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Bitachon 257 - Victory in Battle

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Ari Goldwag Torah avatar
Ari Goldwag Torah

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You're listening to the 257th edition of the B talking podcast. And we are going to have three different Sukum from Divrei Hayamim from Chronicles. One from Divrei Hayamim Aleph, two from Divrei Hayamim Bet. And it's each one is just a short uh set of explanations. But the foundation of the ideas here are amazing and it'll be a little bit challenging to our modern ears to hear some of the stuff, but let's let's listen in and see what we can take from it. Possuk says in Divrei Hayamim Aleph, perek perek hey, possuk chof. Vayei'oz u'lahem Klall Yisrael was helped Vayinnosnu viyadom ha-ha Gri'im. Interestingly possuk tells us about how the enemies of the Jewish people, which at that time, were no different than today, were Arabs, were people from Yishmael. V'chol Sheim El Hashem gave them over into our hands and all those that were with them. Why? Why were we successful at war with these people from Yishmael? Ki leilokim zachu l'milchama. Because we called out to Hashem in our war. V'natzar lahem ki vat'chu voy. And Hashem listened to our prayers because we trusted in him. So if you want to know what is the secret success for the secret to success for the Jewish people in our battles, we're going to see in these three Sukum, in these three different contexts, the the secret of success is trusting in Hashem. Is making ourselves completely bottle touch him. Says the Matos Vinatola and Kiva at heart feel awesome. Natola means that Hashem paid attention to and received the feel is that they directed to him. He brings here from the food says you read it says like this called a son costume show you straw. What is the power? What is the the thing that gives us the power that our arrows and slings that we send our enemies are successful I should be loyal Islam it. By title telling us kind of a little how do we practice sending our our arrows? How do we practice our aim? How do we get success in war because I will say for a year sure. Who say what time the king is that which it says in the book of straightness which is a reference to the tire. When there will be war in your land excuse me I'll have sorry sorry as him. From the oppressors who oppress you. The tire gives us instructions. What we are to do when we are attacked. We blow on the trumpets. What's the point of the trumpets? The trumpets awaken us. They remind us they have us focus on what when it's cartoon of national came. You will be mentioned in front of Hashem your God. And I shot to my bacon you will be saved from your enemies. Shake your actual zoo he be pet. What is the idea of blowing chauffeur blowing the trumpets? It's something that's done with the mouth. Tefillah of a Sacha noonim. And it's not just the instruments, of course, Rosh Hashanah. We don't just blow the shofar. We blow the shofar and we daven. Right? It's the prayers. It's the supplications. And I want to point out the word Tachanunim, which means supplications. The root of the word is chanan, which means to ask for a free gift. It means that we say, "Hashem, I don't deserve this." Please, Hashem, help me. Keep Al ki yitz'aku laHashem b'tzara lahem. When a person, when Am Yisrael calls out to Hashem and we have difficulty, we say, "Hashem, it's only upon you." Ki alecha anu shaanim, eyneinu tzofiyot l'yeshuatcha. So, they make these sounds of the shofar. We bring we have the shofar and we have the trumpets. We make the sounds of the shofar and the trumpets. V'chazotzrot u'shofarot harieu lifnei haMelech Hashem. U'chavod u'tfila. The purpose, he says explicitly, of the trumpets was to awaken us in our prayer. To help us be able to direct properly our prayers. So, on whom do we rely? It's on Hashem. Shehu ikar she machmat zeh anu nishkarim laHashem. So, the main thing that because of it we will be remembered in front of Hashem and we will be saved. Kamrai, the pasuk says, "Ki le le Elokim zakhu b'milchama." That's our pasuk. We called out to Hashem in war. V'natnu lahem ki bat'chu bo. Hashem listened to us. He answered our prayers cuz we trusted in him. Says the Malbim, interestingly, She Yeravam azram b'milchama. Yeravam, who was the king of the people of Israel, right? We had two kingdoms at that time. We had Yehuda and Yisrael. Kingdom of Judah, the kingdom of Israel. Right? So, these two separate kingdoms the kingdom of Judah was ruled by the Davidic line. And often the kingdom of Yisrael was ruled by the children of of Joseph of Ephraim. Jeroboam was Jeroboam the first was from Ephraim. And he actually helped, it seems. I didn't look at this particular inside, but he he Jeroboam, the