Parshas Va'eira - Let There Be Hope

~ Thoughts on the Parsha ~

Parshas Va'eira

 

Let There Be Hope

By: Daniel Listhaus

וַיְדַבֵּר משֶׁה לִפְנֵי ה' לֵאמֹר הֵן בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא שָׁמְעוּ אֵלַי וְאֵיךְ יִשְׁמָעֵנִי פַרְעֹה וַאֲנִי עֲרַל שְׂפָתָיִם

“Moshe spoke before Hashem saying, 'Behold, the Children of Israel have not listened to me, so how will Pharaoh listen to me? And I have blocked lips!”

-Va'eria 6:12

            This week's parsha continues to relate the unbelievable conversations that Moshe and Hashem shared. We know that Moshe was the greatest navi (prophet) to ever live,^[1] yet it is still incredibly difficult to comprehend the relationship between Moshe – a person, and Hashem. Hashem had commanded Moshe to say to the B'nei Yisroel, “I will bring you to the land about which I have raised My hand to give it to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov; and I shall give it to you as a heritage – I am Hashem.”^[2] However, when Moshe relayed this message to the B'nei Yisroel, the passuk (verse) testifies that they refused to listen because of shortness of breath and hard work.^[3]

           

            In the next passuk, Hashem commands Moshe, “Come speak to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that he send the B'nei Yisroel from his land.”^[4] Moshe responds that, “Behold, the B'nei Yisroel have not listened to me, so how will Pharaoh listen to me? And I have blocked lips.”^[5] Rashi^[6] comments that this argument that Moshe made to Hashem, is one of ten kal v'chomeirs^[7] found throughout Tanach. The Mizrachi^[8] explains that Moshe said to Hashem as follows, “If the B'nei Yisroel won't listen to me, and what I am saying is beneficial for them [that they will be able to leave], then certainly Pharaoh will refuse to listen because the news I am relaying is bad for him.”

            However, as the Mizrachi himself points out, this kal v'chomeir is hard to understand because there is a pircha (flaw in its logic). After all, Moshe seems to have conveniently omitted an important piece of information. As mentioned earlier, when the Torah says that the B'nei Yisroel did not listen to Moshe, it describes that the reason they did not listen was because they were stressed out from their strenuous labor. If so, Moshe did not have a valid reasoning because perhaps the B'nei Yisroel only didn't listen for that reason, but for Pharaoh, to whom the excuse of working hard surely did not apply, on what basis could Moshe be so sure that Pharaoh would not listen?

            The Mizrachi answers that Moshe himself did not know the reason why the B'nei Yisroel refused to listen to him; and that when the Torah was telling us that it was indeed because of being stressful from their work, it was telling us from an omniscient point of view.^[9]

            Let us take a step back, though, for a minute and examine the situation. The B'nei Yisroel were slaves in Mitzrayim. They had gone through so much at this point – there was a decree that their babies be thrown into the Nile, they were forced to do hard work, and they were constantly being beaten up. There is no doubt that Mitzrayim would not have been a first-choice vacation spot for a Jew. Yet, for some reason, when Moshe came to them with a message from Hashem that they were going to be rescued from their horrible living arrangements and be brought into their own land, the B'nei Yisroel seem to have just turned the other way. One would think that if one were a slave and someone would tell him that he would be released to freedom, that he would be jumping for joy. So, why is it that the B'nei Yisroel seemed to be indifferent about staying in Mitzrayim? Did they enjoy doing work all of the sudden?^[10] Why did they not listen to Moshe? The passuk says that they did not listen because they were short of breath and tired of hard work. Wouldn't that be exactly the reason why the B'nei Yisroel should listen to Moshe?

            In 1965, a scientist names Martin E. P. Seligman performed an interesting experiment.^[11] At that time, everyone knew of Ivan Pavlov's famous experiment with his dogs which demonstrated that if you ring a bell every time you bring a dog its food, then you will observe that at a later time you could ring the bell, and even without having any food present, the dog will begin to salivate. This proved the concept of conditioning. The object of Seligman's experiment was to prove a similar concept by shocking dogs. Seligman had a bunch of dogs which he harmlessly shocked while they were restrained. Later, he put the dog in a shuttle-box which had two sides with a low fence dividing the two compartments. They went to the side the dog was in and shocked it, expecting it to utilize its freedom and jump to the other side. However, the dog just stayed put. Seligman showed from here that there is a concept of “learned helplessness”. The restrained dogs had learned to just give up hope without exploring other options. Therefore, even when the opportunity existed for the dogs to escape pain and suffering, they refused to make any such effort.

