Reflections on Shebud Malchios and Geulah: Past, Present and Future

זכותו ללביבותו של מרן דאדמו"ר מהור"ר מסטריקוב רבי אלכסנדרי בתר דמצלי אמר הכי.

Rabbi Alexandri in the slot in eighteen where we have adopted from this same Gemara saying Elokai Netzor, Rabbi Alexandri used to add the following personal bakasha: Ribono shel olamim, Master of all worlds, galui veyaduah lefanecha, it's known to You, it's obvious to You, she-ratzonenu la'asot retzonecha, that it's our will to do Your will. U-mi me'akeiv, what impedes? What holds us back? Se'or she-be'isa, the yeast in the dough, shibud malchuyos, and subjugation. Yehi ratzon milfanecha, may it be Your will, she-tatzileinu miyadam, that You save us, that You extricate us from both of those forces. Se'or she-be'isa is generally understood to represent sort of the internal factor of the yetzer hara, the various impulses that we experience, and shibud malchuyos, the external adversities. יהי רצון מלפניך שתצילנו מידם, may it be Your will that You save us from the clutches of both of these forces, ונשוב לעשות חוקי רצונך בלבב שלם, and that we should wholeheartedly, with total conviction, optimally fulfill Your mitzvos. Shibud malchuyos is highly, highly significant. We pin the fault of our lowly spiritual state fifty percent on shibud malchuyos. And in fact Chazal, the Rambam as you all know quotes and endorses this, state that

אין בין עולם הזה לימות המשיח אלא שיעבוד מלכויות בלבד.

The world in the times of the Melech Hamashiach, in the Messianic era, will function normally, naturally. The defining difference, the defining difference is the absence of shibud malchuyos, being subjugated. That's what the... we'll read the haftarah soon im yirtzeh Hashem on Acharon shel Pesach from Yeshayahu, the imagery of וגר זאב עם כבש, that a sheep will lie down together with the wolf, etc. The Rambam elaborates on this ma'amar about Yemos Hamashiach:

ומפני זה התאוו כל ישראל נביאיהם וחכמיהם ימות המלך המשיח.

For this reason, the greatest personalities of Jewish history, our Nevi'im, our prophets, our chachamim, our sages, have always throughout the millennia yearned for Yemos Hamashiach כדי שינוחו ממלכות הרשעה, so that there will be respite from shibud malchuyos. So I wanted to pose an egocentric question, but probably doesn't come as too much of a surprise for those who know me, but I'd like to pose an egocentric question but not personally egocentric but maybe generationally egocentric. I think anyone my age, even several years older and certainly younger who were born, raised, and have lived in America, seemingly we haven't experienced shibud malchuyos. I, I have in my life, let's talk pre-October 7th, pre-Simchas Torah. Even though the truth is, okay, there's a guard outside, but it doesn't doesn't affect the the rhythm of life all that much. I've never had to contend with Shibbud Malchiyos. I've never had to contend with governmental decrees that that limited my opportunities for Talmud Torah or Shmiras Hamitzvos. For better or worse, I've done what I've chosen to do. And again, I don't think that's only a personal autobiographical statement. I think it's probably an accurate generational assessment. So that's, that's kind of scary. So that mitigating factor invoked by Rabbi Alexandri, Rabbi Alexander, that מי מעכב שיעבוד מלכויות, I don't know, so can I, can we not legitimately invoke that as a mitigating factor? It was never intended as an exculpating factor, but it certainly was and is intended as a mitigating factor. Equally scary is the thought that it's clear from that memra in Chazal which the Rambam quotes and endorses that

אין בין העולם הזה לימות המשיח אלא שיעבוד מלכויות בלבד,

that relief and release from Shibbud Malchiyos is something which is transformative. So is Yemos Hamashiach, this is beyond terrifying, not going to be any different for us than our present experience because seemingly, ostensibly, we, again, speaking from a very narrow geographical, generational perspective, obviously if we broaden the perspective even even at this time in history there are Jews in other places who certainly have and do deal with Shibbud Malchiyos. If we go back in Jewish history, of course, of course. But again, geographically, generationally, we don't seemingly contend with Shibbud Malchiyos. How are we supposed to process this? So let's look to Mitzrayim which is both the forerunner as well as the prototype of all subsequent golyos, of all subsequent exiles. The Rambam in in the opening chapter of Hilchos Avodah Zarah where he presents a basically a history of emuna, a history of monotheistic belief, he he describes the descent into Avodah Zarah, Avraham Avinu's discovery of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Avraham Avinu transmitting to Yitzchak, Yitzchak to Yaakov, Yaakov to the Shivtei Kah until נעשית בעולם אומה היודעת את ה', until a nation appeared who recognized and was dedicated to belief in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. But then the Rambam describes והיה הדבר הולך ומתגבר, it was gaining momentum, there was positive momentum in terms of emuna b'Hashem, in terms of monotheistic belief, בבני יעקב ובנלוים עליהם, the the children, the grandchildren of Yaakov Avinu and those who who joined them,

