Tefillah - 085 Erev Rav Today

In Shemoneh Esrei we ask Hashem, תקע בשופר גדול לחרותינו ושא נס לקבץ גלותינו. “And gather our dispersed, and rescue us from our land.”

Our exile includes two parts: we are subservient to the nations, and in addition, we were exiled from our land of Eretz Yisrael and found in a strange land, in the galus. Thus, we are asking for two things: To be gathered back together again and for all the ingathering of all exiled Jews, back to Eretz Yisrael. This blessing was enacted by the Men of Great Assembly, from the second Beis HaMikdash until today.

Throughout the generations, the Jewish people poured out their hearts to Hashem to be gathered from exile and return to Eretz Yisrael. There were always mistakes about the Geulah. Rebbi Akiva thought that Bar Kuziva was Moshiach. There were many false Mashiachs throughout the generations, as discussed in Igeres HaRambam in which there was a false Mashiach in the times of the Rambam. There was the false redeemer, Shabsai Tzvi, and his followers. There were false Mashiachs who came and went, and now that’s a thing of the past. We still remain with a bad mark from it, but for the most part, such a test is no longer here. It was a test in previous generations, but not anymore.

In our current generation, what is the test that we face? The test is that part of the Jewish people have returned to Eretz Yisrael, and part of them haven’t, but a recognizable chunk of Klal Yisrael has returned to Eretz Yisrael. What does that mean for us? How should we view this situation, in terms of the Geulah? The very concept of this is a very broad, complex, and sensitive issue to understand. We must understand where we are in history, what has been fulfilled so far and what are we davening for when we daven for the Geulah. Those who are ignorant think that everything has been fulfilled already, but let us analyze the truth here and be clearer about this. We shall try here to clarify this matter, though understandably, this is a broad, complex, and sensitive issue.

Good Contains Evil and Evil Contains Good

For everything that Hashem created in the world, there is a mixture of good and evil in each thing. Thus, we must see the good – and evil – in everything. Nothing is black-on-white – it will not be totally good and totally bad, it will always contain elements of both. If something is evil, it must have good in it, and if something is good, we must see how some evil is also contained in it. Nothing is totally good or totally evil. Everything is a mix (this is stated in sefer Ruach Chaim of Rav Chaim Volozhiner zt”l). Something good is trapped in something evil, and that is why a prohibition is called assur, which means imprisoned, because the holiness is imprisoned inside the evil act. For example, even in learning Torah, there is some evil involved, because a person always learns with a little bit of shelo lishmah (ulterior motivations, not for the sake of Torah). So even something that is for the most part good will have traces of evil in it.

The fact that Jews have returned to Israel is also a stark example of something which good and evil in it. It is good that Jews have returned, because Hashem has brought them here as part of the process of the Geulah. But there is also another side to the coin here that has come along with it: It is entirely the Sitra Achra (the Other Side, or the Satan). Just as there was a Pharoah, Nevuchadnezar, Achashveirosh, Haman, Antiyochus, and just as we faced the evils of the Galus of Mitzrayim, Bavel, Yavan, Madai-Paras, Edom, and Yishmael, so do we face an evil today that is the Galus of the Erev Rav (“Mixed Multitude”), which has been part of the return of Jews to Eretz Yisrael. It wasn’t just a part of it that accompanied the return to Eretz Yisrael, it was entirely overseen and allowed by the Erev Rav, and therefore it was the Erev Rav which caused Klal Yisrael to come here. Just as we had a Greek exile, so is there is an exile headed by the Erev Rav.

If we just look it from an immature perspective, we only see one side of the matter. Was this something bad which also had some good and holiness in it, or was it something good which also had evil in it? It was an argument of the Gedolim. At the root of the matter was: Is this all the beginning of the Geulah, or is it all the work of the Satan, just as the Satan convinced the people to do the Eigel when they thought it was good? It’s clear that it was a holy spark of good, a spark of returning to Eretz Yisrael, but it’s also very clear that this was allowed through the Erev Rav, that this was a holiness trapped in something evil. The “heads of the Erev Rav”, who are also the heads of the 50^th gate of impurity (which no one can return from) had a big part in all this.

