Chapter 1

היתה לי דמעתי לחם יומם ולילה
באמר אלי כל היום אי׳ אלקיך

“My tears have been my food day and night, for they [my enemies] say to me all day: ‘Where is your G-d?’ ”1

Whenever a calamity befalls the Jewish people [Heaven forbid], the Nations say: “Where is your G-d?”

The [taunts of the] Jewish heretics are even worse. Concerning these heretics our sages say:2 “They are even more disrespectful,” i.e. their heresy is even greater than that emanating from the Nations, especially when compared to those believing gentiles known as “the righteous among the nations.”3 Jewish heretics not only taunt observant Jews by asking “Where is your G-d,” but make sport of them.

[They fail to realize that] the many afflictions visited upon the Jewish people (may G-d be merciful) all come so that we will repent. This is attested to by literally hundreds of verses in the Torah, Prophets and Writings which state that all Jewish travails (Heaven forbid) throughout the generations are G-d’s admonishment-punishment, the purpose of which is to encourage the Jews to repent. Whenever we repented, G-d sent us His salvation.

However, Jewish “freethinkers” exploit these Heavenly admonitions to ridicule Torah and mitzvos , using our misery to achieve their own ends. Their ridicule not only leads other Jews to forsake Torah and mitzvos, but also causes Jews to forsake their belief in the promises G-d made to us concerning the ultimate Redemption. They thus cause Jews to follow the timeworn [and long discredited] path of their false ideology: that we must seek our protection and succor from the world-powers of Ashur and Mitzrayim.

Korach’s sons [who authored the psalm quoted at the outset of this discourse] lament this fact when they state: “My tears have been my food day and night, for they [my enemies] say to me all day: ‘where is your G-d?’ ” Aside from the gruesome physical tortures that Jews endure during exile, we are tormented spiritually as well at the hands of the Nations, and even more so at the hands of our “brothers,” our “enemies,”4 who deny Torah and mitzvos and cause Jews to forsake their identities and their religion.

Korach’s children, Assir, Elkanah and Aviasaf, had originally taken part in their father’s plot to rebel against Moshe and Aharon. However, they recanted and withdrew from the actual rebellion.5 When the earth opened to swallow up Korach and his band, Assir, Elkanah and Aviasaf also fell in, but since they had repented, the place where they fell remained open and they were not buried as were Korach and his band. [Upon experiencing this miraculous salvation,] they sang G-d’s praises.

After they emerged from the hole, the spirit of prophecy rested on them and they foretold the destruction of the Holy Temple and the bitter times of exile. This psalm is thus one of those that speak of the acerbic times of exile. During such times, we not only suffer in a terrible physical manner, but what is even worse, our feelings toward Torah and mitzvos become glacial and shallow.

All this is brought about by those heretics who deny G-d and His Torah, and who are similar to the nation of Amalek, concerning which it is written: “Asher korcha baderech.”6 We are here commanded to remember “how he met you along the way [to Eretz Yisroel and tried to destroy you]….” [Korcha may alternately be rendered “he made you frigid,” from the Hebrew word kar, meaning cold. Derech (“way”) may also refer to the path of Torah and mitzvos. Thus Amalek seeks to make Jews frigid to the path of Torah and mitzvos, so that we will become [may it never come to pass] heretics and disbelievers in G-d His Torah. The heretics do this by spreading the false notion that “the House of Israel is similar to all other Nations.”7

[Truly, this is] contrary, [as opposite] (as pure is from impure) to that which is written in the holy Torah:8 “You shall be My treasure from among all the Nations,” and “I have set you apart from all the Nations.”9 [We also find in the Torah how] our master, Moshe, the true friend10 and shepherd of Israel, asks of G-d: “that we may be distinguished, I and Your people, from all the nations upon the face of the earth.”11

The heretics, who deny all this, profane the ideology of Torah.

Indeed, Jews have a Divine mission in this world, as the Midrash12 notes in its comment on the word Bereishis (“In the beginning”): “There are beis reishes, two things which are deemed ‘firsts’ the Torah is deemed ‘first’ and the Jewish people are deemed ‘first’ [and the world was created for them].” Thus the purpose of creation is that Jews rectify the world. This is why Jews are needed in this material world. This is analogous to the well-known story13 of the Alter Rebbe ’s follower who was a great Torah scholar, very wealthy and extremely charitable besides. Because of his trustworthiness, people would invest their savings with him at very low interest. This of course was done in the halachically permissible manner of heter iskeh.

It happened that this individual’s financial situation suddenly took a turn for the worse and he suffered tremendous setbacks, losing not only his own money but also the funds entrusted to him by others.

When the chassid appeared before the Alter Rebbe in Liozna, he cried long and loud about his bitter state, telling the Alter Rebbe how he needed money to repay his debts, to marry off his children, and to sustain himself and his already married children.

The Alter Rebbe thought for a while, and then said to the chassid : “All you tell me is what you need; what you are needed for [i.e. what your Divine mission is] you neglect to mention.”

This is what is meant by the teaching that the Jewish people have a Divine mission to refine the world through Torah and mitzvos.

In summary: Aside from the physical afflictions of exile, the Jews also suffer spiritually. This suffering is brought about by the Nations, and even more so by the Jewish heretics who scoff at the concept of the ultimate Redemption. These heretics lead Jews down the long discredited road of assimilation and heresy, profaning the sanctity of Torah and mitzvos. Their impact is bemoaned by the prophets, who lament the fact that the Jewish people have forgotten their Divine mission.