There is a classic folklore joke.
There was once a farmer. He looks at his horse, and he thinks to himself, "Oy, this horse... it eats so much hay! It costs so much money! Why does a horse need to eat so much? What if, bit by bit, I teach this horse to make do with less?"
So, he comes up with a plan. A very logical plan, according to his own mind. He says, "Today, I’ll take away just one piece of straw. The horse won't even notice."
The next day? Another piece of straw.
The horse keeps pulling the wagon. It’s a little slower, it looks a bit tired, but the farmer thinks, "Aha! Look at this! It’s working! We are making progress!"
Day after day, less food, less energy. Until finally, the big day arrives. The farmer is so proud. He goes to the barn, and he gives the horse absolutely nothing.
The next morning, he walks into the barn, ready to celebrate his great success. And what does he see? The poor horse is lying there, completely still. Dead on the floor.
The farmer throws his hands up in the air and sighs from the bottom of his heart: "Oy vey! What a tragedy! Just as I finally taught him how to live on nothing, just when he finally learned the trick... he goes and dies on me!"
It’s a silly joke.
But it’s not a laughing matter when one observes how flippantly some people treat the nourishing that they give their souls.
No Jew that I know, intentionally wants to weaken their Jewish identity to the point of mortal danger.
Many, figure that they can take away this observance, that observance and still keep the ‘Jewish Identity’ alive.
The farmer didn't try to starve the horse all at once. He took away just one piece of straw.
Declining Jewish observance works exactly the same way. Rarely does someone totally drop their Jewish observances cold turkey.
Instead, the inner negative voice whispers, "You're so busy today. Just skip this mitzvah you usually do." or "You can skip your daily schedule of daily Torah learning just this once, you will still be a good Jew."
When a person starts diminishing their Jewish observance bit by bit, they often feel completely fine at first. They think, "Look, I skipped this holiday, or I was a little more lenient on my standard of kosher, and I still feel connected, I’m still a good Jew!"
But what they don't realize is that their identity may be running on leftover reserves. The momentum of past observance is keeping them moving, but no new fuel is being put into the engine.
Spiritual decline often looks gradual until it suddenly looks absolute.
A person might wonder, "How did someone fall so much from the traditions of their youth?" The answer is almost never that they changed overnight. It’s that they were cutting back a single piece of straw every day for years, and eventually, the soul simply had nothing left to sustain its warmth.
If the formula works for the negative, it works even more powerfully for the positive.
It is of supreme importance to feed your soul often. You don’t need to become a perfect tzaddik overnight. Just do something. Even if it’s small.
Just like the soul can be starved bit by bit, it is built up bit by bit.
Adding just one Mitzvah, reading just one text of Torah a day might seem as insignificant as a single piece of straw. But that daily spiritual nutrition is exactly what keeps the Neshama (the soul) alive, vibrant, and strong enough to pull any wagon life throws at us.
Especially if we are talking about transmitting Judaism to the future generations.
You know as I do, that it is extremely unrealistic to expect your children to keep to your ‘red lines’ if you have not given them robust, and joyous Jewish experiences.
Where is the point of danger?
If one wants to be painfully honest, it is the first piece of straw that you withheld from the horse that led to its demise.
When it comes to Jewish continuity, that seemingly small inconsequential compromise can be the slippery slope that leads to total neglect.
On the flip side. That one mitzvah you do, can be the ‘entryway mitzvah’ to catapulting you deeper and higher into your Jewish experience.
In today’s Parsha the prophet Balaam tries to curse the Jews and it turns into a blessing.
From Aram does Balak the king of Moab bring me
From the mountains of the east, saying:
Come, curse me Jacob
And come, provoke wrath upon Israel
How shall I curse, whom G-d has not cursed?
How shall I evoke wrath, against whom G-d has not raged?
For from the top of mountains I see him
from the hills I behold him
It is a people that dwells alone
And is not reckoned among the nations.
Today more than ever, see how we are people who ‘dwells alone’.
There is no other nation that is singled out for hatred and bigotry, now and for thousands of years, as the nation of Israel.
Even here in Thailand.
I used to say proudly that there is no antisemitism because people don’t even know what Jews are.
No longer.
They now know who we are.
And while thank G-d the Thai people are overwhelmingly kindly, our enemies (assumedly sponsored by the usual sponsors of antisemitism worldwide) have launched an ongoing campaign in Thai media to sow seeds of Jewish/Israeli conspiracy and colonialism.
