Vayikra

פרשת ויקרא

This week’s Parsha opens with a seemingly innocuous verse. The verse says, “And Hashem called out to Moshe from the tent of meeting saying…”. However, the Midrash has a very frightening explanation of this verse. The Midrash learns out from the fact that Moshe waited until he was called by Hashem to approach the Tent, and didn’t enter on his own volition, that any Torah scholar who does not have “דעת”, even a dead carcass is better then him. By the word “Daas”, the Midrash is referring to refined character traits. In other words, the Midrash is deducing that Moshe was correct to wait for Hashem to call him before approaching the Tent, but had he not done this, had he not been refined enough to know that he had to wait to be called before he approached, he would have been considered worse then an animal’s carcass. Imagine the severity of what this Midrash is teaching us. A scholar as great as Moshe Rabenu, who learned and taught the entire Torah from beginning to end, and who merited to be the unequivocal leader of the Jewish people, and the emissary responsible for redeeming them from Egypt, would nonetheless be worth nothing if he did not understand the importance of refining his personality. We see from this Midrash that bad character traits do not merely affect a small part of a person’s service of Hashem, but they actually are damaging to every aspect of a person’s Torah study to the point that none of it can be relied upon. Each and every piece of Torah that exists in this persons mind is flawed by his poor persona, and is therefore defective. Needless to say how much it behooves us to ponder this point and indeed, ensure that we do not earn ourselves this title of being worse then a carcass.

Rav Mordechai Gifter Zt”l, the famous Rosh Yeshiva of Telshe used to pose a very interesting difficulty on the above quoted Midrash. He would point out that the word “דעת” seems to be inaccurate. The Midrash should have used the word דרך ארץ which has more of a connotation or refining one’s character traits, if indeed the Midrash was meant to be explained as we explained it. The word “Daas” connotes knowledge as opposed to refinement. R’ Gifter would explain that in order to resolve this difficulty, one needs to understand the meaning of the Hebrew word Daas. In the Holy Tongue, there are three basic words for knowledge – חכמה, בינה, ודעת. Chochma is external wisdom or worldly knowledge. Bina is a type of intuition, or the ability to derive and abstract principles one to the other. The first two types of wisdom are both external, and do not require any emotional investment. Daas, on the other hand, is completely different. Daas is the type of internal knowledge which can only be gained when the intellect and the emotion meet to form a synergistic type of understanding which affects a person’s entire being and belief system. For example, many people know what is right and wrong beyond the shadow of a doubt. This type of knowledge is Chochma. But very often, this knowledge does not stop them from doing what is wrong. They have not internalized the knowledge, they merely know it as an external fact, like so many other facts that may be floating around in their heads. However when a person reaches the stage in which he sees his knowledge as pure truth, his intellectual honesty will not allow him to act differently because he feels the strength of that truth in his bones. This type of knowledge is called “Daas”.

With this understanding, we can readily explain why the Midrash chose the word “Daas”. We cannot possibly imagine Moshe Rabenu’s desire to know more about God then he already did. Yet at that moment, even in his great desire, he still held fast to what he knew was right. He knew that it would be inappropriate to enter into the Tent without being called, and even though he was burning to do so, he refrained. The only way he was able to do so was because his knowledge of how to act was not merely external “Chochma”, but rather it was generated from a truly integrated “Daas” of how to act with refined character traits. The only way Moshe Rabenu was able to withstand such a great temptation was because he had worked for countless years to inculcate these purified traits into his character to the point that it was clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that he could not act differently.

The Mesillas Yesharim says that each and every person has a responsibility to be completely aware of his actions and careful that they are in line with the Torah. He continues that if a person is not careful to keep the Torah properly, Hashem will not be careful in making sure that this person stays away from sin. Why is this principle true? The Gemorah in Berachos (33a) says that any person who does not have “Daas”, it is forbidden to pity them. Similarly, just as people shouldn’t pity such a person, Hashem will not pity them either, and will allow them to fall in sin. We see from this Gemorah and from the Mesillas Yesharim that when a person has toiled to acquire Daas, his entire life will change. He will forever be paying close attention to his actions, and ensuring that they are in line with the Torah and when he does this, he will evolve into a perfectly refined human being, referred to by Chazal as a Talmid Chochom. If a person cannot manage to acquire this type of knowledge which affects his actions, he is even worse then an animal who also has no such ability and merely follows its instincts or physical whims to govern his decisions.

May we all merit to serve Hashem with true internalized knowledge of what is right and wrong!