פרשת כי תצא
This week’s Parsha contains the fascinating and unique chapter of the rebellious son who steals and consumes a massive amount of meat and wine and the Torah commands us to execute this young lad. The Mishnah explains this seemingly harsh punishment by saying that it is better that he should die now while he is still somewhat innocent then him leading a life of crime and dying guilty. The Yerushalmi quoted by Rashi in this week’s Parsha expounds on this Mishnah and paints a ghastly scenario of what will likely become of this lad. Since he has become accustomed to eating and drinking in a barbarous way, chances are that he will wish to continue his bad habits and attempt to further them as is common amongst those who chase their every desire. Very soon, he will manage to bring his parents to abject poverty in their attempt to feed their son’s monstrous appetite and they will be unable to keep it up for long. However, the son, who has habituated himself to a glutinous life, will seek other ways of obtaining large amounts of money quickly and will take to crime in order to maintain his life style. So he will become a bandit on the roads and when he gets the chance, he will murder people as well and become a convicted murderer whose punishment is death, and after all this, he will certainly forget his Torah learning. So the Torah commands, better to execute him now, before he has had a chance to commit such mayhem, then later when many “innocent” people will have been harmed.
R’ Aharon Kotler ZT’L, the famous Rosh Yeshiva of the Lakewood Yeshiva used to point out a fascinating thing from this Chazal. He noticed that the Chazal give a very specific order of events that will occur in the young man’s life, which if any one of these details were to be missing, would seemingly not warrant such a harsh punishment. If this is true, continued R’ Aharon, then a haunting thought emerges. Even if this juvenile delinquent were to do all the horrible things mentioned, i.e. stealing from his parents, eating like a glutton, stealing from people, murdering other human beings, but would not have forgotten his Torah, he would not have earned the harsh punishment of execution. How do we explain this shocking observation?
The answer to this question, explains R’ Aharon is simple but powerful. The Torah is teaching us here that so long as a person remains connected to the Torah, even if he falls to the lowest depths, he will eventually straighten out because the Torah emanates a special light which has the power to do this. However when a person detaches himself from the Torah, there is no longer any hope for his spiritual survival, and he will inevitably fall. Similarly, there is a Midrash in Eicha in which God proclaims, “I don’t care if the Jewish people abandon Me, so long as they continue to keep and study My Torah.” From this powerful statement of Hashem, we see in what esteem Hashem holds the Jewish people’s observance and study of the Torah and what power It can have in keeping a Jew within the fold.
Based on these inspiring words of R’ Aharon, we can answer another Chazal that seems quite strange. Chazal say Hashem was willing to forgive the Jews for their adultery, murder, and idolatry, but was unwilling to forgive them for neglecting their Torah study. This seems strange! These three sins are so serious that one has to actually die rather then transgress them, whereas neglecting Torah study is not even amongst the three. How come Hashem wasn’t willing to forgive the Jews for the minor sins, but was willing for the major ones? Based on what we explained, however, this is easily understood. Obviously Hashem is not happy when we do the three cardinal sins, but He knows that so long as we continue to study Torah diligently, there is a good chance we will repent and He allows us that grace period. But when He sees that we abandon our Torah study, He knows that there is no point in waiting and punishes us severely. It comes out from the holy words of R’ Aharon, that the only guaranteed way to save oneself from the evil inclination is by studying Torah as the Gemorra in Kidushin (30) says, “I created the evil inclination, but I created Torah as the antidote to fight it. If you study the Torah, you will be saved from it, but if you don’t, you will surely fall”.
However, one could ask a number of difficulties on R’ Aharon’s premise that the Torah will surely save a person. Firstly, we see many people today who study Torah on a fairly regular basis, yet they commit grave sins. How could this be? Secondly, even if you’ll argue that we today don’t study enough Torah, there is a Gemorah in Succah (52) which says that Abaye saw a man who withstood a very difficult temptation and said about himself that had he been in the same situation, he certainly would have failed. We see then that R’ Aharon is incorrect that great diligence in Torah study will save a person. Thirdly, there is a Gemorah in Berachos (5) says that a person should always try to fight his evil inclination, but if he can’t, he should study Torah. If that doesn’t work, let him read the Shema, and as a last resort, let him remember the day of death. It seems clear from this Gemorah, that there are times when Torah study will not be effective in stopping the evil inclination!
Perhaps we could answer as follows. There are two types of people in the world. The first are people who don’t have access to the Torah, and as a result, they follow their whims and fancies. Wherever their heart takes them, that is where they go. These people are referred to in the Midrash in Bereshis when the Midrarsh says, “The wicked are controlled by their hearts, whereas the righteous control their own hearts”. These kinds of people, because their hearts are bereft of Torah, have no chance at serving God properly and this is what R’ Aharon was referring to. However, there is another more refined person, who also possesses a more refined Yetzer Hara. This is a person who studies the Torah regularly, and as a result is able to easily see past the silly traps that the first one gets ensnared by. However, in a way, his challenge is no easier, as R’ Yitzchak says, “The Yetzer wakes up every day with the intent to kill a person”. About this elite person is the Gemorah in Berachos and Abaye in Succah discussing. The Yetzer Hara uses every dirty and backhanded trick in the book to try to ensnare this person in sin, and will easily be successful if the person is not on their highest guard. For this kind of Yetzer Hara, a person needs additional weapons in his arsenal to attempt to emerge victorious. Aside from the Gemorah in Berachos that we mentioned, a person needs to constantly pray to God with all of his heart that He help him to conquer his Yetzer and even then, realize that without special heavenly aid, he could never succeed. During this month of Elul, as Rosh Hashana draws closer, it behooves us as Bnei Torah, and people of the second category, to be on constant vigil to overcome our Yetzer Hara, and use every available technique to prevail over it. We must constantly be engrossed in Torah study and let every aspect of our lives be governed by the Torah and our Rabeeim, and even with all that, we must Daven to Hashem to help us to triumph over our formidable adversary.
May Hashem help us to prevail over our powerful foe so that we may serve Him properly and merit a sweet new year!