B'shalach

There's a fascinating Midrash in אסתר רבה פרשה ז that addresses a famous posuk in our parsha which states ויבא עמלק וילחם עם ישראל Amalek came & battled Israel. Asks the Midrash, where did Amalek come from? אמר רבי כרוספדאי בשם רבי יוחנן , that they came from taking council from בלעם הרשע asking him if they should go attack the Jewish people. They said to him, look what these people did to Mitzrayim, a country that hosted them & fed them. Look what they did to it; now it’s in shambles. A country that never did any good to them surely will be decimated by them!

To which Billam replied, “don't worry about that. The whole strength of the Jewish people relies on the merit of אברהם their forefather. You, too, Amalek, descend from אברהם so grab onto his merit.” Immediately, Amalek went to battle the Jewish people.

The gemara in Sanhedren tells us the lineage of Amalek: his mother, Timna, was the daughter of a king who wanted to convert. She came to Avraham to convert her but he turned her away. Then she went to Yitzchok who also turned her away. So she went to Yaakov. When he also turned her away, she went & became a concubine to Alifaze, the son of Eisav , as a last resort, saying it’s better to be a slave to this nation by being a concubine to the children of the Avos than a queen to another nation. This was how great her desire was to be attached to the Jewish people.


The gemara continues, she then gave birth to Amalek who is the nemesis of the Jewish people. Because the Avos never should have pushed her away & should have accepted her into the fold, they were punished that the nemesis of their children came from them. 


It’s interesting to note says ר' לייב חסמן זצ"ל that the whole desire of the Avos was to bring people into the fold, to make converts so if they pushed her away they surely had good reason. Yet, they were still held accountable & punished since, if they felt she wasn't good enough, through their positive influence they could have turned her to good.


We see from here how one could be held accountable for not bringing someone close. We see how one person that was shunned could mother the nemesis of כלל ישראל for generations. How careful we have to be with those with whom we come in contact, and attempt to draw them close thereby possibly averting calamity.


In a similar vein, a story I heard this week from Rav Moishe Tuvia Lieff addresses this topic. There was a menahel who came into the חפץ חיים . When he walked into the room, the חפץ חיים took one look at him & said, please leave the room I don't want to have anything to do with you , you have caused untold suffering & death  to countless Jews.


The man, who was supposedly a respected rabbi, head of the school, was astounded.  What did he do? The חפץ חיים must be mixing him up with someone else!

The חפץ חיים asked him, do you remember Leiba Davidovich, a poor boy who was in your school whose mother couldn't afford the tuition. For the first year she paid anyway but for the second year she just had no means & you threw the boy out? Yes, the man answered but what does that have to do with anything?

Well that boy, Leiba , after he was rejected by you, went to Russian public school  where he was known as Lev Bronshtein. He later became one of the founders of the communist, Marxist party. Because of you, continued the חפץ חיים, this boy’s ideology caused countless Jews to leave the path of their fathers & countless others suffered tremendously under communist rule. Do you understand now what your actions caused? Do you know what that boy is known as now?  

This boy is now known as Leon Trotsky.

Bo

As 'ה tells Moshe what He's going to do to the first born children in Egypt, He tells him that the Jews will need to put blood on their doorposts so that 'ה will pass over the Jewish houses. Because of that mitzva of putting the blood on their doorposts, Jews will commemorate that great miracle leading to the exodus from Egypt by having a seven day holiday where they don't eat bread but eat Matzos instead.

Then, the Torah continues ושמרתם את המצות that you should watch the Matzos, which means, on face value, not to let the Matzos become חמץ.

Rashi , quoting the מכילתא, says רבי יאשיה אומר אל תהי קורא את המצות אלא את המצוות , don't read it as the Matzos but rather read it Mitzvos , כדרך שאין מחמיצין את המצות כך אין מחמיצים את המצוות, just as we don't let the Matzos become leavened so too don't let the Mitzvos become leavened by neglecting the opportunity to do them. When the opportunity to do a mitzva comes your way, do it without delay.

The כתב סופר asks if we’re going to say that the posuk is talking about doing the Mitzvos without delay, how does that relate to the rest of the posuk when it says כי בעצם היום הזה הוצאתי את צבאותיכם מארץ מצרים  because on that very day I took you out of Mitzrayim. This shows that the posuk is talking about going out of mitzrayim.

He explains by way of the Midrash that says had the Jewish people stayed in Egypt even one more second, they would not have been able to get out. They would have sunken to the fiftieth, lowest level of impurity from which there was no return. This demonstrates the importance of each second. This is an optimum place to learn to do the mitzvos without delay for had 'ה delayed taking us out it would have been too late. So, too, with Mitzvos if we don't do them right away, it might be too late.

Based on this, one might think that Mitzvos should be hurried & rushed so that they get done right away. To counter this, the חפץ חיים says we read the word ושמרתם as in שמר את הדבר , he waited, that the way to do Mitzvos is calculated, thoughtful with a clear mind to know that you’re doing it for the Mitzva & not the fanfare. Don't delay the start but don't rush through it or do it for the hype.   

The following story shows how Mitzvos should be done. It was known that ר' חיים מצאנז was very meticulous with the Mitzva of מרור & would take the strongest bitter herb he could find and eat the maximum amount to really feel the pain. One year, when he was older and his strength had weakened, the doctor warned him that  eating  מרור like that would be detrimental to his health.

When ר' חיים מצאנז was at his seder, he told his attendant to bring him the מרור like he does every year. When it came time to eat it, he took his regular big כזית, held it in his hand & made the beracha אשר קדשנו במצותיו וציונו ונשמרתם מאד לנפשותיכם , who sanctified us with His commandments & commanded us to watch our health.