king of Israel, actually helped the king of Judah. K'nei Yisrael Amasya, he was the one who won the war. K'var K'zav Sh'hu Heshiv Et Amasya K'she Amasya Yehuda. He's the one who was able to repel Damascus. And he was able to to help out the people of Judah. V'lo Nosnu Ha Agrim Yodam. The Ishmael people were referred to here as Hagrim, right? Cuz Ishmael comes from Hagar, that was Abraham's wife. Ayeda She'yishaku L'Elokim. B'vatchu Vai. How did this happen? Cuz they called out to Hashem and they trusted in Hashem. So, it's very interesting cuz as we're going to see in the next pasuk in the next section. So, usually the people the the northern kingdom of the Jewish people, they were more inclined toward idolatry. They were more inclined, I would say, toward Kaichi Ve'etzmi Yadi, towards believing that their own hand was that which which was saving them. But in this context, so the people of the northern kingdom actually depended on Hashem, and because of that they were able to succeed and also help out the kingdom the southern kingdom. Now, we bring a pasuk which is in Devarim Devarim Beis in Second Chronicles. Part two, Gam is good class. That's a very difficult passage and it's a very difficult story and context. But basically, in this context of the northern and southern kingdoms of the Jewish people were battling against each other. And the southern kingdom, which was the kingdom of Yehuda, decimated the northern kingdom. We're going to see the numbers. It's actually pretty scary. But hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed by their fellow Jews. And the message and the lesson of it really has to do with It's a difficult lesson for us to hear. We live in a western society which kind of can't handle war. Can't handle battles. Can't handle hearing about death. But let's hear the message and understand what it means to us. Passage describes this battle and says that the northern kingdom, people of Israel, were were subdued by the southern kingdom, the people of Judah. And what was the source of the success of the southern kingdom? It was because they trusted they they leaned on Hashem, the God of their forefathers. There was a battle for the soul of the Jewish people. Would the northern kingdom win? Those who served idols. Those who denied their connection to the past, those who denied their connection to the base of Migdal, to the temple, to the Davidic line. Those who denied their connection to Sinai, the Torah of Sinai. Would they win or would the southern kingdom who maintained their connection to Hashem, maintained their connection to Torah, and to Yiddishkeit, would would they vanquish the northern kingdom? the answer is that those who held on to Hashem were victorious. He brings here from the safer nari stroll to tell me that I'm calm. Avia was the king of the southern kingdom. He was from the Davidic line. And really Hashem should have forsaken him. Because he spoke wickedly. You're going to see what he did. He He's He said things that he shouldn't have said. But but although he did something wrong, he also did something right. And that was when he came to trusting in Hashem and when it came to matters of holiness, he did things right. He looked about it. It was as if it were Hashem's honor to battle on his behalf and to cause destruction to his enemies this time. Okay, so he did do a sin. He spoke wickedly. But that is going to be paid for separately. There's going to be a separate um a separate reckoning for that. So, there was a trumpet blast or a shofar blast that was sounded, which as we saw before, it's something that has the power to redirect our attention to Hashem. Because it was sounded, so Hashem caused Jeroboam and his people to be struck. People of of the northern kingdom. And Abijah and Judah were successful. Chaim Adin says the Seder Olam Rabbah that it was correct. She's got me Torah always be tired. That those who kept the Torah should be able to be successful and vanquish those who left the Torah. And Abijah the mightiest warrior And if it was true that Abijah Although it was true that Abijah had said things that shouldn't be said but the rest of the people who were with him, the people of Judah they had not sinned. They were waging war as is the way of the land. Now if you read the story so you'll see that naturally they should have they should have lost. Southern kingdom wasn't as strong, didn't have as many men. But the difference is that they trusted in Hashem and in his salvation. Hashem immediately helped them. They were able to vanquish their enemies. To the point that the northern kingdom the army of the northern kingdom had to run away to escape from the people of Judah. They had no appeal. The fact that the northern people were running it caused their downfall. Cuz Hashem placed them into their hands. Half a million. It's crazy numbers. 