In a meeting with a Thai service provider this week, he innocently asked me why do ‘your people think that Ko Samui is the promised land’. When I told him there's no such thing, we have one promised land and it’s not in Thailand. It’s in the middle east and it's called Israel, he said ‘but I heard in the news that your people want to colonize Ko Samui as part of your promised land’….
Bizarre and preposterous as it may sound, the drip marketing of our enemies is having an effect.
Even if we had the copious amounts of money to do a counter campaign to present our people in a positive light, I am not sure that it would spread as well as the negative campaign.
What the outside world thinks about us and how it treats us is not up to us.
How we view ourselves, the attachment we feel to Judaism, this IS up to us.
This is something we can take steps to rectify.
It is tragic to me is when I see that some Jews only get the enmity that comes from our haters for being Jewish and don’t engage, celebrate and relish the specialty of being Hashems special people.
Who wants to be part of an ‘oy vey’ culture. We need to keep our Judaism joyously uplifting and inspirational.
If you want your children to be proud Jews you must DO Jewish things, and LIVE with pride in your Judaism.
When we try to hide, it doesn’t work. When we try to be ‘one of them’ they uncover our farce and get even more upset at our attempts to deceive them.
When it comes to Jewish education, sending to a Jewish day school is top tier.
Sending to a Jewish overnight camp is great as well.
Jewish day camp is a wonderful way to bolster your child’s Jewish identity.
For more information about the incredible day camp that my wife Nechama runs in Bangkok for Jewish children click here. (In today’s climate, security is a paramount concern, and we invest heavily in providing a secure setting).
Even if you are jittery about publicly celebrating your Judaism, the mitzvahs of the Torah are able to be kept at home. Lay tefillin. Light Shabbat candles. Make Kiddush and eat a family Shabbat dinner. Study Torah. All in the safe and secure privacy of your home. Instill Judaism into your ‘veins’ and ‘bloodstream’.
If you have the courage to wear your Judaism proudly, do it. It’s not just good for you, it helps others as well. Compounded benefit.
Someone recently told me that when they see Jewish people walking around with kippa’s identifiably Jewish, they feel strengthened and bolstered, even though they are too scared to do so.
A Jew who I put on tefillin with for the first time in his life at age 89 shared with me that he felt comfortable agreeing to put on tefillin with me as he had seen Jews wearing tefillin on planes and in airports.
You never know the extent of the ripple impact you have when you embrace and celebrate your Jewishness.
Ultimately, we should not back down or be dispirited. We the Jewish people must double down on our efforts to build a strong Jewish identity within ourselves, our families and our communities.
We should be careful not to replace authentic Jewish experience with a synthetic manmade one.
The only enduring and authentic Jewish identity is Torah and Mitzvahs that are given to us by G-d at Mt. Sinai through Moshe and the subsequent Prophets and then the Sages of the Talmud.
All other variations and adaptations come and go.
Only adherence to Hashems and His instructions to us, provide us with the ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ eternity.
On this Shabbat we also celebrate the 12th Tammuz.
99 years ago, late at night, on June 14th, 1927, the Sixth Rebbe—Rabbi Yosef
As word spread, Jews all over flocked to synagogues to pray, and activists from Latvia to the United States began advocating on his behalf.
The Rebbe's death sentence was commuted in favor of 10 years of hard labor, which was then further reduced to exile. The Rebbe was swiftly transported to far-off Kostroma, where he was to remain, isolated and under close surveillance, for 3 years.
Then, less than two weeks later, on the 12th day of the month of Tammuz—which was also his 47th Hebrew birthday, he was given the news that he was free to return home and resume his holy work.
The miracle of his release is celebrated annually by Chassidim as a "day of liberation" with Chassidic gatherings, inspiration, and joy.
It is ever more relevant today, as we face an onslaught of enemies who wish to sow fear and dread within us.
Standing undaunted and defiant in our connection to Hashem and in observance of His mitzvahs requires determination and stoic commitment.
In certain circumstances it even requires putting our lives on the line literally.
In our times for the most part it means that we need to remain steadfast in our commitment to Hashem. Indifferent if the face of the cynical voices, immune to the heretical social media posts and withstand any impure desire we may have to blend into the non-religious contemporary scene.
We are gifted by G-d to bear His Holy Name.
A nation who dwells alone. As the people of G-d who is One and Only.
Let us dance and celebrate this singularly blissful blessed life He gives us.
And pray for Mashiach to come NOW.
Rabbi Yosef Kantor