How Machlokes is Ruining America, and Can Ruin Us or Sustain Us

Thank you very much, Reb Schachter, Reb Mordechai d'Asra. The topic of machlokes is unfortunately perennially timely because of its potential to be, rachmana litzlan, so insidious, so pernicious. In that sense, one doesn't really need to explain why it's timely; it's always timely. But it's especially so at this time of year for multiple reasons. First of all, this is the time of year when hopefully we begin to feel a little bit of the eimas hadin, that we feel a sense of awe at the impending yom hadin, and hopefully we're more open to thinking about and confronting difficult, delicate issues. But for another reason as well, to reflect on machlokes this time of year is especially appropriate. Meshech Chochma comments in Parshas Beshalach we find startling mamarei chazal. So for instance, chazal tell us that Bayis Rishon was chareiv because of the gimmel aveiros chamuros: avodah zarah, giluy arayos, and shifichus damim. Bayis Sheini was chareiv because of sinas chinam. למדך ששקולה שנאת חינם כנגד הגימל עבירות, that when you put it on a scale, that sinas chinam is the equal, the equivalent of the gimmel aveiros chamuros of when there were incidents of bloodshed, of giluy arayos, of avodah zarah. How can that be? Another maamar chazal the Meshech Chochma quotes: דורו של דוד כולם צדיקים היו. In the generation of Dovid Hamelech, they were all tzaddikim, ועל ידי שהיו בהם דילטורין היו נופלים במלחמה, but since they used to speak against each other, used to speak lashon hara against each other, so their righteousness notwithstanding, they used to fall victim in war. Hayu noflim bamilchama. דורו של אחאב עובדי עבודה זרה היו. In the generation of Achav, idolaters they were, but however, על ידי שלא היו בהם דילטורין, so היו יורדים למלחמה ומנצחים. Meshech Chochma goes on to explain that we have tremendous zechuyos as a tzibbur, as a people, as a collective, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu relates to us differently. When we engage in behavior that destroys the cohesiveness of tzibbur, that unravels the fabric of tzibbur, so then when Hakadosh Baruch Hu is relating to us on that level of tzibbur and rabbim and we just don't measure up, that's why these עבירות בין אדם לחברו are treated so severely, they elicit such a middas hadin. The Rosh quotes in Maseches Yoma that

ישיב האדם אל ליבו ערב יום הכיפורים לפייס כל אדם שנוטל לו איבה,

that on Erev Yom Kippur one should look to mollify, pacify someone who feels enmity. So we generally assume that the reason for that is because if we've sinned against the person, so Yom Hakippurim is not going to be mechaper unless we're first mefayes the person. But when you... Look in the Rosh, which is what appears in the Gemara, it means even if the person who is notel eiva maybe he was the wrong party, but af al pi chein one is supposed to take the initiative to try to create shalom. The Gemara tells a story that רב הוה ליה מלתא בההוא טבחא that Rav had had some kind of incident with a butcher, and the butcher was in the wrong and Rav had been in the right, and yet Rav goes erev Yom Kippurim to try to be mefayes him. The Rosh quotes a Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer that Yom Kippurim we resemble malachei ha-shareis in many respects. Just as the malachim don't eat or drink, so on Yom Kippurim we don't eat or drink. And one of the respects in which we're supposed to resemble the malachim and in which we're supposed to be angelic on Yom Kippurim is

מה מלאכי השרת שימת שלום ביניהם אף ישראל ביום הכפורים כן.

Just as kulam ahuvim, the malachim, there's no sinah and kinah, there's no jealousy, there's no hatred, there's no friction or tension, so too that's supposed to be the state of affairs amongst kol Yisrael on Yom Kippurim. After, in the conclusion of the avodah on Yom Kippurim, we refer to the fact that today we no longer have the avodah. עונות אבותינו החריבו ונוה, the Beis ha-Mikdash was destroyed because of initially because of our ancestors' sins and that state has been perpetuated because of our sins. We hope there will be neshalma parim sefaseinu, the fact that we said the avodah should qualify for the kappara. And then we say as follows, that

