I once had a rebbe in Israel who was an extremely devoted Zionist. This rebbe once said something very provocative to us. He admitted that he was very bothered by an image he would see on Yom Ha-Atzmaut--Israeli Independence day, when he would see crowds of Bnei Akiva youth groups gathered together, all dressed in their identical white shirts and identical blue pants and waving large Israeli flags. This image reminded him of the large crowds that used to gather at the Nazi rallies, all dressed the same, marching in sync, and waving large German flags.

Was my rebbe correct? Is there a danger to gathering in large crowds in a manner similar to the way that evil forces like the Nazis used to gather?

A mass of people gathered together is an extremely powerful force. For some reason, when people are in a crowd they are swayed into doing things that they would absolutely never do on their own.

Take a benign example. You're at a sporting event. Some guy on the large screen tells you to cheer--so you cheer. He tells you to get up in the seventh inning and stretch, so you and 50, 000 other people get up and stretch. He tells you to do a chicken dance, you do a chicken dance in front of the entire world. Now how many of us would act that way if we weren't in a crowd? Its clear that the power, the force of the crowd causes us to act differently. Its almost as though when we are caught up in the crowd--like after drinking alcohol--we lose partial control of our mental faculties and are overwhelmed into following the decisions of the crowd.

My question for everyone today is very simple: Is this a good thing? Or more exactly: Should our Torah endorse methods of education that mirror this image of people simply being convinced by the force of large crowds of people gathered together? And, to go one step further: In todays world--A world that has seen the unspeakable evil perpetuated by the Nazis, who used this same powerful force to convince large masses of people--the question becomes stronger--should we as a people be employing these same methods in our quest to educate people in the beauty of the Torah?

In this context, there is one mitzvah in the Torah that especially comes to mind. This is the mitzvah of Hakhel--Says the Torah in parshat vayelekh, every seven years, on the festival of sukkot, "hakhel et ha-am ha-anashim ve-hanashim, ve-hataf,ve-gerkhah asher besharekhah, gather together men, women, children, and the strangers that live amongst you, le-man yishmau u-leman yilmadu ve-yaru et hashem elokeichem, ve-shamru la-asot et kol divrei ha-Torah ha-zot, gather together so that everyone will hear and learn to fear God and to observe all the words of the Torah.

The mitzvah of Hakhel simply stated is for all the Jewish people to gather together every seven years in order to teach them to better observe the Torah. So how does this work? Why if we gather together will we be any better at observing the Torah than we would if we just studied in small intimate groups?

One approach to this question explains that the mitzvah of Hakhel is intimately connected with the concept of crowd psychology.

Says Rambam in his great work, the moreh nevuchim, The Guide of the Perplexed, the reason for this mitzvah is (and here I quote the English translation of the Arabic work): "Such a gathering results in a renewal of the Torah, this being a result of the people being affected by it and the fraternity that comes about among them because of it."

Lets analyze what Maimonides said. What is the purpose of this mitzvah? To renew the Torah. How is this purpose accomplished, "it’s a result of the people being affected by the fraternity. Notice what Maimonides is arguing--The people will believe in the Torah because when they are gathered together in a large group of people they will be convinced of the correctness of their decision. To me, this sounds a lot like the dangerous idea we were just discussing--convince the masses through the emotional bonding of large enthusiastic crowds.

In a similar manner, the Sefer ha-Chinukh explains that Hakhel is just glorified public relations. People will say, What is this large crowd doing gathered here? ve-thiyeh hat-teshuvah lishmoah kol divrei torah, and the answer will be that the people are gathered to hear the words of the Torah, and as a result people will start discussing the greatness of the Torah.

If we combine these answers, we see that the mitzvah of Hakhel is cleverly intended to attract large numbers people, and to cause these people to bond together so that they will accept the Torah.

This approach seems somewhat problematic to me. After all, its as though we're not allowing people to make up their own mind freely. Its almost as though the Torah is using this manipulative force, this idea of crowds and mobs of people to convince us that the message of the Torah is correct.

An alternative suggestion of R. Moshe Alshekh, a seventeenth century scholar moves away from these psychological theories. He writes that the mitzvah of Hakhel is given to the Jewish people in order to counteract the sin of the Golden Calf.

What happened during the sin of the Golden calf? Writes the Torah, The people realized that Mosheh was slow to descend form the mountain, va-yikahel ha-am al aharon, and the people gathered around Aaron. The sin of the Golden calf came about because the people gathered--va-yikahel. The gathering of people, this enormously strong force caused the greatest sin in the history of the Jewish people.

So R. Moshe Alshekh explains, This sin of the Jewish people which came about through the gathering of a crowd needs to be rectified through the gathering of another type of crowd. Therefore the Torah commands us to gather every seven years for the mitzvah of hakhel.

Listen to what the Alskeh is saying. The Torah knows the potential evil involved in a mass gathering. The crowd is the massive force that caused the sin of the golden calf. Still the Torah is telling us, just because this force has been used for wicked purposes, doesn't mean that we should be afraid to use it for positive purposes. Grab the force, harness it, use it productively. Gather together every seven years and promote the Torah using these same methods.

Just before we enter the land of Israel, the Torah reminds--Yes, this dangerous force caused you to sin. But, don't be afraid. Realize that when you are building a land in Israel, you should still use these same tactics for your own purposes.

This is the idea behind the mitzvah of hakhel. And this is why after thinking about it for many years, I have come to disagree with my rebbe. Its true, the Nazis used these same methods to create unspeakable horrors. And even today, countries--maybe even our own--are using these same manipulating maneuvers to control the minds of large amounts of people. Still, the message of the Torah is: don't allow the evil forces of the world to own this powerful weapon. We should seize this same idea--that there is so much power and energy in a gathering of people--and use it to counteract the evil of the world.

So lets keep this idea in mind, when we gather in just a few days to daven neilah. This room will be packed, there won't even be room to stand, everyone will be a little flighty from not eating…and slowly the force of the crowd will bind us all together.