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Thoughts on the Parsha ~
Parshas
Bo
Anti Ambidextrous Ambitions
By:
Daniel Listhaus
וְהָיָה לְאוֹת עַל יָדְכָה וּלְטוֹטָפֹת בֵּין עֵינֶיךָ כִּי
בְּחֹזֶק יָד הוֹצִיאָנוּ ה' מִמִּצְרָיִם
“And
it shall be a sign upon your arm, and for totafos between your eyes, for
with a strong hand Hashem removed us from Mitzrayim.”
-Bo
13:16
The Ramban[1] points
out that so many of the mitzvos we do serve in some way as a (zeicher)
remembrance of Hashem taking us out of Mitzrayim. Indeed, the makkos
(plagues) in Mitzrayim continuing with yetzias Mitzrayim (exodus
from Egypt) and kriyas Yam Suf (splitting of the Red Sea), and ultimately
culminating with mattan Torah (receiving the Torah), serve as a timeless
certificate for us that Hashem is the borei (creator) and manhig (controller)
of the world and that we are His
chosen people to lead a life of keeping Torah and mitzvos. One of the many mitzvos we do daily which remind of us yetzias Mitzrayim is the
donning of the tefillin, a mitzva actually mentioned
at the end of this week’s parsha. The Torah tells us that the tefillin should be a sign upon our arm and between our eyes to recall that Hahsm
removed us from Mitzrayim with a strong hand.
The Shulchan Aruch[2] rules that the tefillin shel yad (tefillin of the arm) is put on the left arm. The Mishna Berurah[3] explains that the reason we put
it on the left arm is because when the Torah says to put the tefillin on the arm it does not write
the word “yad’chah” as with just the letters yud-daled-chof but rather with a hey added to the end as if it were
saying “yad keihah” – “the weak hand”. From this d’rasha, Chazal learn that we don the tefillin on the weaker arm. What is the significance of
putting the tefillin on the weaker hand?
Another tefillin anomaly which demands attention
is the fact that we only put the tefillin on one arm. It is asymmetrical; and although we are used to the look
and feel, it is weird. Imagine walking around with one shoe, or one sleeve
rolled up with the other down. Our mind is programmed to appreciate symmetry
and balance. It is bizarre that we only put tefillin on one arm. Why is the mitzva set up in this way?
A story is told of a non-Jewish thief who
stole a pair of tefillin and was subsequently trying to sell it back to Jews for a high price.
One person heard of the offer but did not want to give in to the high price out
of fear that it would just cause the thief to repeat his crime. He therefore
came up with the following clever plan. He made an appointment to meet with the
thief and try the tefillin on for size. He came to the meeting spot and the thief showed him the
beautiful pair of tefillin. The Jew put on the shel yad with kavanah (concentration), wrapping it
around his arm slowly and intently. He then reached in and took out the shel rosh, securing it on his head nice
and tight and ensuring it was directly in the center above his eyes in its
proper place. He then reached into the bag a third time and felt around with a
confused look on his face. He stared into the thief’s eyes and said, “You schlepped
me out here to buy a beautiful set of tefillin at such a high price and you don’t even have the
third part of the set to go on the other arm? How dare you waste my time like
this! These are worthless without the tefillin for the other arm!” The thief told him to just
keep it and then ran away.[4]
As cute
and clever as the story is the assumption that the Jew knew that he thief had
was that of course there would be a third pair. If tefillin goes on one arm, it should go on both. Why is it
that we only put it one? And once we are putting it on one arm why is it that
we put it on the left – the weaker one – and not the right one which the Torah
always gives preference to?
An almost universal feeling that
people share is that they do not look good in pictures. Why? The reason is a
funny one: You do not know what you really look like. You look in the mirror
and comb your hair to the right, but everyone else sees it combed to the left.
You are used to seeing different constellations of freckles on your left and
right cheeks, while everyone else sees them on opposite sides. You are used to
looking in the mirror and seeing the birthmark on your mirror-self’s left ear,
while everyone else sees it on your right. You think you know what you look
like but you do not. Sometimes the things closest to us are hardest to see.
People become comfortable and used to themselves at least how they think they
look and are perceived, and indeed if shown a picture of themselves in mirror
version and picture version, people will almost always choose their
mirror-versions of themselves over what they really look like to the rest of
the world. We are happy with how we see ourselves, but when we look at
ourselves from someone else’s stand point we are discomforted and feel that something
does not look right.
The Kli Yakar[5] writes that the reason we put
the tefillin
on the left,
weaker arm is because we must always remember that the strength of man alone is
nothing unless the hand of Hashem is there guiding us. By us donning the tefillin on the left we are showing that
man is weak, but when he stands shevisi hashem l’negdi samid – always as if standing in front
of G-d, then his left hand is actually opposite Hashem’s proverbial right. It
is for this reason too that the heart is on the left side of the body and the
liver on the right. Not because preference is given to the liver which represents
desire, while the heart, one of the centers for seichel, remains secondary. Rather, exactly the opposite.
We are tasked with living a life imagining ourselves as always being in front
of Hashem. The right and left we should be comfortable with and use as
spiritual direction is not the one that we see from our perspective, which admittingly
is easier to adjust to because that is what we fall to by default, but instead
base our right and left based on Hashem’s perspective. Hashem delivered makkos to Mitzrayim, took us out of Mitzrayim, split the Yam Suf, and gave us the Torah. Hashem created and runs the world. Our comfort
should come from the fact that Hashem is our strength and that we as people
have no power other than to rely on Him. This is the reason we put tefillin on our weaker arm – to symbolize
that not only is human strength a mere illusion, but even more – that it is
Hashem’s strength alone, His proverbial yad Ha’chazaka which took us out of Mitzrayim, which is real and dependable. We are challenged to change our
perspective from the comfortable mirror-self we are so used to seeing and
giving in to, and instead feel comfortable with the reality that all that is
important is that we visualize ourselves as constantly standing before Hashem
and relying on Him.
May Hashem help us understand
that our strength does not come from what we think we feel, and that real
success does not stem from the ambitions we decide to act on for ourselves, and
help us become comfortable with the realization that as long as we have trust
in Hashem’s strength that we are strong despite our left hand, and that aligning
our ambitions with His ratzon is what ultimately should give us comfort, and not the mirror version
of ourselves reflected back that we tend to think of as genuine.
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