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A Knowing Heart • Torah.org
And Moshe said so to the children of Israel,
and they did not listen to Moshe because of “shortness of breath” and the
difficulty of the work. (Shemos 6:9)
Because of shortness of breath and
the difficulty of the work:
not because they
didn’t believe in HASHEM
and his prophecy, but they just
couldn’t pay attention to his words because of the
pressure from the
hard work. (Ramban)
Now Moshe had just given
over the news
– the prophecy of the redemption. That
should have excited the hearts of the people
but they remained numb. It should
have been cause for celebration but it turned out to be a point
of frustration for
Moshe. The Torah
does not tell us that they
did not believe
in Moshe or his prophecy, but only that
they could not
hear it because of the pressure. It is explicitly stated earlier that
they believed in Moshe but now
they were just unable to process the promise. Since
“we are believers and the children of believers”, it’s therefore, not natural for a Jew not to believe. Not everyone is fully aware of the presence of this “believing-self” though, for multiple
reasons.
My own personal experience interacting with
many types of people for a few decades plus- tells me the same.
An anecdotal- case
in point: A young man
I know very well who is, how shall I say, married
to a situation that closes
his mind to an authentic search for meaning
in Torah and Mitzvos; He was out of work
for some time
and was very
excited to tell
me when he finally
landed a new job. He explained in detail how the event
unfolded. He had gone for a job interview on a late
Friday afternoon in midtown Manhattan and then proceeded to Grand Central
Station for the train ride
home. He got the call
first thing Monday
morning. He realized then
retroactively that they
must have been
discussing which candidate was most worthy for the job just at that time
when he was going through
Grand Central Terminal
on his way to the train.
He explained with
the conviction of a “true
believer” that as he entered
the train station
that
frigid
evening he confronted a cold and hungry man begging for help. He reached into his
pocket and pulled out a bundle
of money including a load of loose change
and while pouring
into the fellow’s cup he implored him not to spend the money on a drink
or drugs but rather on a warm meal.
This secular minded mechanist was convincing me that it was exactly
at the same time that he was exercising compassion for this
poor stranger that
they were making
the decision about the fate of his employment status. He then
looked to me for approval but I was too
stunned with amazement.
Foolishly
I fed him his very own words
and asked him if he is telling
me that that act of charity had somehow
catalyzed and caused
the committee to select his resume above the
others?! Upon
hearing my understanding of his account, he recoiled with incredulity and immediately began to re-explain the dynamics at play. “Oh
no- they saw the quality
of kindliness in me when I was there
and they realized
that this job requires a people-person
not just a number-cruncher. That’s why I got the job!”
Only when confronted consciously with his own chronicle, which was unmistakably filled with a naturally deep faith and trust in the Divine
Providence of a living G-d,
did he feel
the need to revise
his-story! He just couldn’t hear of it because of certain external
circumstances.
Recently
a young lady
called me stressed out with news that a cousin of hers had declared
that he does not believe in HASHEM. After
a lengthy discussion about how she might
approach him,
I told her
that I don’t
believe that he doesn’t believe
in HASHEM. He might
speak brazenly with bold
words and loads of bravado to make some shocking proclamations, but deep
down inside, I strongly suspect, there beats a knowing heart.
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Superhuman vs Humility: Pharaoh and Moshe
The extended, tension
filled, confrontation between
Moshe and Pharaoh
forms the backdrop for the story of the plagues and the redemption of the Jewish people from Egypt. Pharaoh, from the outset, is unwilling to consider the request of Moshe to allow the Jewish people a three
day furlough to worship G-d in the
desert. The commentators to the Torah differ as to whether or not this
was a sincere request by Moshe or simply a negotiating
gambit to loosen the grip of Pharaoh on the Jewish slaves.
We do not find that G-d specifically endorsed or instructed Moshe to make
such a proposal to Pharaoh. Nevertheless, all of these
questions and difficulties are rendered moot
by the fact that Pharaoh never
for a moment really considered giving in to the demands
of Moshe.
Even later, after
coming under the pressure of the plagues
and the wishes
of his own advisors, and after agreeing
to the three-day sojourn in the desert,
Pharaoh refuses to allow
the families of the slaves
to accompany them,
thus obviating his seeming concession to Moshe.
Pharaoh’s
stubbornness, his intransigence in the face
of the reality of the plagues is characteristic of people who view themselves as gods and superior beings.
Pharaoh cannot afford
any show of compromise or accommodation to the demands
of Moshe. By so doing, he would admit
to the fact
that, in truth,
he is not a god
and thus his
entire basis for rule
over Egypt would be threatened.
Complete dominion over others that is
based upon a colossal lie of superhuman status eventually is doomed to collapse. It may take
centuries for this
to occur but
history has shown us that it always does
occur. It is Pharaoh’s false
claim to superhuman qualities that
motivates his stubbornness and is what
will doom him and Egypt
to defeat and destruction.
Moshe,
on the other
hand, does possess
superhuman qualities. But
the one main
quality that the Torah
itself most emphasizes in its description of Moshe, over
his decades of leadership, is a most
human one – humility, modesty, and the realization of the difference between the created and the Creator. The opening verses
of this week’s
parsha teach us this lesson of humility.
The Jewish people and Moshe himself complained to G-d that somehow things were not going according to the plan
that they envisioned. G-d’s response is that one of the limitations of humans
is that they
can never truly
fathom G-d’s will
and His direction of human affairs. This
is an important lesson that
Moshe must learn
and assimilate into
his
personality. As he journeys
through life, it is this
quality that will eventually make
him “the most humble of all human beings.”
Someone
who is able
to communicate with
Heaven freely, almost
at will, and
who can perform miracles and bring plagues
upon a mighty
empire, can easily
be seduced into believing in his own powers
and abilities. Thus, the opening
sentences of this week’s Torah reading are vitally
important for they
are the key to the humility of Moshe and thus to the
salvation of the Jewish people from Egyptian bondage.
We must always
be wary of the great
human being who slips into the belief
that he is somehow superhuman. It is this issue that highlights and contrasts the two antagonists – Pharaoh and Moshe – in the drama of the Jewish redemption from Egypt.
Shabbat shalom Rabbi Berel Wein
Rabbi Berel Wein- Jewish historian, author and international
lecturer offers a complete selection of CDs,