It doesn’t make sense that Beis Hillel loved Beis Shammai but they didn’t love their own people. It’s ridiculous.

The Jewish people loved each other – there was no sinas chinam.

I once saw that an adam gadol wrote – I won’t mention his name – he was misled, and on the strength of this ma’amar that the Beis Hamikdash was laid waste because of sinas chinam, he wrote that unfortunately the frum Jews were too critical of each other and they sometimes suspected each other of not being frum enough.

Now, that’s just taken out of thin air! There is no authority for that at all anywhere!

So what does it mean that there was sinas chinam? 

Who were the ones who hated for nothing?

​These were the Tzedukim.

There were irreligious Jews there too who were not of Beis Shammai or Beis Hillel. The Tzedukim hated the sages! That’s the sinas chinam!

You’ll ask a question: So because the Tzedukim, the wicked people, hated the sages, therefore the Jewish nation is responsible?

The answer is yes, because they were also Jews.

When Jews are wicked the entire Jewish nation is responsible.

That’s a great principle in the Torah. We are treated as one individual. Kol Yisroel areivim zeh la’zeh – all of Yisroel are guarantors for one another means that we’re one body, we’re one person.

And therefore we were held responsible for the misdeeds of Kamtza bar Kamtza and the Tzedukim and all those who hated the chachomim.

Do you want that example of hatred?

The New Testament is an example of the hatred towards the sages.

If you want a textbook which is full of venom against the sages, that’s the New Testament.

Because the New Testament is full of great anger, endless anger against the Pharisees. Constantly, it’s reiterated.

​The Pharisees are promised that there’s only one place where they’re going to go when they’re dead. When they die they’re going to a certain place and it’s reiterated over and over again in the New Testament.

The chachomim are called vipers and snakes. They are the worst kind of hypocrites and criminals.

Now, who are the Pharisees?

The Pharisees are Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinus, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkinos, Rabban Gamliel Hazaken and his son Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai.

All these famous names; they are our luminaries, our teachers.

Their lives we study. It’s their words that inspire us. M’pihen anu chayim! 

There’re the best of our nation! They’re the cream of our nation.

​They are the ones who the New Testament condemn us as the worst.

Now you people may not believe it; it may seem exaggerated to you.

But the fact is that the New Testament mentions other nations too.

It mentions a lot of people. It mentions the Romans but it has nothing bad to say against the Romans.

​It mentions the Greeks but there’s no criticism against the Greeks. It mentions the Samaritans, the Kusim, but no criticism of the Samaritans.

​It mentions the Sadducees too; no criticism of the Sadducees.

But when it speaks about the Pharisees, then they let loose; they turn around and let loose like a skunk that gives the best that it has to offer and the New Testament pours a torrent on the chachomim. Not only once!

All the time; all the pages of the New Testament are splattered with that poison against the chachomim.

But they were all Jews however. In those days they were all Jews; they were still Jews.

And so if you want to know why the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, so the Gemara says that there was hatred, sinas chinam.

Whose hatred? Not the sages! And not the people who followed the sages!

They wouldn’t hate anybody – they were the ones who were being hated!

That’s the point that’s missed by all the writers. All the writers who speak on this subject misunderstand it. They blame our poor people for sinas chinam.

There’s no remez anywhere that there was causeless hatred among the sages and their disciples.

But there was a very great hatred against them!

The Saducees hated the sages!

And the gemara says certain types of amei ha’aretz were also sonim; they hated the sages.

It’s a gemara in Pesachim. You remember what Rabbi Akiva said?

He said, “When I was an am ha’aretz, if I would get a hold of a sage I would tear him to pieces.”

​He testified later that that’s what he thought when he was an am ha’aretz.

It was these people – they’re the ones because of whom the Beis Hamikdash was ruined.

Because our nation has to be perfect!

And when we have in our body-politic, in the commonwealth of the Jewish nation a certain poisoned minority, so that means that the body is not healthy and therefore Hakodosh Boruch Hu had to make a change of climate.

​And that’s why the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed.

TAPE # 107

Q:
Was the story of Kamtza bar Kamtza really the reason for the churban?

​A:
The Gemara tells us in more than one case – the Sages say that – when something had to happen, Yerushalayim had to become choruv.

It was already long ago foreordained, for whatever it was, but the immediate cause, the spark that ignited the fuse was made by Hakadosh Baruch Hu to be a lesson.

So Bar Kamtza was put to shame and he was the one who kindled the spark by going to the Romans and denouncing the Jews, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu made that in the form of poetic justice.

So, when we look back and we see that the Churban of Yerushalayim began because of this incident, we are supposed to learn from this how careful we must be not to embarrass others, especially in public.

