Shabbat Shalom Weekly

Torah Portion:  MISHPATIM

The Secret Israeli Military Disasters
by Rabbi Stephen Baars

You’ve just got to love it when God is on the Jewish people’s side. And as such, it doesn’t get much better than this week’s parsha.

The Jewish people are told what to expect when they enter the land of Israel. God will take care of their enemies by sending ahead deadly wasps. (Exodus 23:28)

Cool.

There is a caveat however, God could easily drive all the bad guys out at once, but then, as the Torah explains, the cities would become desolate and wild animals would move in. To avoid this dilemma, God will drive out our enemies slowly, until the Jewish people can increase naturally and properly occupy the land. (ibid 29 & 30).

Let me explain…

Rav Noah Weinberg zt”l would ask, “Which would you rather have, a sane or an insane enemy?”

Most would agree that a sane enemy is preferred. The First World War was fought against sane enemies (relatively speaking). The Germans surrendered without the allies having to invade Germany.

Not so with the Second World War, where the allies actually had to conquer the capital city, Berlin. The chess equivalent of taking the king – something only reserved for pure amateurs or fools.

The Torah above gives us the same option. Which would you rather deal with, the local Canaanites, or the wild animals?

If you answered lions, tigers and bears, you were close to the right answer.

Lions are the insane enemy because you never quite know what they are going to do. A sane enemy will run away when it realizes it can’t win as opposed to the Nazis who kept fighting until the end.

The obvious question is, hornets, wasps and the common-garden bumble bee don’t have free will. Canaanites, Nazis and you, do. That’s why God needed to use the wasps against them – so they would choose to leave. However, as it relates to free will, tigers are like wasps, i.e. they are sorely lacking the advantages of free will.

So if God can control wasps, why wouldn’t He control the tigers and keep them out of the cities?

Of course He can, and does, except when He needs to give you an insane enemy.

When do you need an insane enemy?

When you beat your sane enemy too quickly.

When you defeat your sane enemy slowly, everything is ok. But when you defeat them too quickly, you will end up with a far more dangerous one.

You. That is, you with arrogance. That combination produces an insane enemy.

You can think of earning a living as a sane enemy. It’s a fairly predictable foe that requires strategy and perseverance. Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch (the famous 19th century German leader) explains that the Hebrew words for war and bread are the same (Lechem and Milchamah). He further explains that earning a living (symbolized with bread) is a battle. The healthy way, is to slowly make it to the top. However, some people get there far too quickly.

Give me the person who made $30 million before his 24th birthday, and I will show you the train wreck of a lifetime.

Unfortunately, we all have enemies. In 1948, the enemies of Israel were pretty sane (relatively speaking). Most of those enemies have since melted away or disappeared. But because that war was so miraculous, and we won so quickly, we got an insane enemy.

This insane enemy, arrogance, is far more dangerous. So, as it says in the verse above, to help us realize who we really are, and what we are really capable of, and most importantly, who is really making it all happen, God sends an insane enemy.

Hizbollah, Hamas, suicide bombers, Ahmadinejad and Osama bin Laden; each one could have their own insane asylum named after them. They did not exist in 1948. We have them so that we and our leaders will say words never heard from an arrogant person, “We don’t know what to do.”

Insane enemies, whether they are a furious spouse, a delinquent teenager, or Hamas, serve a great purpose.

To teach us that we are not God.

This is the great paradox of existence, the more you appreciate how little you can do without the help of God, the more you will achieve.

The more you think you can do without the help of God, the more significant problems you will have to convince you otherwise.

How fast can a person succeed in life? There is no limit if you know it’s all a gift from God.

* * *

BRAINSTORMING QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Question 1: Who would you more likely vote for, someone who said he knew what to do about Iran, or someone who said he didn’t know?

Question 2: Look at the problems you have in your life. Try and identify the ones that are insane – completely unpredictable and counterproductive. Now ask yourself, why do I need such an obstacle?

Three Rewards
by Rabbi Abba Wagensberg

The Jewish people’s greatness in saying “we will do and we will understand” when accepting the Torah.

In this week’s parsha, the Jewish people make the penultimate statement of their 40-year sojourn in the wilderness: Na’aseh v’nishma – “Whatever God has spoken, we will do and we will hear” (Exodus 24:7).

According to the Talmud, the Jewish people received three rewards for preceding the word “na’aseh” (we will do) to the word “nishma” (we will hear). First of all, 600,000 angels crowned every Jew with two crowns: one for “na’aseh” and one for “nishma” (Shabbat 88a).

