Transcript
This is the shiur on פרשת בשלח Parshas Beshalach, plowing our way through ספר שמות Sefer Shmos. Unbelievable how quickly the story unfolds. So we are on page קוף ה Kuf Hey in the middle of a piece which is the the famous מה תצעק אלי דבר אל בני ישראל ויסעו ma titzak elai daber el Bnei Yisrael v'yisau. This parsha, פרשת בשלח Parshas Beshalach is really the the main source for the discussion about the relationship between השתדלות hishtadlus, taking initiative, and השגחה פרטית hashgacha pratis, divine intervention, divine providence. Which is it? Are we supposed to sit back and feel הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the ריבונו של עולם Ribono shel Olam is in charge? So don't go to the doctor and what do you have to try to work and what do you have to make an effort? Or do you say, no, it's all up to us. And of course the answer is somewhere in between. There are different perspectives. I spoke about this in our אמונה emunah shiur last week. The חובות הלבבות Chovos Halevavos, רבינו בחיי Rabbeinu Bachya has one perspective where for him השתדלות hishtadlus is a מצווה mitzva. You're supposed to do השתדלות hishtadlus, but realize that the success of your השתדלות hishtadlus is entirely and utterly dependent on the ריבונו של עולם Ribono shel Olam. You make your effort, whether that effort and initiative translates into success is entirely up to Hashem. Whereas for the רמב\"ן Ramban, השתדלות hishtadlus is not a מצווה mitzva, it's a concession. Really if you were on the level, you would sit back, you'd trust in Hashem. He writes, and it's scary, it sounds like Scientology or Christian science. The רמב\"ן Ramban writes, somebody who's really on that level when they're sick wouldn't go to the doctor. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the ultimate doctor. Why would you go to the human doctor when הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu can diagnose and heal you if you just put your faith in him. However, since most of us aren't on that level, as a concession, we take initiative. So it's a fundamental disagreement on whether initiative is a concession or whether initiative is a is a מצווה mitzva, that's part of the way Hashem set up the world. Post גן עדן Gan Eden, he kicked us out and he said בזעת אפיך תאכל לחם b'zeas apecha tochal lechem. Good, now go take initiative. But realize, initiative is actually an exercise in אמונה emunah, meaning that take the initiative, but all the while realize that whether the initiative works or not is not up to you, it's up to me. Never correlate success with your effort. Take pride in your effort because you need to undergo the effort in order to unlock the door to success, but whether that an effort was successful, only was with the approval. You submit your effort to Hashem for approval. If he approves, your effort is successful. But he could disapprove. You think you're the only one? You think there's no one else who worked as hard or was smart as hard, who had a great ingenuity, and they flopped and you succeeded. Is that up to you or is that up to Hashem? And the opposite is also true. Why is it some people have the same intelligence and effort and initiative and ideas succeed while you fail? It's up to Hashem. So we take our initiative but ultimately we concede or or we submit that it's up to Hashem. And that's what's going on over here. They get to the ים סוף Yam Suf. You got the Egyptians pursuing behind them. They're squeezed literally between a rock and a hard place, the ים סוף Yam Suf in front of them. And what do they do? They start doing exactly what you'd think הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu would have tremendous pride in them for doing. They start davening. Isn't that what they've been trained to do? Isn't that exactly what they're supposed to do? הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, what are you what are you crying? What are you davening for? Close the תהילים Tehillim, close the סידור siddur, and start walking. Let's start walking.So that's what we're up to. הים ראה וינוס hayam ra'ah v'yanos. The Pasuk says that the sea saw and it split. And what did the sea see? It saw, that's a tongue twister, the coffin, the ארון aron of יוסף Yosef. It's kind of bizarre. You're talking about the holiest, righteous people of the time, משה Moshe and אהרן Aharon. And you're talking about 600,000 men, two to three million men, women, and children. Among them, incredibly righteous, righteous enough that בזכות נשים צדקניות b'zchus nashim tzidkaniyos, they were redeemed from Israel. And yet, it's not the merit of anyone living of the two to three million people, it's because of the person who's deceased in the coffin. So what's the answer? Is that משה Moshe, יוסף Yosef, when אשת פוטיפר eishes Potifar relentlessly seduced him, and he had every reason in the world to give in, to fail that test. Nevertheless, he