פרשת וארא
In this week’s Parsha, Hashem commands Moshe to approach Pharaoh and to “ask” him to let the Jewish people go. But the verse seems to have a superfluous clause. Hashem commands Moshe to not only approach Pharaoh, but to announce to the Jewish people as well what he was planning on doing. Why was this necessary? Rashi explains that as opposed to other dictatorships and world rulers, Moshe was informing the Jewish people that Hashem had told him that one of the prerequisites of leading the Jewish people was to be extremely patient and forgiving, and to be able to absorb all the frustrations that would come with leading the people which was destined to be filled with challenges as they are a very stubborn people. Many monarchs achieved their positions in life by usurping it or other displays of power and trickery, but the Jewish leader was to be different. He was to be a tolerant, caring person, tending to the needs of each member of his flock as if they were his own brother or son, being very slow to anger and long-suffering, and this is what Moshe was informing the Jewish people – that it was worth their while to follow him as their leader because he was only looking out for their best interest and not on a power trip. They say a story about The Chazon Ish, that there was an irksome man in his neighborhood, who said things to the Chazon Ish that would have been insulting, even to an ordinary person, let alone the leader of the generation. Afterward, when the man cooled down and went to ask the Chazon Ish’s forgiveness, he remarked, “I hope you weren’t angry with me”. The Chazon Ish responded, “They don’t sell that particular brand of product in the market I run”.
In the Yerushalmi (Rosh Hashana 3:5), there is a slightly different explanation offered to resolve this seemingly unnecessary clause. The Yerushalmi expounds that Moshe was taking this opportunity to explain to the Jews the laws of a Jewish slave, and how he goes free in the seventh year. Why now, of all times were they being informed about this obscure commandment? The Jews were now being let out of Egypt, and the slave mentality was still fresh in their mind. It would be easier now to swallow the idea of relinquishing a servant that one had come to depend on, then it would be later, when the full import and taste of freedom would begin to seep into their hearts. But now this begs the question the opposite way. Why then did Pharaoh need to be privy to this information and even for the Jews, what was the connection between slave laws that related to the exodus from Egypt that it needed to be said at this moment and couldn’t have waited a few more years until the Torah was given?
R’ Chaim Goldvicht explains beautifully that one of the fundamental character traits of slave mentality is that a slave only hears his master’s voice. He is incapable of hearing anything else. When Moshe entered the scene in Egypt, he was fighting a completely uphill battle because the Jewish spirit was already broken. Moshe himself testifies to this when he tells Hashem, “They will not listen to me because of their broken spirit and their hard work.” Similarly, when a Jewish slave tells his master that he wishes to continue on working for him until the next Yovel, he is punished by having his right ear nailed to the door post. “The ear that didn’t listen at Har Sinai when Hashem proclaimed that we be enslaved to Him and not to man, must be punished.” However, we see that a regular Jewish servant, who is indentured to his master does not receive the same punishment. This is because while he is working temporarily, he is still capable of listening to Hashem’s voice. He can still retain his own identity. But when a person voluntarily transforms himself into a drone in order to remove his free will and place it in the hands of others, this is unacceptable. So Moshe was simultaneously broadcasting this message to Pharaoh, and to the Jewish people, that the Jewish spirit is not broken! Just as a slave who works for a few years, is then emancipated to go live out his true destiny as a royal servant of the Almighty, so to the Jewish people were now ending one chapter of their life, and beginning a new one, the real one.
In any event, it is clear how important the sense of hearing is. The Rabenu Yonah explains that many of the rebukes mentioned in Yeshayahu and the other prophets stipulate explicitly that they appeal to man’s audible senses, without which he cannot hope to attain true repentance. Words penetrate our hearts more than sight can. A sight which is not accompanied by sound can be interpreted in many different ways, as anyone who has ever been to a silent film can testify. But words and sounds, even without the benefit of any of the other senses, are an extremely powerful tool of transferring information from outside of our consciousness, to the inside.
It should be noted that hearing alone, is not powerful enough to affect the desired change that we are referring to, but rather a person must be actively listening to what he hears with an open heart toward change. The Sabba from Slobodka once called a boy into his private study to instruct him on some extremely important matters of how to better himself. A week later, with no warning or explanation, the Saba called him in again, and repeated the exact same conversation. The boy was puzzled by this apparent redundancy and pressed the Sabba on his bizarre actions. The Sabba responded by saying that just as the train blows the bell every time it passes by a stop, and doesn’t rely on the fact that it already blew so many times in the past, similarly the point of Mussar is not so much to impart information, but rather to constantly imbue a message until a person is ready to listen to it and it is driven deep into his emotions, and is indelibly printed on his soul.
The famous Rosh Yeshiva of the Ponevich Yeshiva, R’ Shach used to get very emotional when he would deliver his discourse on Parshas Vaera. He would begin by reading the above quoted verse, “And the Jewish people wouldn’t listen because of their shortness of breath and their hard work.” When he read this verse he would begin to cry. He would exclaim, “How many of us have worked so hard to make great advances in our spiritual growth, only to reach a certain wall which we erroneously feel is insurmountable? For example, we will perfect our learning, and our proper speech, but when it comes to prayer, our minds continually wander, and we feel so frustrated that we give up ever being able to pray with appropriate intent. But R’ Shach would explain that this is merely a trick of the Yetzer Hara. By studying intently the giants of the past, and by conscientiously developing our listening capabilities so that we are able to truly hear their message, we will eventually succeed in perfecting all of the challenges that we currently find impossible to overcome.
May Hashem bless us to escape the קוצר רוח and that our forefathers suffered in Egypt, and realize our true potential for greatness!