Rav
Haim Lifshitz
Sefer Shemot
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Sefer Shemot
Translated
from Hebrew by S. NAthan
l'ilui nishmat Esther bat mordechai
A
LEADER IS BORN
“‘And as they would afflict them, so they would increase.’ Everything
they intended for afflicting [Israel] the Holy One would intend for
multiplying them.” The Midrash adds: “This was the prophetic voice of
the sacred speaking: ‘You say, ‘lest they shall increase,’ but I say,
‘so they shall increase.’” (Sota 1)
“A man from the house of Levi went and took the daughter of Levi.”
This terse description reflects an obvious intention on the Torah's
part to bypass identifying personal details. We are told nothing of the
character or quality of these people. They same is true of the way the
story opens to narrate the events that befell the Children of Israel in
Egypt. There is the hint of a new beginning; it does not sound like a
sequel, despite the first phrase: “And these are the names…” “And”
serves to denote continuity as a general rule, and the recounting of
the names of Jacob’s children conveys the impression that there is
continuity here. Nevertheless, verse six already speaks of conclusion,
of all these things coming to an end: “And Joseph died and all of his
brothers and all that entire generation.” And as it continues to verse
eight, “and a new king arose over Egypt,” Rashi brings the dispute of
the Talmudic sages: “Rav and Shmuel [dispute]: One says ‘new in fact,’
and one says ‘his decrees were new.’” This comment points to the
closing of a process, and to the opening of a new process that opposes
and contradicts what has been achieved in the previous process, as
becomes increasingly clear, in no uncertain terms, as the narration
continues.
As mentioned, even the description of his parents, those people who
brought “the man Moshe” into the world -- the man who would become the
savior of Israel – one would think they might deserve some mention of
their qualities, a few brief remarks. Yet instead of a continuing
description, a new description suddenly appears, of a socio-political
situation, a new unfolding of objective conditions that justify, as it
were, the Egyptians' devious and sinister treatment of the mass of
strangers in their midst, whose stunning rate of increase threatens the
delicate balance of Egyptian society. Everything happens by force of
circumstance – as if by chance! Even the story of Moses being saved
from drowning in the river sounds like a random event, wondrous indeed,
but not related to any direct intervention by the Master of the
universe – despite the fact that it is a bit difficult to pull all of
these strange, coincidentally random happenings together into some sort
of organized, unified chain of events that could reasonably be expected
to unfold.
One discerns, nevertheless, an obvious effort on the part of the
“narrator” to establish the unfolding events upon a solid bedrock of
value-driven behaviors, upon devotion and mesirut nefesh, self-sacrifice.
“Pharaoh decreed only against the males, and you decree also against
the females,” Miriam objects to her father, who has separated from her
mother due to the distress of the times. The intensely active devotion
of this savior sister is again clearly reflected in her intervention in
Pharaoh’s daughter's plans.
Moses too reveals inexplicable mesirut nefesh
and sensitivity toward his brethren, despite the fact that he has grown
up in the royal palace, and has not been educated among them. …To teach
you that Godly quality does not reveal itself to the universe unless
the people involved in the event take the first initiative. Even
if it is only in the merit of a few exceptional individuals, it is in
their merit that the entire group survives.
However, the powerfully unfolding chain of events does not stand in
direct relation to the deeds of the people involved, nor to the deeds
of the solitary individual who lives outside of the camp. It is the
great hand of Providence that is now guiding the unfolding events on a
cosmic scale. We have before us in Sefer Shemot, the Book of Exodus, an
entirely new approach. A new path emerging that will transform the bond
between God’s servant and his Possessor, and between the Creator and
His universe.
Whereas in Sefer Bereshit, the Book of Genesis, the bond was formed in
the merit of individuals who took the initiative to seek God – in the
merit of their exercise of free choice, in the merit of “the righteous
person/the foundation of the universe,” as in “what a righteous person
decrees, the Holy One carries out,” in the merit of our forefathers who
attained what they attained by virtue of their own achievements – here
we behold the beginning of a new path, coming from the opposite
direction. The initiative of free choice is clearing the way in favor
of the initiative of the hashgacha, Divine Providence. This is
a itaruta dili’aila, an "initiative from above," that no
longer restrains its response because it is awaiting the initiative of
the righteous person exercising free choice. Rather, the hashgacha
initiaties, and turns to respond to…a human cry of distress.
This new way in avodat
Hashem,
serving God, is reaching heights hitherto unknown in the Book of
Genesis: “My Name of Hashem, I did not make known to them," to your
forefathers. But henceforth, two mutually complementary approaches will
coexist, with the center place and decisive role taken over by Supreme
Providence.
