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Thoughts on the Parsha ~
Parshas
Shemos
Pull Yourself Together
By:
Daniel Listhaus
וַיֵּצֵא בַּיּוֹם הַשֵּׁנִי
וְהִנֵּה שְׁנֵי אֲנָשִׁים עִבְרִים נִצִּים וַיֹּאמֶר לָרָשָׁע לָמָּה תַכֶּה
רֵעֶךָ: וַיֹּאמֶר מִי שָׂמְךָ לְאִישׁ
שַׂר וְשֹׁפֵט עָלֵינוּ הַלְהָרְגֵנִי אַתָּה אֹמֵר כַּאֲשֶׁר הָרַגְתָּ אֶת
הַמִּצְרִי וַיִּירָא משֶׁה וַיֹּאמַר אָכֵן נוֹדַע הַדָּבָר
“He
[Moshe] went out the next day and behold! Two Hebrew men were fighting. He said
to the wicked one, 'Why would you strike your fellow?' He replied, 'Who made
you a man, a ruler, a judge over us? Are you saying that you are going to kill
me, as you killed the Egyptian?”
-Shemos 2:13-14
After the death of Yaakov avinu and
the shevatim,[1] the
situation in Mitzrayim (Egypt) greatly deteriorated. Pharoah was very
concerned that the growing number of Jews would create an environment suitable
for a revolt.[2]
In order to preempt this possibility, Pharoah decreed that from then on every
new-born Jewish boy be killed,[3] while the
rest of B'nei Yisroel – with the exception of shevet Levi –
gradually became slaves to Pharoah.[4]
The Torah tells us that despite
Moshe having grown up in the palace of Pharoah, his eyes and heart were with
his brothers slaving in the field.[5] One day
while Moshe was walking thorough he fields he witnessed an Egyptian man beating
up one of the Jews. Rashi[6] tells
us that this Egyptian man had tricked a woman named Shelomis bas Dibri, who was
the wife of this Jew, and had relations with her. Shelomis's husband returned
home and realized what had happened. When the Egyptian sensed that he had found
out, he began hitting him and threatening him and taunting him throughout the
next day. Moshe rabbeinu saw this and could not sit back while one of
his brothers was getting beaten up. So, the passuk[7] (verse)
describes that Moshe killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. The Torah[8] continues
to relate that the next day when Moshe once again was walking around
empathizing with his fellow working Jews, he saw two Jews – Dasan and Aviram –
fighting with each other. He turned to the one who had his hand up in the air
ready to strike and shouted to him, “Why would you strike your fellow?” The man
replied, “Who made you a man, a ruler, a judge over us? Are you saying that you
are going to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?” When Moshe heard this, the passuk[9] tells
us that he suddenly became frightened and thought to himself, “Indeed the
matter has become known”.
On a simple level, it would seem
that Moshe was afraid that people had found out what he did and out of despair
thought, “The matter has become known.” However, Rashi[10] tells
us that Moshe had no regrets about what he did, nor was he particularly nervous
that people had found out. Rather, Moshe was worried because he realized that
there were informers within B'nei Yisroel who were willing to get their
fellow brothers in trouble. When Moshe saw this he said, “Until now I was
unsure why B'nei Yisroel should deserve to be slaves more than any other
nation but now that I see that there are informers, I understand why they are
deserving of such a punishment. Not only that, but if they are still willing to
sink to such low depths, perhaps they are not fit to be redeemed.” This really
scared Moshe.
The question that we must ask though
is that Rashi is saying that Moshe wondered why B'nei Yisroel deserved
to be slaves more than any other nation. Somehow seeing that there were
informers among B'nei Yisroel answered this question. How did that help
Moshe understand? Certainly the other nations have informers among them too. So
what was it that made Moshe understand why we deserved to be slaves to Pharoah
in Mitzrayim? It seems a bit extreme that because there be informers
among B'nei Yisroel that we deserve to be slaves to Pharoah.
Later in the parsha, the
Torah[11] tells us
that Pharoah made things harder for the Jews as he stopped giving as many
supplies to make the bricks, but never lowered his expectation of the quota he
required in number of bricks. He appointed Jewish guards over groups of Jewish
slaves and then had his own Egyptian taskmasters to watch over the Jewish
guards. Rashi[12] tells
us the Jewish guards were filled with mercy and did not want to put the extra
pressure on their fellow Jews who were doing the hard labor. Therefore, more
often than not, the quota would not be met. Being in managerial positions,
these Jewish guards would be blamed for not putting enough pressure on the Jews
to reach the quota, and in turn would be whipped by the Egyptian taskmasters. Rashi
continues and states that because of the mercy that the Jewish guards had
and their willingness to accept lashes instead of putting the extra pressure on
the slaving Jews, these Jewish guards merited to be part of the Sanhedrin (Supreme
Court).