            Unfortunately, dogs are not the only ones who could be conditioned to feel helpless. People too sometimes experience times of defeat and then give up completely and do not care when a solution is offered in the future. Feeling depressed without hope for a long period of time could dangerously effect the mind to start believing that there is indeed no hope – even when the answer appears later in front of one's face. 

            Perhaps this was the reason that the B'nei Yisroel refused to listen to Moshe. After being in Mitzrayim for a long time going through so many hardships, evil decrees, and manual labor, the Jews felt hopeless and were unable to accept the message of freedom when it was offered to them.

            Hashem, though, proceeded to bring the ten plagues on the Egyptians and clearly differentiated between them and the Jews. It was a time of Hashem showing his pure love for us. A Jew must never give up and always have hope because we understand that Hashem cares about us and watches over each of us individually. If we could condition ourselves to constantly be aware that Hashem is always here for us, and does not allow for things to happen that will effect the life and circumstances we are supposed to find ourselves in, then we could live an enhanced life with hope even in the darkest of times. If we do not condition ourselves to think along these lines, then we never truly left Mitzrayim and are really slaves to our own psychology that when things look grim, we just accept the position we are in and remain depressed over the fact that bad situations do not change.

            May Hashem help us condition ourselves to truly believe that everything is in His hands. With this mentality, there is no room for giving up hope.

---

[1]    The seventh of the “Ani Maamins” which could generally be found in the siddur immediately following Shacharis davening.

[2]    Shemos 6:8

[3]    Shemos 6:9

[4]    Shemos 6:11

[5]    Shemos 6:12

[6]    Ibid.

[7]    Kal V'chomeir is a fortiori argument based on logic which essentially states that if something applies in a more “kal” situation (where there is less of a reason for it to apply), then certainly it should apply by the “chomeir” – where there is more reason for it to apply.

[8]    Ibid.

[9]    The Mizrachi continues to ask: Still, why don't we just throw that pircha into the kal v'chomeir as well (as we do often throughout the Gemara), and construct the following argument that Moshe was saying: “If B'nei Yisroel are unwilling to listen to me and it is beneficial to them, even though they are stressed from the hard work; so certainly Pharaoh will not listen to me because the news is detrimental to him, despite the fact that he is not stressed from being in slavery.” The Mizrachi then gives and answer to this question as well by saying that we do not apply this concept when the Torah itself lists the pircha.

[10]  The passuk in Shemos 3:7 says that Hashem heard the crying of B'nei Yisroel, so certainly they were unhappy in Egypt.

[11]  Learned Helplessness, by Martin Seligman.

Parshas Shemos - Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

~ Thoughts on the Parsha ~

Parshas Shemos

Stop and Smell the Coffee

By: Daniel Listhaus

וּמשֶׁה הָיָה רֹעֶה אֶת צֹאן יִתְרוֹ חֹתְנוֹ כֹּהֵן מִדְיָן וַיִּנְהַג אֶת הַצֹּאן אַחַר הַמִּדְבָּר וַיָּבֹא אֶל הַר הָאֱלֹקים חֹרֵבָה

“Moshe was grazing the sheep of Yisro, his father-in-law, the minister of Midyan; he guided the sheep far into the wilderness, and he arrived at the Mountain of G-d, toward Choreiv.”

-Shemos 3:1

            After running away from Mitzrayim, Moshe found his way to Midyan and married one of Yisro’s daughters. The Torah[1] relates that one day, while Moshe was shepherding Yisro’s sheep, he arrived at Har Ha’Elokim and witnessed a burning bush which miraculously was not being consumed by the fire. Rashi[2] comments that the passuk (verse) goes out of its way to describe that Moshe would guide the sheep far into the wilderness before allowing them to graze, in order to publicize Moshe’s great care and respect of others’ property. Moshe wanted to make sure that he stayed far from any sort of theft. Therefore, he travelled with the flocks of sheep great distance in order to ensure that the sheep would not graze in the fields of others.

