Q:
What does it mean לא ידח ממנו נדח, that’s explained by some people to mean that Hashem will not let anybody be lost?
A:
Those who are lost will not be lost. לא ידח ממנו נדח. That means as follows: If somebody did not choose to go lost, but circumstances caused him to stray, let’s say he was sent into exile by wicked conquerers, Hakodosh Boruch Hu is going to reclaim him, either in this world or in the World To Come. There are ways that Hakodosh Boruch Hu can send messages to lost Jews. Because even a Jew who grew up in a wrong environment, without benefit of teachers still has opportunities.
But why is it that Jews in Brighton joined the Eastern cults? Now in Brighton, it certainly is not a place where Far-Eastern religions flourish. There are more synagogues in Brighton than there are places where they worship idols. So how is it that young Jews decided to come en masse from Brighton, from Bensonhurst, they shave their heads and let long pigtails grow down from the middle of their bald heads and they put on saffron garments?
I once saw a whole tribe of them coming through the subway on King’s Highway. And a mashgiach in a hotel in Far Rockaway told me there was a Jewish wedding, but the friends of the bridegroom were Buddhists so 150 young men and women came to the wedding and before he was married, they went through the ceremonies on their knees and they bumped their heads on the floors, before a Jewish wedding, worshipping the idols. How did that happen?
Now they had every possible opportunity, because in that place itself there was a rabbi, and there was kashrus, and there was a Jewish Torah ceremony. It was done properly. They could have said, “Let us understand what the Torah has for us.” No, they’re not interested in the Torah. They’re interested only in what foreign religions have to teach them.
These people are nidachim because they chose to be nidach. For them, the rule doesn’t apply לא ידח ממנו נדח. No, no. If you choose willingly, there’s no excuse for you. It’s available. Here, how far away is Mirrer Yeshiva from Brighton? How far are the Brighton yeshivos? There are yeshivos k’tanos in Brighton. There are rabbonim in Brighton. How far are they away from you? And you chose something that flourishes on the other side of the world, and you rejected what you had at hand. There’s no question that there’s going to be a reckoning for all that, and for them that promise doesn’t hold good.
(February 28, 1985)