Secondly, in response to the statement “na’aseh v’nishma,” God called the Jewish people “My firstborn child” (Shabbat 89b on Exodus 4:22). Finally, the Jewish people’s utterance of “na’aseh v’nishma” caused a Heavenly voice to proclaim, “Who revealed this secret of the angels to My children?” (Shabbat 88a). We see that “preceding action to listening” is an attribute of angels, as the verse says (Psalms 103:20), “Angels do God’s word and listen to His voice.”

The Slonimer Rebbe (based on Me’or Einayim) shares three approaches in understanding what the Jewish people meant when they declared “na’aseh v’nishma.” Let us examine these three different ways of understanding.

The first approach regards the ups and downs that every person experiences during daily life. We must be aware that truly accepting Torah involves doing the will of God not only when we are feeling confident and secure, but also during difficult and challenging times. This is what the Jewish people meant when they said, “Na’aseh v’nishma.” Their commitment to following the will of God (“na’aseh”) preceded their understanding of the Torah’s laws (“nishma”).

Failure to understand even logical laws (many of which are found in Parshat Mishpatim) indicates a time of challenge in our lives. The commentator Ohr Gedaliyahu explains why this is so. The laws in this week’s parsha seem logical and rational to us not because they are inherently sensible, but because God created us with an innate sense of right and wrong. Since God created us in this way, we have the ability to come close to God and to align ourselves with His will. When a Torah law seems logical to us, it is a sign that we are on the right path — i.e. close to God and aligned with His way of thinking. When we fail to see the rationale behind laws that we have the potential to understand, it is a sign that our behavior has distanced us from our innate sense of right and wrong. The statement “na’aseh v’nishma” is therefore a commitment by the Jewish people to follow the Torah’s laws even at low times, when the laws do not seem sensible to us.

PARENTAL LOVE

The second approach is based on the Talmud’s statement (Yoma 28b) that it is possible to serve God even before being commanded to do so. This determines whether we relate to God as a child to a parent, or as a servant to a master. A child, out of love, will do the parent’s will without being told. A servant, however, will only perform when commanded by his master. God’s failure to command us indicates distance, as we see in the Talmud’s statement (Bava Kama 38a), “Greater is one who is commanded than one who is not commanded.”

We can suggest a new approach in understanding this idea by means of a parable. Imagine two families. One family insists that the children finish their homework before suppertime, has set bedtimes for the children, imposes curfews, and has all sorts of other rules and expectations. The second family allows the children to eat whenever they want, to stay out as late as they feel like, and does not impose any limitations or boundaries on the children whatsoever. The first family, with its structure and clear expectations, shows that the children’s well-being is a top priority. The second family, with its total freedom and permissibility, may actually demonstrate a lack of care for the children. When God commands us, He shows that He cares about our well-being. When He does not command us, it can indicate a distance between us.

The Jews’ statement of “na’aseh v’nishma” can be understood in light of this idea to mean, “We will do even before we are commanded.” Despite the Jewish people’s not being commanded, which could indicate a distance between them and God, they proclaim their intention to fulfill God’s will anyway. This commitment demonstrates the eternal love a child has for his parent – the desire to fulfill the parent’s will even when not specifically asked to do so.

NATURAL EXPRESSION

Our performance of God’s will even at low points in our lives, and even when we feel distant from Him, enables us to attain the highest level, which is the third approach. The Torah’s 613 commandments correspond to the 613 parts of the physical body, which in turn correspond to the 613 parts of the soul. Just as our bodies do not need to be taught natural drives (eating, drinking, relieving of waste), so too should the soul be able to perform the will of God naturally, without being taught. However, the body’s drives prevent the soul from expressing its full potential. Only when we completely purify and refine the body is the soul able to naturally and automatically perform the will of God.

When the Jewish people declared, “Na’aseh v’nishma,” they implied, “We can do even before hearing the will of God, because we have purified our bodies to the point where expressing the Divine will comes naturally.” This purification takes place only when we are committed to performing the will of God even during the low points in our lives and even when we feel distant from the Divine. If we are able to reach this level, we become like angels, who do not have a body that separates them from naturally expressing the Divine will.

FIRSTBORN CHILD

These three approaches will help us to appreciate the greatness of the Jewish people’s statement “na’aseh v’nishma,” and will show us why the Jewish people deserved the three rewards they received. As we mentioned, the people were given two crowns. This reward corresponds to the first approach in understanding “na’aseh v’nishma”: the commitment to following the will of God not only during times when we feel confident and positive, but also during the low points in life. These two extremes — the highs and the lows — correspond to the two crowns given to the Jewish people.