dug deep and he was able to transcend his nature, transcend all human nature, at least male nature, and overcome that desire, that temptation, and say no, and to run out. שנילבש בו יצר הרע של כל העולם shenilbash bo yetzer hara shel kol ha'olam. In that moment, he wore the יצר הרע yetzer hara of the entire world. It means he felt the the pressure, he felt the temptation, the desire, the drive, the appetite of the whole world combined. The wife of Potiphar understood that if she could break Yosef in that moment, if Yosef who supposedly is the epitome of righteousness, the most noble, the greatest, the holiest Jew who represents the ultimate synergy or combination of the twelve שבטים shvatim, the best of what they all have to offer in combination. So he is the peak, the pinnacle. And if she could bring him down, if she could get him to violate his core beliefs, principles, values, then she would break the Jewish people. There would not be a formation of a Jewish people. So where did Yosef find the wherewithal? Where did he find the strength to say no? You've got a beautiful woman, no one's home that day, right? She orchestrated to to seduce him this final time on a day, it was a it was a non-Jewish idolatrous holiday. So everyone's at the church praying. She feigns illness so she could be home alone. The landscaper and the electrician and the butler and the and the maid are all off that day because it's a national holiday. She's got the house to herself. And Yosef comes, it says לעשות מלאכתו la'asos melachto, Rashi quotes two opinions. One of them is Yosef was ready that day. He came ready, he was going to give in, that was it. If she would come on to him one more time, he just couldn't hold back. And yet, even with her preparation and even with his anticipation and and being prepared to to violate, nevertheless, he found the strength. Where did he find it from? It says וינס ויצא החוצה vayanas vayetze hachutza. He ran outside. He fled and he ran outside. What does that mean outside? It's the same החוצה hachutza of אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu. When Hashem tells Avraham, go outside and look up at the stars. So here too, he flees outside. Why did Hashem take Avraham outside? Avraham is an old man and he has no legacy, he has no future. He has Yishmael but he has no child whom he sees as the investment of his future, and he's ready to give up. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, come outside for a second. I want you to look up at the stars. So what was the image of come outside and what is the message of look up at the stars? The Slonimer Rebbe is saying based on the Medrash, that what הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu was telling Avraham is, don't look in the natural, don't be down here. Close the medical textbooks, close the research, close all the rules and laws of nature, close the limitations of being among the finite, and go look up at the stars. I want you to be not on earth looking up at heaven, come up to heaven with me and look down at earth from there. Because from the perspective of heaven, from the perspective of transcendence, from the perspective of being above nature, למעלה מן הטבע l'maalah min hateva, there's nothing that's impossible. I'm the ריבונו של עולם Ribono shel Olam, I created the world. And when I set it in motion, it operates based on laws of nature. And for the most part, everyone is bound by nature. But the Jewish people, אין מזל לישראל ein mazal l'Yisrael. The Jewish people defy nature. Our existence, our survival defies nature. And that began exactly with this experience. When Hashem tells Avraham, come outside and look up at the stars, what he's saying is, throw away your rules of history, throw away the natural order, understand that you are part of a people who defy logic, who defy nature, who defy laws. And therefore there's nothing beneath me. You live, you operate up in the stars, אין מזל לישראל ein mazal l'Yisrael. You're not living on earth bound by astrological signs. You're living in the heavens bound only by me, by the ריבונו של עולם Ribono shel Olam. That's what the Torah is telling us by using the same words, החוצה hachutza, like Avraham went outside and reached for the stars. So where did Yosef find that strength, even though he had every excuse, even though there was probably a he was compelled to do the wrong thing? He he he confronted that compulsion with an equal and opposite force. And what's the equal and opposite and greater force? Was stretching for the heavens. Realizing he could be למעלה מן הטבע l'maalah min hateva. I don't have to give in. I don't have to give in to what feels natural. I don't have to give in to what the rest of the world describes as natural urges. And it's in that merit that the sea split. But opposite that needed the Jewish people also transcending the natural order. The natural order