על כן ברחמיך הרבים נתת לנו את יום צום הכפורים הזה,

in your abundant mercy, ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu, You've given us this fast of Yom Kippurim ביום מחילת העון הזה לסליחת עון ולכפרת פשע, that sin should be forgiven and atoned. It's a day which is אסור באכילה ואסור בשתיה, we list off the chamisha inuyim, יום שימת אהבה ורעות, יום עזיבת קנאה ותחרות. It's a day to foster, to generate love and camaraderie, a day to totally abandon the jealousy and sense of competitiveness, and then יום שתסלח לו לכל עונותינו. The existence of ahavah v'reius internally is what leads into the mechilas ha-avon. So reflecting on machlokes is especially timely as we look forward to the Yom ha-Din. Why is there so much machlokes? Maybe initially we'll reflect on the causes of machlokes. So the truth is that the potential for machlokes is really very much embedded in human nature. There's a certain paradox of existence. On the one hand, people are social creatures, social animals. One of the Gemara's interpretations of the pasuk at the end of Koheles,

סוף דבר הכל נשמע את האלהים ירא ואת מצותיו שמור כי זה כל האדם,

that the world was really created for this ideal person who's the yerei shamayim and the shomer mitzvos. What are the rest of us here for? So the Gemara says litzvas la-zeh, to provide companionship, and not only to fill a pragmatic need, that too, that too. Breakfast would be very late in the morning if each one of us had to go out and milk the cow and make all the preparations from scratch in the morning. but it's not only to fill pragmatic needs, but we're social beings. We need, we thrive on companionship, on socialization. That's on the one hand. On the other hand, and this is equally embedded in human nature, כשם שפרצופיהם שונים כך דעותיהם שונות. The same way no two people, their features are identical, so no two people think alike either. No two people react exactly the same and just as in the analogy to a parent, some people even though they're not identical, they resemble each other and some people don't look at all like each other. One's tall, one's short, one has a dark complexion, one has a light complexion. They're totally, totally dissimilar, so the same is true in the dei'oseihem shonos. Dei'oseihem shonos so everyone has, so there's so many different ideas about how society should run, how society should function or whether it's a microcosm within society, how institutions should run, how they should function. And everyone is looking that their view should prevail, understandably. So on the one hand, we need each other, on the other hand, it's very hard to get along because of the dei'oseihem shonos. So we live together because of litzrach zeh lazeh because we're social beings, but on the other hand, dei'oseihem shonos, it's very hard to agree. Disagreement is inevitable and hence the potential for machlokes. It's a type of שני כתובים המכחישים זה זה. So what happens when you have שני כתובים המכחישים זה זה? So I remember many many years ago, decades ago, Rav Schachter's kollel was learning Maseches Beitzah and one of the questions on the bechinah was what do you do when you have שני כתובים המכחישים זה זה without a kasuv hashlishi? I know the answer now. But there are two ways you learn. You learn some before the test, some after the test. So Rav Schachter had in mind the מחלוקת רבי אליעזר ורבי יהושע by simchas yom tov. So some שני כתובים המכחישים זה זה can coexist without a kasuv hashlishi. But we know that in most cases, in the Chumash, when we have שני כתובים המכחישים זה זה, there needs to be a harmonizing kasuv hashlishi. And here too there is need for a harmonizing kasuv hashlishi. Absent, absent a harmonizing kasuv hashlishi, the ill will that the dei'oseihem shonos generates can and does become very, very destructive. When as a schoolchild, when we learned about American history, when we studied American history, so we studied about the Civil War, and we studied about this relic of the past. It was something that was unimaginable, inconceivable in the present or the future. No, it was something that belonged to a different time and a different age. And now, I don't know what is going to be or what isn't going to be, but no one thinks that it's unthinkable anymore in this country. It's not unthinkable. Is it going to happen? I don't know, I'm not smart, I can't see what the indications are, but the mutual loathing that exists amongst different groups is so great that it's not unthinkable, it's not unthinkable. And all that is because of not finding a kasuv hashlishi between שני כתובים המכחישים זה את זה because without the kasov hashlishi so then the deos vehashmuos it takeh destroys the fabric of society and everything becomes a turf battle over what the economic policies are going to be, what the immigration policies are going to be. Why does the American scene concern us? It concerns us we live here, we're citizens, it obviously concerns us on that level, but it also concerns us for another reason. There is a very, very important and insightful idea from the Baal Shem Tov. Baal Shem Tov says why is it that sometimes a person witnesses a midah ra'ah on display? Why would it be that sometimes a person will see someone get very angry and really see a violent display of anger or whatever such midos ra'os? So the Baal Shem Tov says Hakadosh Baruch Hu orchestrates that for us when we're supposed to recognize a shortcoming within ourselves, but it's not so easy to recognize one's own shortcomings. It's much easier to see the shortcomings of others and in others than it is within one's self. So if I need to work on avoiding