Bad News? Good News

 My friend and colleague Rabbi Ariel Rackovsky retold a story that has always fascinated me: In a narrow, winding alley in the Old City of Yerushalaim, a remarkable encounter took place on Erev Pesach some 90 years ago. An older gentleman with thick-rimmed spectacles walked slowly yet purposefully, surrounded by a group of younger men. His name was Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, the Chief Rabbi of the land of Israel and founder of the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva. He was walking with his students on the way back from the Kotel, preparing themselves spiritually for the awesome Seder evening ahead. Coming in the other direction was an elderly man with a flowing white beard, dressed in a long, gold-striped caftan. He, too, was surrounded by an entourage. It was Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, spiritual leader of Jerusalem’s Yishuv Hayashan, the older settlements within the walls of the Old City and the newer neighborhoods settled by the broader Hungarian community of Yerushalayim. Most of the inhabitants of these neighborhoods affiliated with the umbrella spiritual and administrative body created by Rav Sonnenfeld, known as the Eidah HaChareidis. Rav Sonnenfeld was known as “The man on the ramparts” for his staunch traditionalism and his uncompromising fight against the pernicious winds of secularism, and particularly of secular Zionism. From his community, there was often strong opposition to Rav Kook, himself unabashedly traditional in his religious world view, but whose mystical writings praised secular Zionists in their efforts to rebuild the Land of Israel.

To the Yishuv Hayashan and Rav Sonnenfeld’s students Rav Kook represented a heretical fifth column, and to Rav Kook’s students, those who objected to Rav Kook were wickedly disrespectful and hopelessly backwards. One can imagine that the tension was palpable. Rav Sonnenfeld turned to Rav Kook and said, “Iber a yohr, ihr vet zoyche zayn tzu geyen borfis in blut.” “In a year, you should merit to go barefeet in blood.” Rav Kook’s students were beyond livid, as this sounded like an unforgivable curse, yet the next thing they knew, Rav Kook had a smile on his face and said “Amen!” After they parted company, Rav Kook explained to his students that Rav Sonnenfeld had bestowed a Talmudic blessing upon him. The Talmud (Pesachim 65b) describes how, in Temple days, there were so many Paschal lambs offered that the Kohanim waded in animal blood. Rav Sonnenfeld was blessing Rav Kook- his ideological opponent, his dear friend and a Kohen that he would merit next year to take part in the service of the Korban Pesach in a rebuilt Beit Hamikdash.

Sometimes in life we hear something that sounds or appears negative, when in fact, upon closer examination, it is really something quite positive. We have an example of this in Parshat Metzora regarding the tzaraat that can afflict a house in the Land of Israel (14:34). While an affliction on one’s home seems to be a setback or a problem, Rashi quotes a Midrash that puts a completely different spin on the whole story. Noting that the pasuk uses the word “give” to describe the affliction, Rashi writes: “This is [good] news for them that lesions of tzara’at will come upon them, because the Amorites had hidden away treasures of gold inside the walls of their houses during the entire forty years that the Israelites were in the desert, and through the lesion, he will demolish the house and find them. [Vayikra Rabbah 17:6]. It is not always easy to see the positive in a situation or to hear the positive in what at first sounds like an insult or injury. But as we see from our Parsha and from Rav Kook it is possible and something that we should always be striving to do.