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Rav Pam’s legacy and the United Nations vote

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The eternal legacy of Rav Avraham Pam, zt”l, and his teachings, as applied to the horrific current events we are witnessing today, will be the focus of this week’s essay.

In an anthology of teachings by Rav Pam entitled “Shabbos With Rav Pam: The Rosh Hayeshivah’s Inspiring Thoughts on the Weekly Torah Readings” (Artscroll Mesorsah, 2014), we find an absolutely divine teaching as applied to Parashas Va’eira and Bo from the Book of Exodus, entitled “The Makkos and the U.N.”

In an introduction written for this week’s review by Rabbi Yaakov Feitman, rav of Kehillas Bais Yehudah Tzvi of Cedarhurst, we learn the following teaching:

“Rav Avrohom Pam, zt’’l, was known to most as the beloved Rosh Yeshiva of Torah Vodaas, a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, and a man of impeccable middos. Indeed, most of his speeches and writings related in some fashion to mussar, character and personality development and, in general, to the improvement of our interpersonal relationships, for which Rav Pam himself was an extraordinary role model. However, often in his writings, especially in his pioneering work Atarah Lamelech, Rav Pam demonstrated his far-seeing Torah views which become clear only years later.

“One of those extraordinary prescient comments was written for Parashas Bo regarding the United Nations. Rav Pam’s words were exactly on target then and even more so now in light of the recent outrageous condemnation of Israel, with the historically immoral abstention of the United States. We therefore are honored to quote here Rav Pam’s incisive passage which reads as if it was written in response to the sad and outrageous events of this past week. We hope that, as Rav Pam concludes, his words are ‘a source of consolation to us in trying to understand … our troubled times’.”

Rav Pam teaches us as follows:

“The Exodus from Egypt is the prototype of the Final Redemption which will occur with the coming of Mashiach, whose arrival we pray for each day. It, too, will take place without the benevolent assistance of the nations of the world, even those whom the Jewish people consider their friends and allies. When the great day of the Final Redemption will come, Klal Yisrael will owe thanks to no one but the One Above.

“This insight sheds much light on the inexplicable hatred the nations of the world have for Jews and for Eretz Yisrael. One would think that after the Holocaust, the greatest destruction the world has ever known, there would be feelings of sympathy, understanding, and mentschlichkeit by the world community for Klal Yisrael. It is true that when the Nazi atrocities became known at the end of the war, coupled with the public disclosure of how the Allied powers stood by and did nothing to help while six million died, there arose, for a short time, feelings of sympathy for the Jewish people. This expressed itself in their willingness to give Jews ‘ah kleine vinkele’ (a tiny corner) in Eretz Yisrael. But this, too, quickly faded away and the eternal hatred for the Jews returned with a fury.”

Rav Pam continues:

“Why is Hashem doing all this to our people and to His Land, a place which has not seen a day of peace and tranquility in many decades? The answer is that Hashem is paving the way for the Final Redemption. Like its prototype, Yetzias Mitzrayim, Hashem does not want any nation to claim credit for any part of the geulah so that Klal Yisrael’s exclusive debt of gratitude will only be to Him.”

And now, we come to the heart of the events playing out before our eyes:

“This idea explains the purpose of the United Nations organization in Hashem’s grand scheme to bring the world to its ultimate fulfillment. The U.N. accomplishes very little and is virtually powerless to enforce its proposals and resolutions. What is its purpose?

“Perhaps the answer is, as the Talmud (Avodah Zarah 2b) says, that when the End of Days will arrive, all the nations of the world will come before Hashem and will demand reward for all the good they had done for the Jewish nation. Each will describe how it built projects to make life easier for Klal Yisrael. Hashem will ‘seal their mouths’ and show them how everything they did was for their own benefit, to make money and to indulge in worldly pleasures, with the thought of helping the Jewish nation the farthest from their true intentions.

“While the Talmud makes no mention of the U.N., it is safe to say that it will play a major role in refuting the claims of the nations of the world that they did things to help Klal Yisrael. The purpose of the U.N. in Hashem’s plan, is to serve as a permanent, unimpeachable record of the hatred of the nations for Am Yisrael. Every speech is recorded. The tallies of every anti-Israel vote and resolution is documented. All the fiery condemnations by the Arab, Soviet and Third World blocs and the deafening response of total silence by the others will serve as clear, undisputable evidence of the true feelings of the world toward Israel and the Jews.”

We now come to the final teaching:

“What other purpose can there be for this ‘do-nothing’ organization? Its cynical, biased behavior should not shock us or depress us. It is merely the final step in Hashem’s plan to bring the geulah, following the prototype of Yetzias Mitzrayim. This realization should be a source of great consolation to us in trying to understand the happenings of our troubled times.”

I wish to thank my dear friends, Rabbi Chaim Israel and Rabbi Shmual Lefkowitz, for having brought this timely teaching to my, and now to your, attention. Also, please be aware that the above teaching by Rav Pam was first written and delivered, 33 years ago!

I conclude with the following teaching from Aish.com by the founding rabbi of the Young Israel of Oceanside, Rabbi Benjamin Blech:

“For Jews around the world, this was the year that Chanukah did not live up to its traditional role as a happy holiday. Merging with the memory of a miracle of old was the contemporary reality of a bitter betrayal of the historic long-standing American friendship with Israel — and ironically enough centered on the very same theme which for more than two millennia gave Chanukah its spiritual meaning.”

Rabbi Blech continues:

“It is more than ironic that the Chanukah story reminds us of a claim comparable to the shameful decision of the Security Council. Antiochus VII, ruler of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, demanded that Simon, who led the Maccabees in their struggle for religious freedom, return to him the “illegally occupied” cities of Jaffa, Gezer and the coastal towns, which had previously been controlled by the Syrian-Greeks. Simon defiantly responded (Maccabees 1 Chapter 15): ‘We have not taken strange lands, nor are we ruling over foreign territory. We have returned to our ancestral inheritance, from which we had been unjustly expelled by our enemies. And now that we have been blessed with the opportunity, we will hold onto our ancestral land’.”

Rabbi Blech concludes:

“Today we desperately need another miracle, a miracle of global enlightenment overpowering the age-old darkness of the world’s hatred of the Jewish people.”