Shas Story
By Joseph Ehrlich
Chaim, a devout, religious Jew,
a member of the Shas political party and Israeli
Knesset, expires one night, and faces the Heavenly
Tribunal.
There, one of the angels of the
Heavenly Tribunal asks Chaim to judge another Jew
seeking to enter the Heavenly Gates. He is a Jew who
has lead an exemplary life, routinely attends a
non-Orthodox synagogue on the Sabbath, but in the
afternoon, after schul, works, and also fails to keep
a Kosher home. Chaim, without hesitation, expresses
reservation about the man since he works on the
Sabbath and fails to keep a Kosher home.
The angel, on hearing Chaim’s
reservations, tells Chaim that he, the angel, has
been appointed to speak on the man’s behalf. He
tells Chaim that the Heavenly Tribunal has asked that
Chaim consider his, the angel’s, pleas on the
man’s behalf. Chaim beams due to the import of
the honor bestowed upon him.
The angel then tells Chaim that
this man has some very honorable qualities: when they
needed a minyon at his synagogue for someone needing
to say Kaddish, the man always helped out; when he
faced anti-semitic ridicule at the company he worked
for, he always stood up and defended his Jewishness;
while he did not keep a Kosher home, he never hid his
Jewishness but made it known and would not eat pork
product, causing him to compromise his business and
social standing among his business peers. The angel
relays to Chaim that the man has genuine love for
Torah that brought him to the synagogue nearly each
Shabbas to daven and hear the Rabbi’s sermons.
Chaim however hardly pauses
before declaring that while the man has admirable
qualities the man chose the secular road, failing to
make the sacrifice to commit to the religious tenets
provided by the Torah. Before Chaim can say anything
more, two additional angels from the Heavenly
Tribunal appear, and the three angels speaking in
unison, tell Chaim that the man will in fact be
admitted to the Heavenly Gates. The angels tell Chaim
that the man has shown love for G-d, love for Torah,
and the willingness to protect G-d’s name.
They tell Chaim that he should
recognize that while he Chaim lived in a community
where it was routine and expected that a man such as
himself appear at schul, keep a Kosher home, and
daven and study Torah daily, the man Chaim was
judging lived in just the opposite environment which
compelled him to sacrifice his personal interests to
uphold his Jewishness and preserve G-d’s name.
The angels further tell Chaim that the man’s
faults were personal in nature, denying himself and
thus his family the benefits of a Jewish religious
lifestyle as provided by Torah, but that he otherwise
showed Covout Hashem in the willingness to stand out
as a Jew and defend G-d’s name. In other words,
the man Chaim was quick to ridicule showed Covout
Hashem. “You, on the other hand, Chaim,”
the angels declare, “ have not shown Covout
Hashem.” Chaim gasped, and asked the angels what
he ever did in such regard.
They responded: “You
managed, as a member of the Israeli Knesset, to stand
by when one of the great gifts of Jewish history, the
land of Eretz Yisroel, was being given back to those
whom Hashem stripped it from to offer it to the
Jewish people as He promised in the Torah.”
“I abstained,” offered Chaim, saying that
as a member of the Knesset he never voted for
anything remotely connected to the return of Hashem’s
gift to the Jewish people. The angels echoed in,
“Knowing Chaim that your abstention allowed the
course for the return of Jerusalem, the Holy City,
and Eretz Yisroel.” “We are members
of the Heavenly Tribunal,” the angels continued.
“Would you dare to think we are mislead with the
implications of your deed? Do you for a moment think
we should be forgiving because you blindly follow
your peers in such a wrong? Do you for a moment think
the Heavenly Tribunal cannot recognize the folly of
masking the deed with frivolous rationalizations
regarding Shas educational programs, when the
leadership defiles Hashem’s gift to the Jewish
people while accepting favors and rewards? Did you
not with your ancestors spend two thousand years in a
Diaspora studying why ten of the twelve tribes were
destroyed before the loss of the First Temple? Thus
you tell us how you can compare yourself with the man
whom you judged today, whom we tell you would have
sacrificed everything to preserve the Holy City and
Land given by Hashem Himself?”
With that question, Chaim awoke
in his bed, with great shame that his years of study,
davening, and commitment to Hashem and Torah, made
him nothing better than a man who blindly followed
his peers and elders in a road which demeaned Hashem
and His name to the peoples of the world. Here
he was ready to implicate a man without comparative
Jewish experience and background, when such a man
would have served Hashem far better than he. Chaim
recognized that he journeyed that night to the
borders of the next life, and with his heart and soul
thanked Hashem for opening his eyes and giving him
the opportunity to take the correct road so that he
could enter the Heavenly Gates.
End
Since September 1984, Mr.
Ehrlich has interpreted that Hashem may mock the
Jewish people for failing to properly honor His gift
to them by having them voluntarily return it.