The second reward was God’s designating the Jewish people as His “firstborn child.” This reward corresponds to the second approach in understanding “na’aseh v’nishma”: the Jews performing the will of God even when not commanded. Although not being commanded could indicate distance, the Jews’ perseverance despite this possibility demonstrated their investment in building a parent/child relationship with God. God then reciprocated with the second reward: calling the Jews “My firstborn child.”

For the third reward, the Jewish people were compared to the angels, who are capable of acting before hearing. This reward corresponds to the third approach in understanding “na’aseh v’nishma”: the Jewish people being able to purify their bodies to such a degree that their souls could express the Divine will without any obstacle. Automatically performing the will of God is an angelic quality; hence, the Jewish people were rewarded by being compared to angels.

May we all be blessed to persevere even during the low times, when we feel far away from God, so that we live to be commanded once again in all the mitzvot that depend on the Temple — a time when serving God will come naturally, and we will deserve to be crowned as God’s only child.

Helping Hands
by Nesanel Yoel Safran 

From this week’s Torah portion: 

In our story, a kid faces a choice of helping out or passing by.

At first Karen, who was finished with her babysitting job and halfway out the door, didn’t know what that funny bouncing sound was. But a few seconds later when she heard Greg shouting and racing around the patio, she realized his big cloth bag of marbles — the ones she knew he’d been collecting — had somehow popped and dozens of marbles were bounding, bouncing and rolling all over the place.

“Ayy! Oh no! Ayy!” he was crying and desperately trying to round up his runaway — or make that bounce-away — toy treasures.

Poor kid, she thought in passing, Hope he finds his stuff. She was about to leave, when she felt a tug on her skirt.

“Ka-wen…h-help me find my maa-bles!” That was just what she didn’t feel like doing right then. She was tired — had a ton of homework to do — and had made big plans with her friends for later on that she had to get ready for.

“Um, Greggy, don’t worry. I’m sure you’re going to find them. Karen’s got to go home now… okay?”

But the desperate look on the boy’s face told her that it wasn’t okay at all — at least with him. “Please, Ka-wen, they’re lost! H-help me find them.”

The girl was about to give him an ‘it’ll be alright’ pat and dash out the door, when she remembered how she’d felt — just two weeks before, when to her horror, she’d discovered that one of her absolute favorite and most expensive earrings had somehow fallen out of her ear and ended up…who knew where? She’d combed her room, the school bus and even retraced every step she had taken in school that day. A lot of kids seemed curious about what she was doing, but none of them had been willing to help. How she’d wished back then that they would have — maybe then she would have found it…

“Okay, Greg. You convinced me. Let’s find those marbles,” she said with a resigned smile. Bending down she and the little boy searched for and scoped out and scooped up every last marble. Now she could finally go home — at least that was what Karen had thought…

“Look Ka-wen, dare’s a shiny one over dare!” Greg said, excitedly pointing to the grass behind the hammock. He ran over, but his short arm couldn’t reach. “Ka-wen help me!”

“Are you sure there’s something there, Greggy?” Karen sighed. The boy nodded brightly. Alright, she’d gone this far, might as well look one more time. Getting down on her knees, the girl stretched out her arm, reached, and sure enough pulled out from the tall grass a gleaming, shiny…earring! The one she’d lost!!! It must have fallen out last time she was babysitting and had rocked Greg to sleep in the hammock!

Seeing it wasn’t his marble after all, the boy lost interest and ran off to play with his marbles. Karen slipped her earring into her pouch, amazed at the way things worked out, how she’d found her earring — by finding room in her heart to help someone in need.

Discussion Questions

Ages 3-5

Q. How did Karen feel about the lost marbles at first?
A. She felt sorry for the boy, but she wasn’t willing to help.

Q. How did she feel in the end?
A. She was happy she’d found her earring and also happy that she had helped.

Ages 6-9

Q. What life-lesson do you think someone could learn from this story?
A. When people ask us for help, sometimes it can seem like a bother. But it’s a great thing to help others and almost always we’ll feel good about ourselves when we do.

Q. Is it even okay not to help when asked?
A. There may be times when we simply don’t have the time or energy to help someone or they are asking us to do something dangerous or wrong. Then of course we don’t have to. But almost always in our daily lives when people need us we can and should be willing to lend a hand.

Ages 10 and Up

Q. Do you think whether we like or dislike the person asking us for help should affect our decision? If so, how?
A. We should be willing to help simply because help is needed — personal feelings aside. We should try even harder to help out someone we dislike. Acting this way will bring true peace into our lives and to the world.

Q. What if we are truly unable to physically help someone who asks us to — are there any other ways we can assist them?
A. Sure. We can certainly offer sincere encouragement, which is worth its weight in gold. Also, we can try to find others who could help them, as well as to wish and pray for the person’s success.