The signs and indicators of hashgacha transform the planetary
foundations. They are a bit difficult for people to get used to, for
after all, the principle that “one prefers one's own measure to one's
friend's nine measures” is deeply embedded in human behavior, because
of the human capacity for control and responsibility. This element
comes with a feeling of mastery, one is enveloped by the feeling that
one is the owner of the surround. The higher quality personality one is
blessed with, the harder it is to ignore the need to use one's personal
initiative.
Yet it is specifically here that the once proud and
powerful human being encounters a crisis, and sinks to the lowest low,
to the nadir of human degradation, passing through all “forty-nine
gates of impurity” almost to the point of no return. Crying out for
rescue, for heaven’s pity, having reached the point of despair, having
been cleaned out of all possessions, and emptied of all the
achievements of one's great forefathers - here, in utter amazement, the
human being discovers the heavenly connection – from the bottom of the
pit.
Anava: The Humility of Moshe Rabeinu
“And the man Moses was more humble than any human
being on the face of the earth.” Anava as a good mida,
humility as a desirable character trait was not lacking in Abraham, who
said: “I am dust and ashes.” Isaac and Jacob as well excelled in the
virtue of humility. What was the Torah’s reason for attributing this
trait only to Moses?
Alternatively, why does the Torah not point to the
perfect qualities of the human being who was privileged to draw closer
to the Lord than any other human being? Moshe did not only attain
contact with the Lord. Rather he was privileged to enter lifnai
velifnim, into the innermost spaces of Godly Presence, to bring the
Torah, the Divine teaching down from heaven.
It appears that the Torah wishes to describe the
new path – in which activity is initiated by hashgacha, Divine
Providence, which offers man a bond with his Creator. This new bond is
less sensitive and vulnerable than the bond formed by the initiative of
human free choice – for the simple reason that the human element is not
quite solid enough to consistently sustain this bond.
Humility, Moshe Rabeinu’s anava does not
point to any humanly initiated quality other than the training and
cultivation of the human vessel to receive the Godly initiative. The
exclusive emphasis upon this quality, to the point of ignoring every
other quality, points to the Torah’s intention of describing anava
as a pre-condition for receiving Godly hesed, and the only
condition necessary for becoming the recipient of hashgacha.
There is no doubt that heavenly initiative of this
sort appears only during situations that find the human being utterly
helpless, when all that is left of one is the sensation of needing yeshuah;
it invites and implores God’s saving deliverance. If any consciousness
of human ability is mingled with this sensation, it only delays the
immanence of Godly Presence.
The trait of anava requires the total
elimination of the sensation of the human capacity to help oneself.
Only under such conditions does one merit an activity initiated by siyata
dishmaya, heavenly assistance.
The leading element in humility is a belief in the
Heavenly Presence as the exclusive cause of everything that happens – a
belief that this Presence is not aided or furthered, God forbid, by any
other or alien factor possessing any ability whatsoever – as in: “We
have no one to lean on except our Father in heaven,” and all the rest
is mere optical illusion.
Such a perception includes canceling all
expectation of succor from any natural source whatsoever, as well as a
clear recognition that the forces and laws of nature fill no role in
the unfolding of events, and this includes every expression of
existential threat, as menacing or frightening as it may be.
Moses incarnated this sensation in all its purity,
and therefore deserved more than anyone else to lead a situation that,
from an existentially logical perspective, could not have been more
hopeless.
Was Moshe Rabeinu also graced with qualities of
human ability? Undoubtedly. Merely pointing to the fact that none of
these qualities are mentioned is enough to substantiate our claim.
Therefore, those who view Moshe Rabeinu as the
symbol of leadership for all time are in error. Of all that might have
been said of Moses, the Torah mentions only the one asset that was
surely a liability, his speech handicap.
Can one imagine a leader whose power does not lie
in his ability to speak? To our great surprise, the Omnipotent One does
not find it necessary to heal him of this critical handicap. …To teach
you that Moshe was suited as no other to the task of representing the
absolute power of the supreme hashgacha.
We must distinguish between humility as a sense of
one’s own nothingness – a result of failure and despair in the wake of
which the one suffering from this condition loses any remnant of the
confidence he accumulated during his years of success – and humility as
a quality, as the queen of good character traits, in the sense of:
“What wisdom takes as a crown for its head, humility takes as a sole
for its heel.” It was indeed this latter trait of humility that
characterized the father of all prophets.
Anava as the fruit of failure is rooted in
the brute-force-based survival mechanism. It is not to be found among
the qualities of the self. The humility that belongs to the self is one
that testifies to the innocence and goodness, to the “clean hands” of
the self in all its purity, being clear and distant from ego and
constituting its antithesis. It is the character trait that is the
polar opposite of arrogance. True anava does not look down upon
human beings from the outside, out of an egoistic need for comparison,
in order to identify potential competitors who might block one’s path.
The humility born of quality springs from the expressions of the self
as it creates hesed toward another – as it seeks the most
auspicious moment to do another a kindness.
