Who's the Mashiach waiting for? Ha'azinu portion with Rabbi Aharon Levy

what causes an airforce officer to cry? is it allowed to trust a person who betrays G-D? why is it worthwhile to live in the generation of repentence and why in our generation will come the Mashiah?

Shalom to you all.

I met Roei for the first time
at a singles Arachim seminar,

After the lecture
he came up to me and said:

That he serves in the Air Force,
and he is looking for the truth,

And he would like to have
a meeting with me in privet.

When he called
to ask if we could meet,

I agreed even though I was pressed
for time before Yom Kippur.

I thought that we could all use
a little more merits before the Holy day.

When Roei came he said that it wasn't
easy to get a day off on short notice.

And because it was important,
he made the effort.

"I'm not here to clear any doubts
and I don't have questions in faith."

My questions have
been answered.

I'm here, Aharon,

So you would help me cope
with my close surroundings,

That don't really
understand my decision.

My sister and my brother-in-law are
atheists, that don't fight my decision,

But they don't miss any opportunity
to explain to me,

That I'm going
in the wrong way.

My long-term relationship
left me,

She left me because she was
raised in a secular home.

In their house, rejecting religion
is a religion in itself.

When she saw that
I was going to Torah lessons,

And because it wasn't
her religion, she just left.

But what most bothers me, Aharon,
it's my mom,

She is against it, Aharon,

she is not just anti,
she is very anti.

She doesn't give me a rest.

Even though she was
born in a religious home,

But, since both of her parents died, one
after the other, from a serious illness,

When she was just a child,

She says that her relationship
with G-d is finished.

She makes an effort to explain this to
anyone who is willing to hear.

Do you understand, Aharon, I really want
to get closer to G-D, said Roei in tears,

But I feel like I'm at war
on every front,

Ii'm only a human.

I have no strength
for this battle.

I want to start the journey
but I'm very afraid.

I completely understand, I said,

It's not easy to be on your side.

Especially when you were
in agreement all those years.

Although, there are two things
that I think could help you cope,

Tell me,

If you knew that you have a complete
support from your mom,

Would you start the journey?

Of course! said Roei,

"A mother is everything. but she is
so against it, I told you that."

She is not, I said,
your mother is not against it, Roei,

Your mom was religious and remained
religious who believes very much in G-D.

She is just upset with HIM.

Tell me,

Can you be upset with someone
you don't believe exists?

Your mother believes
in G-D very much.

And she is upset with HIM because she
feels that she doesn't deserve

Everything that
happened to her.

It sounds logical, said Roei,

But what has it
got to do with me?

It's simple, I said,

Now that you know that your
mom is on your side,

She just says that she is not

So, you are not alone.

Besides, there's another thing...

Your mom's conclusion,

is not the only conclusion one could
reach due to their misfortune.

It's possible to do it differently.

And that is the second thing.

In the seminar of Arachim
on the last Shabbat,

A man and a woman
approached me,

And said that they have been
to a seminar like that a year ago,

And they are here again
because of a personal tragedy.

They told me that they
had a special child,

He was special because
he was a genius,

And therefore he learned
in university from a young age,

He was also different from another
reason, what the doctors call- autism

Which is a person with a huge soul
and an even bigger heart,

Only without the ability
to express it.

The same as a person who plays
on the piano amazing pieces,

But the piano does not
make a sound.

To make it short,

About a year ago, after the seminar,
they said,

They went to the beach and they loved
it so much that they called it paradise.

After two weeks they decided to bring
their son to that paradise,

There he drowned.

"We were broken to pieces"
they said to me,

"We couldn't lift ourselves up,"

"Many questions came about;"

"How could that be?"

"How could it be that a tragedy
like that happens after we repented?"

"How could it be? especially in a place
where we accepted the yoke of heaven"

"Our son drowned??"

"What was his sin?"

"And many more questions
like that" they said

And if that wasn't enough,

"During the first year
of grieving their son,"

"Her husband was found with a tumor and
even though he recovered it wasn't easy."

"One of the days,"
so said the woman,

Her husband and she
were sitting in the living room,

"And then he started talking,"

"You know," he said,

"We have many questions for G-D,"

"We are frustrated
and maybe angry as well,"

"But let's stop for a moment
and start again."

"In the seminar, did they prove to us
that the Torah is from heaven?"

"Did they prove to us that
there is a creator in the world?"

"Sure," said the wife,

"No one can erase what
we have learned there."

"That's right,"
said the husband,

"No one can erase that,
not even tears and sorrows."

