I came, I saw, I conquered...

Lev Katsin

Chester Robinson immigrated from Jamaica to Brooklyn when he was 12 years old. His life in America was not easy. After dropping out of school, Chester found himself in bad company. Later, having become fascinated with hip-hop rhythms, he made music his profession and moved to California.

One day, Chester went into a Jewish bookstore and “accidentally” picked up a Torah with Rav Hirsch’s commentary. What he read shocked him. Despite his success in music, Chester felt empty in his life and continued to search for its meaning. Soon he began studying the Torah and converted to Judaism, taking the Hebrew name Yosef. Returning to Brooklyn, he was warmly welcomed by the Young Israel of Av. I synagogue community.

Yosef often spent Shabbat and holidays in the house of Rav Auman, who told me about this righteous man.

Many people go to Jewish bookstores and leave the same way they came. So why did visiting the store change Yosef Robinson's life? Because he saw something others could not.

One scholar once told me about his path to Torah: “After coming to New York from Ukraine, I went to work as a taxi driver in Borough Park. I got to know the people in the area and became seriously interested in Judaism.” Another man shared with me that he began studying Torah after befriending Jews while working behind the counter at a kosher restaurant.

It would seem that a taxi driver or a salesman could notice a lot of repulsive things, but they chose to focus their attention on something good. We see what we want to see! After all, we are free to choose and interpret what we see.

After the Exodus from Egypt, the Jews sent 12 spies to the Land of Israel, who surveyed the country for forty days and returned to slander it. The spies interpreted what they saw in a negative light. Large fruits did not become a symbol of the fertility of the land. The spies used these fruits to scare the Jews: "The locals are giants and it is impossible to defeat them." The Canaanites were expecting the spies to appear, but the Almighty distracted their attention with a funeral. However, the spies did not see this as a miracle from the Almighty, but slandered "the country that devours the people living in it." Hearing that people were dying in this country, the Jews wept on the night of the 9th of Av and wanted to return to Egypt, which became the beginning of forty years of wandering in the Sinai Desert. On this same day, hundreds of years later, the first and second Jerusalem Temples were destroyed, and the Jews were expelled from their land.

After wandering in the desert for forty years, Moses prayed to the Almighty: “Let me see this good land!” (Devarim 11:25). Moses asked the Almighty to help him not repeat the sin of the spies and to be worthy of seeing only the good in the Holy Land, writes Ohel Torah. And if the negative view of the spies led to the loss of the Land, then the good view of Moses led to the acquisition of the Land of Israel. When the Jews approached the borders of Israel, the Almighty said to Moses: “Look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel as a possession” (Devarim 32:49).

Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (1843-1926) writes in the book Meshech Chochma that the Jews took possession of the land of Israel because Moses looked at it. Even earlier, the Almighty promised Moses that Yehoshua would give the people "the land that you will see as their possession" (Devarim 32:49). Moses "took possession of the land by looking" even before Yehoshua took possession of an army, concludes Rabbi Meir Simcha.

“See what is good in Jerusalem!” (Psalms 129:5) – King David urged us to see the good in both the Holy Land and the people.

And if the kind look of Moses allowed the Jews to conquer the Land of Israel, then our kind look helps us to win the favor of both people and Heaven. For Heaven looks upon man as man looks upon men.

In these days when the Heavenly Judgment is taking place and everyone's actions are being analyzed, we want our merits to be seen in Heaven, leaving our shortcomings unnoticed. Therefore, we should learn to condescendingly close our eyes to the shortcomings of others, seeing only their merits.