How much of exile is imposed upon us, and how much do we impose upon ourselves? We certainly are in exile from Hashem on some level, being that we do not see Hashem’s obvious unity in the world with our eyes. As the gemara points out, what does it mean “On that day Hashem will be One and His Name will be one?” Isn’t Hashem one even now? Yes, but now, when we perceive something negative we say “Blessed is Hashem the true judge” and when we see something we perceive as positive we say “Blessed is Hashem who is good and does good.” On that day, we will say the latter blessing for everything we see. We are in a state now in which we do not understand much of what we see – death, the suffering of the innocent, the prosperity of the wicked, etc. As the Ba’al Ha’Tanya points out, we do not see the incredible life force we produce when we do Hashem’s commandments,a life-force which nourishes us and the entire world. This is an exile; we may change our perception of it to various degrees, but we are in exile.
There is, however, another exile that we impose upon ourselves – exile from each other, from Yisrael. As we say in prayer, “Sound the great shofar to free us, and raise a banner to gather together our exiled ones.” We pray fervently to be reunified. This of course happens on two levels – get us in the same room, and help us CONNECT. Because we are all pretty much in the same room. The physical exile from the land of Israel is over. We might even be in the same Yeshiva, but are we connecting? We all know you can even be speaking to someone and looking them straight in the eye and not be present, not hear them or not speak honestly.
Like almost all factors relating to exile, the root of this problem is in our time spent in Egypt. We read in Parshat Shemot (5:7) Pharoah commanding about the Jews “Do not continue to give straw – teven to make – lilbon bricks – levanim… let them go and gather - koshishu for themselves straw. And the quota of bricks which they made before, you shall lay upon them… for they are idle. Therefore they scream, saying ‘Let us go sacrifice to Hashem.’” The words teven, lilbon, levanim are all related to the word binah, understanding. R’ Aryeh Kaplan writes in his book Innerspace “The Talmudic (Sanhedrin 93: ) explanation of binah is “understanding of one thing from something dissimilar.” It is the capacity to hear something and learn out from it its logical conclusions. Pharoah saw in Yisrael a unity, in that they wanted to go to the desert and sacrifice to the One G-d. His decree upon them is to break up that unity. In our exile, the constantly revitalized influx of revelation of Hashem’s Oneness in the world is withheld from us. When there is a constant influx, there is a constant need to incorporate the incoming knowledge into the already-existing base of knowledge. When the flow is cut off, the uncontrolled mind continues at the same pace to produce knowledge. However, its conclusions are not based upon new revelation; rather, conclusions are based on interpretations of old information, “straw”, already stored in the mind. The way each person draws conclusions, his binah, which is not yet perfect, incorporates this imperfection, however minor it may be, into each step of the conclusion-drawing process. Not only is the sensory input interpreted in a subjective way, but it is then understood, processed, and integrated in a way that is unique to the individual. Even if another person had the same exact sensory input, his laws of processing and integrating information, which are slightly different, would lead him over time to largely different conclusions.
The sense of binah could be perfected and refined by the constant revelation of Hashem in the world. This is because the constant newness would not allow a solid structure of though to congeal and propagate itself. With everybody loose, the inherent unity and familiarity of the Jewish people would be allowed to shine through and we could learn laws for building structures of thought together. The Gemarra is a good example of a system of thought bound together by common rules of logic. Though opinions and perceptions represented are different, there is a sense of a common system of logic that is respected and adhered to by all. The Rambam points out that the laws in the gemarra are binding upon all Jews, but laws made later by this or that village are not necessarily commutable to the next village. The common flow of Divine Knowledge on a national level which began at Sinai seemed to end in the Gemarra and broke up into equally true but non-parallel streams of Divine Knowledge.
When the flow of renewing experience on a national level (national meaning involving two or more Jews) is cut off, the sense of binah may sense itself as completed (G-d forbid). What results is that everyone automatically floats into his own world which is governed by his own sense of binah. Because we each have a minor imperfection, when this minor imperfection is factored into every step of an infinitely large structure, like a genetic defect, the whole structure is faulted. When I come to talk to you, then, it is as if we live in two separate worlds. Even when you use the words I know, they may mean something different to you than to me. Pharoah’s decree was a wise one, and it worked – “So the people were scattered throughout all of Egypt.”
