Parshas Shmos 5775

This week’s parsha documents the heroism of the Jewish Midwives, whom Pharaoh ordered to kill the male Jewish infants. They withstood this nisayon and, risking their lives, not only defied Pharaoh’s order but even helped the Jewish boys survive.

The Torah presents this episode in a puzzling way, however, adding twice a detail that never appears when documenting deeds: “The midwives feared Hashem and did not do as Pharaoh had commanded,” and: “Hashem saw that they feared Him and He made for them houses.”

Rav Yerucham Levovitz asks: Why are the heroic deeds of the midwives preceded by the words “they feared Hashem?” Why not simply say that the midwives defied Pharaoh and helped the boys survive? Many great deeds of the Chumash stemmed from yiras Shamayim and yet the verse only mentions what was done, not why it was done. Why here does the Torah stress the midwives’ fear of Hashem?

Rav Yerucham answers that when the Torah records the midwives’ fear of Hashem, it is not describing what they felt but rather what they did. The midwives recognized that this was a test from Hashem. They would have to risk their lives, and the only way they could pass this test was by first increasing their yiras Shamayim. Strengthening themselves inyiras Shamayim was their first action.

For some of us, “strengthening one’s yiras Shamayim” is an elusive idea. Rav Yerucham addresses this, noting that one of the positive mitzvos is “You shall fear Hashem, your G-d.” Asks Rav Yerucham:  A positive mitzva requires an action, like putting on tefillin or giving tzedaka. How can fearing Hashem be an action? You either feel fear of Him or you don’t!

Rav Yerucham answers that the mitzva of “You shall fear Hashem, your G-d” requires that we add to our yiras Shamayim. This is what the midwives did, and we must also. How do we do this? R’ Yisrael Salanter suggests two ways:

1-Learn a small excerpt of a mussar sefer (such as Mesilas Yesharim or Shaarei Teshuva) slowly and carefully, review it until it’s very clear; read it again, this time with a nigun and with feeling, and continue until the message of the words penetrates into you. This is called strengthening one’s yiras Shamayim.

Once, the Rosh Yeshiva of Slonim, Rav Yehuda Leib Pahn and R’ Yisrael Salanter shared a room in an inn, and the rosh yeshiva later recalled that for the entire night, Rav Yisrael was repeating to himself the final verse of Koheles: “The sum of the matter, when all has been considered: fear Hashem and keep His mitzvos for that is man’s whole duty.” When the Chofetz Chaim was told of this, he commented that apparently, Rav Salanter had faced a certain nisayon and review of this particular piece of mussar was the way to gain theyiras Shamayim needed to overcome it (from the seferShevivei Mussar).

2-Picture to yourself images that make fear of Heaven real. As it states in Pirkei Avos (3:16), we should use our imagination to envision that above us are eyes that look at everything we do and a hand that records this in a book. Also, as the Rama states at the beginning of the Shulchan Aruch: “The way a person conducts himself when he is alone in his house is not the same as when he is in the presence of a great king, and certainly if the king is Hakadosh Baruch Hu … and sees all that he is doing, he will certainly come to fear of Hashem.” By instilling such pictures in one’s mind, Hashem becomes real to us, and we begin living with the awareness that for every act we do in this world we must give a proper accounting in the next.

Rav Salanter based the above on an episode related in Brachos 18a, where a poor man the Sages refer to as a “chassid” gave tzedaka on erev Rosh Hashana, and his wife became angry at him, feeling they could not afford it. The chassid slept that night in a cemetery.

R’ Salanter explains: What could possibly bring this chassid to sleep in a place of tum’ah, particularly on the night of Rosh Hashana? Rather, he apparently had reached a state of anger toward his wife and knew that he had to do teshuva for this immediately. Therefore, he went to the cemetery because coming face to face with his own mortality would enable him to repent for his anger before the judgment on the day of Rosh Hashana. Even though for us such methods may seem extreme, this teaches that a person should employ his imagination and intellect to develop his yiras Shamayim, each according to his level.

Rav Dessler once noted that Rav Salanter organized many small excerpts of mussar according to the alef-beis and depending on the situation, would take out the necessary section and learn it in order to gain the yiras Shamayim needed to overcome nisyonos. We too, when studying mussar, can do this by seeing which excerpts particularly affect us and having them ready when we are faced with nisyonos.

The Chazon Ish once told Rav Shlomo Brevda that without being mis’chazeik in yiras Shamayim every day, we’ll end up sinking into spiritual quicksand. The Sages of the Talmud understood this, and therefore we find sometimes that in the middle of a lengthy halachic analysis in Shas will suddenly appear a section of Agadta. Apparently, the Sages felt that at this time they needed to be mis’chazeik in yiras Shamayim, explained the Chazon Ish. In the period of the Rishonim we find the same: Rabbeinu Yonah, who wrotepeirushim on the Shas, also wrote Shaarei Teshuva; and the Rosh, one of the three pillars of psak halacha of the Shulchan Aruch, also wrote the mussar sefer Orchos Chaim.

May we be zoche to strengthen our yiras Shamayim and succeed in our nisyonos!