in that moment is to have anxiety, to have fear, to say we're going to drown in the sea or we're going to be killed by the Egyptians. To start walking when it made no sense. Like what's Nachshon ben Aminadav thinking? I'm going to start walking and then what? I'm going to swim across the whole sea? What's going to happen when the water, we all know the Medrash, his knees, his waist, his chest, his shoulders, his mouth, and it got up to his nose, right, the last ability to breathe. So what was he thinking when the water went up past his nose? So the answer is in that moment he wasn't thinking. He suspended his thinking and he said, I don't know how what I'm doing makes sense in the natural world. I have no clue how this could possibly succeed according to the regular ordinary laws of nature. But we are a people למעלה מן הטבע l'maalah min hateva. My great grandfather went outside and looked up at the stars and that's what I'm doing right now. I'm looking up at the stars and I'm hoping for something special, supernatural. When you act in a supernatural way, when you don't feel crushed or disappointed or anxious or worried or bound by the ordinary, when you expect the extraordinary, then the extraordinary happens. Hashem wants to see you take that leap of faith. Hashem wants to see you not feel that he's limited by anything. He wants to know that you think he's all capable. And how do you show Hashem that we think he's all capable? By even believing in the extraordinary, the supernatural. So that's the ויסעו v'yisau, start walking. Don't daven to me helplessly and hopelessly. Don't daven to me passively like there's nothing for you to do. There is something for you to do in all circumstances and at all times. And what is there for us to do? Us to do is to take that leap, is to go above and beyond, to do even what makes no sense. Because the initiative translates into the אמונה emunah. The initiative is an expression of אמונה emunah. Every Shabbos we say on Shabbos and Yom Tov, Kiddush, davening, it's all זכר ליציאת מצרים zecher l'yetziyas Mitzrayim. It all commemorates the Exodus. What is the connection between Shabbos, what's happening at our Shabbos table that's זכר ליציאת מצרים zecher l'yetziyas Mitzrayim? Don't we do that once a year at the Seder? We do. So what is Shabbos זכר ליציאת מצרים zecher l'yetziyas Mitzrayim? So he says the idea is, every Shabbos and Yom Tov, we remind ourselves that so, our mission, our destiny, our fate is to leave and redeem ourselves from Mitzrayim. And what does that mean to try to redeem ourselves from Mitzrayim in our lives? It means first of all, restoring our sense of faith. All week long, our faith is rattled. During the week we went to a funeral, and during the week we heard bad news, and during the week our business meeting didn't work out, and during the week we ran into a challenge. During the week our faith gets rattled. But it comes back to Shabbos, and we remember that it's in the merit of אמונה emunah that we redeemed from Mitzrayim. And the second, when we talk about Shabbos as זכר ליציאת מצרים zecher l'yetziyas Mitzrayim and we talk about the daily mitzvah of remembering יציאת מצרים yetzias Mitzrayim and remembering how the sea split is part of that experience. This is eternal, that in the physical realm or the spiritual realm when we feel all doors have been closed and all hope has been lost, and this is it, it is what it is, and what the world is giving us, and the cards that we're dealt, and we become very passive and we become very fatalistic and we become very accepting of the reality: the illness, the relationship, the marriage, our children, our professional, our religious standing, our relationship with Hashem. We become very fatalistic and very passive and we simply want to just accept it is what it is. So then Shabbos comes and זכר ליציאת מצרים zecher l'yetziyas Mitzrayim is we remember that when we're willing to be מוסר נפש moser nefesh, when we're willing to reach and to go above and beyond, when we're willing to leave our comfort zone, החוצה hachutza, to go out of our comfort zone and look up at those stars. When we are willing to transcend nature, when we are willing to act in an extraordinary fashion, when we're willing to take risks, when we're willing to endure suffering or pain, when we're willing to reach for the stars, even when it makes no sense and it's utterly and entirely illogical. We're willing to believe in the extraordinary, then the extraordinary happens. There are times that we feel drawn towards compulsive behavior. Compulsively eating the wrong things, compulsively not exercising, compulsively gossiping, compulsively talking in shul, compulsively looking at things on the internet, compulsively yelling at our children or our wife, compulsively. Sometimes we confront a יצר הרע yetzer hara, where that יצר הרע yetzer hara is not just about a momentary