At this point, we must ask a similar
question as before. We know Hashem punishes and rewards midah k'neged midah
(measure for measure). So, it must be that for some reason becoming part of the
Sanhedrin was the proper reward for these guards who had mercy on the
Jewish slaves. How could we understand this? What does having mercy
on B'nei Yisroel and the willingness to accept pain for their not
finishing their quotas have anything to do with becoming a prominent member of
the Sanhedrin?
There is a certain business
consultant who gets hired by companies in order to find issues within the
company, point them out, and fix them for better performance. One simulation he
does while on the job is to call a few executives and managers from the four
largest divisions in the company and seats them, by division, by four separate
tables. For example, he makes one table for the accounting division, a table
for the marketing team, a table for the finance team, and a table for the human
resources team. He then announces to everyone in the room that he is now the
new CEO and each table represents a division of the company. He then passes out
two cards for each table – one card with an “X” on it and the other with a “Y”.
He then gives the following instructions: There will be ten rounds where each
team could put out either its “X” card or its “Y” card, but there is to be no
communication between the tables; you could only discuss which card to choose
with the members at your table. There are five simple rules. If all four
divisions put down the “X” card, then each team loses $1. If there are three
“X's” and one “Y”, then the three “X's” win $1 each while the team with the “Y”
loses $3. If there are two “X's” and two “Y's” then the two “X's” win $2 each
and the two “Y's” lose $2 each. If there is one “X” and three “Y's” then the
“X” wins $3 while each of the “Y's” lose $1 each. If all four teams put down
their “Y” card then each team wins $1.
Inevitably what happens is that each
team starts off putting down “X's” for the first couple of rounds, hoping to
make the most amount of money, but that of course results in each team losing
as all four “X's” are chosen. Then one or two teams try putting down their “Y”
cards hoping that others will do the same (remember, no communication between
tables), but to no avail. They end up losing as the ones who kept putting down
“X's” start tallying up a positive score. This goes on until the consultant
goes around after five rounds and congratulates the teams which have been
profitable and tells the teams which are carrying a negative balance to shape
up fast. He then allows each team to say a message to the whole room. Some
agree that everyone should be putting down the “Y” card in order to have
consistent gains, but the competition in the air is too much to allow logic once
the next round starts up again. After ten rounds, the consultant asks everyone
to look at their score cards and points out that even the teams with the
highest score has nothing compared to what it could have had with the
consistent $1 each turn, let alone the aggregate of the four teams together. He
ends with the strong message that oftentimes we allow our egos, emotions, and
competitiveness to get the better of us and as a result we end up competing
against ourselves without realizing.
Inside each member of B'nei
Yisroel is a special neshama (soul) given to us by Hashem. Each shevet
(tribe) in Klal Yisroel represents certain things and has
unique talents and potential as represented in Birkas Yaakov (Yaakov's
blessings to the shevatim), and each individual within each shevet has
his or her own talents and potential as well. However, the power of Klal
Yisroel does not come from its numbers but rather from its unity.
Our task is to achieve the level of k'ish echad b'leiv echad – to become
like one person with one heart.
When Moshe rabbeinu saw that
Dasan and Aviram had informed to Pharoah about what he did, he realized that Klal
Yisroel, as a nation dependent on its oneness and unit, deserved to be
enslaved to equalize everyone and demonstrate that that no one was better than
the next. Petty fights and competition within B'nei Yisroel does not
benefit any individual in the long run and only pulls down the unity of B'nei
Yisroel. On the other hand, when there are those such as the Jewish guards
who were willing to take the hit for their brothers, people who share the
burden of Klal Yisroel and would rather be pained themselves than to be
the cause of pain for others, there becomes hope and such people are worthy of
becoming part of the Sanhedrin – the rulers of B'nei Yisroel.
As
hard as this may be to internalize, it is time that as a people we realize that
as members of Klal Yisroel, an
individual cannot become greater by pushing everyone else around him down,
rather we only become profitable as a nation when we work together and maintain
a steady and constant effort towards unity and helping each other. We no longer
have leaders like Moshe rabbeinu who represent this idea in its fullest,
but it is something that we should at least realize for ourselves.
May Hashem help us realize and
prioritize what is important and what is not in order to help us unite as a
nation and not remain as separate individuals or teams who are just trying to
get the maximum without thinking of what the effect is with the rest of the
proverbial company.
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