Spark of Jewish Experience

One of the courses was taught by a professor who was an avowed atheist and a member of the ACLU. One day the professor shocked the class when he came in:  he looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, “God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I’ll give you exactly 15 minutes.”
The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop.
Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, “Here I am God. I’m still waiting.”
It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him, knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold.
The Marine went back to his seat and sat there silently. The other students were shocked, stunned, and sat there looking on in silence.
The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, “What is the matter with you? Why did you do that?”
The Marine calmly replied, “God was too busy today protecting American soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot. So, He sent me”.

This is a case of an enforcer protecting the monotheistic ideal.. Its important that we have in every society law enforcement to protect the rights of the people. Its a must, or else society would not be able to function.  Where would we be without the excessive implementation of traffic tickets and the scant mini-meters. Thank you Mayor Bloomberg.

“I never heard of this G-d of the Israelites” Pharaoh proclaimed when his two guest came with a stern message. Pharaoh then said ” I’ll show them who’s boss” after Moshe and his brother Aharon approached him demanding to send the Israelites free. He then  made it harder for the  enslaved Jewish people by not giving them straw to complete their work. Now  the Israelites would have to spread out through the entire land of Egypt  to gather straw. However, the catch was, he said, the  production amount will not be reduced. This placed a tremendous amount of pressure on the Jewish foremen who scrambled to keep production at the same level.

 Unfortunately, there are times in history where we see ones own brethren are threatened into  enforcing certain laws against their own people by an imposing nation for their own agenda. Such is the case in this weeks parsha where Pharaoh, the Egyptian king, created a Jewish police force to implement his plan. If the Jewish slaves fell short of fulfilling their quotas, the Egyptians beat the Jewish foremen. However, the foremen sacrificed themselves to protect their fellow Jews. They absorbed the beatings and refused to retaliate against the overworked Jews. The Jewish foremen/police had mercy on their fellow comrades. (Rashi 5,14)

 Pharaoh decided the best cure for Moshe’s incitement was to make the Israelites work so hard that they would not have any energy to think of rebellion.

As Rashi notes, it was a courageous act on behalf of the Jewish foremen who defended their brethren. These foremen later were rewarded by being appointed ” the seventy elders of Israel”; they judged the people. This was a tremendous honor!!

pride and joy-celebrating finishing the seven year cycle of the Talmud at Met life where over 90,000 participated

The question is asked; we Jews pride ourselves on being an intelligent people. Our Talmud is an incredibly difficult & complex body of work and some of our greatest scholars (among many others)  study it on a daily basis. They even take time off from their busy schedule and form study groups. They find it extremely gratifying and stimulating. As far as intelligence is concerned, its the best in the business.  So if we are the scholarly front runners doesn’t one think the job description for the “Elders of Israel”, judges amongst our people should be more qualified then just ones who showed mercy? Granted it was a very noble gesture and one that deserves great reward. However, “elders” is defined as scholar.  There is no mention in the scriptures and in the Midrash about their intelligence. It seems like they were simple  foremen in Egypt. They were righteous but not “judge” material.

  As a matter of fact G-d didn’t pull the trigger on  expressing his desire for Moshe to be leader until the burning bush incident. The icing on the cake was seeing  Moshe exhibiting curiosity when seeing the burning bush. It showed an interest in knowing; it showed a desire to analyze a situation. So we see there is a degree of intelligence needed for a leadership position.

 We see a fascinating act by G-d. He rewarded the seventy foremen with added intelligence and  uplifted them to one of the highest positions among the nation. They stood by and protected the nation at their lowest point in Egypt and now they will be on top of the totem pole when the nation is  in its glory days. We see the importance of caring for ones fellow; we see an importance in showing mercy for mankind.

 Similarly, on a higher level, we find our forefather Avraham, who housed and entertained  guests constantly.He and his wife Sarah are famous for their acts of kindness toward people. One can ask, when did he have time to intellectually get close to G-d?  We know at a young age, impressively,  he deduced from nature that there is a one G-d . We also know his great grandfather, Shem, had what we call today a Yeshiva. The Sages say Avraham always had the burning desire to connect to G-d. However, there was no time on the schedule for the long weekend retreat. Although we see that Avraham was a highly intelligent he too was granted a gift,  a high level of spirituality. For his kindness towards people and branding ” helping your fellow man” ,G-d came to him personally.

  One can put the enforcer concept in perspective with this story of the Chazzon Ish, one of our contemporary leaders. It was the afternoon before Yom Kippur and someone approached the Chazzon Ish and asked him a question about his parnasa-livelyhood. The Chazzon Ish spent a considerable time with the person.  After a while the fellow asked the Rav ” Rebbi, don’t you need time to prepare for Yom Kippur? Why are you dedicating so much time on my behalf?” . He answered ” I am preparing for Yom Kippur by helping you with your livelihood”.

 Another story involves Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, one of the leading authorities on contemporary halacha of his time in the United States. A few weeks after he passed away one of the Rav’s secretaries  discovered an elderly woman who would call the Rav every Friday afternoon and asked him ” what time does Shabbat starts this week?” Here is a Torah giant who answers thousands of complicated halachic questions weekly yet finds time for this elderly lady to give her the Shabbat start time. The reason is the leaders job is to give to the people: it is to help them in any which way possible. If Rav Moshe satisfies this elderly woman by telling her the times, he has done his job. The leaders  have to be there for the AM-the nation.

Rabbi Dopelt tells a story of the Spliner Rav who would listen to one’s problems and cry and feel with him his pain. A few hours later he is rejoicing  at a wedding making the bride and groom happy to the highest degree. This is the degree of giving that one has to have for a fellow Jew.

 The Elders-enforcers were granted a gift; it was a miracle. One cannot expect to receive a high level of intelligence just from acts of kindness. However, we see  the importance of good character traits in G-d’s eyes. The good character traits are not wasted. G-d finds a place for the person performing good deeds whether the reward goes to him or his children.

 The Elders job is to prevent the nation from excessive hardship. We learn in the Torah if one does a certain sin he is punished with forty lashes. However, the Chachamim-Elders deduce from scripture that a Jew only receives thirty nine. The duty of the Sages is to alleviate  as much difficulty to our brethren as possible. If we can find a way to reduce one smack we have to discover it.

 The halacha-law  goes according to Hillel and not Shamai ,who was the stricter of the two. Although both were Torah greats in every sense of the word, Hillel possessed a bit  more humility and therefore all laws go according to him.

Good character traits alone doesn’t make the complete man. One has to combine it with the Torah. Its with the wisdom of the Torah that one see’s what is in the world and is then able to do act of kindness to the utmost.

 The  Chazzon Ish would map out a diagram and give it to the surgeon and tell him where the problem lies; the same goes with the Lubavitcher Rebbi. How would they know? They never attended medical school.

Kindness has away of coming back to you.

 Devorah was a prophetess and leader of the Jewish people. She became a leader  through an act of kindness. Every year she would contribute through her husband by making special wicks for the Menorah. Devorah realized the light of Torah has to be beautiful and it should be presented in the most honorable way. Her special devotion was recognized by G-d. She became leader of the Jews and lit the light not just of the menorah but also the entire Jewish people

There’s an old expression , ” They don’t care how much you know until they find out how much you care”.