פרשת שמות
In this week’s Parsha, the Jews find themselves enslaved to Pharaoh with complete subjugation and with no hope for rescue. However, when the time is right, Hashem appears to Moshe Rabenu and tells him to approach Pharaoh and recite the famous words, “Let my people go”. Moshe answers Hashem’s command with a very peculiar response. Moshe says to Hashem, “Send the Jews with the hand that sent them”. Rashi explains this puzzling statement by saying that Moshe was referring to Aaron, his brother. The Midrash Tanchuma expounds on this verse and explains that Aaron is referred to by Moshe as “the one who was sent” because for many years, Aaron had been reassuring the people that the end was near and that Hashem had not forsaken them and that He was about to redeem them at any moment. So Moshe reasoned, that since the people were accustomed to thinking of Aaron as being the proponent of the redemption, it would seem a bit awkward and might insult Aaron if all of a sudden, Moshe were to appear on the scene and take over the production of the extraction of the Jewish people from Egypt. Moshe therefore asked that Aaron be allowed to be the redeemer of the Jewish people so that he would not feel insulted or slighted in any way. Hashem responded to Moshe that there was no need for concern and that indeed, Aaron felt very happy for Moshe and proud that his little brother would have such a monumental role in the redemption.
The Sabba from Slobodka is very troubled by this Midrash. He suggests, let us take a step back and consider what we are dealing with. The Jewish people have now been enslaved for 210 years. They had suffered immeasurably at the hand of the cruel Egyptians on dozens of accounts. They had been killed, robbed, beaten mercilessly for no reason, had all their babies brutally murdered, and been forced into slave labor for no pay for all those years. Moshe now has a chance to redeem them and relieve all of the above mentioned ailments and he is now concerned that he might slight his brother Aaron in some small way?! How can we understand this bizarre value judgment? Furthermore, the Jews were on their way to receive the Torah and enter into the land of Israel, the purpose for all of creation and Moshe has the ability to make this happen, and yet he opts to delay this milestone of the human race because his brother might feel a little bad?! What is going on here?
The Sabba answers that we can deduce from Moshe’s actions how serious it is when we offend another human being. He posits that perhaps this is true because each and every inhabitant of this earth is created in the image of God and when we harm, physically or emotionally, another human being, it is as if we have insulted Hashem in some way and this heinous activity must be avoided at all costs.
Perhaps even more surprising then this, is Hashem’s response to Moshe later on in the Parsha when Moshe delays a little bit in circumcising his child. When Moshe actually accepted the task of redeeming the Jewish people, and was on his way to execute that task, his wife had a baby on the road. Afraid to circumcise him on the way, Moshe waited until he got to the local inn to circumcise his baby. However, when he got there, he first checked into the hotel before he did the circumcision. Because of Moshe’s lack of alacrity, a snake came and swallowed Moshe up until his throat and threatened to kill him. When his valiant wife Tzipora recognized what was going on, she quickly circumcised the lad and flung his foreskin at the snake, at which point the snake relinquished his prey and slithered off. Again, we see from here how even the most “minute” transgression can have terrible repercussions, which may not seem commensurate with the crime, but obviously since Hashem is just in all his ways, it is. Moshe Rabenu was officially appointed as the redeemer of the Jewish people, and as far as we know, there would not have been another redeemer, yet Hashem was willing to execute him for the small delay that he caused and “risk”, so to speak, leaving the Jews in bondage as a punishment. From here we see how careful we need to be when it comes our Mitzvah observance and how we mustn’t let ourselves slip even in the most refined areas of our Torah adherence.
How does one reach this point where he is so enthusiastic about his Mitzvah observance? I once heard an explanation of the Mishnah in Avos (Chapter 2) which might help us. The Mishnah says that one should be just as particular about a small commandment as a big one because one does not know the reward for the Mitzvos. One explanation of this Mishna is that we do not know how a Mitzvah will affect us in the long run. We know that the purpose of the Mitzvos is to complete us. It could very well be that there is one “small” Mitzvah that we are lacking, without which, we can never perfect ourselves fully. And all the “big” Mitzvos in the world will not help us unless we perfect ourselves in this one “small” area. This is why we need to be careful about each Mitzvah and perform each one as if it were that one that we needed to complete ourselves in this world and the next. This mindset will certainly help us to perform every Mitzvah, even the “small” ones, with greater enthusiasm.
The Rambam points out an interesting difficulty with the Mishnah in Sanhedrin which says that there is no reward for Mitzvos in this world, only in the next world. The Rambam asks, if this is so, then how do we explain all the verses in the Torah, and the ones we say every day in the Shema, which depict clearly all of the worldly pleasures a person will receive if he keeps the Torah? The Rambam explains that those pleasures are not rewards but rather removal of obstacles. Meaning to say, if a person performs the commandments with great gusto and desire, Hashem will remove from him all the difficulties and challenges that are normally associated with life, such as livelihood and illness. This is not a reward, but rather a result of his showing his desire to travel upon a certain path, and Hashem’s helping him to realize that goal, similar to what the Gemorah says, “the way that a person wants to go, he is led”. The Slonimer Rebbi uses this explanation of the Rambam to explain another difficult Mishnah in Avos (Chapter 4). The Mishnah says to run to perform a “light” Mitzvah because the reward for one Mitzvah is another Mitzvah. He says that this Mishna is instructing that a person should pick a Mitzvah that is “light” for him to do, meaning one that is easy for him by nature, such as learning, Davening, or acts of kindness. Once he performs that “easy” Mitzvah with great enthusiasm and excitement, Hashem will certainly make it easier for him to perform other Mitzvos and allow that enthusiasm to spread to other areas of his Mitzvah observance, in a very similar way to that which the Rambam described, and eventually, the reward for his “easy” Mitzvah observance will be that he does all of his Mitzvos with the same ease and excitement.
May Hashem bless us to fulfill every aspect of the Torah, including the smallest minutia with great eagerness!