Events
of the Past
Posted on July 17, 2012 (5772) By Rabbi Berel Wein | Series: Rabbi
Wein | Level: Beginner
The narrative of the
experiences of the people of Israel in the desert of Sinai concludes with the
parshiyot of this week. All of the occurrences, successes and failures that
marked this forty year trek in a wasteland wilderness are alluded to in the
count of Israel in last week’s parsha – and in the listing of all of the way
stations of that excursion.
The Torah seems to be
determined to remind all later generations of Jews of the experiences in the
desert. Moshe, in his final oration in the book of Dvarim, will once again
review the events of the desert for a new generation of Jews distanced in time
and circumstance from Egyptian bondage. The Torah is aware of human
forgetfulness.
It will take only one
generation to forget Egypt and even Mount Sinai. History is boring and quite
irrelevant to new generations. Yet forgetting the Jewish past is the ultimate
betrayal of Judaism and Jewish hopes. All of us, as we become older, begin to
feel a psychological and spiritual need growing within us to be remembered.
The Baal Shem Tov is reputed to have said:
“Forgetting is the true exile.” Of course it is obvious that ignorance is the
true partner of forgetfulness. In fact, if one never knew anything then one
cannot be accused of having forgotten it. The Torah emphasizes the repetition
of all the facts and experiences of Jewish life in the desert of Sinai so that
this knowledge will enable and strengthen the powers of national remembrance.
Much of the Jewish world
today suffers from a severe case of, hopefully temporary but nevertheless
intense, amnesia. In spite of all of the efforts of the survivors, the museums,
the academic courses and books relating to the Holocaust, this event is rapidly
disappearing from world and even Jewish memory.
Religious Jewry has found
no way, as of yet, to ritually remember the Holocaust. Without ritual and
holiness, it tragically will continue to fade from the memory of the coming
generation. In distributing films and audio lectures about the Holocaust and
the founding of the State of Israel to Jewish schools worldwide I am already
encountering apathy if not sometimes even outright opposition to the insertion
of the subject into the curriculum of schools.
One principal asked me:
“Will it help my students to be admitted to Harvard or Yale?” And on the other
end of the spectrum of Jewish education another principal told me: “Will it
increase their ability to study Talmud properly?” I responded that the Torah
listed all of the desert way stations even though knowing them would also not
guarantee Talmudic proficiency or admission to Harvard or Yale.
It is not only the amnesia regarding even our very
recent past that afflicts us. It is our inability to grasp that the knowledge
of this immediate past is vitally essential to our present and to our future.
Without knowledge of the events of the past, dating back all of the way to the
events of the desert of Sinai, we are creating for our descendants a new
desert, a wasteland of ignorance, falsehoods and disillusion. It is not too
late to correct this. If our schools won’t do so, let our homes and families,
our grandparents attempt to do so.
Chazak, chazak,
v’nitchazeik.
Rabbi Berel Wein
The
Stuff of Real Life
Parshas Masei
This week’s Torah portion
concludes with an overview of the Jewish nation’s wanderings in the wilderness,
as well as key laws and preparations associated with their inheriting the land.
Moshe Rabbeinu designated six Levite cities, three in Eretz Yisrael and three
in Trans-Jordan, as cities of refuge where an accidental murderer can escape an
avenger from the victim’s family.
Although his act of
homicide was not premeditated, the Torah considers him culpable for being
negligent, and not adequately protecting another’s life. The time he spends in
the Ir Miklat will enable him to realign his values and correct the habits that
led to his negligent behavior. The Levite city was the ideal place to achieve
this rehabilitation. The Levites were landless and wholly devoted to teaching
and guiding their fellow Jews. Even while in Egypt, the Levites were
preoccupied with spiritual advancement, and distanced themselves from the
pursuit of material prosperity.
Their conduct was
emblematic of the highest degree of moral responsibility. Living among people
of this caliber would re-educate and sensitize the murderer to the supreme
sanctity of human life.
The Talmud asks why were there
precisely the exact number of “refuge” cities in Trans Jordan as there were in
Israel? After all, Trans Jordan was only home to two and a half tribes, while
the remaining nine lived in Israel. Why not distribute the cities of refuge in
a way that would more accurately reflect the demographics?
The Talmud answers that in Trans
Jordan there were more homicides and the population’s sensitivity to human life
became diminished. The likelihood of accidental murder was therefore greater.
The average citizen was less conscious of the need to exert himself to the
utmost to protect his fellow Jew; he would be more likely to pursue his own
needs at the expense of his fellow citizen.
The great sage R’ Itzel of Volozhin
offers a different interpretation of the Talmud’s assertion that bloodshed was
more prevalent in Trans-Jordan, thus requiring more cities of refuge in that
region. The problem, he explains, lay not in the higher incidences of
accidental homicide in Trans-Jordan but in the over-eagerness to avenge it.
Since the inhabitants of Ever HaYarden were less sensitive to murder, it was
far more likely that an accidental killer would be pursued by a family member
driven to exact vengeance for unsavory reasons. The Torah therefore provided
the perpetrator with more immediate access to an Ir Miklat.
The culture of tolerance
toward bloodshed would delude people into thinking they were motivated by moral
principles in trying to avenge their relative’s death, when all too often they
were simply trying to even the score with a hapless fellow Jew.
The underlying message of the portion is that
nothing affects our mindset and value system more than our social environment.
We are all conditioned by repeated and constant exposure to the prevailing
culture. Harmful outside influences can easily pollute our ability to
distinguish right from wrong and can easily desensitize us from appreciating
the value and sanctity of every humans life.
This underscores the importance of ensuring that
our homes are bastions of light, joy and an appreciation for the kedusha of
Klal Yisroel. These values must permeate the atmosphere to the point where they
are imprinted on the minds and hearts of our children. Only by building our
homes according to the Torah’s blueprint can we turn them into lighthouses of
positive energy. They will thus become the miniature ‘cities of refuge’ that
will protect ourselves and our families from the steady onslaught of moral
decay and corruption in the surrounding culture.
Wishing you a wonderful
Shabbos
Rabbi Naftali Reich Text
Copyright © 2014 by Rabbi Naftali Reich and Torah.org.
Rabbi Reich is on the
faculty of the
Ohr Somayach Tanenbaum Education Center.
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