This week’s Parshah contains the biblical source for ‘Grace After Meals’. “And you will eat and you will be satisfied and you will bless Hashem, your G-d, for the good that He gave you” – ‘Bentching’.
Bentching is made up of four blessings – some of our earliest sourced texts. We open with a blessing composed by Moses himself, said as a thanksgiving for the heavenly food – Manna that fell for the Jews during their forty years in the desert. The Manna was an instrumental part in meriting to receive the Torah. In the words of the Medresh, “only a generation of Manna-eaters could receive the Torah”. The second blessing was instituted by Yehoshua in gratitude for the gift of actually entering into The Promised Land – Eretz Yisroel. The third blessing was compiled between King David and his son King Solomon in recognition of Jerusalem the home of the Temple.
The ‘Meshach Chochmah’ (1843–1926) points out how these three Blessings express gratitude on three of the most fundamental elements in the make up of the Jewish Nation – Torah, Eretz Yisroel and The Temple.
However he points out how the fourth blessing is a bit of an anomaly. The Beth Din of Rabban Gamliel (70 CE) inserted this blessing after witnessing the miracles that took place at the town of Beitar. After Yerushalyim and the second Temple had been destroyed, a suburban town called Beitar still thrived, with a staggering 64 million school children, and that was just the boys! The vast inhabitants did not imagine that it was possible for Beitar to be defeated. In fact the General of the huge army was thought of to be the Messiah. When its destruction finally took place a Roman army of eighty thousand legions was needed to defeat Beitar. Assuming each legion had one hundred soldiers – that makes eight million soldiers! The blood from the hundred of millions people slaughtered there formed two streams leading into the Mediterranean. The bodies were left to rot for seven years, until the new Roman ruler ordered the burial of the corpses. The Blessing of ‘Hatov v’hameitiv’ was instituted over the fact that they were allowed in to bury the dead, and that the bodies had not decomposed in seven years! In fact the ‘quasi-yom-tov’ of the 15th of Av that we celebrated this week, is mainly due to these two great miracles that happened on this day. It is described in the Mishnah as being the most special of all the Yomim Tovim.
Without wanting to belittle the magnitude of the miracles that took place, it seems hardly in line with the other Blessings in Bentching which commemorate the main building blocks that make up Judaism.
Rav Zev Leff of Moshav Mattityahu asked further, Halachah dictates that on the day when someone is reburied it’s a day of mourning similar to the original day that the person was buried. Why then did they see fit to make a Yom-Tov to commemorate the reburial? Moreover there was no resurrection of the dead or rebuilding of Beitar or Yerushalayim, so why institute a Blessing of thanksgiving, why the song and dance at all? On the contrary why did they not make a fast day because of the overall bad situation – but due to the two miracles only fast till midday?!!?
The ‘Meshach Chochmah’ offers a consoling answer, befitting for the weeks of consolation following Tisha B’Av. The first three blessings are indeed the three building blocks of Judaism. But unfortunately there is a fourth building block. There is the building block of the wandering Jew, the Jew in Golus – exile. In Golus too there is nothing haphazard, the same Governing Force that provided for us physically and spiritually in the forty years in the wilderness by way of the Manna and the Torah, and brought us to Eretz Yisroel and the Temple in Yerushalayim, is still guiding us through the exile.
Beitar getting wiped out was indeed the knock out blow, which finalised the beginning of our current exile. The Jews thought that this was the end. Seven years later when they witnessed the incredible miracles at Beitar, they understood that there was a fourth building block. One that would stay with them throughout the bitter exile. Whenever all seems lost, Hashem reminded them that He is still very much there.
Similarly said Rav Leff after the destruction of the Temple nothing was going to be 100% perfect. If you’re looking for the perfect state you’ll never be happy. Exile will indeed be the end, full of disappointments. We need to learn to see all the small things that are good, and when we manage to hone in on such an opportunity we must celebrate a Yom-Tov over it. A day that is 1% good is enough of a reason to thank Hashem. Only with the message of Beitar can we survive Golus.
Good Shabbos, Yaakov