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THE TRAGEDY OF OUR HISTORY
B.S.D.
Rabbi Shimon Kessin
 We are responsible for the suffering and tragedies that befell us
What dawns on us at this point is a thought so terrifying that it should cause us to shake and tremble. The tragedies and catastrophes of the last two thousand years didn't have to happen! The blood and gore that fills the pages of Jewish history could have been prevented or at least substantially diminished. If we as a people had truly grasped what our Chazal saw so clearly back then and if we had only taken their admonitions seriously, then how many Jewish lives could have been saved. If we had only realized that it is the way that we are judged, either with strict justice or with mercy, and not the fact that we are judged that is responsible for our tragedies, then how much Jewish suffering could have been averted.
Woe unto us as a people for having ignored the prescriptions of our spiritual advisors and instead followed our own ineffective remedies. We have betrayed ourselves because we have ignored the voice of Hashem speaking out to us in every generation saying, "Hear Me, My children. I can save you from your sins even though I must judge them because I have great compassion and mercy but this is only so if you do not oppose it. Desist from your jealousies, conflicts, hatreds and Loshon Hora and I will silence all of your accusers and protect you under My wings. My great mercy is yours to take. Don't turn it away!"
The reason why Loshon Hora affects the Jews more severely than the gentiles
At this point you may ask a very important question. If the Loshon Hora of the Jews is so damaging, what about the Loshon Hora of the non Jews, since they speak just as much, if not more of it? Why doesn't their Loshon Hora have the same damaging effect on their destiny? Specifically, in the comparison with the Chinese cited before, why have the Chinese been able to override the damage of their Loshon Hora and produced a population of over a billion people whereas the Jews were unable to do so and they thereby diminished their numbers to a fraction of what they should have been?
The answer to this question points to the amazing spiritual level of the Jews in contrast to all the other peoples of the world. When Yitzchok Avinu blessed Yaakov, he said "the voice is the voice of Yaakov (it sounded like Yaakov's voice) but the hands are the hands of Eisav (he felt like Eisav to the touch)"42. On the simple level, Yitzchok was confused as to the identity of the son who was before him.
The power of the Gentiles lies in their hands
On a deeper level, Yitzchok Avinu was saying something very profound. He was describing the essential difference between Yaakov's descendants, the Jews, and Eisav's descendants, the gentiles. He was describing their power centers. In order for the gentiles to succeed in the physical world, they must use their hands, that is, they must do something physically. In order for the Jews to succeed in the physical world, they must use their voice, that is, they can rely on simply saying something, meaning, they can rely on their prayers to Hashem and He will enable them to succeed by his direct intervention into physical reality43.
The power of the Jews lies in their mouths and their prayers
When the gentiles want to succeed at war they must use the brute force of their hands or use physical technology. The Jews, because of the power of their mouth, can utter a series of prayers and vanquish the enemy through Hashem's intervention. There are many examples of this ability as seen in the battle of Gideon44 and in the battle of King Chizkiyah against the Assyrians when they surrounded Jerusalem45. King David clearly points to this ability when he says: "These rely upon chariots and these rely upon horses but we - in the name of Hashem, our G-d, we call out. They slumped and fell, but we arose and were invigorated"46. The unique ability of the Jews to stir reality with the power of their mouths and prayers as opposed to their hands alludes to their extraordinary spiritual elevation. This is why the Torah obligates them for 613 commandments. The gentiles, who must rely on actual physical intervention by their hands are not so elevated and are therefore only obligated to the seven commandments of the sons of Noach.
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