It is natural for people to revere individuals who stand head and shoulders above the crowd, paragons of virtue; they are our “heroes”. They are role models who we wish to emulate, even when we know that our capabilities do not match theirs. We also villainize individuals who we believe betray the virtues we hold dear.
This week in Eretz Yisrael, we had the opportunity to undergo a “role model” experience centered around 7 people.
Is it possible to perform an act that does not appear in the criminal code of Am Yisrael, yet its implications are an affront, an indignity; indeed, an abuse of the Holy One Blessed Be He?
I am often criticized, or by more genteel people “asked”, that since there are 613 mitzvot in the Torah with another 7 Rabbinic ones, each with its many details and related minhagim (customs), why are my writings centered on the single mitzva of living in Eretz Yisrael?
Indeed! I do center on a single mitzvah of the Torah, but not the one relating to living in Eretz Yisrael. The mitzva which I believe is the most important at this time appears in Vayikra 19,16.
This week’s devar Torah is dedicated to the survivors and the painful questions: Why does HaShem not punish the Germans and their very willing European accomplices? What is He waiting for? With every passing day, many of the now elderly victims pass on and the murderers are escaping with no earthly punishment. Why did HaShem not give the victims the opportunity to see their oppressors suffer?
No one can even begin to unravel the metaphysical secrets of God’s world. A philosopher once visited the home of a well-known rabbi, and asked: Why did God create the universe? To which the rabbi replied: “Would you like another cup of tea?”
HaShem chose Moshe Rabbeinu as the “mission head” to revert our ancestors’ dispirited mental state of mere “survival” impelled by 210 years of being downtrodden slaves, back to their normative, aristocratic status as the children of Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’akov.
Moshe was the original “I have a dream” person. But, even more. He was sent to make the “dream” real in a very short period of time. It occurred when Moshe received the Torah for the Jewish nation at Mount Sinai, only 50 days after the Exodus. This was an extra-ordinary feat.
In last week’s parasha Shemot, Moshe demands that the Jews be allowed three days of freedom in order to worship HaShem, and Paro reacts by creating an impossible situation. The raw materials necessary for the slaves’ labor would be withheld, yet they would be expected to maintain the same levels of production. Moshe expressed his deep disappointment at this turn of events by lamenting before HaShem the fact that he had been chosen for this failed mission.
This week’s parasha opens with HaShem rebuking Moshe for being impatient with what he viewed as HaShem’s departure from His stated goal of freeing the Jewish people. HaShem informs Moshe that retribution for the Egyptian cruelty to the Jewish people would now commence.
All periods in our history when Am Yisrael saw the hand of HaShem in our salvation, were similar to the exodus, in that they were preceded by moments of trepidation, anxiety, even despair.
