"By chance" I heard shiur of R' miller on Chanukah this week - & now I realize its appropriate for the parshah - beha'aloscha es haneiros!
Vehayu li halevi'im what got them to such a level that from Hashem's chosen nation - vehayu LI! - they are the CHOSEN ONES?
Ravta es Rivam - R' miller asks a great but simple question - we praise Hashem for fighting THEIR fight???!!! Hashem ought to thank THEM for fighting HIS fight!? They lives weren't threatened, rather the Torah was!
The answer is though just as simple. It WAS their fight. This qeeks pirkei avos says "asay ritzono kirtzonecho" do His will as your own. It doesn't mean just to do it that way but it SHOULD be YOUR WILL! The chashmonoim took Torah & mitzvos so PERSONALLY, it was THEIR fight!! To the point that we can honestly say HASHEM did it for THEM!!
This was shevet Levi. when the rest of the jews saw the eirev rav with the eigel, it didn't bother THEM enough to take a stand. But shevet levi did. Mi LHashem eilay. - vehayu LI.
We spoke about the need to have our own brakes. It comes from Torah having a meaning to ourselves. Our own yiras shamayim. Our own appreciation for honesty, Tzniyus, kiddush Hashem, middos tovos etc.
We don't have shotrim to ensure that others are doing well. But each man - if there are things he takes stand on, things that he shares wuth his family - AS HIS OWN PERSONAL upset about certain downfalls he's noticed by others (w/o mentioning names) that BOTHER him. We can - & must be - the brakes that restrain the yeridah & prevent nefilah. Take a stand. Draw a line for yourselves that says 'ad kan', and let your family sees what yidishkeit means to YOU, regardless of your capabilty of changing the world. You can stop yourself & let your family be 'the chosen people' as well.
