Hiding in the Open Daily

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Posted on January 16, 2015 (5775) By Rabbi Label Lam | Series: Dvar Torah | Level:

B eginner

 

And G-d spoke to Moshe and said to him; “I am Hashem! I appeared to Avraham to Yitzchok and to Yaakov as El Shaddai, but with My name HASHEM I did not make Myself known to them. (Shemos: 2-3)

 

What’s this whole business with the names of HASHEM!? Why should G-d have so many different names? This admittedly can be confusing and even misleading to not only the uninitiated but to many veterans as well. Sometimes, like to the Avos HASHEM appeared as Aleph-Lamed and Shin- Dalet-Yud! What do those two names mean? Why are different names used if HASHEM is ONE!?

 

I have an old friendship with a fellow whose name is Aaron. We were study partners. For years he was a milkman. He was our milkman. The truck would pull up the driveway and he would emerge from the back with fresh milk and reliably park a few cartons on our doorstep. My children looking out the window would declare and so would if I was up so early to catch it, “The milkman is here!” That’s how we related to him. He was the milkman.

 

Later that morning when his route was finished and he would appear in the study hall and I would declare, “Oh my study partner- my chavrusa is here!” Going to a wedding or entering a store, when I would meet him in a casual pedestrian setting, I would say, “How are you doing my friend Reb Aaron!?” That’s how I know Aaron in all his different roles, as they related to or showed up in my life. Who is Aaron, when he goes home and the door is closed, and he is alone in the heart of his own heart? I have no idea. It is hard enough for me to know who I am! I cannot possibly peer into and have any grasp of who he really is!

 

The same is true of the The Almighty! Sure HASHEM is One! However, He shows up and is manifest in our lives in differing ways. We don’t see, nor can we see in this world of physicality the truth of Who HASHEM is in any way. It is beyond our ken! It has not been revealed to us! All we can know though is how HASHEM relates to the world. We don’t see HASHEM but we see what He does.

 

Similarly, no one ever saw electricity, but yet we live daily from the many ways that electricity works in our lives. It is a force that powers manifold good things in our lives yet it is abstract in its essence. It is a reliable and predictable force. The name Aleph Lamed implies force and direction. HASHEM in the garment of that name is the source of the directive power of this world.

 

That the earth spins regularly at 1000 mph and hurtles on its elliptical orbit around the sun at almost 67,000 miles an hour, at a steady rate is a display of astounding strength that merits a name, a title. That is only a sliver of the might that might be discovered. It’s the Aleph, the “Oneness in multiplicity”- Elochim- with the LAMED giving direction. Lamed as a prefix means “to”. The name of the letter Lamed is “learn”. The shape of the letter is the traced silhouette of a person learning. When a person learns they are gaining direction.

 

The name Shin- Dalet- Yud is that name that is scribed on the outer part of the parchment of a Mezuzah. Inside is written the deeper secret that HASHEM is ONE! On the outside though, is the “natural” world. The name Shim-Dalet-Yud implies a world that is Dai- enough.

Everything is sufficient and perfectly calibrated. Shadaim in Hebrew refer to the place where a child nurses from his mother. Exactly formulated and precisely measured the child gets just what he needs and no more. A minute before he is born there is no milk, and a few moments later the restaurant is open for business. Who could have dreamed of or designed such an efficient system!?

 

We don’t see the owner of this patent but His signature of kindliness and efficiency are inscribed in every detail of each and every one of His works. HASHEM hid Himself sufficiently, as the Talmud describes in Chagiga that He said at one point during the creation “Dai-Enough!”

 

The world is just right! It is opaque with physicality enough to cover HASHEM, and it is translucent, tinged with just enough wonder that real truth seekers like Avraham and his children can find Him hiding in the open, daily.

 

DvarTorah, Copyright © 2007 by Rabbi Label Lam and T orah.org.

Lost in Egypt • Torah.org

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Posted on January 3, 2019 (5779) By Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky | Series: Drasha | Level:

B eginner

 

Negotiating redemption is not a simple process. You must deal with two different sides and send two different messages to opposite parties. First, you must speak to the oppressors. You must be demanding and firm. You cannot show weakness or a willingness to compromise. Then you have to inform to the oppressed. That should be easy: in a soft and soothing manner you gently break the news that they are about to be liberated. They will surely rejoice at the slightest hint that their

time has finally come. That is why I am struck by a verse in this week’s portion that directs Moshe to send the exact same message to Pharoh and the Jewish people, as if Pharoh and the Jews were of one mind, working in tandem. Exodus 6:13 “Hashem spoke to Moshe and Ahron and commanded them to speak to the children of Israel and to Pharoh the King of Egypt, to let the children of Israel leave Egypt” I was always perplexed by this verse. How is it possible to encompass the message to the Jews and Pharoh in one fell swoop? How can you compare the strong demand to Pharoh to the soft, cajoling message necessary for the Jews?

Pharoh, who does not to want to hear of liberation, has to be warned and chastised and even plagued. The Jews should jump at the mention of redemption! Why, then, are the two combined in one verse and with one declaration? There are those who answer that the Jews in this verse actually refer to the Jewish taskmasters who were appointed by Pharoh as kapos to oppress their brethren. Thus the equation is clearly justified. However, I would like to offer a more homiletic explanation:

 

There is a wonderful story of a poor farmer who lived under the rule of a miserable poritz (landowner) in medieval Europe. The evil landowner provided minimal shelter in exchange for a large portion of the farmer’s profits. The farmer and his wife toiled under the most severe conditions to support their family with a few chickens that laid eggs and a cow that gave milk. Ultimately, time took its toll and hardship became the norm. The farmer and his wife had their bitter routine and never hoped for better. One day the farmer came back from the market quite upset. “What’s the matter?” cried his wife, “you look as if the worst calamity has happened.” “It has,” sighed the anxious farmer. “They say in the market that the Moshiach is coming. He will take us all to the land of Israel. What will be of our cow and our chickens?

Where will we live? Who will provide shelter for us? Oy! What is going to be?” His wife, who was steeped with faith in the Almighty, answered calmly. “Don’t worry my dear husband. The Good Lord always protects His people. He saved us from Pharoh in Egypt, He redeemed us from the evil Haman and has protected us from harsh decrees throughout our exile. No doubt he will protect us from this Moshiach too!”

 

Hashem understood that the Jewish people were mired in exile for 210 years. They had decided to endure slavery rather than abandon it. Moshe had to be as forceful with those he was planning to redeem as he was with those who had enslaved them. Often in life, whether by choice or by chance, we enter into situations that we ought not be in. As time progresses, however, we get accustomed to the situation, and our worst enemy becomes change. We must tell the Pharoh within each of us, “let my people go!” Let us not continue on the comfortable path but rather get on the correct one. That message must be told to the victim in us with the same force and intensity as it is told to the complacent.

 

Good Shabbos c1996 Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky

 

Text Copyright © 1996 by R abbi M. Kamenetzky and Project Genesis, Inc.

 

The author is the Dean of the Yeshiva of South Shore.

 

Drasha is the e-mail edition of FaxHomily, a weekly torah facsimile on the weekly portion. FaxHomily is a project of the Henry and Myrtle Hirsch Foundation