To Read and Weep. The Merit of Those Killed for Kiddush Hashem from the Words of

The Zohar says that the soul that is killed for the sanctification of Hashem truly needs to enter directly into the Garden of Eden! However, it does not enter the Garden of Eden; it sits at the gates of the Garden of Eden, it sits at the entrance of the Garden of Eden, and it says—I will not enter the Garden of Eden until Hashem avenges my blood! I will not enter until Hashem destroys these murderers and uproots them from the world!

And this is the secret that was revealed to Moshe Rabbeinu in the portion of the "Avenger of Blood," and therefore Moshe understood that the vengeance of the Children of Israel is necessary so that the souls may enter the Garden of Eden, and through this, it will be possible to influence knowledge to the world, and abundance to the world. The first thing is to exact vengeance upon those who cut their lives short; the first thing is to exact vengeance from those who caused this. It is written that the sun cries and weeps every morning, and it sings, "O Hashem, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, appear!" And every morning, it is not willing to shine until the vengeance of the people of Israel is exacted! It does not want to shine! Until it is forced to shine by having arrows and spears shot at it, as it is written, "The sun and moon stood still in their habitation; at the light of Your arrows they went, and at the shining of Your glittering spear" (Habakkuk 3).

The sun wants to remain in the "Zevul" firmament; it does not want to descend at all to illuminate the world! The sun and also the moon do not want to descend to the world until arrows and lightning are shot at them. Every day they say—we will not go out until You avenge the vengeance of the people of Israel, until You avenge the vengeance of the spilled blood.

"Sing for joy, O nations, with His people, for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries, and will make atonement for His land and His people." What is "Sing for joy, O nations, with His people"? What is "Praise Hashem, all you nations; laud Him, all you peoples, for His kindness has prevailed over us"? Why do the nations need to praise and laud Hashem? Rather, the whole world knows that the Torah of Israel is the Torah of truth! The God of Israel is the true God! And when they see that there are troubles for the people of Israel, then everyone falls from faith! All the nations fall from faith! They say, "What... the Jews are a quiet people! They do not harm anyone! They do not do evil to anyone! Why is this happening to them?" The whole world looks and waits—will Hashem avenge the blood of His people Israel, or will He not? After all, they have a true God! When will He avenge? Why does He not avenge? And when they hear that He is avenging, when they see that He is avenging the blood of His servants that was spilled, then "Sing for joy, O nations, with His people, for He will avenge the blood of His servants"—they praise Hashem! All the nations return to their faith! Everyone begins to believe that Hashem is the God! Hashem must avenge the vengeance of Israel for the sake of the nations as well! Because even toward the nations, there is a desecration of Hashem's name! For when the nations see that Jews are being killed, that Jews are being abused, they think that the God of the Jews is weak, Heaven forbid. When Jews are slaughtered, the nations lose their faith! And through the vengeance, their faith is restored to them.

That Hashem takes vengeance on the murderers is only for the sake of the nations! It is not for us! We are not interested in the Nazis, in the terrorists, in any of them; they are no more than snakes! Than scorpions! Just as a snake lives and a scorpion lives and it does not interest us, so they do not interest us. Rather, all the vengeance that Hashem takes is for the sake of the nations, to restore their faith.

The holy Ari says that there is a special angel in Heaven who receives everyone who is killed for the sanctification of Hashem! Because those who are killed for the sanctification of Hashem are truly the greatest tzaddikim of the generation! And if we had been worthy, they would have remained alive, done teshuvah (repentance), and illuminated the generation. When a person from Israel is killed for the sanctification of Hashem by the nations of the world, one must know that this is not an ordinary soul! Rather, it is a special soul, which, when it descends to the world, descends on the condition that if the people of Israel do not do teshuvah, then it will be ready to die for the sanctification of Hashem! And before it descends to the world, they make a condition with it! That when the moment arrives and the iniquities of the generation increase, you will sacrifice yourself for the sanctification of Hashem! And on that basis, you descend to the world! One must know that when a Jew is killed for the sanctification of Hashem by the nations of the world, even if he is not a tzaddik, and it does not matter if he is religious or not religious—even one who does not keep Shabbat, even one who does not know that there is a Torah at all—he immediately enters the Garden of Eden! Immediately he ascends all the levels in the world; in one second he reaches the highest levels, which take several hundred years and several incarnations to reach.

Because all the soldiers who go with the goal of protecting the people of Israel and enter into the fire, and they do not even know if they will return alive, and the main thing for them is only the people of Israel! Only to protect the people of Israel! Then, in the merit of this intention, in the merit of this self-sacrifice, the moment they are killed for the sanctification of Hashem, at that same moment, they are raised through all the levels and brought into all the palaces. A person must make a reckoning with himself! He must, according to Halacha, make a reckoning! A person hears sounds! Weeping! Cries! Roars of madmen! Killings! Murders! He has a positive commandment from the Torah to cry out! To sound the alarm! To perform prayers and actions to sweeten the decrees! One of the ways of teshuvah is that immediately when trouble comes upon the public, one must cry out and sound the alarm, as it is written, "When you go to war in your land against the adversary that oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets" (Numbers 10:9), and this is a literal obligation!

The Rambam says in the Laws of Fasting, Chapter 3, that it is a literal obligation! It is not just anything! There is no such thing as it happening by chance! Some went crazy! Some became madmen! There is no chance! From Heaven, they send some madmen who do not care if they are killed, if they are slaughtered, and they only want to be recorded in the history books as having killed a million people, two million people.

And therefore, one must awaken! Awaken!

One must be moved by everything that happens! One must know that these are our iniquities! There are iniquities here! And there are transgressions here! And if they sit at home and say, "It is a coincidence... it is the way of the world... what... there are always wars! There will be miracles, it will pass!" The Rambam says this is a trait of cruelty!! If there are such killings! Such murders! Such sounds! Such roars! It means that there are terrible transgressions! Many transgressions! And they have already almost filled the measure to overflowing! A person must know, if there are such troubles, then I am guilty! I have filled the measure! And one must do teshuvah and pray that no Jew will be harmed and no Jew will have sorrow.

Because the Ari says in Likkutei Torah on the verse, "The days of visitation have come, the days of recompense have come" (Hosea 9:7), that when there are many transgressions, that the measure is already overflowing, then the days of visitation arrive, the days of recompense arrive. And when the days of recompense arrive, then Hashem sends some madmen, some lunatics who do not care if they succeed, who do not care about anything! They only want to be recorded in the history books as having murdered and killed.

And therefore, the Rambam says, if a person does not do teshuvah in such a situation, if people do not awaken from this trouble, then it is a path of cruelty! And it can add other troubles, Heaven forbid! A person must know that he is obligated to sweeten these terrible decrees! He cannot sit quietly and say, "There will be miracles!" Certainly there will be miracles!! There is no doubt about that!! But he must have a part in these miracles, he must have a part in this sweetening; he must pray with intention, study, weep, and say Tehillim, hitbodedut (secluded prayer) more strongly! With a more broken heart! And feel all the fears that people have, feel all the sorrow and all the suffering that people have, and do teshuvah.

Fortunate are we that we have merited these holy words.