Parshat Yitro: The Experience of Kabbalat HaTorah

The essence of Judaism, the thing that makes us different, is Torah. The main event of this week’s parsha is the historic event of Hashem giving the Torah to the Jews at Har Sinai. This, perhaps, is the most important event of all time, as it signifies the purpose of the life of a Jew. Yet, if we look deeper, we will find there are multiple times and multiple ways that the Jews accept the Torah.

Let’s take a look.

The first, most famous mechanism of kabalat haTorah is נעשה ונשמע, we will do and then we will learn. In this week’s parsha the pasuk says,

,ויענו כל העם יחדו, ויאמרו כל אשר דבר ה׳ נעשה (יט:ח).  

meaning the entire Jewish people answered in unison that all Hashem tells us to do, we will do. This is reiterated again in Parshat Mishpatim (24:7) where the Torah says

ויאמרו כל אשר דבר ה׳ נעשה ונשמע

This means the Jews accepted the Torah; they accepted to do every mitzvah regardless of their level of understanding. They accepted that following in Hashem’s ways and doing mitzvoth should never be dependent on what we understand. We do it because Hashem said so. Once that is established, we are encouraged to spend our entire lifetime learning the reasons behind each mitzvah, but never should that impact our performance of them.

Nearly twenty pesukim later in the Parsha, we see a very different picture of what kabalat HaTorah means. The pasuk says, (19:17) that Moshe went out to the people… ויציצבו בתחתית ההר, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Rashi quotes the Talmud in Shabbat (88)

א''ר אבדימי בר חמא בר חסא, מלמד שכפה הקב''ה עליהם הר כגיגית, ואמר להם, אם אתם מקבלים התורה מוטב, ואם לאו שם תהא קבורתכם, the Torah is teaching us that Hashem lifted up the mountain above the heads of the Jews and said to them, if you accept the Torah it will be good for you, but if not, this will be the place you are buried.

What is going on here? First of all, is Hashem forcing the Torah upon us? Did we not just accepted it willingly? Also, don’t we have free will? Didn’t we already accept the Torah? Than why the need to accept it again?

I take from this that there must be something for us to learn, something to be added with these two acceptances of the Torah; one willingly and one by force.

On the one hand, נעשה ונמשע is an amazing level to be on. It is stating that we are so committed to Hashem that we will not let our intellect get in the way. We accept the Torah purely because we believe in Hashem. So what is the downside to this? Why the need for the mountain being lifted above our heads?

I share a few possibilities here:

1. The Baalei Hatosfot say the Jews said נעשה ונשמע before Matan Torah. But perhaps when the Jews would experience the awesomeness of Matan Torah, they would be scared and change their minds. So Hashem had to put a certain element of fear into us.
2. Maharal explains that Hashem felt we had to understand that without the Torah, שם תהא קבורתכם – there is no life without the Torah. With just נעשה ונשמע we run the risk of seeing Torah as some nice added element to life, but not something we cannot live without. That is why כפה עליהם, He had to sprinkle in some fear.
3. Rav Soloveitchik  explains the Jews  were prepared to accept the Torah in that generation, but there would be many challenges in future generations that might rock the belief and commitment of future Jews. This is why Hashem had to force us to accept it. That’s why it says ואם לאו, if you do not accept the Torah at some point, שם תהא קבורתכם over there in that generation will be your kevura.

Despite all of this, as an educator I know research tells us that forcing people into doing something is not an effective way to effectuate long term change in behaviour. If I scare you to do something, it might work in the short term, but it will not have a long term effect. We do not have to go further than this topic of Matan Torah to see this reality. Only forty days after this episode, the Jews committed one of the worst sins of all time, with the worshipping of the Golden Calf. How could they? Forty days after receiving the Torah from Hashem himself? Yes, the kabalat haTorah here was incomplete; not perfectly effective.

Perhaps this is why we find another place in Tanach where the Jews accept the Torah again. At the very end of Megillat Esther, the pasuk says קיימו וקבלו, Chazal explain this to mean they re-accepted the Torah. But why? We already had accepted the Torah at Sinai? Twice? It must be that after the story of Purim, the Jews finally completed the incomplete acceptance of Torah from Sinai we just described. Why did this happen after the story of Purim? You will have to wait two months until Purim and then we will revisit this most important topic. Stay tuned...

Shabbat Shalom!

Parshat Beshalach - Freedom and Slavery: A Jewish Perspectuve

The Torah teaches us (״ויסב אלקים את העם דרך המדבר ים סוף״ (יג:יח - “Hashem turned the people towards the desert to the Sea of Reeds.” Rashi, quoting the Medrash, says we learn from this pasuk that at the Pesach Seder: even a poor person cannot eat until he reclines, עד שיסב, because that is what Hashem did to the Jews. Rashi’s assumed connection here is based on the language in the pasuk ויסב, literally “and he turned,” but is similar to the word הסבה, to recline.

