The Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was a Nazi collaborator; he worked together with Hitler. His mission was to kill and persecute the Jews and completely cleanse the Middle East of them. One time he came to the Brisker Rav with an idea: maybe they should join forces, work together, become partners. Why? Because the Brisker Rav was also opposed to the Jewish state; he didn’t believe it should come into existence. So the Mufti told him: we both have the same mission. I oppose the Jewish state, you oppose the Jewish state; let’s join forces and fight the Jewish people on this.
The Brisker Rav looked at him with contempt and told him: you’re foolish. You and I have totally different reasons. You do this because you hate the Jews and want to kill them. I oppose the Jewish state because I love the Jews and want to save them from what I believe is not a good thing.
The same story, with a slightly different nuance, happened with the tzaddik of Yerushalayim, Rav Aryeh Levin. Arab leaders approached him too and asked him to join forces. He told them: you don’t understand. I oppose the goyish part of those who are forming the Jewish state; you oppose the Jewish part. So we have nothing in common.
“From My Brother, From Esav”
When Esav comes in our parasha with four hundred men to fight Yaakov Avinu, Yaakov prays to Hashem: הַצִּילֵנִי נָא מִיַּד אָחִי מִיַּד עֵשָׂו (Bereishit 32:12), save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav. The Beit HaLevi asks: why the repetition? If he said “my brother,” we would know it’s Esav; he had no other brother. Why say it twice?
The Beit HaLevi answers that Yaakov Avinu prayed for two things. One, to be saved from Esav HaRasha, who comes to hurt him, to kill him, to fight him. Second, to be saved from “my brother”: from the brotherly love, the brotherly relationship. He doesn’t want the bad, and he doesn’t want the “good.” The good part here is as bad as the bad, and could be even worse, because being friendly with such a person brings you down spiritually; it makes you like him, part of the same agenda he has in the world. So we need to be separated from such people, for the good and for the bad.
And the Beit HaLevi says that since ma’aseh avot siman labanim, as Chazal and the Ramban tell us, whatever the Avot Hakedoshim went through will happen to their descendants in galut. Throughout history Esav persecuted Am Yisrael over and over again. But just as Esav changed when he met Yaakov, became friendly and wanted to walk with him, to be part of him, and Yaakov Avinu refused (no, I have to go a different path, I go much slower), so too in the future, says the Beit HaLevi, Esav will want to bring down Am Yisrael by being friendly, by being nice, by joining forces and being partners with them.
Joining Forces With Our Enemies
We see the same idea today. There are people who join forces with our worst enemies. Neturei Karta is not a large group, about a hundred people throughout the world, but you see their images everywhere, on the front line of Palestinian demonstrations. Even if you have different beliefs and a different way of life, that doesn’t mean you can go and join forces with those who want to kill us. They want to kill them too; if they could, they would kill them just like every other Jew. It’s all the same agenda, the big plan. So when they do that, they are fighting Am Yisrael, not some idea Am Yisrael has.
The same goes for the progressives who demonstrate at the Statue of Liberty, or blocked the Manhattan Bridge a couple of days ago, protesting together with the Palestinians. They may have a different thought about how the war should go; maybe they believe there should be a ceasefire. But even if you believe that, going to demonstrate with those who want to kill Am Yisrael, joining hands with them, fighting Am Yisrael and giving them strength to do it, is against the Torah.
That is what Yaakov Avinu prayed to Hakadosh Baruch Hu: at least from that, save me. It’s better to be persecuted by Esav than to be together with him, friendly with him, following the same ways he conducts himself.
Based on Rabbi Shay Tahan’s class “Vayishlach. When The Nazi- Mufti Offered The Brisker Rav Partnership.” (Parashat Vayishlach): watch the class.