the midah of ka'as, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu orchestrates that I'll see someone else getting angry. If I need to work on the midah of ga'avah, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will arrange things that I'll see a display of ga'avah on someone else's part, but that's really a message to me that I need to introspect about those midos as well. Unfortunately, the lack of civility at times demonizing one's opponents, be they political, be they ideological, is not something which only exists in the outside world. It's something that unfortunately we need to reckon with internally as well. So how does, what is the kasov hashlishi between the inevitability of disagreement, the fact that we need each other and we live together? So what is the kasov hashlishi? So perhaps to suggest a few very simple, even simplistic points. Some disagreements are disagreements where a person can't know with absolute certainty that his position is the correct one. Let's say when we have internal debates or disputes within different parts of the Torah community, it's entirely possible either that the position I subscribe to is wrong and the person I'm disagreeing with is right. It's possible that both are legitimate. And here just a healthy dose of humility prevents one from having the arrogance of having the absolute certainty that I'm right and that my opinion is the exclusive correct opinion. The disagreement is inevitable, but if those who are part of the disagreement are humble, so disagreement doesn't have to deteriorate into machlokes. Beis Hillel were nochin ve'aluvin and Because of that they together with Beis Shammai engaged in machlokas l'shem shamayim. But there are times when there are disagreements when one side is absolutely right and the other side is absolutely wrong. Not all disagreements should one, is there room for this openness that maybe I'm wrong or maybe at the very least the other party is equally legitimate. No, there are some issues on which there's a right and wrong. When people take positions which are unequivocally against Torah, so there's nothing gray about those types of issues. So how does one sort of navigate those disagreements? So perhaps the following guidelines: Number one, the disagreement should be with civility and courtesy rather than rancor and ridicule. Closely related, the disagreement should focus on issues, not personalities. The disagreement is not ad hominem, the disagreement is over the substance of the issue, over the right and wrong, not over the people. Third of all, language needs to be restrained. The exaggerated language also just pours oil on the fire of machlokas. There is, truth be told, a certain nagging question I think that maybe we don't articulate but at least beneath the surface, one wonders about it. Aren't there some things that people do and espouse that al pi din classifies them as resha'im? And if so, then how are we supposed to retain the civility? If so, how are we supposed to avoid the ad hominem? If people take positions which clearly run contrary to the Torah. So is there really room for this kind of civil, restrained, issue-focused rather than ad hominem disagreement? No. Isn't it clear that if a person does and espouses certain things that that person is a rasha? So kimedumeh the answer is as follows. The default setting in terms of our bein adam l'chavero is to treat each other with respect, with ahavas Yisrael. That's the default setting. It's true that al pi din sometimes there are things that override that. משל למה הדבר דומה the default setting is that it's assur to hit a Jew. We just read in yesterday's krias hatorah, right? In the time of the Sanhedrin, a person could be chayav malkus, in which case the default setting was overridden and you had to administer the malkus to the person. So the analog to that is the default setting is that we're supposed to interact, relate to each other with ahava, with respect. Are there times when that's overridden? There is. But if labeling someone else a rasha is not in the least bit productive, it's counterproductive, it doesn't achieve anything, it doesn't accomplish anything, so then there's no override and we remain with the default setting. We don't live in a time and an age of history where that type of approach is in the least bit fruitful. fruitful or productive. We absolutely need to delineate right and wrong and stand up for right unequivocally, but the ad hominem override, which in theory had and has a place, but it's only if it's going to achieve something. Right, the Chazon Ish famously when he comments on how the halakha of moridin v'ein ma'alin is no longer operative bizman hazeh, basically says, or employs this type of logic, this type of reasoning. He says moridin v'ein ma'alin which was an override of the issur of causing death to a fellow Jew, was at a time when that helped sustain and protect faith and helped contain a cancer of heresy. He says bizman hazeh to employ those methods is totally counterproductive. It's counterproductive, so then it becomes assur to do it. So then we revert back to the default setting. And the same is true again of less dramatic and less drastic measures as well. The labeling, the demonizing, it's all counterproductive. If it's all counterproductive, there's certainly no mitzvah to do it. If there's no mitzvah to do it, there's no heter to do it, and we return to the default setting that we're supposed to interact with mutual love, mutual respect. And there's no lack of standing up for principle, there's no lack of being firm in one's commitment to principle and