So we are now. Hashem has left us to draw our own conclusions. With a constant influx of revelation from our Common Source we would constantly reevaluate and be in a national state of not knowing – which is good! The less we think we know, the more we actually know.
We each experience the world through a custom-made, Divinely crafted screen. This is not good or bad – it simply is. It simply must be seen as such – a screen, not the actual world. When I relate to my screen as if it were the world, trouble begins. My opinions become facts. Other people become players in my movie. Forgetting that other people also have equally valid screens, we talk “at” each other based on hastily gathered information processed by imperfect equipment.
Can we see through this haze to each other, to G-d?
The Midrash on this weeks Parsha brings the verse from Kohelet (2:12) “And I turned myself to behold wisdom , and madness, and folly; for what is a man that he should come after the king?” This verse was written about Shlomo HaMelech and about Moshe. Shlomo thought he could understand the reasons for the commandments, specifically the prohibition against kings taking many wives or many horses. Thinking he understood the reason, he thought he could avoid what he perceived to be the negative consequences, and took many wives and many horses. His wives turned his heart away from Hashem. He therefore said of himself, “I have turned myself to behold wisdom, madness, and folly. I thought I could know the knowledge of Torah? This knowledge I had was madness and folly. What is man that he should have permission to contemplate the characteristics and edicts of the King of Kings?” This same principle is applied to Moshe. Hashem had already told him “Pharoah will not let them (the Israelites) go.” But Moshe did not keep this matter in mind, and instead contemplated the edicts of the King of Kings and said “Hashem, why have you done badly to this nation?”
In last week’s parsha and this week’s, Hashem commands Moshe and Aharon to speak to Yisrael and tell them that Hashem is going to save them. Moshe and Aharon dutifully comply – “and [the children of Yisrael] did not listen… from ‘narrowness of spirit.’” When Hashem sent them back, He commanded them not just to speak, but rather “And He commanded them to the children Israel – va’yitzavem el b’nei Yisrael.” Anyone who is commanded to speak can speak – but how easy is it to fuilfill a commandment to be personally concerned with the well-being of another?
Another interpretation – “and they did not listen because of narrowness of spirit and hard work” – who’s narrowness of spirit? The nation’s or M’s? Perhaps he said what Hashem told him to say in a way that did not betray the faith he was trying to impart. Take a deep breath, and try again…
Who is going to break the silence of exile between me and my neighbor? I cannot rely on him to make the first move, so I must act. The Parsha tells us how – Va’era – “and He revealed himself.” I cannot, by my own sense of understanding, penetrate into the being of another. I can, however, reveal myself and make it easier for him to penetrate into me.
The parsha says “And they didn’t listen to Moshe out of kotzer-ruach”, literally shortness of breath. Rashi comments, anyone who is in confines, his wind and breath are short, and he is not able to lengthen his breath. Rebbe Nachman writes in Torah 8 “Through breath, which is the ruach chaim, spirit of life, the world is created, as it says, “And with the ruach of His mouth, all their mutitudes.” And the renewal of the world will also be through ruach, as it says “Send your ruach and they will be created, and You will renew the face of the earth.” And the breath is also the life of man, as it says “And He blew into his nostrils the breath of life.” And our sages say, “All who have lack in their breath have lack in their lives.” When there is a lack in something, there is a lack in the lifeforce of that thing, in the ruach chaim of that thing. And sighing is lengthening of the breath, which is erech-apayim, patience. Therefore when one sighs upon a lacking and lengthens his breath. He draws life-force to that lacking and completes that lack.”
Rav Gavriel Goldfeder
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Rav Gavriel Goldfeder is one of the first semicha recipients of the yeshiva. A graduate of Drew University in Religious Studies, he came to Bat Ayin after stints in other yeshivot and found a spiritual and intellectual home. Here he met his wife, Ketriellah, who was a student in our short-lived Women's Yeshiva. Upon graduation, Gavriel took the position of rabbi of the Aish Kodesh Congregation in Boulder, Colorado and together with Ketriellah and their growing family, they are busy creating (in Gavriel's words), "a community infused with Torah values, passion for learning and prayer, consideration of one another, and action, as well as deep celebration of the joys of life." |