And then he returned the מרור to the plate.  

Va'eira

The Rambam writes that the tribe of Levi were the ones originally selected to be the teachers & leaders of the Jewish people. The Kohanim were the ones who were going to lead the people in serving 'ה.

Why them? Wouldn't it make more sense to take the best people from each shevet to be leaders?

Last week, the Torah portion stated that because they didn't force the Jews to fill their quota, the Jewish supervisors got hit from the Egyptian taskmasters. Rashi explained that as payback for their taking the punishment for their brothers, they were chosen to be the Sanhedrin, the judges of the highest court in the land.

Here, too, one could ask how does that qualify them to become the Sanhedrin? Shouldn't the most qualified, scrupulous people be chosen?

The של"ה asks, when the posuk starts to tell us the lineage of Moshe, it starts with  ראובן & proceeds אלה ראשי בית אבותם, בני ראובן , these are the heads of the families of  ראובן, & goes on to enumerate the families of  ראובן &  שמעון. However, when it comes to Levi, it says ואלה שמות בני לוי , these are the names of the sons of Levi.
Why by Levi does it stress the names?

He answers that Levi knew that his family wouldn't be subjugated to the slavery as were the rest of the Jews; yet he wanted to still share in his brothers’ pain, so he named his children after different aspects of the slavery. גרשון , to allude to the fact that we were strangers, not in our own land; קהת , that the torture was like grinding teeth on cement; מררי , that they embittered our lives. Therefore it says  ואלה שמות בני לוי , These are the names of the children of Levi, to stress that the names teach us that even if one is not in a painful situation whereas others are, one must feel his brother’s pain.  

Maybe this is what makes a leader, one who feels the pain of the people, one who will get beaten so his fellow Jew won't.  Perhaps this is the reason that shevet Levi became the leaders; while they didn't have to do the work, this concept was instilled in them from their inception & they felt the pain of their brothers, thereby qualifying them to lead. So, too, the Jewish supervisors who didn't push the Jews & even took a beating for them. Those are the kind of people we need as leaders; ones who feel for the other person. That's what it means to be a leader: one who is נושא בעול עם חברו one who really takes to heart another person’s pain.  

This is highlighted by the story told about the חפץ חיים  who really felt the pain of another Jew. During the first world war, the חפץ חיים was constantly worrying about the Jewish communities in the path of the war. Once, in the middle of the night, the חפץ חיים's wife got up & noticed that the חפץ חיים wasn't in his bed. She got up, went looking for him & found him lying on a hard wooden bench with his head on his arm. She asked him, “why would you leave your comfortable bed & go sleep on a hard bench?” He answered her, “how could I when there are Jewish boys in foxholes on the battlefront with death facing them every moment. They’re cold & hungry & you want me to sleep in a comfortable bed??

Shemos

While Moshe was tending Yisro's flock he took them to the desert to graze & he arrived at the mountain of 'ה where he saw a strange phenomena. There was a bush burning but not being consumed. Moshe then said אסרה נא ואראה את המראה הגדל הזה, let me turn aside & see this great sight.

The Midrash brings a disagreement as to what Moshe did. ר' יוחנן says that he took three steps closer to look & ריש לקיש says he just turned his neck to see. The Midrash continues that after Moshe looked 'ה said "you troubled yourself to look, they will be redeemed through you". Immediately after the posuk says ויאמר משה משה, ויאמר הנני , & He said Moshe Moshe & he answered here I am.

The לקח טוב asks, how could it be that such great reward, the revelation of the divine presence, the appointment of Moshe to be the leader & the one who takes them out of Egypt could be because of such a small insignificant matter as walking three steps or the mere turning of his head?

There was once a gathering of the communal leaders & rabbis in Lublin on a very important & pressing matter involving the saving of many Jewish lives. As the meeting went on the leaders threw up their hands & said this matter is too much for us; it's beyond the grasp of man.

Then ר' מאיר שפירא got up & posed the following question. When the daughter of Pharaoh went down to the river & saw the basket in the middle of the river the Posuk says ותשלח את אמתה. Rashi explains that it means she sent her hand out to get it & even though her arm was too short to reach it, once she stretched it out to save Moshe, miraculously her arm stretched & she got the basket. ר' מנחם מנדל מקוצק asks, what was she thinking that she even tried to reach the basket that was so far from her? From here he says, we learn that when one is trying to do the right thing one should not reckon with his natural limitations rather one should do the best that he can & then rely on 'ה to do the rest. We have to take action to make that first move & whether we accomplish or not is in the hands of 'ה
We too, continued ר' מאיר, must do all that we can & 'ה will help us to succeed.

In a similar vein there's a story told over about a taxi driver who used to drive the Steipler Gaon. The Steipler once asked him if he was able to find time for learning after a long hard day of driving. He told the Steipler that he regularly attends the daf yomi shiur, however, within a few minutes he falls asleep & doesn't really gain anything from it. The Steipler smiled & when he left the cab he said, "I know that you don't consider yourself anything special but you should know that in the next word you are considered a major general." You just do your best and keep going to the shiur, even if you sleep, for 'ה only demands of us what we can do & no more.

This concept says the מכתב מאליהוin the name of הרש"ז מקלם, is why Moshe got so much reward for just those few steps. That was considered for him, doing his part. He was making the first move, & once he made the first move then all the gates of the heavens were opened for him & he became our leader. This teaches us that all we have to do is try, make that first move, & show 'ה we want to do it & then He will make it happen!