ונעשית בעולם אומה שיודעת את ה' עד שארכו הימים לישראל במצרים.

But then after our sojourn in Mitzrayim... became extended, vechazru lilmod ma'aseihem and they began to imitate, emulate the behavior of the Mitzrim ולעבוד עבודה זרה כמותן and they regressed to idolatry. When did this happen? Was this only a, was it only concomitantly with the avdus, with the servitude and it was a casualty, or did it begin earlier? Right? Chazal tell us that the actual shibud didn't begin until all of the Shevatim had died. As long as one of the Shevatim, I think Levi lived the longest, as long as one of the Shevatim was still alive, there was no shibud. So if you take a look at the Sforno in Parshas Beishas—no, Parshas Bereishis on the pesukim of Bris Bein HaBesarim where Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells Avraham Avinu

כי גר יהיה זרעך בארץ לא להם ועבדום וענו אותם ארבע מאות שנה,

Hakadosh Baruch Hu presents to Avraham Avinu a vision and a message of four hundred years of galus. And yet in Mitzrayim it was redu sham, 210 years. So Rashi already tells us, no, the clock started ticking with the birth of Yitzchak Avinu. The Sforno says the assimilation in Mitzrayim happened before the avdus began. The assimilation in Mitzrayim, says the Sforno, was the catalyst of the avdus. Hakadosh Baruch Hu did not allow the shibud Mitzrayim to begin until what the Rambam is describing had happened of וחזרו ללמוד מעשיהם ולעבוד עבודה זרה כמותן. Let's seemingly shift gears for a moment and I'd like to read you an excerpt from a very famous teshuvah—no, responsum written by the Rav zecher tzadik livracha when the issue of the day was removing or the attempt, the question, the threat, the battle over mechitzas in Orthodox shuls. And the Rav of course opposed it בכל לבבו ובכל נפשו ובכל מאודו. And he wrote as follows: I know beforehand the reaction to my letter on the part of our apostles of religious modernism and utilitarianism. They will certainly say that since a great majority of the recently constructed synagogues have abandoned separate seating, we must not be out of step with the masses. This type of reasoning could well be employed with regard to other religious precepts such as the observance of Shabbos or the dietary laws. However, we must remember that an ethical or halachic principle decreed by God is not rendered void by the fact that people refuse to abide by it. Skipping several lines: In my opinion, the halachic dictum

