Words From Rabbi White

I have said over this personal story several times in Chevra Shaas, but to the best of my recollection, I have never written it down. And I do believe that it deserves to be printed.

You see, many years ago, Balaq was my Bar Mitsvah parasha. We belonged to a large synagogue in Boston. Bar mitsvah boys were not allowed to read the Torah, as that was the exclusive job of the official Torah reader. However, I did, of course, read the haftarah, which was taught by one of the assistant Rabbis. Our Hebrew school was also part of the synagogue, and was housed in the synagogue building.

One day, in Hebrew school class, some time before the bar mitsvah, there was a knock on the classroom door. I remember it vividly: “Rabbi Pole [the Bar mitzvah teacher] has to speak to Menahem.” As I walked across the room, and was about to leave, my teacher, an extremely learned and nice man, and a fine pedagogue, Mr. Louis Harris, asked me “what’s your parasha?” I answered “Balaq.”  Without missing a beat, he quoted the first verse [from the prophet Micah chapter 5] ve-haya she’eirit ya`aqov be-qerev `ammim rabbim ke-tal me’et HaShem “the remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many nations like dew from HaShem.”

And Mr. Harris explained: the time will come when the remnant of the Jewish people [having been decimated in the holocaust, which was still in everyone's consciousness] will be accepted among many nations like dew from HaShem. The Hebrew word for “like dew” is ke-tal. And the gematria [the numerical value of the letters in that word] is 59. And Israel was the 59th nation admitted into the United Nations!!

Now, I am not a "gematrist," not a numerologist. But that brief comment by Mr. Harris made a great and lasting impression on me. For it impressed upon me the great miracle of the establishment of the State of Israel.

Of course, the UN has, for the most part, abandoned Israel. Yet, as my great teacher from later years, Rav Joseph Soloveitchik, said in his famous speech entitled Qol Dodi Dofeq, perhaps it was by Divine guidance that the UN was established for that one purpose: to recognize the State of Israel, and to include it in the family of nations.

Shabbat shalom; we pray for peace in Israel and in the whole world.