פרשת וארא
In this week’s Parsha, Hashem appears to Moshe and commands him to tell Pharaoh to let the Jewish people go. Moshe responds to the commandment by telling Hashem that if the Jews didn’t listen to Moshe when he tried to tell them about the upcoming redemption, Pharaoh would certainly not listen to Moshe. Rashi brings the Midrash on this point which says that Moshe’s argument is one out of ten examples where the Torah brings a “Kal V’echomer” argument.
However, this Midrash requires some explanation. The Torah gives us a very reasonable explanation as to why the Jews didn’t listen to Moshe – they were completely exhausted from the heavy labor that they were performing. Pharaoh, who had no such concerns on his head, perhaps would have been a good audience for Moshe’s proposal. How then does the Midrash count this as one of the ten fortiori arguments in the Torah?
In order to understand this Midrash, perhaps we could invoke the words of the Seforno. The Seforno explains that the reason why the Jews had trouble listening to Moshe, was because they were so fatigued from their physical work, that they were not able to properly contemplate and process the words of Moshe, and they therefore could not accept his arguments. And if this was true by the Jewish people, who had remained steadfast in their faith and belief in God throughout everything that they had been through, then certainly the wicked Pharaoh, who considered himself to be some kind of deity, would not be capable of having the requisite humility and presence of mind to properly consider Moshe’s proposal. In other words, the Seforno learns that the Kal Vechomer was true in spite of the fact that Pharaoh was living under such pleasant conditions. Even so, the Jews still had more ability to think deeply and contemplate the words of Moshe and if they couldn’t, the Pharaoh certainly couldn’t!
Truthfully, this principle of contemplation and meditation is a key foundation to the Jewish peoples’ survival. The reason for this is because a person can know something to be true in his intellect, but if he is unable to properly consider the depth of that thing that he knows, and to be able to vividly see the effects of his course of actions in his mind’s eye, he will not be able to successfully implement it in his life and his knowledge of its truth will have little or no value in a practical sense.
One example of this can be found in the Gemorah in Shabbos (31b) which says that even though the wicked people in this world are well aware of what bitter fate awaits them in the world to come, they continue upon their crooked path as if they are oblivious of the inevitable results. This is because they do not take the time to sit down and really contemplate the implications of their bad choices. They are merely aware of the devastating results of their actions on an intellectual level, and this ‘intellectual’ awareness is not enough to galvanize them into action. Perhaps this can be compared to a person who smokes. He is aware intellectually that chances are excellent that he will die of lung cancer eventually, but since he hasn’t sat down and thought about the implications of his almost inevitable illness (such as not seeing his children or grandchildren), he chooses to continue smoking. R’ Chazkal Levenstein has an entire book dedicated to how important it is to have a graphic image of the results of our actions so that we act properly.
Another example of this can be seen later on in the Parsha when Moshe tells the Egyptians that they are to be smitten with massive and lethal hale stones and if they wish to protect their animals, they should bring them inside. Yet many of these obstinate sinners did not. Why? Had they not seen with their own eyes that everything Moshe had said until know was deadly accurate? What then were they possibly thinking? Based on what we have said, the answer is sadly obvious. Even though intellectually, they knew Moshe’s words to be true, they hadn’t contemplated the results long enough to cause them to change.
R’ Chaim Kamil used to add a very interesting point to all that we have said. He would explain that not only is the ability to contemplate and meditate upon the goings on around us integral to our ability to internalize our Judaism, but it is in fact more powerful then having witnessed the actual experiences themselves!! This can be seen from a careful analysis of the Exodus from Egypt. We find that immediately following the tremendous miracles that the Jews witnessed during the Exodus, i.e. the ten plagues, the splitting of the Reed Sea, and the giving of the Torah, the Jews committed serious sins and the Torah records them as saying, “Is there a God in our midst”? Yet, many years later, the Gemmorah in Avoda Zara (11) tells us that when Onkelos converted to Judaism, the Roman king at the time sent a group of soldiers to try to convince him to return to Rome and abandon the antiquated religion of the Jews. However, the attempt of the soldiers had the exact opposite effect. Instead of them convincing Onkelos, he spoke to them about the beauty of Judaism and they all converted. In desperation, the Caesar sent another wave of soldiers to try again, but this time, he warned them not to have any verbal contact with Onkelos. When they arrived, he was reading the verses of the Exodus from Egypt and explaining with great conviction and fervor how God sent a pillar of fire in front of the Jews to protect them. The soldiers were so moved by this display of passion that they too converted and entered the fold of Judaism and the Caesar’s plans had backfired again. Needless to say, at that point the Caesar gave up, not wanting to sacrifice any more of his men. One should note that this was not a particularly prosperous time for the Jews. At that point in history, the Romans were the most powerful nation on earth and the Jews were bereft of their Temple and all honor, yet Onkelos was still able to have such a powerful impact on himself, and these soldiers. From here, concluded R’ Chaim, we see that the ability to contemplate and fathom what God does in this world can make a far deeper impression than actually witnessing the miracles of God themselves!
There was a very interesting story told to us by R’ Kimchi, a Rabbi here in Jerusalem which reflects this point nicely. During the Yom Kippur war, R’ Kimchi was in a tank platoon with around 100 other young men. It happened one fateful evening that 3 platoons of Egyptian tanks had completely taken their small brigade by surprise and opened fire on the Israeli tanks. They continued this relentless barrage the entire night. In the morning, the Israeli commander who had miraculously survived, got on the radio and requested that if anyone had survived, they should sound off on the radio. One by one, each and every one of the 100 Jewish soldiers sounded off on the radio, even though most of their tanks were completely destroyed. When dawn approached, R’ Kimchi, being the only religious soldier in the platoon, went to put on his Tefillin. When he finished his devotions and turned around, he saw that the entire platoon, without exception was waiting to use his Tefillin. At that point we asked him if many of the soldiers in that brigade became religious. He responded sadly, “Not one of them. Miracles just don’t change a person, a person has to want to change and be willing to concretize his beliefs with action”.
Let us conclude with the Gemorah in Avodah Zara, (17a). The Gemorah says that Rebbi cried when he observed that there are those who it takes them a lifetime to acquire their portion in the world to come, and those who do it in one moment. This Gemorah means to say that if we sit down and contemplate the glory of God, and use our imaginations to foster a graphic picture of the tremendous light that He pours forth in this world, we will inevitably come to the right conclusions and begin to make ourselves into better people. And the beauty of it is, that we don’t have to go anywhere, this ability is right here with us at all times!
May we merit to become the type of thoughtful and contemplative people that Hashem wants us to be!