            Although Rashi explains the reason for the details in the latter part of the passuk, the Kli Yakar[3] is further bothered by the wordiness and amount of “unnecessary” detail in the first part of the passuk. Why does the passuk have to tell us that Moshe was grazing Yisro’s sheep? The Kli Yakar explains based on the following. The mishna[4] lists groups of people who are ineligible to be witnesses or judges. The gemara[5] however notes that although shepherds were not originally included on that list, when the Rabbis later observed that shepherds were intentionally sending their sheep to graze in others’ fields, they added herders to the list of those who cannot testify or judge. The Rabbis however were only concerned about those who herded their own sheep. Those who shepherded the sheep of others, though, did not fall into this category because there is a concept of ein adom chotei v’lo lo – a person would not sin in a situation where there is nothing to be gained by doing so. A person may be willing to steal in order to protect his own flocks, but would not do so in order to help someone else unless there would be a level of personal benefit to be gained. The reward would just not justify the risk. Therefore, explains the Kli Yakar, the passuk here does not merely state that Moshe was herding sheep, but rather specifies that they were his father-in-law’s flock and elaborates that he made sure to graze them far away from private property. These details were added in order to remove any thought that might come to mind of chas v’shalom associating Moshe with theft because of his job title.

            The obvious difficulty with this, as the Kli Yakar himself raises, is that instead of the Torah writing that Moshe was a shepherd and then having to give all the details to prevent any cause of accusation that Moshe conducted business unethically like others in his field[6], the Torah could have easily left out the detail that Moshe was a shepherd in the first place. Why did the torah feel the need to mention that Moshe was a shepherd and then have to go into detail that Moshe did not tend to his own sheep, but rather Yisro’s and that he would take them far away to graze? The Torah could have skipped the passuk altogether and found another way to segue into the episode of Moshe finding the burning bush?

            The Kli Yakar answers that the Torah very much wanted to include the information that Moshe was a shepherd because being a shepherd is associated with nevuah (prophecy). So many nevi’im – in fact even the avos and shevatim themselves – were all shepherds. This is not a coincidence but rather logical for the following reason. Unlike most jobs, being a shepherd allows one to have time to oneself admiring Hashem’s world. Reaching a level of being a proper receptacle for nevuah requires an inner peace with oneself as well as a deep appreciation of Hashem’s involvement in the world. Such an experience could only be achieved by taking a step out of busy life and taking a moment to catch one’s breath, introspect, and take inventory of where one is holding himself as well as appreciating Hashem’s beautiful and intricate world. This is why the passuk went out of its way to mention that Moshe was a shepherd, despite the fact that writing it required a careful clarification and the addition of a qualifying description accompanying it in the passuk.

            If being a shepherd was a “perquisite” to becoming a navi then, in order to escape the “busy” world of ancient Egypt and its surrounding cities, imagine what it would take to achieve a level of hisbodedus today. In the age where instant coffee takes too long to make, speed is indeed everything. There is no time to dial, we must speed-dial; no time to read, so we speed-read; no time to walk so we speed-walk. People play speed-chess, and do speed-yoga; activities which used to exemplify deliberation and concentration are now just space fillers – things which get checked off on a daily routine as a means of preoccupying ourselves during breaks between tasks.

 Everything we do has to be fast and quick, but not because there is always something else to do. Rather, this attention deficit disorder of task jumping and moving from one activity to the next is an expression of our minds looking for something to preoccupy ourselves with because anything is better than the alternative – being left with nothing but ourselves. When there is nothing to do people become jittery because they are uncomfortable with themselves and must fill the void by either listening to music, mindlessly pulling out a smart-phone to pass the time, or engage in extreme doing extreme activities, until our next task comes to us and we could relax that there is a new item to attend to.

The secret to becoming a navi, however, lies in doing exactly the opposite. A navi is someone who is comfortable with himself and could sit in silence and have nothing but his own mind and Hashem’s world to occupy himself with. He does not need to be kept distracted nor requires preoccupation to stay mentally stable, rather he is able to introspect and evaluate himself with an inner peace and quiet.

This is why the torah felt it necessary to write that Moshe was a shepherd. He was someone who was able to achieve a level of nevuah through hisbodedus – being able to just sit, think, reflect, and observe the world around him. Moshe had no need for distractions and no need to keep busy. This is how he was able to build a perfect relationship with himself and how he was able to achieve a level of becoming a navi.

May Hashem help guide us through our beyond-busy world and assist us as we take one step at a time to slowly get to know ourselves better through hisbodedus, personal reflection and evaluation, inner peace, and a deep appreciation for Hashem’s world around us.