What does this mean? Although the words look and sound similar, there is no apparent connection between Hashem turning the Jews to the desert and the obligation of a poor person to recline in freedom at the Pesach Seder. What was Rashi trying to impart to us?

The Chatam Sofer explains this in an unbelievable way. By the exodus from Egypt the Torah says ״ויוצא את עמו ישראל מתוכם לחירות עולם״ - And Hashem took out the nation to a free world. חירות עולם is to be defined as freedom “from the world.” Even kings and the wealthy are slaves; they are slaves to their material desires. In other words, when Hashem took the Jews out of Egypt, their freedom was not just that they were no longer slaves in a physical labor sense, but they were free from the material desires of this world. Hashem brought them to the desert, a location that was totally barren, but they had everything they needed. They had all the food they needed and they didn’t need to buy new clothing, as their clothes grew with them.

From here we learn that even a poor man has to recline like a king at the Seder because freedom refers to a man who rules over his own world. Freedom is about breaking free of our physical desires.  Even the poor are able to do this,  and when they do, their life turns into one of freedom. For this reason, even they must recline at the seder.

Rashi is teaching us an invaluable lesson in what freedom really is; it is not freedom to do whatever you want. Rather, it is freedom from your physical desires so that you can focus on the spiritual side of life.

With this in mind, perhaps we can shed light on the opposite of freedom: slavery or עבדות.

אנכי ה' אלקיך אשר הוצאתיך בארץ מצרים מבית עבדים (שמות כ:ב)

Hashem tells us that He saved us from being slaves to פרעה so that we can become עבדי ה׳.

Unlike the rest of the world who view not being slaves as the equivalent of freedom -  free to do whatever you want whenever you want to, we as Jews have a very different perspective on freedom. Judaism views חירות like this: we were freed to become slaves, but not slaves of a physical kind. We were freed to become slaves of G-d, and serve Him.

We see this in the beginning of Hashem’s appointment of Moshe:

בהוצאתיך את העם ממצרים תעבדון את האלקים על ההר הזה.

Rashi and the Sforno explain that Hashem says  the entire reason for taking the Jews out of Egypt was to bring them to הר סיני three months later to give them the Torah. We see that עבדות = קבלת התורה.

Q: How exactly is עבדות about קבלת התורה?

A: Based on the Sforno one could say that עבדות = קבלת עול מלכות שמים. When a person accepts upon himself the entire Torah it is like an עול, a yoke; accepting it whether it is easy or not, whether it appears  good or not. That is what the Jewish people said at Har Sinai, נעשה ונשמע. First we will do and only afterwards will be try and learn the reasons for those commandments.

Rav Yisrael Salanter explains that an individual’s purpose in the world is to toil in fulfilling mitzvos and learning Torah. It is a lifelong battle of a מלחמת מצוה always trying to do what is expected of you. If you are rich, are you using your money the way Hashem wants you to? If you are poor, how are you responding?  Our responsibility is to toil; the outcome is not always what is important, rather it is our effort that matters most. Our obligation is להתייגע בעבדות ה, but not just in the areas of things that are easy for us, but we have to toil in the areas that are harder for us and not in our nature to perform as well.

R’ Yisrael explains this is the problem with many people: They do what is easy for them, or they do what they seem to understand, but if it is against their nature or they do not understand, then they don’t do it. They rationalize why they don’t have to be concerned with it. That is not serving Hashem! That is serving your master halfway. So the חידיש is to serve Hashem in ways that are not as easy for us.

We learn the following lessons from all of this:

1. Freedom means to be free of physical desires so we can focus on the spiritual.
2. Hashem freed us from the slavery of Egypt so we can become servants of Hashem and devote our lives to following His ways. This means to follow His ways even if we don’t understand the why.
3. Hashem put us on earth to toil; to struggle. It is hard work. We are supposed to work on ourselves and try to keep growing in our commitment to Torah and Mitzvot.

Parshat Bo: Our Personal Exodus from Egypt

We now enter the parshiyot of יציאת מצרים, the exodus from Egypt. For generations, the exodus from Egypt has been the foundation our faith in Hashem - our emunah. Why and how is this so?

Parshat Bo concludes with the mitzvah of tefillin. והיה לאות על ידכה ולטוטפת בין עינך כי בחזק יד הוציאנו ה׳ ממצרים - “And it shall be a sign upon your arm, and an ornament between your eyes, for with a strong hand Hashem removed us from Egypt.” (Shemot 13:16).