בשעת גזירת המלכות אפילו מצוה קלה כגון דשינויי ערקא דמסאני יהרג ואל יעבור,

at a time of religious persecution through governmental decree, even for a minor custom such as one involving changing a shoelace, let one suffer death sooner than transgress it, requiring of us a heroic stand in times of adversity, applies not only to political and religious persecution originated by some pagan ruler, but also to situations in which a small number of God-fearing and Torah-loyal people is confronted with a hostile attitude on the part of... of the majority dominated by a false philosophy. So the Rav explains in a different, entirely different context, the context of the Halachos of martyrdom, that when the Gemara tells us that B'sha'as Gzeiras HaMalchus one must incur martyrdom basically for anything and everything, even, even according to Rashi's understanding of the Gemara is only a custom of dress. The Gzeiras HaMalchus doesn't mean only political persecution. It also means when one lives in a society where there's social and the social and religious orientation and philosophy of that society dominates and threatens to suppress authentic Torah values and life. That's also considered a Gzeiras HaMalchus. Gzeiras HaMalchus can be social, it's not only political. And this wasn't some theoretical idea that the Rav toyed with. No, he said Halacha Lema'aseh. It's one of the most extraordinary insights and Piskei Halacha one will ever be Zocheh to learn. Shibud Gzeiras HaMalchus and I would suggest by extension the same is true for the concept and experience and reality of Shibud Malchiyos. It can of course be expressed politically in form of servitude or persecution, but it can also consist of an aggressively alien religio-social milieu which minimally exposes us to an alien Weltanschauung and at worst imposes its immorality and decadence. But not through, not through servitude, not through the harsh decrees of the Spanish Inquisition or the Roman Empire, but through political correctness, through social pressure. The same way in the Rav's context, those forces, the aggregate of those forces represent a Gzeiras HaMalchus. When we speak of Shibud Malchiyos, we're talking about that also. When we go out into the world and we see the utter confusion. When we see a world that's upside down, topsy-turvy, where morality is dismissed, is branded as bigotry, and immorality is championed. When we see the confusion about gender espoused, generated by the radical branch of feminism in terms of religious egalitarianism, when we see the confusion surrounding Most recently around transgenderism. All these are expressions of Shibud Malchus. We don't perform Avodas Perech for Paroh. We don't experience Shibud Malchus in that sense, but the Shibud Malchus of ארכו הימים לישראל וחזרו ללמוד מעשיהם, the confusion, the lack of clarity, those are all very real expressions of and casualties of Shibud Malchus. But you know, Shibud Malchus, it's not an all or nothing proposition. It's not a question of only if one, Rachmana Litzlan, assimilates so dramatically as to be over Avodah Zarah or it's the various forms of Shibud Malchus that exist in today's society. It's not only if one fully, totally identifies, advocates. Shibud Malchus is also a matter of degree in terms of how we're affected by it. When the Rambam in the Rambam with which we began, when he talks about the yearning for Yemos HaMoshiach, so he decries the fact that currently, under the oppression of the Malchus HaRasha שאינה מנחת להם לעסוק בתורה ובמצוות כהוגן. It's not necessarily that there's no Torah, that there's no shemiras hamitzvos. The effect, the pernicious effect, the form in which we suffer from Shibud Malchus can be a question of degrees also. And the truth is, that's already indicated in the Gemara in Berachos that with which we began. Rabbi Alexandri says: גלוי וידוע לפניך שרצוננו לעשות רצונך. La'asos retzonecha, to do your will, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, is not just a question of minimally discharging obligations. La'asos retzonecha means to serve you optimally, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, with total conviction, with complete clarity, a single-mindedness of purpose, la'asos retzonecha. And יהי רצון מלפניך שתצילנו מידם and when you'll extricate us from the clutches of Shibud Malchus and the se'or shebe'issa, from the Shibud Malchus, then נשוב לעשות חוקי רצונך בלבב שלם. So even if I look in the mirror, even if we look in the mirror and bechasdei Hashem we don't see, bechasdei Hashem in looking in the mirror, we don't see in the image looking back at us wholesale assimilation, it doesn't mean that it's not happening lemachtza lashlish velarevia. It doesn't mean that it's not happening to degrees, maybe subtle, maybe more pronounced. You know, the story is told, maybe two stories. The Rav zichrono l'vracha, I think this is actually printed in the Chamesh Drashos, the five of the drashos that he delivered over the years at the annual Mizrachi convention. So he told the story how one year in Brisk, in the days of the Beis HaLevi, his great-grandfather, so it was a question of who would be appointed to oversee the chinuch in town. And there was someone who was known to be very close, a devotee of the Beis HaLevi, whose candidacy was put forward, and the Beis HaLevi opposed him. People were very taken aback. And the Beis HaLevi said, I'll explain. My position to you, based on a halacha from the Gemara in Bava Metzia. The halacha is, if you deposit something with a shomer who, by accepting the deposit, therefore is accepting a certain degree of responsibility and liability for the object and he's under the impression that what you're giving him is only silver, but in reality it's gold, so then he can only be held accountable for the loss that would be generated by the loss of silver, because נטירותא דדהבא לא קיבל