---

[1] Shemos 3:1-2

[2] Rashi ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Sanhedrin 24b

[5] Sanhedrin 25b

[6] Pun intended 

Parshas Vayechi - I Thought That You Thought

~ Thoughts on the Parsha ~

Parshas Vayechi

I Thought That You Thought

By: Daniel Listhaus

וַיִּקַּח יוֹסֵף אֶת שְׁנֵיהֶם אֶת אֶפְרַיִם בִּימִינוֹ מִשְּׂמֹאל יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאֶת מְנַשֶּׁה בִשְׂמֹאלוֹ מִימִין יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיַּגֵּשׁ אֵלָיו: וַיִּשְׁלַח יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת יְמִינוֹ וַיָּשֶׁת עַל רֹאשׁ אֶפְרַיִם וְהוּא הַצָּעִיר וְאֶת שְׂמֹאלוֹ עַל רֹאשׁ מְנַשֶּׁה שִׂכֵּל אֶת יָדָיו כִּי מְנַשֶּׁה הַבְּכוֹר

“And Yosef took the two of them – Ephraim with his right hand, to Yisroel's [Yaakov's] left, and Menasheh, with his left, to Yisroel's right – and he drew close to him. But Yisroel extended his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head though he was younger and his left hand on Menasheh's head. He moved his hands with intelligence, for Menasheh was the first born.”

-Vayechi 48:13-14

            The Torah^[1] carefully details the way that Yosef came to Yaakov with his sons, Menasheh and Ephraim. Menasheh was the older son and Yosef knew that he would be getting the bigger bracha (blessing). Ephraim, on the other hand,^[2] was younger and would therefore be secondary. For this reason, Yosef deliberately approached Yaakov with Menasheh on his own left and Ephraim on the right. This way, when they would be facing Yaakov opposite them, they would be in the proper mirror-imaged position, with Menasheh on Yaakov's right and Ephraim on his left.            

            However, much to Yosef's surprise, Yaakov crossed his hands and put his right hand on Ephraim, who was on his left, and his left hand on Menasheh, the older son, who was on Yaakov's right. At this point in time, as an on-looker, one would think that Yosef would just allow Yaakov to give the brachos according to the way he felt was proper. Yet, as the Torah continues to relate, Yosef's reaction was quite different, and a rather weird conversation erupted between Yaakov and Yosef.

            The passuk (verse)^[3] tells us that when Yaakov crossed his hands, Yosef was very displeased and said, “Not so, Father, for this is the firstborn; place your right hand on his head”^[4]. While saying so, Yosef actually started lifting Yaakov's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head in order to put it on Menasheh's. Yaakov, however, remained steadfast and insisted on his right hand being on Ephraim's head. His response to Yosef was simply, “I know my son, I know.”^[5]

            This event is very puzzling and hard to understand. First-of-all, Yaakov surely knew what he was doing, so why was Yosef questioning the way that Yaakov was giving the brachos? Had he merely switched their positions, one might make the mistake to think that Yaakov was just confused. However, an action as deliberate as swapping his hands seems to demonstrate a perfect knowledge of the situation and what Yaakov's intent was.

            Also, how did Yaakov explain his actions? Yosef had asked him to switch his hands back the right way, and Yaakov just responded, “I know my son, I know”, but didn't do anything about it. How did this terse response satisfy Yosef's request?^[6]

            The Rashbam^[7] sheds light on this difficult conversation by explaining as follows. When Yaakov switched his hands and put his right hand on Ephraim's head, Yosef was deeply upset. As the Da'as Zekainim^[8] explains, Yosef was thinking to himself, “My father thinks I am a fool. He thinks that when I came to him with my children that I had Menasheh on my own right and Ephraim on my left, like I usually do since Menasheh is my older son. He does not realize that I thought ahead and specifically came before him with Menasheh on my left and Ephraim on my right in order that when facing Yaakov, they would be in the correct position for Menasheh, the older son, to be the recipient of the right hand.” Yosef therefore spelled this out to Yaakov and said, “Despite the way you think I came to you, with my sons aligned from my perspective, that is not the way I did it. I had the brains to place them in order from your perspective so that they would be properly matched to your hands – with the firstborn adjacent to your right hand.”

            To this, Yaakov responded, “I know my son, I know”. The Rashbam continues to explain that the message that Yaakov was conveying to Yosef was the following, “I know, Yosef, that you are a chochom (wise person) and that you came to me with your children in the correct placements with Menasheh on my right and Ephraim on my left, yet, nevertheless, I am purposely placing my right hand on Ephraim.”

