rabbisakhai

Freedom of Kosher Speech

“Remember what the L-rd, your G-d, did to Miriam on the way, when you were leaving Egypt.” (24:9)

When Miriam criticized her brother Moshe unfairly, Hashem punished her with tzara’at, a serious leprous-like skin affliction that covered her body.

The Torah, for some reason, connects Miriam’s punishment with leaving Egypt. What does one thing have to do with the other?

The captivity of the Jewish People in Egypt was more than physical bondage. On a deeper level Egypt represented the enslavement of the power of speech. Egypt not only enslaved the bodies of the Jewish People, but it put in chains the major weapon of the Jewish People – speech. Thus, the Torah writes that the Jewish People “cried out” to Hashem. It never writes that they “prayed.” For in Egypt, speech itself was bound.

The Exodus from Egypt was the beginning of the rebuilding of the power of speech.

Man’s pre-eminence derives from his power of speech. He has the ability to direct himself according to his will. When the Jewish People left Egypt, they went straight into the desert. In Hebrew, the word desert is midbar which is from the root mi’dibur – “from speech” – because the desert is the place that is separated and removed from speech. Since the desert is the maximum place of non-speech, of non-direction, it is the ideal place to rebuild the power of speech from the ground up.

When the Jewish People left Egypt they were like a newborn baby. When a child begins to speak, his father is obligated to start to teach him Torah. In this formative stage, then, it was essential that the Jewish People should guard their mouths and their tongues with great care. Something is most vulnerable during its construction. To protect the reconstruction of speech, they were given Torah, and to protect their mouths, they were given the manna.

The gravity of Miriam’s error was not just what she said, but when she said it. To use the power of speech incorrectly at the very time of its reconstruction required a serious punishment. Thus, the Torah connects her mistake to the departure from Egypt.

It is Miriam’s eternal privilege, though, that every generation has a positive commandment to remember what Hashem did to her, to teach us that death and life are in the power of the tongue.

· Sources: Sfat Emet, Ramban

The Cause of Pain

“Who is the man who has built a new house and has not yet inaugurated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he will die in the war and another man will inaugurate it.” (20:5)

Rashi: “and this thing will pain him.”

Rashi’s comment on the above verse cannot mean that the thought of someone else inaugurating his new home will be extremely painful to him. For, in the painful thoughts department, nothing is more painful than the thought of death itself.

The Midrash teaches that when the Romans executed Rabbi Chananya for teaching Torah in public, they wrapped him in his Sefer Torah and set it alight. To prolong his agony, they packed water-soaked wool around his chest. Rabbi Chananya said, “The parchment is consumed, but the letters fly up in the air.” The Roman executioner was deeply moved by Rabbi Chananya’s holiness and asked, “If I remove the wool from around your heart, will I have a share in the World to Come?” Rabbi Chananya promised him that he would. The Roman then removed the wool, added wood to the fire to curtail Rabbi Chananya’s agony, and jumped into the flames and died. A Heavenly voice proclaimed, “Rabbi Chananya and the executioner are about to enter the World to Come.” One thought of teshuva (repentance) can undo a lifetime of sin.

And one thought of sin can undo a lifetime of teshuva.

Arguably, the most important moment in a person’s life is his last moment. At that moment he has the potential to fix a lifetime’s wrongdoing. What a waste to spend that last moment immersed in the cares of this world, rather than one’s gaze on eternity!

This is what Rashi means when he says, “and this thing will pain him.“How great will this man’s pain be if he spends his last moments thinking about his real estate rather than preparing himself to enter the World of Truth!

Wealth and Poverty

“See! I am putting in front of you today a blessing and a curse.” (11:26)

Wealth and poverty do not always have the same effect on people.

There are those whose wealth influences them for the good, and through the blessing of their wealth they come to a greater appreciation of Hashem. However, had they been poor, they would have been so occupied trying to find food that they would have forgotten their Creator. This was the case in Egypt, where the Bnei Yisrael were so exhausted by the hard labor that they did not listen to Moshe.

On the other hand, there are those whom wealth removes from the path of righteousness. We have seen too often in our history that the Jewish People become successful and self-satisfied and forget Who gave them what they have. However, when a person is poor and “broken,” Hashem never ignores his supplications.

That is what the verse is saying here: “See! I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse” — and don’t think that the blessing is wealth and the curse is poverty. Rather, everything depends on how a person deals with his riches or poverty. And whether he is rich or poor, if he turns his focus to the Torah and mitzvahs, then whatever his status is in life — he receives the blessing.

Why Was I Created?

“Now, O Yisrael, listen to the decrees and to the ordinances that I teach you to perform…” (4:1)

One of the privileges of having been associated with Ohr Somayach for the last thirty is that I’ve met, and in some cases been close to, several human beings who were clearly living on a different level than the rest of mankind. One of them (who will, of course, remain nameless) is a genius in the art of human relationships. He once distilled the essence of one’s relationship with one’s fellow into three principles. I’ll try to present the first of these principles this week, and, G-d willing, the other two in the weeks to come.

His first principle is, “I was created to serve others, and no one was created to serve me.” This may sound a little extreme. What, my entire existence is for other people? Ostensibly, this sounds to be beyond the “letter of the law.”

But Hashem wants us to go beyond the letter of the law. When we keep to the letter of the law, we treat the mitzvahs like a business transaction — you do this for me and I’ll to that for you. Unlike a business transaction, Hashem doesn’t want or need our mitzvahs. What use does He have for them? If we are very righteous, what does that give Him? What Hashem wants is our heart. When you get a present from someone you love, you’re getting the person you love wrapped up inside the present. When you get a present from someone you don’t care about, you’re getting something you like — delivered by a delivery boy.

So, really, to go beyond the letter or the law is the essence of our relationship with Hashem. However, upon deeper examination it could be that, “I was created to serve others and no one was created to serve me” is indeed the letter of the law, and not an exceptional level of righteousness.

The Talmud in Shabbat (31a) says, “Rava said: After departing from this world, when a person is brought to judgment for the life he lived in this world, they say to him … Did you conduct business faithfully? Did you designate times for Torah study? Did you engage in procreation? Did you await salvation? Did you engage in the dialectics of wisdom and understand one matter from another?

The Reishit Chochma, quoting from Mesechet Chibut Hakever, says that in addition to these questions, a person is asked, “Did you crown Hashem as King over you, morning and evening?” Meaning, did you say the Shema morning and evening. And, “Did you crown your fellow over you by giving him/her pleasure (nachat ruach)?

“Now, O Yisrael, listen to the decrees and to the ordinances that I teach you to perform…”

And so is it when the Torah speaks of decrees and ordinances. Just as the questions in masechet Shabbat are of the essence, so too, “I was created to serve others and no one was created to serve me” is an essential duty — and not a level of saintliness.

Device Maintenance

“Moshe wrote their goings forth, according to their journeys at the bidding of Hashem, and these were their journeys according to their goings forth.” (33:2)