"If there's a creator to the world and
the Torah is from heaven"

"Then it's true, not just
when times are good,"

"It's always true."

"It's true, even if everything
is going wrong."

"The situation does not
determine if it's true,"

"The truth," he said
"is still the truth,"

"Even if everything
is going wrong."

"Since that conversation,"
said the woman,

"We are different people,
we might be broken and shattered,"

"And also don't know
why it happened,"

"But we do know that there is someone
who rules the world,"

"And he is the truth,
and maybe one day he will explain."

"So now,
instead of being angry,"

"We sit back quietly and wait."

"That's why we came
to this seminar, to verify"

"That what was true
before the tragedy,"

"Is also true now,"

Do you understand that, Roei?

When life doesn't go
the way we want,

On the one hand, you can be angry
and upset with G-D which you believe in,

Just like your mom.

And yet,
it could be done differently.

That's why I said that your mom
is not against you.

She is not against you because she
wholeheartedly believes in G-D

Which you have
the desire to be close to.

The difference between you two is
that she has issues with HIM,

And you don't.

When you'll explain that to her,

She might not change,

It's not just that she will stop
resisting your change,

But inside of her, I'm sure,
that she'll be proud of you.

Roei set in my living room
with tears in his eyes.

"Say, are you sure, Aharon,
that my mom believes in G-D?"

"It doesn't sound real,
that she is like that,"

"But on the other hand,
what you said makes sense."

"I'm going for it,"
Aharon.

"I'm jumping
to the deep end."

"And you know what,"

"I don't care anymore,"

"I don't care that my sister and
brother-in-law

Laugh at me for doing Kiddush"

"I don't care that my girlfriend left me
after so many years"

"I don't care that my friends from the
base and from home will laugh at me"

"As you said,"

"The truth is truth,"

"And for the truth,
we need to pay the price,"

When Roei got up to leave,

I reached my hand
out to him,

You know Roei,

A day after tomorrow is Yom Kippur
and I don't have much time,

But, do you know why
I found time to meet you?

Exactly because of that.

Because of the weekly portion.

In the portion of Ha'azinu
Moshe Rabbeinu describes in a song,

The long exile of Bnei Israel
and what they will go through.

There he explained,

How Bnei Israel will leave G-D
and will lose all hope for redemption

Even though G-D
will redeem them.

Why?

Not in their merit.

But for HIS name,
as said:

"'I said that I would
make an end of them,

eradicate their remembrance from mankind.
Were it not that the enemy's wrath

was heaped up, lest their adversaries
distort;

lest they claim, "Our hand was
triumphant! The Lord did none of this!"

"For they are a nation devoid of counsel,
and they have no understanding

Now here there is a question:

What does that mean
that G-D redeems us for HIS name?

If we are not worthy,
then why does HE redeem us?

And if we are worthy,
then why is it for HIS name?

Besides,

Why on the first temple destruction axial
it said that G-D will redeem us,

By the merit of the fathers?

And on the second exile,
it was for HIS name?

The answer is simple, Roei

It's because of you…

On the first exile, after it finished
Bnei Israel repented,

They started doing the deeds as thier
fathers did; Avraham, Yitzhak, Yaakov.

G-D redeeme them,

That was by the merit
of the fathers.

While,

On the second exile,

Even after Bnei Israel comes back
home after the exile,

They won't do the deeds
of their fathers.

On the contrary, they will leave
and reject them (the fathers)

So how is it that after all
we will be redeemed?

For HIS name.

We will be redeemed
by the merit of people,

Who came back to HIM,
even after all that happened.

By the merit of people
whose environment,

Doesn't do the deeds of Avraham,
Yitzhak and Yaakov,

They overcome and do them,

Even though the majority
is not worthy,

By the merit of a small group,
G-D will redeem everyone.

That's "for HIS name,"

That HIS name
won't be desecrated.

So that everyone will see
those whose society mocked,

Thanks to them we'll be
worthy of redemption.

By their merit.

That's why I found the time
to meet with you,

Thanks to you
and everyone like you,

your actions are speaking
in favor of Am Israel.

Thanks to you, even if
the fathers' merit is no more,

We will still be redeemed.

Now you understand,
where you should draw your strength from.

You Roei are a soldier in the Air Force,
and you know better than me,

That not every day you have the strength
to do your daily army duties,

So how do you
do them after all?

Because you know, Roei,
that we are all depending on you,

Because you know that you have
a responsibility for the country,

So, even when you are responsible for the
whole country, you don't get despaired.

When the whole country's redemption
is on your sholders,

Will you break down, now?

Shabbat Shalom.