The Ramban explains that Hashem created the world in a way that we all have free will: the choice to believe or not to believe. It is a confusing world, with many things that draw us away from Hashem and Torah. To counteract this force, Hashem performed the miracles of יציאת מצרים to demonstrate His existence, His creations, His knowledge of everything that goes on in the world, and his rulership over all creation. To that end, Hashem gave us mitzvot זכר ליציאת מצרים, to remember the exodus from Egypt. He gave us the mitzvah of Shabbat, Pesach, Tefillin and many others that the Torah specifically states are a remembrance of that exodus. The goal is that our performance of this miztvot will help strengthen our faith in Hashem.

My Rebbi, Rabbi Moshe Weinberger would often explain that when a person wants to grow in his Judaism, there is an evil inclination that tries to convince us that we are not worthy of serving Hashem. Afterall, we are mere mortals - how can we connect to the master of the universe? After the sins we might have committed, how could we ever change to become beloved in the eyes of our creator? The answer to this is

זכר ליציאת מצרים, remembering how Hashem took us out of Egypt. We must remember Jews had been on the 49th level of impurity, and they had a matter of weeks to raise themselves up to be worthy of receiving the Torah...AND THEY DID! The miracles of the exodus strengthened their faith in Hashem; it allowed them to re-prioritize their lives, to focus on religious growth. They understood this: No matter what they had done, they could always return to Hashem.

And so it appears to me that he mitzvah of Tefillin is teaching us two things:

1. As with all mitzvot, it is a physical act that draws us closer to Hashem. It is physical, but it is our way to connect to the spiritual. We should never underestimate how our physical exteriors impact our actions. When we put on tefillin, wear a kipa, dress in a modest way, etc., there is impact on how we connect to the Torah in the way Hashem intended.

2. We must remember that we can always grow; can always return to the ways of Hashem. Regardless of how we have acted in the past, we have the free will to change. The tefillin is placed on the weak hand to remind us that even when we feel incapable of growing, we must remember that every Jew has within him, the power to create his own exodus from Egypt.  We can all become great!

Parshat Va'era: Learning from Greatness

The first few parshiyot of Sefer Shemot contain a narrative with Moshe and Aaron as leaders, albeit with a completely different leadership style. Leaders come in all different shapes and sizes. Some make impact on the world, some on a country, some on a single community. Others may impact only their immediate family. Regardless, they are leaders and they have an impact on people with potential to change their lives.

When we are young, we look at leaders and “great” people and feel we want to be exactly like that person. When I was young, we all wanted to “be like Mike (Michael Jordan).” At that moment, we get totally subsumed and aspire to be exactly like that individual. As we mature, we come to understand that every person is different and has different strengths and weaknesses; our focus shifts to glean different attributes from different great people, so that we can encompass the great qualities of many great people.

Just a few weeks ago, on December 20th, the 8th of Tevet, one of my Rabbeim passed away at the age of 95. Rabbi Yosef Weiss was a Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University and taught rabbinical students for over 65 years. He was a great person; he was someone that many of you reading this post have probably never heard of. And yet, he taught Yoreh De’ah (main laws of Kashrut that is necessary to obtain Rabbinic ordination) to hundreds of students who would go on to become Rabbis and teachers in communities throughout North America and Israel. His greatness impacted not just his hundreds of students, but also on the communities of Jews  those Rabbis serviced.

I could never be as great as Rabbi Weiss, but there is one attribute of his that I try to emulate myself and try to inculcate in my children and students. Try to comprehend what it means that he taught the same subject for over 65 years - it is truly amazing.  I could never do that. Didn’t he get bored? Didn’t he think it was time for a change? Even once he was too fraile to come to the yeshiva, YU sent boys to his apartment in the Upper West Side of Manhattan to learn with him. 65 years the same subject every year?

The thing I remember most from my year learning with Rabbi Weiss was that each day, at some point in his shiur, he would stop talking and write down his thoughts -  his own chidushim on the topic. We would sit for a minute or two, sometimes five minutes until he was done and ready to continue the shiur. This taught me something very important. It taught me  that despite the fact he taught this class over 40 times before he taught it to me, he was learning and thinking about something new each time he learned it. He never looked at Torah the same way twice - there was always something new to be learned; always something of value and significance to take away from the same class he taught over and over again.

This is a profound lesson for all of us. The Torah is so vast;  we can learn the same pasuk 65 times and find new insights each and every time. We have to approach the Torah with that same expectation; there is no such thing as ‘we learned it already.’ This is especially important for our children who are growing up in a society of instant gratification, and the need for the newest gadget, toy, or piece of technology. When they learn Torah they too expect it to be new and flashy. When it isn’t so flashy, they tend not to appreciate it as much. We need to encourage them to look deeper, beyond the surface and they will find greatness.