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Parshat Ki Tetzei
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Cleaving to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

When You Depart for Battle

“And David said: HaShem Who has saved me from the hand of the lion and from the hand of the bear He will save me from this Philistine...”

This prayer of confidence and astounding faith in HaShem, said by David, sword-less and armor-less just before confronting Goliath, is no doubt one of the most moving prayers of all time, especially for our generation’s confrontation with opposing views and forces in its  great return to the Holy Land today. Indeed, so our Sages teach us, that Israel’s main weapon is their mouths of prayer. Therefore, in the past several issues we have focused on prayer in general, and the method of gratitude in prayer in specific. One of the primary reasons for this is that gratitude is the primary springboard for proper faith and prayer, just as David here first acknowledges God’s salvation at his battle with the lion and the bear before expressing his confidence in defeating Goliath. In halacha, our Sages rule that one must praise and thank God before asking anything.

One of the reasons gratitude is so essential is that before asking God for anything one must realize that really one’s present state already has is God’s Will, and since God is Absolute Good also what he has given us is absolute goodness. Only after acknowledging God’s justice in one’s present state with full faith can one proceed to make supplication in the realm of Divine compassion. Otherwise, a person can easily be caught in a ‘trap’ of self-deserving, where one is essentially trying to ‘change’ God as one sees fit, God forbid. Therefore, in many cases, since many people have an innate tendency to enter the fore-mentioned ‘trap’, it is recommended to focus (and in some cases to limit oneself solely) on gratitude, except for the mandatory prayers of supplication halacha requires.

This method of gratitude itself is also an essential method of achieving what one desires, for Divine aid is given to those who have full faith in God in their present situation (as found in many sources), as if saying: ‘this is good for you? I will show you even better, so you will continue and greaten your praises of HaShem.’ As this is true in regard one’s personal desires and ‘battles of life’, it is of course even truer in regard to matters that involve the general whole, where all prayers unite together for a common lofty purpose in the spiritual ‘battle of the ages’. Therefore, we would like to summarize here the main components of this method of faith and gratitude in regard to the general whole as we have discussed in our previous issues at length:

A) Attaching the Holy Presence of our Holy Land and Temple to our lives and prayers through the joy of its existence that comes through thanksgiving for its existence. (Dvarim)

B) Building and strengthening this joy and attachment (also within ourselves) by conveying component A (and matters related to it) to our counterparts (Vaetchanan)

C) Contemplating and Meditating on component A during a fixed quality time of the day without distractions, daily - this is most natural to do in conjunction with prayer, as halacha requires both joy and intent towards the Holy Presence of the Holy Land and Temple in prayer (Ekev)

D) Deepening one’s connection to component A by contemplating  on and the thanking for A’s connection to the commandments and laws which express how the Holy Presence conducts matters of the Holy Land and Temple (Reeh)

E) Extending the gratitude and love in component A to the attribute of awe; i.e to contemplate that this Presence and the commandments associated with it are infinitely Divinely far from what we can contemplate as humans.

David’s battle with Goliath and rise to prestige took place in the Valley of Ela (Pistachio tree), while David’s son Avshalom’s downfall came when his hair was caught in such an ‘ela’, pistachio tree, where he was killed. It seems that this ‘ela’ tree is associated with the battle with idolatry, either for victory or God forbid defeat.

In this way we understand why Yakov’s sons buried the idols from Laban’s house under the ‘ela’ of Shechem, while Israel use the term ‘Ele’ in regard to the Golden Calf (this term is deeply discussed in Kabbalistic literature in context of idolatry). Thus, David rises victorious against the idolatry of the Philistines with his astounding faith and devotion to God in Emek Haela, while Avshalom reached his downfall through his haughty, idolatry-like, rebellion against his father, and was thereby ‘hanged’ by this ela tree. The battle with idolatry is one of the important missions of the king of Israel.

Therefore, it is no surprise that Hebron is the Cradle of Royalty. Hebron means unity, as the One God unites the plurality of creation. This is Hebron, where Avraham taught all to serve the one and only God.

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #187

“When I tried to open the door to the Jewish learning center next to the Tomb of Abner in Hebron, as I do twice a week regularly, I was detained by the police, who ordered me to stop. The police said that I do not have permission to open this center. I tried to argue, saying that I regularly open this center and that they can check with their supervisors. I also tried to contact the management of Maaras HaMachpela so they could intercede, but nothing helped. I then decided to stop depending on people and turned to HaShem in prayer for help with confidence that only He can help me. After doing so, I asked the police again to enter the center . This time I was granted permission immediately...” M.G

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