            Although this Rashbam does clear up many things for us, it is still difficult to comprehend. When Yosef saw Yaakov switch his hands and put his right hand on Ephraim, why did Yosef think that Yaakov thought that he was not smart. Why was it that the first possible explanation that could come to Yosef's mind was that his father considered him incompetent of planing in advance? In the end of the day, that was not the reason that Yaakov had switched his hands. So, why was it that the only reason that Yosef, who had a great relationship with his father even after being separated for many years, could come up with was that Yaakov had reversed his hands because he took Yosef to be a fool? What a strange conclusion for Yosef to draw!

            There is a famous article written by Frank Koch, in the U.S Naval Institute Proceedings,^[9] which goes as follows:

           “Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell. The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all activities.

           Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing reported, “Light, bearing on the starboard bow.”
           “Is it steady or moving astern?” the captain called out.
           The lookout replied, “Steady, Captain,” which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with that ship.
           The captain then called to the signalman, “Signal that ship: 'We are on a collision course, advise you change course twenty degrees.'”

           Back came the signal, “Advisable for you to change course twenty degrees.”
           The captain said, “Send: “I'm a captain, change course twenty degrees.'”
           “I'm a seaman second-class,” came the reply. “You had better change course twenty degrees.”
           By that time the captain was furious. He spat out, “Send: 'I'm a battleship. Change course twenty degrees.'"
           Back came the flashing light, “I'm a lighthouse.”
We changed course.”

            Often-times we enter situations with an idea already in our heads as to how the scenario is supposed to play out. When out at sea, the captain was perhaps expecting to come across some ships in his path, but was not expecting a lighthouse. Therefore when he was communicating with what he thought was an on-coming ship, every possible idea came to mind as to how this 'second-class seaman' could have the audacity to talk back to him. Yet, the possibility that this other ship may be a lighthouse, was not something that he was anticipating and was therefore deemed an impossibility to enter his mind. It took the lighthouse staring him in his face, and its operator telling him that he better listen or he will be a sunk battleship, to finally be convinced that although he was not expecting there to be a lighthouse in his way, it was a reality that now needed to be faced.

            We are only privy to our own thoughts and perspectives. It takes a tremendous amount of open-mildness and objectivity to remove ourselves from the various influences that effect us. Every person's history, thought processes, and intentions are so different from each other. The way we perceive others is therefore not based on what they said, did, or thought, but rather what we heard, saw, or thought they thought.

            With this understanding, perhaps we could now better grasp Yosef's reasoning. Yosef knew the way that giving brachos worked, or at least he thought he did. Surely a bedtime story favorite of his was when Yaakov would tell him the story of how he had to buy the bechor (right to the first-born) from Eisav and how he had to deceive Yitzchak, upon Rivka's wishes through ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit from Hashem), in order to be considered the firstborn and befitting of receiving the brachos. Based on Yosef's comprehension, when he came to Yaakov with Menasheh and Ephraim for their brachos, it was so obvious to him that Yaakov's right hand should go on Menasheh's head. Therefore, when Yaakov criss-crossed his hands, the only possible explanation that Yosef could think of was that his father thought he was a fool. What other explanation could there be for Yaakov reversing his hands other than if Yaakov thought that Yosef had brought Menasheh on Yosef's own right, which would be Yaakov's left. It could not have been that Ephraim was really the one meant to get the bigger bracha, that was an impossibility because that is not the way the “happily ever after” story was supposed to end.

            This is something that occurs to us more often than not. It is quite often that after a misunderstanding between two parties, each side finds themselves thinking: “I thought that he thought that I thought”. Imagine how much clearer our eyesight would be if we were able to train ourselves not to think for others.

            As hard as it may be, we must admit that we are seeing an entire world through our eyes only. We must realize that we are constantly forcing our definitions and explanations into what others say, think, and do. From each of our vantage points, we consider ourselves like the captain of a ship and that we outrank anyone else's opinions. However, we must realize that as much as we are captains, there are things about others which we just cannot see past the fog that separates us as individuals.

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[1]    Beraishis 48:13-14

[2]    Excuse the pun.

[3]    Beraishis 48:17

[4]    Beraishis 48:18

[5]    Beraishis 48:19

[6]    Perhaps if Yaakov was British it would be understandable because they are known to say, “I say, I say!” without actually saying anything.

[7]    Beraishis 48:17

[8]   Ibid.

[9]   Koch, Frank. “Pulling Rank”. Proceedings. November 1987. (pg. 81)