For instance, they say, the Sages say, that our forefathers went down to Egypt in exile in the days of Yaakov Avinu, because of the dissensions and the brothers were jealous of the coat that Yosef HaTzaddik wore.

Now the truth is, if not for that incident they would have gone down to Mitzrayim anyhow.

​Their stay in Egypt was part of the plan of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Only it was so arranged, it was so manipulated that this was what started it rolling.

So that we should look back and learn that envy and dissension have to be abhorred, because look what they caused.

But it wasn't the dissension of Yosef and his brothers that caused it. They would have gone to Egypt anyhow and the Churban Beis Hamikdash would have taken place anyway.

It wasn't because of Bar Kamtza.

But Hakadosh Baruch Hu made it turn out so that this was the spark that set fire in order we should look back and say, be careful not to embarrass your fellow Jew.

Be careful with him, certainly in public. In public, don't embarrass anybody.

​Tape #776

Be careful not to embarrass your fellow Jew.
Be careful with him, certainly in public.
In public, don't embarrass anybody.

BILVAVI: LIVING THE PARSHA

 וַתַּעֲנוּ וַתֹּאמְרוּ אֵלַי, חָטָאנוּ לַיהוָה--אֲנַחְנוּ נַעֲלֶה וְנִלְחַמְנוּ, כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר-צִוָּנוּ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ; וַתַּחְגְּרוּ, אִישׁ אֶת-כְּלֵי מִלְחַמְתּוֹ,  וַתָּהִינוּ, לַעֲלֹת הָהָרָה

“Then you raised your voices and said to me, ‘We have sinned against Hashem’” (Devarim 1:41)

FAILURE

When one fails in his attempts to serve Hashem, and feels deep remorse and frustration, this becomes a powerful force that inspires him to improve his ways and to recharter his life towards spiritual growth.

IN PRACTICE

His driving force for change will be in accordance to the extent of his remorse over his errors and failures.

Thus, regret is the foundation for teshuvah. It is the motor that propels a person towards teshuvah and genuine change. 

​EXPANDED BASED ON EDITORS' UNDERSTANDING

​A PERSON’S TRAVEL

Those who sincerely desire to succeed in avodas Hashem will often suffer great disappointments.

​A person who eagerly desires to daven with kavanah, or to study well, or to improve his middos, etc., when he fails, he often feels broken and disappointed.

​The pain of failure can be unbearable. But this can be a good thing.

He can utilize his remorse to do better the next time. Thus, the very fall itself becomes the foundation of his ascent.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

When a person experiences the remorseful feelings that come along with failure, he is now at a threshold, and there are two paths before him.

He might tell himself, “You see, you really aren’t good. You proved it to yourself again. You will never get it right.”

If he thinks in this manner, he will probably fail the next time as well because he has lost hope in himself.

However, a wise person will take his deepest feelings of regret and use them as a catalyst for growth.

He will say to himself, “Look at how upset you are. Failing really bothers you. What can you do to improve, so this won’t reoccur?”

When one thinks in this manner, there is hope.

​When the remorse is intense, it acts as a catalyst for him to truly improve his ways.

Why Do the Erev Rav Care So Much about Tisha B'Av?

Now, why should the erev rav care about the fact that once a year, for a few weeks we are mourners?

If I were from the erev rav, chas vecholiloh, I think I might be very happy to see the Jewish people lying on the floor in black, in shrouds, crying and weeping...Yet it seems that the erev rav have been preventing us from doing this.

This is a very, very important issue.

The erev rav have been trying very hard, and I want you to know that in this generation they have succeeded, you could say, by ninety-five percent.

The mere fact that this essay will enlighten you, is a siman that they have succeeded, because I have nothing really new to say.

Everything is written in texts that are generally well known—but hardly anyone knows it in this generation.

The erev rav have put us to sleep spiritually in the whole inyan of aveilus hachurban, and I'm going to prove it.​

The Traditional Jewish Nefesh regarding Tisha B'Av

We Used To Cry On Tisha B'Av
​
Our ancestors two generations back, used to weep literally with tears on Tisha B'Av. It is really only two generations—I'm not older than that, and I've seen it with my own eyes.

​I remember as a boy seeing men on Tisha B'Av when they were saying the Kinos, sitting on the floor with tears streaming down their cheeks, literally.

My father, z'l, told me that in his town in Poland, from Rosh Chodesh Av, anyone who came to that town in the Nine Days felt that he came to a house of mourning.

He said this was true in any town that had a sizable Jewish population—even if the majority were not Jewish.

In the whole town it was visible: in every Jewish shop, in how a Yid was walking in the street not smiling and hardly talking, not buying luxury goods.

It was clearly visible, almost tangible.

It sounds like a dream of two thousand years ago, but this is how it looked about fifty or sixty years ago in Klal Yisroel all over the world!
​

I mentioned the gemara that says that those who mourn over Yerushalayim will be present at the deliverance, and those who don't mourn will not be present.