But as clear as this evil is, there was also a very holy spark here, just as any evil has good in it. If something is very evil, there will be a very holy spark contained in it. And therefore, there is good and evil mixed as one, and in such a disturbing way!

But to be more precise, the fact that the part of the Jews have come back here is both a spark of the Geulah that came along with the Erev Rav’s control of the Jewish people here, is really a deeper part of our situation of Galus. It’s not simply that the Erev Rav gets to be in power over here. It is a whole new kind of Galus which we didn’t have until now. There was a spark of the Geulah here, and because we weren’t zocheh to the Geulah fully, it became turned into a new depth of Galus. It would have been the beginning of the Geulah had we been zocheh, but because we weren’t zocheh, it became a whole new depth of Galus. It was a spark of the Geulah that “fell” to the Galus, which creates a new and deeper kind of Galus. And what is that Galus? It is the galus of the Erev Rav.

There was the Egyptian exile, the Babylonian exile, the Median-Persian exile, and the Greek Exile. Now we are in the Roman Exile (Edom) and within that, the Arab Exile (Yishmael) which surrounds us, and within the Arab exile is the exile of the Erev Rav. The exile of the Erev Rav is very different from the other exiles in that they are very mixed with the Jewish people, and the Jewish people are very mixed with them. The galus of the Erev Rav is that it is a great mixture, a taaruvos rabah, which cannot be sorted out through any human being.

There was never an exile like this before - and it takes place in Eretz Yisrael. Yes, there is a spark of good contained here, a spark of the Geulah, but this spark has been captured by Erev Rav, and therefore a new kind of exile has begun. It is an exile of mixing with the Erev Rav, from the word arev, sweet. It is when the sweetness of the words of Torah falls, Rachmana Litzlan, to the side of the Erev Rav. The Erev Rav are not just mixed with frum Jews – they make their lifestyle seem sweet and alluring to us.

The Chazon Ish said that he is not afraid of the decrees that the heads of the Erev Rav will make on the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael. He was rather afraid of the fact that observant Jews will slowly lose their yiras shomayim by mixing with the Erev Rav. What he said then is what we can see with our own eyes happening now. We returned to Eretz Yisrael, from the holy spark that fell into this new kelipah, the Erev Rav. What should have been “the beginning of the Geulah”, as the Chofetz Cham said, ended up being turned into a new Galus. This is the very depth of Galus, not just another detail.

When we understand what Galus is then we can know what our avodah is during the Galus. It’s not that we are simply more mixed with the nations. That was the problem until now. The problem now is that people think that the Erev Rav is sweet. Their lusts and money offer a temptation to everyone.

One who understands the depth of Galus will understand the process we are in and the avodah that needs to be done now and what Hashem is asking of us. But if one doesn’t understand that this is a profound Galus then he will wonder how much to mix with the Erev Rav or not. But when one understands it clearly, he sees there is only one path. There cannot be mixing with them and not finding it sweet. It is either or. Many wonderful Jews want to serve Hashem here, but they don’t understand the situation they are in. They simply see the problem here as another decree and another decree that the Erev Rav makes on us, and the attitude is, “We will stop this decree”, and then again with the next decree, “We will stop it.” Yes, there are decrees one after the other and we must stop them. But those are just the details of a larger issues that’s looming. The root of the problem here is far more encompassing.

The Gra and also Rav Elchonon Wasserman spoke a lot about the Galus Erev Rav at the end of exile, in Eretz Yisrael. We have entered the last few years into a test where must not only refrain from mixing with them, but we must not find them sweet. Most people find the Erev Rav’s benefits to be sweet, and they have come to accept it as part of a religious Jewish life in Eretz Yisrael. This is like a “strange god” that a person makes which one mistakenly makes into a part of his Yiddishkeit, precisely because he is so mixed with it.

