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Harav Hagaon Yehuda Wagshal Shlita

Neemanus When Emes is Lost

Parashas Chayei Sarah

Harav Hagaon Yehudah Wagshal Shlita

 

The period we’re living in is called Ikvesa d’Meshicha, and Chazal tell us that one of the signs of Ikvesa d’Meshicha is: האמת תהא נעדרת – there won’t be emes in the world. This sign is certainly manifest in our generation in the most obvious way: people are not as careful about emes as in the past, and sheker is readily and regularly spoken. I think, however, that there might be an additional dimension to this idea of האמת תהא נעדרת.

We say every day in Pesukei d’Zimra that Avraham Avinu was called ne’eman to Hakadosh Baruch Hu: וּמָצָאתָ אֶת לְבָבוֹ נֶאֱמָן לְפָנֶיךָ. Neeman literally means loyal. In what way was Avraham considered loyal to Hakadosh Baruch Hu? We might think that Avraham’s loyalty to Hashem was evident from his overcoming all the nisyonos Hashem tested him with, from Ur Kasdim to Lech Lecha until, finally, the Akeidah, in which Avraham was told to give up everything he stood for and his whole future by sacrificing Yitzchak, and yet he immediately set out to fulfill Hashem’s will. That would seem to be the greatest expression of loyalty.

Chazal, however (Bava Basra 15b), point to a different expression of Avraham Avinu’s loyalty:

ויאמר ה’ אל השטן מאין תבא ויען השטן וגו’ אמר לפניו רבש”ע שטתי בכל העולם כולו ולא מצאתי נאמן כעבדך אברהם שאמרת לו קום התהלך בארץ לארכה ולרחבה כי לך אתננה ואפילו הכי בשעה שלא מצא מקום לקבור את שרה [עד שקנה בד’ מאות שקל כסף] לא הרהר אחר מדותיך.

The Gemara relates that the Satan traveled around the entire world and reported back to Hakadosh Baruch Hu that he had not found anyone as loyal as Avraham. Hashem had promised him that He would give him all of Eretz Yisrael, yet when he could not find a place to bury Sarah, and he had to go through the ordeal of negotiating with Efron Hachiti, he didn’t complain or question Hashem’s conduct; he accepted the situation as it was.

Why did the Satan consider this the greatest expression of Avraham Avinu’s loyalty? Wasn’t the Akeidah a far more significant challenge than having to buy a burial plot for Sarah?

An Unexpected Nisayon

A deeper understanding of the word ne’eman can help us answer this question. Ne’eman has another meaning, besides “loyal.” At the end of Parashas Behaaloscha, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu explains to Aharon Hakohen and Miriam Haneviah the difference between their nevuah and Moshe Rabbeinu’s, He says: לֹא כֵן עַבְדִּי מֹשֶׁה בְּכָל בֵּיתִי נֶאֱמָן הוּא. The Rashbam, in his commentary on Chumash, explains that ne’eman, in this context, means kavua (fixed or regular). This meaning of ne’eman is also found in the passuk: יָתֵד בְּמָקוֹם נֶאֱמָן (Yeshayah 22:23), which describes a peg being affixed firmly in place.

In truth, the two meanings are similar, because someone who is loyal to another remains firmly in place and doesn’t leave the other person’s side under any circumstances, no matter how difficult. Being ne’eman, then, means to remain fixed in place no matter what.

Akeidas Yitzchak was a tremendous challenge. But in one sense, burying Sarah was an even more difficult challenge. Before the Akeidah, Hakadosh Baruch Hu spoke to Avraham and commanded him explicitly: קַח נָא אֶת בִּנְךָ אֶת יְחִידְךָ אֲשֶׁר אָהַבְתָּ אֶת יִצְחָק וְלֶךְ לְךָ אֶל אֶרֶץ הַמֹּרִיָּה וְהַעֲלֵהוּ שָׁם לְעֹלָה. Upon hearing this command, Avraham Avinu was aware that he was being faced with a massive nisayon.

Sometimes, just the knowledge that a person is facing a challenge, a test, a nisayon gives him the strength to persevere through that nisayon. By way of example, everyone knows that it’s challenging to muster kavanah in davening when you’re in an airport or on an airplane. There’s a lot going on, a lot of noise, a plane to catch – so you daven and do you best, but chances are your kavanah isn’t that great.