There was an old man sitting there, an Orthodox Jew who had never heard this Chazal before.

​When I said these words, he grabbed the chair, and was about to fall off.

He was from an old generation, and he took the gemara to heart. He was not complacent. 

Am Yisrael: The Nation that Never Falls Entirely

​Today I would ask you, on Tisha B'Av to try your best to cry.

You're going to hit a zero.

Just imagine a housewife who forgot to put lemon juice into her salad.

She looks for a lemon, turns the refrigerator over and she finds one rotten, dried-out lemon.

Nevertheless, she's going to try her best. So she starts to squeeze and squeeze and squeeze. Nothing comes out. Why?

It's dry. Try to cry on Tisha B'Av. See if anything comes out.

It proves my point. We literally can't. There is something missing in our hearts.

​The erev rav have succeeded. It's not them alone.

The goyim have been trying very hard throughout the generations, but the erev rav have completed the work for them.

We Are Down But Not Out

But we are a nation that never reaches rock bottom.

The difference between our nation and umos haolam is:

Other nations reach total destruction; Klal Yisroel will never reach total destruction.

"Nafla lo suchal kum besulas Yisroel."

This is a posuk which literally means, "You have fallen, you cannot arise, daughter of Israel."

But Chazal interpret it differently: Nafla lo suchal linpol yoser:

Daughter of Israel, if you have fallen so deep that you cannot fall any deeper, kum, now you can arise, besulas Yisroel.

I once said a whole shiur on those words. Why can't we fall any deeper?

Because falling deeper means you've gone through the hole and that's it.

We are a nation that never falls entirely.

We have a limit.

​In contrast, anyone who has studied history knows that there are nations that once ruled the world, but today there is nothing left of them except a few broken stones.

We always bounce back, we always get up. And it's a posuk:

"Nafalti kamti — Al tismechi ayavti li ki nafalti kamti." We say to all our enemies, "Do not rejoice when I fall."

Why? Because you've seen other nations fall that were your enemies and they never got up.

But when I, the Jewish people, fall, I do return. So do not rejoice over it.

You know there's a Midrash that tells us (at the end of Devorim) that as Moshe Rabbeinu's neshamah was leaving his body, the Satan began to rejoice.

And the good mal'ochim said to the Satan,

"You're making a mistake. Moshe Rabbeinu's neshamah has just left, and Yehoshua ben Nun has just at this moment become an astounding genius of Torah and mitzvos, and he's taking over gantz Klal Yisroel."

And the posuk is brought:

"Ki nafalti—If I fall — kamti—I arise again."

The erev rav have dealt us a very great blow in this generation.

Our defeat now means nothing to us.

We get up, we fight, and B'ezras Hashem, we will be mekabel ponim Moshiach Tzidkeinu bekarov.

​But we must return to the true appreciation and aveilus, the mourning over Churban Yerushalayim.

There is a gemara in Masechta Taanis which says, "Kol hamisabel al Yerushalayim zoche veroeh besimchasah. Vechol she'eino misabel al Yerushalayim eino roeh besimchasah."

​Those who mourn over the destruction of Yerushalayim and the Beis Hamikdash, and that the Shechina has left us—all of those will be present at the rejoicing of the rebuilding of Yerushalayim.

Those who do not mourn will not be present at that day and in that age.

...as a boy, I was very puzzled about something. I remember someone showing to me on the front page of the newspaper (it could have been The New York Times) about how the head of some "great" world Jewish organization was our spokesman before the President in Washington on this and this day, in this and this year (in
the 1940s).

I saw the face of this person. He had a nice crop of hair, no yarmulke, and didn't even look like he's part of our people, and I said to this person, "What's his name?"

And he said, "Rabbi So and So."

And I said, "That's a rabbi? Without a yarmulke?"

I was told, "One doesn't ask such questions in America."

And I began asking people who is this So and So Rabbi.

They said, his practice of Torah is the following.

Millionaires built him a temple, and he declared on the first day, the chanukas habayis of that Temple, that Shabbos is on Sunday, and not on Saturday.

That was number one.

Number two, there are no restrictions on Shabbos. He himself didn't fast even on Yom Kippur, and ate pork. 

His Yiddishkeit consisted in being good with certain non-Jewish minorities in New York and fighting for their cause. And this was his great thing in life.

But with the backing of millionaires and The New York Times, he was able to become the president of this, and this, and this. 

He would make demonstrations against Hitler when the true rabbonim said not to.

​After the War, those who survived the camps said that every time he made a demonstration in New York, Hitler would take it out on Jews.

It was unbelievable how Hitler would punish the Yidden the next day.

If this "rabbi" had any children, they were meshumadim.