lapse in judgment where the repercussions are not that great and they can be repaired easily. There are times we confront a יצר הרע yetzer hara where the damage is almost irreparable. I don't even want to give too graphic a description of an example. You're on a business trip, you're at the bar, you meet someone, it's a co-worker, an opportunity presents itself. People ruin and destroy their lives. Not just that, someone comes to you with a business deal. It's cutting a few corners, it's not really abiding by the rules. But you know what? It's so tempting. The return is huge and you can convince yourself it's in the gray, it's not really in the black and white. And so you're going to make a decision that in a couple months or years later, if you get caught, will destroy your world. There are times the יצר הרע yetzer hara confronts us in a way where it's not just a momentary lapse of judgment. It's the example of the נזיר nazir in the story in Nedarim, when the נזיר nazir confronts the יצר הרע yetzer hara and says, \"I see you יצר הרע yetzer hara, I see what you're trying to do to me. And I see that if I give in to you, I lose everything. I lose everything.\" We all know the long list, Eliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner, Tiger Woods, go down the long list of people who've lost everything. Everything, reputation, money, wife, family, everything. Someone named רב עמרם Rav Amram, whom חז\"ל Chazal labeled him חסידא chasida. They called him the pious, the righteous. You don't get that name unless you have some piety. In the moment that he confronted his ניסיון nisayon, he didn't come up with every rationalization, justification, excuse in order to indulge. Instead, he started screaming at it, started screaming at himself, and he dug deep and he and he called all the troops to come back him up. And it helped him strengthen him, supported him to overcome it, not to give in at that moment. Better he be embarrassed than be embarrassed in the eternal world. We have power and we have strength within us which is just, it's it's not it's not to be believed. It defies explanation. And if we don't believe that on the individual level, we certainly don't believe it on the on the collective level. We all know the famous quote of Mark Twain, the Persians and the Babylonians are disappeared and the Jew the Jew is here forever, defies explanation. So we all know that and accept that on a on a collective basis, the Jewish people should long ago have disappeared, been absorbed into the host countries, absorbed their language, their culture, their lifestyle. And here we are, so abstinently or stubbornly defying, we we belong and become citizens of the countries that host us, but we stubbornly hold on to our language and our culture and our practice and our religion. And here we are thousands of years of exile and dispersion, accomplishing something no other people in history has ever done. So we all know that and accept that on a on a collective level, and we have to believe it on an individual level as well. We can overcome. Other people have a natural genetic predisposition towards eating, towards anger, towards sexuality, towards whatever the proclivity is, we have been endowed with this capacity to rise above our natural predisposition. We can break, we can absolutely break the יצר הרע yetzer hara with a display of מסירות נפש mesiras nefesh, with an act of defiance, with a statement of I'm not going to let this define me. This moment will not bring me down, will not become my legacy, it will not define me. In יציאת מצרים yetziyas Mitzrayim, there were still all the קליפות klipos of Mitzrayim. So at קריעת ים סוף Krias Yam Suf... that's when the Mitzrim drowned in the Yam Suf. When we confront that overwhelming יצר הרע yetzer hara. *yetzer hara*. And we're not passively just davening to Hashem, \"Hashem, please remove the *yetzer hara*, let me overcome it, let me not give into it.\" We say, you know what? I'm going to display incredible מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh. I'm going to dig deep and I'm going to sacrifice and suffer, I may even humiliate and embarrass myself. I'm going to do whatever it takes to overcome this יצר הרע yetzer hara and not be brought down. When we're willing to be מוסר נפש moser nefesh, when we're willing to reach, to go outside our comfort zone, and look up at the stars and realize we're not bound by the nature of others, then we obliterate the יצר הרע yetzer hara, we force it to drown and disappear. כאמר גם זה בכל עת זכר ליציאת מצרים ועשית יום טוב זכר ליציאת מצרים כל ימי חייך, שכל ביאה זה בבחינה של יציאת מצרים Ka'amar gam zeh be'chol et zecher l'yetzias Mitzrayim v'asisa yom tov zecher l'yetzias Mitzrayim kol yemei chayecha, she'kol biah zeh b'bchina shel yetzias Mitzrayim. והתורה הקדושה Ve'haTorah ha'kedosha, this is the most important paragraph. התורה הקדושה מלמדנו בכל