Anava produces hesed. Humility
begets acts of generosity and loving kindness. It polishes one’s
sensitivity to another’s needs in order to do another good. The
humility of quality liberates the self from the shackles of ego, and
directs one’s attention to the presence of the other, preventing an
egocentric concentration upon oneself.
Thus is the path opened to pure hesed, its
wagon laden with sensitivity and burdened with good will and
good-heartedness toward the needy.
Indeed it was this humility of quality that had
buffed Moshe Rabeinu’s life force to its lustrous shine – to the point
of feeling compassion for the lamb that had fled the flock, and it was
this same humility that had
sharpened his senses to discern the miraculous phenomenon within the sneh,
the desert bush.
How is sensitivity to discerning a phenomenon of
miracle related to the trait of hesed?
Selfishness expresses the survival mechanism,
which testifies to enslavement to the brute-force basis of the laws of
nature that threaten to devour human quality, which the laws of nature
view as an alien intruder. Sensitivity to the miraculous testifies to
one's openness toward the dimension of height, to one's relating to the
kingdom of heaven, and to one's coping with both parallel tracks: The
one below, which is materialistic, brute-force-based, and arbitrary –
and the one above, which beckons and rivets toward itself all that is
beautiful and good in the one formed in God’s image. It awakens
quality, and the capacity to control brute-force-based reality, which
can be shattered by one glimpse from above – and this glimpse liberates
one from the shackles of enslaving physical matter, which coerces and
transmits its message of inescapable necessity.
We can surmise that many travelers had passed by
that spot, and countless caravans had traversed that place, since the
time of creation when this desert bush first began to burn with its
Godflaming fire. Yet no one sensed anything unusual. No one trembled
before the vision of the Divine – until that lamb-pitier came along,
and halted in his tracks – in the presence of the sacred that had burst
into and halted the flow of secular reality, which had cleared out to
give its place to the sacred, “for the place on which you stand is
sacred earth.” Just like hesed: A generous act toward another
constitutes a deviation from the selfish survival mechanism, which
views another as an adversary and a threat.
The Humility of a Leader
It appears that a leader is blessed with the
humility of hesed, with a sensitivity that invites the other to
come and take over his (the leader’s) place, almost as though a
leader’s reason for existence is not to cultivate his own place, by
exploiting the other, but rather for the sake of the other, by
sacrificing his own existence to the point of neglecting his own
obligations within his own private world. Thus Moshe neglected his
obligation to circumcise his son – so great was his dedication to his
mission to redeem his brethren.
Moshe views this conflict of interests as a
serious and threatening flaw in the role of leadership. After all, he
must invest a minute drop of effort at least, in defending his own
survival, according to the rule of “one must live by them, and
“you must greatly protect your lives,” and “your life comes before the
life of your fellow.” And we do not appoint a public leader who is not
“wise, strong, and wealthy,” so that he will not need the favor or
charity of the people, and will be able to focus upon their situation
and upon their distress with an unbiased, un-bribed eye. And if he does
not protect his own status and is involved solely in their affairs, who
will take care of his affairs?
Here Hashem - God - reveals His new system for
management of the universe to Moshe: “I have truly seen the affliction
of My people in Egypt, and their cry I have heard…and I have come
down to save them.” This is the initiative of a hashgacha
that no longer waits for the initiative of free choice, as it has up to
this point. Moses hears it, and cannot believe it! After all, “one
prefers one's own measure to one's friend's nine measures.” What will
become of one's faith in oneself, in one's own ability, in one's own
talents, in one's willingness to assume responsibility for one's
actions? Will God’s servant now not become vulnerable to the risk of
losing self-respect, of losing control – of losing self control at
least?
For this same reason, there is not much chance
that the Children of Israel will be willing to cast off their own
honor, their own independence, and agree to eat the bread of charity –
even if it is from the table of the One on high. “B’nei Yisrael
will not believe me,” Moshe claims. Even from the depths of distress,
one is not happy to renounce one's freedom. From this perspective, even
the promise of the Land will be inadequate to persuade them, since
after all, attachment to one’s own solid ground belongs more to the
survival mechanism that to the heavenly mechanism.
Here the Holy One uncovers – and reveals to Moses
– the critical element in His new approach: “This is your sign that I
have sent you…when you bring the nation forth from Egypt, you will
worship the Lord on this mountain.”