500,000 people fell. I don't know if it means that they were captured. I don't know if it means that they literally were all killed. Whatever the case may be, the northern kingdom was vanquished by the southern kingdom even though the numbers were not in the favor of the southern kingdom. To the point that those who were many, those who those who were larger in number, were struck. They were sub- They were They became subservient. Then it was clear, came very clear, and this is the lesson for us from the difficult story, but the lesson nevertheless is that those who hold on to Hakadosh Baruchu, they are given the true power. And those who leave Hashem, they lose their power. They lose their power. Those who had the hashgacha pr- those who were connected to Hashem and had Hashem on their side, so to speak, they were victorious. And those who had left Hashem are the ones who fell. I think that it's a very difficult and and stark message for us even today. We can see that those who are attached to Hashem, those who are attached to the Torah, so the culture of of Torah and connection to Hashem is growing stronger. Takes time. The culture of those who left Hashem and depended on their own power is getting weaker. It's gotten weaker over the the centuries. Those who tried to create a new Jew, a new a new religion, that's gone its way. It's not completely gone, but it's doesn't have the same power, doesn't have hold the same sway as it once did. That's our possuk, that's what it means when it says that the children of Israel were subdued at that time and and the children of Judah were strengthened cuz they trusted in Hashem, God of their forefathers. Our possuk is another chapter later in Divrei Hayamim. King Asa called out to Hashem, his God, and he said, There's no difference for you. You can help somebody whether he has a lot or a little bit of strength. Help us, Hashem our God, key aleinu lehishea'enu, cuz we depended we leaned on you. And in your name we came upon this great mass of our enemies. Now, don't hold back anything. Nothing can stop you, my God. There's no difference for you, Hashem. You can help a person whether he's got a a large amount of people helping him or whether there's only a small amount of people helping him. Because shimcha We're talking about shimcha, those who trust in your name. Nothing can stop your power. Noth- nothing can hold back your hand from being successful if you so wish. Brings here from the beer I grew up being robbed like Coyote if you have ever. When it comes to natural things, it really is true, you know, in a natural sense, a person succeeds you follow natural success uh guidelines. All right, if you want to win a war, if you have to have an issue you take lure requires strength. So, she can never rob him. Certainly if you have a lot of people, you have a better chance of winning. Is that Sure I don't have any laser beam rub. I know if I have a laser mile. He's saying you can you can help out and cause a person to win whether they use the more successful means, the regular way they ain't got or whether the person does not have any power who are often a policy or sir. Which is the less powerful way of winning. Kill like a nation of Shima bonu. We have depended upon you and in your name we have come should I know I ain't you. You shouldn't have a life of her. Russian across the lake you should have we depended upon you a sham cuz you are the call the you are called the God of Israel. We should have a burner who might have a mask here and Shima tomato. And we have come with your name which means to say we are always mentioning your name. So, the guy is saying to us two powerful things. Number one is that a sham so to speak has a name. His name is the God of Israel. And therefore intrinsic to that name is the fact that a sham takes care of us. He cares about us. He's our God. He's the God of Israel. He's the God who takes care of the people of Israel. The second point is that you want to know how to be successful in a war where you have the power you don't have the power you want to know how to be successful in challenges of life is by constantly mentioning Hashem's name constantly invoking Hashem's name is with Hashem's help we will succeed Hashem please help me I'm constantly asking Hashem Hashem please help me Hashem please help me get through this challenge Hashem please help me get through this dark time Hashem please help me recognize you in the good time Hashem please help me see that you are the one who's providing me with success you're the one who's doing this for me those are the methods and techniques that we used to strengthen our and in so doing see Hashem in our lives at all times thank you so much for listening see you again next time