עליה, because when he accepted responsibility, so he was accepting for something precious, but not that precious. So the Bais HaLevi said, it's true that he values chinuch, but he values chinuch as silver. I need someone who values it as gold. So that's a subtle form of shibud malchuyos. Another story, the story is told of Reb Aharon Kotler, when he first came to this country, lived on the upper west side of Manhattan. One day, even after, even after the end of the Second World War and he had established the yeshiva in Lakewood, he still lived on the upper west side of Manhattan. One day, rather precipitously, he got up and he moved to Lakewood. When he was asked what happened, so he said that he noticed that the chillul Shabbos that he would see weekly in Manhattan was beginning to bother him a trifle less. He was becoming desensitized, I mean, this is Reb Aharon Kotler speaking, under the microscope. He was becoming desensitized to chillul Shabbos. He said, in Lakewood, the only Jews there are shomrei Shabbos, I won't see any chillul Shabbos. That's also the effect of shibud malchuyos, even when we look in the mirror and we're on the correct side of some of the issues we mentioned, and those were only intended as examples and illustrations, there are so many more. Even if we're on the right side, but it doesn't mean that there isn't a subtle effect of shibud malchuyos in terms of our clarity, in terms of our understanding of right and wrong. And yet another effect of shibud malchuyos, again, even when the image in the mirror, fortunately, v'chasdei Hashem, shows the person on the side of truth, on the side of Torah, the Gemara in Sanhedrin tells us a fascinating story. The Tannaim were once sitting together in a, in a certain loft and they heard a bas kol, שיש כאן אחד שראוי שתשרה עליו שכינה, there's someone here worthy of prophecy, אלא שאין דורו זכאי לכך, but his generation is not deserving. So the braisa recounts how they all looked at Hillel and assumed that the bas kol was referring to Hillel. I'm, I'm not sure on the history how many generations later it is, but a similar scene recurred. Again, they hear the bas kol and this time they all look at Shmuel HaKatan. So the question is, so what that the generation's not deserving? If the individual is deserving, if Hillel HaZaken is deserving of prophecy, let him have prophecy. The Rambam writes that Hakadosh Baruch Hu grants prophecy for either of two reasons. Sometimes he gives a nevuah because he's sending the navi as a, as an emissary to deliver a message to us. But other times, a navi merits nevuah just for his personal hishtalmus, just for his own, because he's deserving of it, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu bestows the nevuah. So if Hillel HaZaken is deserving If Shmuel HaKatan is deserving, why is the state of the generation at all relevant? So my father zichrono livracha told me in the name of our uncle Rav Aharon Soloveitchik zichrono livracha that he explained as follows. What the Gemara means is that even the greatest of the generation, even a Hillel, even a Shmuel HaKatan, in terms of their own personal attainment is affected by the general level of the surrounding community and society. What the Gemara means is אלא שאין דורו זכאי לכך. Had Hillel lived in a different time and place, Hillel, as incomparably great as he was, would have been even greater, such that he would have merited nevuah. The same for Shmuel HaKatan. So these are all more subtle expressions of the Shibud Malchuyot and the expressions of Shibud Malchuyot that we do live with. So the answer to again our generational geographic question of Shibud Malchuyot is that our entire lives we've lived with Shibud Malchuyot. One, in order to authentically בשעה שמכניסין אדם לדין, the Gemara in Shabbat tells us, when a person is ushered in for din, for to give a reckoning about his life, so there are several basic fundamental questions that are posed to him. And one of the questions posed to an individual is tzipita l'yeshua? Did you hope? Let's under-translate. Did you hope for the yeshua? As long as we're complacent and content with our reality, we can't be metzapeh for anything. If everything is good in my life, if nothing is amiss, I just want to perpetuate the status quo. I'm not looking for transformation, I'm not looking for anything to be overhauled. No, just let it continue indefinitely. To be metzapeh l'yeshua, it means that we have to find the Shibud Malchuyot in the form that we experience it, the non-political, non-servitude, non-subjugation form that we experience it, we have to find that Shibud Malchuyot oppressive. We have to find that Shibud Malchuyot suffocating, and it also means that even though obviously we'll only be fully extricated from Shibud Malchuyot in Yemos HaMashiach, but it means that to whatever degree we can help ourselves now in insulating ourselves from Shibud Malchuyot, so then we're required to do so. And without it, there can't be a tzipiah l'yeshua. If I'm complacent and content with the Shibud Malchuyot, so how can I genuinely authentically be looking for that to be reversed and be asking HaKadosh Baruch Hu shetatzileinu miyadam, that he should extricate us from it? בניסן נגאלו ובניסן עתידין להיגאל. We certainly cannot, which is why we need the geulah, we certainly cannot walk the entire road on our own, but there are steps that we can take spiritually along that path to geulah. In terms of looking for the truth of Torah with as... much and it should be bolstered and backed up with as much conviction as possible in terms of looking for the clarity amidst the moral and religious confusion. All those are very real and meaningful steps towards geulah and they're expressions of tzipiyah liyeshuah. And we echo the tefillah of Rabbi Alexander that yehi ratzon milfanecha that הקדוש ברוך הוא שתצילנו מידם ונשוב לעבדך בלבב שלם. Great.