I was becoming very surprised. I found out that he had a competitor, another irreligious "rabbi."

So I began asking questions — they are our leaders?

Leaders in the Golus

Years later in Lakewood, I saw the sefer, Even Shleima, quoting the Gaon.

The Gaon said that in golus these erev rav take charge of our people.

They are the spokesmen. Things began to become very, very clear indeed.

The Gaon says the following: there are countless descendants of the erev rav mingling among our people.

There is a gemara that says of certain people with no charity, that they came from erev rav. A Yid has kindness in him.

So we learn from all this, that the erev rav are people with different traits of personality.

They do not have neshamos of kedushas Yisroel.

From all we know, in Eretz Yisroel today, some of those who are rodef our people, who hate bnei Torah, who hate Torah and mitzvos, who get power in their hands, who, when they see a Yid on Shabbos keeping Shabbos they begin to boil—no one knows if that person today is a Yid or he's an erev rav.

We don't have the power to decide this.

But things begin to become slightly clearer once we know this.

A Brief History of the Erev Rav

The Erev Rav

I once saw a quote from the Vilna Gaon, zt'l, saying the following:

When we were in the desert, there were a group of individuals who trailed along with us when we left Mitzrayim.

They are the erev rav, people who even today you can say of them that they can't make up their minds — should they become true believers and practicing Jews, or shouldn't they? — but they trailed along.

Eventually they took advantage of a situation.

Moshe Rabbeinu was gone for forty days, and hadn't returned by the time that everyone thought he would.

They panicked.

​They were so used to idol worship that they caused the Cheit HaEgel, the creation of the Egel, and they brought Klal Yisroel to the cheit.

At that time, they were of no significance whatsoever amongst our people.

The erev rav is a topic which is not discussed very much in the gemara and in midroshim, but in the Zohar HaKodosh and in Tikkunei Zohar there is a wealth of literature about these erev rav.

They are still around, and they are of extremely great significance.

And the Gaon, taking together all the places that they are mentioned in the Zohar, says that from generation to generation they have done two things.

They have disguised themselves and mingled amongst Klal Yisroel and married amongst us, and they have been climbing steadily from generation to generation, until, with the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and as we went into Golus, they have literally taken charge in various generations of our people.

They are very often our spokesmen in the halls of the kings and presidents.

One of the Best Reasons Ever Given for Increasing Stringencies

Counteracting the Erev Rav

The Gaon says something amazing:

Why did the chachamim have to add chumros in each [generation]?

Why are there so many additions in Shulchan Oruch to things that were not in the gemara a thousand years ago, a thousand five hundred years ago?

Why are there so many more restrictions today?

The Gaon says simply, the erev rav, this fifth column among us, have been destroying chunks of Torah and mitzvos throughout the generations.

And in order to counteract them, the rabbonim in every generation, who have open eyes to the truth and to our true spiritual needs, must add restrictions.

They have to build a much taller wall, the Gaon says, in order to repair what the erev rav are destroying constantly...If the Chazon Ish added restrictions, thanks to that there are still are shomrei Shabbos today in Bnei Brak.

If not for his restrictions, who knows what would have happened in the past forty years with all of the gezeiros and these anti-Torah feelings in the cities bordering on Bnei Brak?

We can only thank all the rabbonim, all of our spiritual leaders, for saving us from the destruction of the Torah and keeping us in one spiritual piece until Moshiach will come.

Now that the Gaon has told us that added restrictions were caused by destructive acts of the erev rav in every generation, we begin to understand certain situations.

Experiencing the Chain of Different Yet Unifying Traditions

Enjoying Our Differences

A Minyan in Every Flavor

Spending Shabbat in a Totally Different Hashkafah

Getting to Know the Hilltop Youth Never Shown by the Media

Our Satmar Brothers

Seeing the Full Picture according to Torah

The "Lion" Aspect of Dan vs. The "Lion" Aspect of Dan

Emulating the Lion of Yehudah regarding Others

Emulating the Lion of Yehudah with Ourselves

Dealing with Tammuz

Dealing with Av

That was in the month of Av whose sign is Aryeh (the Lion) because each person became like a lion who longs to attack his fellow

Keeping pushing forward!

I am residing in the Holy Land in order to fulfill the mitzvah of dwelling in the Land of Yisrael, as is written in the Torah "And you shall inherit it and reside within it."

"Behold, I am residing in this Land in order to fulfill the mitzvah of yeshivat Eretz Yisrael and all the mitzvot of the Torah in their rightful place."

Behold, I'm residing in the Holy Land in the name of the mitzvah of yishuv Eretz Yisrael as is written in the Torah "And you shall inherit it and settle within it."

This has been published by the descendants and continuers of the disciples of the Vilna Gaon to bring the Geula closer.