to truth in displaying civility and courtesy, avoiding the ad hominem, keeping everything issue and focused related. There is a type of machlokes, as the Mishnah in Avos tells us, with which there's no negative associations. On the contrary, machlokes can be something which is productive, enriching, and sustaining. What does that mean? The Mishnah says that the paradigm of a machlokes l'shem shamayim is the machlokes Hillel v'Shammai. There was no personal agenda, no personal vendetta, it was purely a machlokes l'shem shamayim. How did the machlokesim between Beis Hillel and Beis Shammai arise? So the Baal HaTanya writes based on sources in Kabbalah that we find a pattern that the Mishnah in Eiduyos points out that with only a handful of exceptions, so within the machlokesim between Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel, Beis Shammai was always more machmir, always adopted the more stringent position, and Beis Hillel, again with a handful of exceptions, adopted the more lenient position. So how did that work out? How did that pattern emerge? So the Baal HaTanya says that their nishamos came from different places. If you sort of imagine that the Ribono Shel Olam has a storehouse of nishamos, and the same way in the back of the shoe store, things are organized, different sizes, different types of nishamos, or nishamos come from different places in the Ribono Shel Olam's storehouse of nishamos. And the nishamos of Beis Shammai came from one place, and the nishamos of Beis Hillel came from a different place. And that is what generated all the machlokes between Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel. So what that then means is it's another way that machlokes is really ordained. And if we can avoid the מחלוקת שלא לשם שמים, if we can retain that machlokes be l'shem shamayim, so then the machlokes again not only is not destructive but can be something which is enriching and which is of vital importance. Let's maybe try to concretize that a little bit. The only time the Rav visited Eretz Yisrael in 1935. So in addition to all the shiurim, so at least on one occasion he gave a drasha. This is the way my father Zichrono Livracha heard it from the Rav Zichrono Livracha. So I heard it once removed and he darshened on Parshas Balak וירא ישראל שוכן לשבטיו. Maybe he was saying that this is pshat in something Rashi says or maybe it was independent of that. וירא ישראל שוכן לשבטיו. So he explained that and then ותהי עליו רוח אלקים and he was so inspired that he then had the Ruach Hakodesh to give the bracha. So what is it Bilam saw? Shochen Lishvatav. He saw the differences in drachim, the diverse approaches within Klal Yisrael. He saw this one's a baal mussar and this one's a Litvak and this one's a Chassid. And he saw that richness of difference within Klal Yisrael. How each person found his place, found the derech within Torah, within the boundaries that there are things which are out of bounds but within the boundaries of Torah. Each one found his derech. So those differences were enriching. If you're painting a canvas and you do everything in one color so the picture is only so gripping. If you employ a whole range of colors so then it becomes a much richer canvas with much more appeal than otherwise. So machlokes has the potential to destroy but it also has the potential to enrich. The Shochen Lishvatav is something that facilitates and enriches Torah, not something that detracts from Torah. But in order to tap into that potential so we need again that humility to recognize that the derech to which we subscribe doesn't have to be the exclusive one. We need to be sufficient to have sufficient depth not to react to the superficialities of difference and finally sometimes what has potential to be a machlokes leshem shamayim deteriorates into מחלוקת שלא לשם שמים simply because of insecurity. If one is secure within one's own understanding and one's own derech again following Gedolei Yisrael who have paved that derech, who have shown us that way. If one is secure in that so then one doesn't feel threatened by the fact that others follow other Gedolim who have paved a different derech. But too often there's a sense of insecurity. The same result can either be triggered by arrogance or it can be triggered by insecurity. There's a sense of insecurity so I feel threatened by people who do things differently, I feel threatened by people who dress differently, I feel threatened by people who are machmir on things where I'm meikel. And that insecurity causes us to push back and to delegitimize even when one should recognize it as a legitimate machlokes leshem shamayim. We mentioned at the outset the timeliness of reflecting upon machlokes, so maybe to conclude on the same note. The Chofetz Chaim as you know in the sefer of that name quotes in his hakdama the Chazal that ויהי בישורון מלך בהתאסף ראשי עם יחד שבטי ישראל that when is Hakadosh Baruch Hu our Melech? When it's בהתאסף ראשי עם יחד שבטי ישראל, when we come together, so that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is our melech, because Hakadosh Baruch Hu's melucha is over the Jewish people. It's not over yechidim, it's over the Jewish people. So when we're cohesive, when we come together, so then, then it's vayehi bishurun melech, that then Hakadosh Baruch Hu is melech aleinu. In addition to the other perspectives as we prepare for the malchiyos of Rosh Hashanah of אמרו לפני מלכיות כדי שתמליכוני עליכם, so in order for that to happen, we need to be able to again rise above the destructive form of machlokes and when appropriate embrace the the constructive form of machlokes.