זה את הדרך ליהודי HaTorah ha'kedosha melamdeinu be'chol zeh es ha'derech l'yehudi. The Torah through פרשת בשלח Parshas Beshalach, and associating קריעת ים סוף Krias Yam Suf with the ארון aron of יוסף Yosef, and reminding us of the מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh and the courage of נחשון בן עמינדב Nachshon ben Aminadav, is telling us the path of a Jew. שעניין יציאת מצרים הלא הוא נצחי She'inyan yetzias Mitzrayim halo hu nitzchi. Because the story of leaving Egypt and the story of the splitting of the sea, it's not a part of history. We're not recalling an ancient past. It is eternal. Its messages ring true today. תמיד כשהיהודי משוקע במ\"ט שערי טומאה יש לו בחינת יציאת מצרים Tamid k'she'ha'yehudi meshuka b'mem-tes shaarei tumah, yesh lo bchinas yetzias Mitzrayim. When we feel, when we feel drawn to or compelled by eating the wrong things, looking at the wrong things, making bad business decisions, acting inappropriately with our spouse, with our children, not having patience and kindness, when we feel stingy, when we feel all the טומאה tumah, the things that contaminate us, that bring us down, we have to understand that the same message of יציאת מצרים yetzias Mitzrayim exists. כשאנו עומדים בפני דבר מה קשה כקריעת ים סוף, ובכל מצב יש עצה ליהודי להמשיך את האורות על ידי בחינת דבר אל בני ישראל ויסעו K'she'anu omdim bifnei davar ma kasheh k'krias Yam Suf, u'vchol matzav yesh eitzah l'yehudi le'hamshich es ha'oros al yedei bchinas daber el Bnei Yisrael v'yisa'u. The answer is not to sit back passively and fatalistically and just say תהילים tehillim and say, \"Hashem, help me not have that יצר הרע yetzer hara. Help me be more patient, help me control my eyes, help me control where I go, help me control what I do.\" The answer is ויסעו v'yisa'u, to display that מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh, to take that leap, to make that change, to do something drastic in our lives, to transform ourselves. And when we do, we don't just overcome for the moment the יצר הרע yetzer hara, but we're able to obliterate and purge the יצר הרע yetzer hara. So how do we remember to do this? How do we remember in the middle of the week? Somebody offers us that business deal which is cutting corners, or that website cookie pops up that makes us want to look at something we shouldn't be looking at, or we have the juicy לשון הרע lashon hara we want to share, or our spouse or children challenge us that we want to react by yelling and screaming and throwing things. Hopefully not them, one of the things. So, how do we overcome? So that's what he's saying, זכר ליציאת מצרים zecher l'yetzias Mitzrayim, on שבת Shabbos and יום טוב Yom Tov. When we say זכר ליציאת מצרים zecher l'yetzias Mitzrayim on שבת Shabbos and יום טוב Yom Tov, we're not just talking about the מכות makkos of יציאת מצרים yetzias Mitzrayim, we're talking about קריעת ים סוף Krias Yam Suf. We're remembering the inner power. שבת Shabbos, we יוצא החוצה yotzei ha'chutza, we go outside our comfort zone. We put on different clothing, and our table looks like a different table, and we're singing, and we're and we're sharing thoughts and ideas, and we're tapping into a piece of a supernatural piece of ourselves. During the week, we can't shut down. If I take a phone from you for three hours, you'll have heart palpitations. You'll you'll have an absolute coronary. You'll have a panic attack. Who can live without their technology for for one hour in today's day and age? But שבת Shabbos, that's the nature. The new nature of the human being is to not be able to disconnect, to not live without technology. What if someone needs me? What am I missing? What's my FOMO? What's my... In שבת Shabbos comes, זכר ליציאת מצרים zecher l'yetzias Mitzrayim is JOMO, not FOMO, the joy of missing out. שבת Shabbos comes, זכר ליציאת מצרים zecher l'yetzias Mitzrayim. I, what happened to my nature that I can't give up my phone? I can't give up my Netflix, I can't give up my... שבת Shabbos comes, there's no temptation. למעלה מן הטבע L'maalah min ha'tevah. I go outside my comfort zone. שבת Shabbos is זכר ליציאת מצרים zecher l'yetzias Mitzrayim. And that reminds me during the week that even when I have that challenge and I have that compulsion, I have the capacity to transcend, I have the strength to transcend, I have the ability to define myself, that just as collectively, we are not bound by the laws of nature and history. We have stubbornly persevered and triumphed, and so too individually, even though we confront equal and parallel forces, like have tried to exterminate the Jewish people, we have spiritual forces that try to exterminate the Jewishness in us, that try to convince us we're like everyone else. Watch what everyone else watches, act like everyone else would, be like everybody else. We have that capacity like יוסף Yosef, like the Jewish people, like נחשון Nachshon, to be able to...
