Chafetz Chaim – Introduction

Blessed is Hashem, the G-d of Israel. He set us apart from all the nations, gave us His Torah, and brought us into the Holy Land so we could keep all His commandments. Everything He wants is only for our good: through this we become holy to Him, as it is written (Bamidbar 15:40), "In order that you remember and do all My commandments and be holy to your G-d." This lets us receive His goodness and great kindness in this world and the next, as it is written (Devarim 10:12–13), "What does G-d ask of you but etc., to keep the commandments of G-d and His statutes, which I command you this day for your benefit."

He did not only give us His beloved Torah. He also commanded us not to leave it, as it is written (Mishlei 4:2), "For I have given you a good acquisition - do not leave My Torah." He is not like a human being who gives a friend a good gift, and if the friend does not use it properly, waits for the friend to give it up so he can take it back. Hashem is not like that. In every generation of the First Temple He sent prophets to bring us back to the right path. Even in the Second Temple period, when, because of our many sins, we had fallen from our earlier holiness and five things from the First Temple were missing, we still lived in the Land of Israel and had the Temple. So we could still complete every part of our souls - because the soul, too, has 248 spiritual limbs and 365 spiritual sinews.

But at the end of the Second Temple period, baseless hatred and lashon hara (speaking badly about others) grew among us. Because of this sin the Temple was destroyed and we were exiled from our land. Since then we pray to Hashem every day to bring us close, as He promised in the Torah and through His prophets - yet our prayers are not accepted. As our sages said in Berachos (32b), "From the day the Temple was destroyed, a wall of iron divides between Israel and their Father in heaven."

In truth, our complaint is not against Him, G-d forbid, but against ourselves. On His side nothing is missing, as it says (Yeshayahu 59:1), "Indeed, the hand of Hashem is not too short to save nor is His ear heavy from hearing; rather, it is our sins, etc." The Gemara in Sanhedrin (98a) tells that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi was told: Mashiach will come today - if you listen to His voice. This was true even though the time set for Israel's exile had not yet ended. (According to our sages, the exile was set at a thousand years, one "day" of the Holy One.) Even so, teshuva (returning to Hashem) has the power to cancel the decree. All the more so today, when more than eight hundred years have passed since that "day" ended: the only reason is on our side. Because of our many sins, we do not let Him rest His Presence among us.