When one’s heart is purer and it’s working and active, his heart burns for the truth, he has the fire of a Torah scholar, a holy fire of the Torah that burns within him. He sees clearly how the entire goal of the heads of the Erev Rav (as Rav Chaim Soloveitchik said) is to spiritually obliterate the Jewish people by wishing to uprooting the foundations of the Torah, which is really a war they are waging to prevent Hashem’s revelation coming to the world. If our heart is pure, it is burning for the truth, and we will be clear that there are no ‘two sides’ here to the situation now - there is nothing to discuss, this is not a give and take discussion. It’s very clear. It is a profound Galus, and Hashem is directing the Creation on a course that He has planned in order for it to reach its purpose, and part of this plan is that the Erev Rav is trying to uproot everything that’s holy.

One who doesn’t understand this is like a blind person stumbling in the dark. Any give-and-take discussion about this is a mistake from the start. It is like when Lavan tried to uproot everything by wishing to destroy Yaakov. The Erev Rav is trying to destroy us, and Chazal said that if someone is trying to destroy, go destroy him before he destroys you.

In the past there were different sides to the issues, but now the path which we need to take is very clear. There always different sides to an issue, and the Gedolim differ about how to view a situation. In the past, there were different views of the Gedolim. The well-known view of the kadosh, Reb Yoelish from Satmar, was that we should not have any connection at all to the government, because it goes against the “Three Oaths” listed by Chazal. An opposite view, which was the other extreme, was that there are sparks of holiness here to connect to, but this was a very very dangerous path to take, only for rare individuals to take, and almost anyone who took this path fell from their Yiddishkeit completely. But now everyone agrees, that it’s a whole different story than the Galus that began 70 years ago. The Erev Rav is now deemed sweet to everyone, and now every Gadol will agree that we must totally separate from them, just like we separate a fetus from its mother if the fetus is endangering the mother’s life.

In the last few years, there is no other way for us except to separate ourselves from them. Mixing with the Erev Rav is not just another random problem we face in the exile. It is not merely like when Yaakov wanted to be saved from Esav even when Esav acted like a friendly brother to him and he was scared of how this would influence his soul. It is even more. This is not the return to Eretz Yisrael that we pray for, because it a whole new depth of the exile, when observant Jews mix with them, enjoying a “sweet” relationship with them. This can be either because the Erev Rav offers people various indulgences of the world, and money, and that draws the Jewish people into mixing with the Erev Rav and finding them enjoyable. As long as the Geulah hasn’t yet come, we must understand very clear that this is the depth of Galus, in which we are found in the false sweetness of the Erev Rav.

We must use our holy daas and cut ourselves off from them, totally, and let our hearts burn with pain against this rebellion against Hashem from the Erev Rav, which even earnest Jews are falling in with by becoming  connected with them and finding benefits from them that seem sweet. It is impossible to mix with Erev Rav without being affected by them. They are not just “mixed” with us, they make us believe that what they have is “sweet.” Most of us are so mixed with them that we don’t even realize it, and how much they are negatively affect us. That is the depth of their evil - they are so mixed with us that they go unnoticed. This is the depth of our exile – that the Erev Rav appears so “sweet” to us.

If anyone wants to merit eternal life, he must cut off himself from any contact with Erev Rav. It must pain us that there are earnest, G-d fearing Jews who are connecting themselves with the Erev Rav, the evil souls who rebel against Hashem with their decrees on Yiddishkeit. Instead, we must connect ourselves only with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and avoid the seemingly “sweet” relationship with members of the Erev Rav. If a frum Jew is connected with the Erev Rav, the Erev Rav will influence his life slowly but surely, and he will find the way of life of the Erev Rav to be “sweeter” than his…

So we ask Hashem to redeem us completely from exile. If, chas v’shalom we do not merit the Geulah yet, at least we can be zocheh to separate ourselves from the Erev Rav, and designate ourselves to be connected only with Hashem.