פרשת בראשית
The verse in this week’s Parsha (1:16) says, “And Hashem made the two great lights, the large one to rule over the day, and the small one to rule over the night”. The Gemorah in Chulin, (60b) cited in part by Rashi takes exception to the obvious discrepancy in the verse which starts off describing both luminaries as “great”, and concludes by delineating between the large one and the small one. The Gemorah offers a very strange explanation and says that at first, both the sun and the moon were identical in size, but the moon raised an objection to Hashem and said, “How can two kings rule under the same crown?” Hashem responded by saying, “You’re right, therefore you need to shrink yourself to become the smaller of the two celestial bodies ruling the sky”. The moon was not very happy with this arrangement and exclaimed, “Because I made a correct argument, therefore I have to be the one to be punished!?” Hashem attempted to console her by saying that there will be very righteous Jews who will call themselves in your name and they will be Yaakov Avinu, who will call himself Yaakov “the small” King David “the small”, and Shmuel Hakatan in the Gemorah. The moon was still a bit downtrodden and Hashem went even further and said, “Let the Jews bring a goat offering every Rosh Chodesh to atone for what I have done”.
There are some obvious and some subtle difficulties with this Chazal which I would like to discuss. First, where do we find in Chazal any creation belligerent about its position in life? Do we find the cockroach lodging a complaint with Hashem about his stature in relationship to the elephant? Certainly not. What then was the moon’s gripe with how Hashem made her in relationship to the sun? Second, when the moon pointed out the problem, her correct argument should have been lauded by Hashem, and instead, she was told to shrink herself. Hashem replied with a response which doesn’t seem to address the point at all by telling the moon that there would be great people throughout history who would call themselves small. How does this relate to the moon’s challenge? And finally, the most obvious difficulty is in understanding how Hashem could have asked that an atonement be brought for Him, implying that He made a mistake, Heaven forefend.
The Kesav Sofer is also quite bothered by this Chazal and attempts to resolve all three aforementioned difficulties. He begins by explaining that indeed, as is indicated by the sincerity with which Hashem treats the moon’s arguments, the moon had a very good point. The moon was saying that she is different in nature than any other creation. Every construction in Hashem’s world is self sufficient in that it does not require any other component to exist, whereas the moon would be completely invisible were it not for the sun’s rays bouncing off her. So the moon wanted to understand from Hashem why she was created so differently, and whether or not she had the right to demand independency from the sun so that she could be at least equal to every other creation. Hashem accepted her argument, and told her that if she would be willing to shrink herself now, her humility would earn her the right to sprout forth in the times of Mashiach, and shine with the intensity of the sun. But the moon was still slightly put off, because she wanted something in this world as well. Hashem responded by saying that even in this world, there will be great Torah leaders who will learn from your example, and they too will limit themselves, and try to shrink their own honor following your example, and that will be a great merit for you. But the moon was still not fully pacified, so Hashem threw in one more bone to sweeten the deal, and said that the Jews will bring a goat every new moon to atone for Him. Tosafos in Shavuos (9) explains this obviously problematic statement by saying that Hashem didn’t mean that the goat would atone for Him, rather it would atone for the Jewish people, in honor of the new moon, and this would be a great source of satisfaction for the moon. The Maharsha explains the phrase in Tosafos “the goat will atone for the Jewish people” to mean that it will weaken the powers of the Yetzer Hara every Rosh Chodesh. Perhaps what the Maharsha means is that through offering the goat in honor of the moon, we will learn from the moon the importance of this principle of shrinking one’s honor in this world, and the great reward one will earn in that merit, and this lesson, when it is driven home, will be a tremendous tool in fighting the Yetzer Hara.
One point emerges quite clearly from the way the Kesav Sofer learns this Chazal, and that is how important it is to attempt to diminish oneself in this world, and limit one’s honor, always knowing that this is one of the most powerful tools in serving Hashem. The great tzaddik, R’ Moshe Mandell once said that one of the principles which was always on the forefront of his mind was how to attempt to lower himself and his own honor in front of other people, and how he would take every opportunity to try to achieve this goal of denigrating himself. It is said of him that he once noticed his sweater had a little tear in it, and he remarked, “It is befitting that my sweater, which represents me, should have a tear in it, showing that my actions are not quite up to par with what they should be”. They once brought a fan into their very warm house in Beni Brak, and everyone in the family was ecstatic over this incredible invention which was able to produce wind in a closed room. As the entire family was marveling over the relatively new device, R’ Moshe commented to himself, “I learn from this fan a very important lesson. Just as the blades go up and down in rapid succession, no Jew could every be haughty over any of his successes because he is just as likely to be down the next day even though he is up today.” I noticed in my own father, ZT”L, that he too was very particular about working on this trait of always lowering himself in front of other people. As he got older, I noticed that he would speak softer and softer to his peers, giving the clear impression that he didn’t really believe he had the right to speak in front of them, and that their opinion was far more prestigious than his. For many years, my father rose very early in the morning, and would study and pray with great devotion. But if any of us kids would get up and “catch him” in these acts of piety, he would quickly run to a cup of tea he had waiting in the kitchen for just such an occasion, and pretend that he was innocently stirring his morning tea. Although these examples may seem a little extreme to us, it is nonetheless clear how central the idea of never allowing oneself to become haughty is in a Jew’s life.
May we all merit to inculcate this lesson from the moon and always attempt to diminish our honor!