Someone once told me, however, that he has the best kavanah when davening while traveling, better than when he’s in shul on a standard day. “When I’m in the airport and I have to daven,” he explained, “I’m aware that there’s a major challenge before me: how am I going to have kavanah? So I rise to the challenge. But when I’m sitting in shul, I don’t feel like there’s any challenge, and because I’m not aware of the nisayon, I don’t have the energy to overcome it.”

When faced with an obvious nisayon, a person can muster the strength and energy to pass it. But when there’s no apparent nisayon, it can be harder to rise to the challenge, even though it’s simpler and less challenging than the “big” nisyonos.

Avraham Avinu was able to muster the strength to overcome the nisayon of the Akeidah because Hakadosh Baruch Hu had made it very clear that this was a nisayon. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu said no such thing regarding burying Sarah. In that instance, there was no command from Hashem, no announcement that Avraham was being tested. He had just returned from the Akeidah, and he found that Sarah had passed away and needed to be buried. Even while crying and mourning for Sarah, he had to start dealing with Efron.

Avraham Avinu’s natural reaction to this situation – which had not been labeled in advance as a “nisayon” – was to accept it and not complain to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He didn’t ask Hashem, “Is this fair? You told me You would give me all of Eretz Yisrael – why can’t I find a simple burial plot for my wife?”

His automatic reaction was not to question Hashem’s conduct – and that’s what it means to be ne’eman.

Passing the nisayon of the Akeidah showed that in a situation of intense challenge, Avraham was ready to be moser nefesh and give up everything for Hashem. But it didn’t show the kviyus – the steady loyalty in day-to-day life, when faced with no apparent nisayon. Even after the Akeidah, the question could be asked: Is Avraham Avinu also ne’eman when there’s no big nisayon looming before him?

From the way Avraham Avinu conducted himself when burying Sarah, the Satan saw that the answer to that question was yes. Even at a time of hesech hadaas, when Avraham had received no explicit command from Hashem, Avraham’s reflexive reaction was to remain loyal to Hashem and not to question Him. And that’s the meaning of ne’emanus.

One Track Life

The word ne’eman shares a root with the word emes. But what does loyalty, or being set in place, have to do with truth?

Emes, truth, is really about oneness. We say in davening: אֱמֶת מַלְכֵּנוּ אֶפֶס זוּלָתוֹ – Hashem is emes, why? Because there’s nothing besides Him.

There can be only one true reality, and when there’s more than one thing going on that’s not emes. Sheker means there’s something else other than the truth. Like ne’emanus, emes is fixed and unchanging. Moshe Rabbeinu was always in the house of Hashem. Avraham Avinu was always loyal to Hashem. That consistency reflected a singlemindedness, the oneness of emes.

When Chazal say that Ikvesa d’Meshicha is a time when האמת תהא נעדרת, they don’t mean only that people are dishonest and lie. Chazal refer to this world as olam hasheker because this world poses the illusion that there are two realities: there’s the neshamah, which strives toward Hakadosh Baruch Hu and ruchniyus, and there’s the body, which pulls us to worldly matters and gashmiyus. The resulting lack of oneness renders this world sheker.

Through the Torah, Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us a way to make emes out of this world, as the passuk states: אֱמֶת מֵאֶרֶץ תִּצְמָח – it is possible for emes to grow from this world. When a person unites all of his resources and all of the different aspects of his life and uses everything he has for Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he is creating emes from this world. On the other hand, if someone is one person in the beis midrash and a totally different person when he’s out in the world, he’s living in the olam hasheker. When a person is heading in two different directions, when his life has two simultaneous channels, he’s not living emes – there’s no kviyus, no loyalty, no ne’emanus.

The idea of אֱמֶת מֵאֶרֶץ תִּצְמָח is that wherever a person finds himself, whatever stage of life he’s at, and at any point in his day or year, he’s always heading in one direction. Whether he’s in the beis midrash or on vacation, his life is centered around Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That’s a person who’s living emes.

Baruch Hashem, many people today really do want to follow their neshamah, and they do – for a lot of things. But are they living emes? Is there only one track in their lives? Or are they headed in one direction when doing things for their neshamah, and heading in a different direction when tending to the other aspects of lives? If it’s the latter, then that’s אמת תהיה נעדרת, which is the opposite of ne’emanus.

Our job, living as we are in this period of Ikvesa d’Meshicha, is to find ways to cultivate emes from this world, channeling all the various areas of our lives and all our kochos and resources in one direction: l’maan Shemo Yisborach.

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