The Gift of Torah
In the Torah dimension, learning and observance of
Torah will serve as the challenge in which human beings will find
expression for the best that their spiritual and personal powers can
offer, beyond comparison with the challenge posed by the war for
survival. In Torah’s war, human quality will find direct expression,
which will extract every grain of energy and of quality, both spiritual
and tangible. Human emotion will march arm in arm with Godly intellect
toward the unifying goal of upholding Torah. Such upholding obligates
one to bestow Godly meaning upon the tangibly material, and to bestow
tangibility upon the spiritual, in order to create Godly Presence. No
more wasting of precious and irretrievable resources on the war for
survival, as in: “The righteous – their work is done by others.” The tsadik, the righteous one is one
who willingly renounces his brute-force-based ability. The deeper his
renunciation becomes, the greater the Godly involvement in his personal
fate, and the more this involvement supports his devoted investment in
serving his Creator.
The phrase that is key to this new approach
appears at the beginning of Sefer Shemot, the Book of Exodus:
“‘And as they would afflict them, so they would increase and so they
would burst forth.’ Everything they intended for
afflicting [Israel] the Holy One would intend for multiplying them.”
The Midrash adds:
“This was ruah hakodesh
speaking, the prophetic voice of the sacred: ‘You say, ‘lest
they shall increase,’ but I say, ‘so they shall increase.’” (Sota
1)“
That is to say, as their resources of existence
decrease, and as their distress increases – and we must add, as they
abandon their faith in the resources of existence and pin their hopes
upon heaven – so does the hashgacha’s involvement increase, and
intervene to tend to the affairs of their existence.
It should be pointed out that this overturning of
the method [of the creator’s management of His universe] is not
absolute and not one-sided; it does not pass, and then reappear again
only in times of distress.
Renunciation as Power
The new ideal grants power to the sense of
helplessness, but only to the extent that this feeling liberates one
from dependency upon the survival mechanism. This is the
liberation that grows out of awareness, out of willingly renouncing. It
is a milihatehila ideal first choice rather than a product of
despair accompanied by existential fear, sadness and dejection. This
willing renunciation opens a window to new horizons – of new goals of
existence born of quality. This is a glad renunciation; one is moved
and amazed in the face of new goals and challenges. Only renunciation
of this sort preserves one’s belief in one’s own ability to cope, and
preserves one’s belief in free choice, and in one’s own ability to
weigh options and arrive at decisions – elements that remain always the
foundation stones of human dignity, of the human ability to take
control and to make decisions from a posture of accountability.
Here is the challenge of creating a new world out
of the materials of the old world; a new world grows and rises out of
the ruins of the war for survival – because from the high view, the war
for survival looks like a smoking ruin. A new challenge takes its
place. It is a challenge of existence, it is true, but it is steeped in
value-driven meaning. It is an existence that builds Godly Presence
from the very materials of existence; it does not displace them, but
makes new use of them.
We find here both the Divine promise to our
forefathers, which was built on the human initiative of free choice,
and the new shem havaya, the Name of God that expresses the
direct intervention of the hashgachah. Henceforth, a human
being is charged with a role that is comprised of an internal
contradiction. One must simultaneously cope with a condition of having
everything and feeling that one has nothing, and with a condition of
having nothing and feeling that one has everything. From here on, one
is required to view nature as a thin and transparent layer that is
inadequate to conceal the direct presence of the miracle.
Hidden though it may be, yet it is indeed a miracle that cannot be
pushed aside by the mechanical forces of nature. From here on, one will
not live in a world that is split between nature and miracle. Rather
one lives with the miracle, and it is natural, and one lives with
nature, and it is miraculous.
This sense of things will take hold also (and
mainly) within the structure of his personality. No longer will he
experience a split between contradicting inner tendencies, with one
pulling him toward the hedonistic stimulations of physical matter while
the other causes him to cringe in mortal terror before the war for
survival.
Instead, pleasure and duty will
complement one another in the creative challenge inherent in the
framework of Torah and mitzvos. Only such a framework can prevent the
split that hinders human perfection. Within this framework, outside
phenomena are viewed exclusively as an expression of miraculous hashgacha,
while in man’s inner world, these two opposites meet and complement one
another: “Nireh, la’aniyus da’asi, it appears to me, in my
impoverished opinion…” “God will enlighten my eyes…” The sensation of
the miraculous accompanies the oved Hashem, God’s
servant who toils and labors to the point “‘that a man shall die in the
tent’ – in Torah’s tent.” There is a sense of miracle despite the toil
and the effort and a personal investment that is without limits. The oved
Hashem who toils in Torah becomes transformed into Godly Presence,
into a walking miracle. Therefore, “‘you shall be in very awe of God,
your Lord,’ includes also Torah scholars.”
“Moshe the man,” “more humble than any human being
on the face of the earth” merited the privilege of becoming the symbol
of Godly Presence made tangibly real through Torah. And “whoever
questions him, becomes like someone who questions the shechina,
the Godly Presence” that radiated from Moshe’s face. This is a leader
who does not require the traits that characterize the ordinary
brute-force-based leader. He is a leader rather by virtue of being the
symbol of the perfect human being, a symbol who became a Godly Presence
that was tangibly real.
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