Wednesday, August 21, 2019
ha'zan vs nodeh lecha -- the perspective of Moshe vs that of Yehoshua
Chazal tell us that Moshe composed the first bracha of birchas ha'mazon; Yehoshua composed the second. The Ishbitzer (Mei haShiloach vol 2 on P' VaEschanan) points out that in the first bracha we refer to Hashem in third-person -- ha'zan es ha'olam, etc.; the second bracha, however, switches to second person -- nodeh lecha, etc. Moshe Rabeinu was forced to remain outside Eretz Yisrael and ha'dar b'chutz la'aretz k'mi she'ain lo Eloka -- in chu"l G-d appears distant; it is hard to see his presence in day-to-day life. We can only speak of Him in the abstract. Yehoshua took us into Eretz Yisrael. In our own land G-d in there with us as we work the fields, as we build bridges and trains, as we build a country. We switch to second person to show G-d's direct involvement in every detail of what happens.
"ha'zan es ha'olam" --why does the first blessing, focused on the mon, extend to the universal?
ReplyDeletebecause of the extra words in mi'kol-ma'achol asher yei'acheil, Bereishis 6:21: from every food which is eaten. enough to say 'from every food'. 'which is eaten' [extra] comes to exclude the mon, created on the first Shabbos at twilight. once Israel blesses for [eats/ate/includes] the mon, then 'every food' pops back into play [we get an uptake of the earlier context: (bnei) Noach*, the creatures, the universal]
*though Noach, man of the ground, got drunk, Am Yisrael in the land [who were without alcohol bamidbar (Dev. 29:5)], even when they don't see [or look for] G-d's "presence in day-to-day life", nor sense His "direct involvement in every detail" of every fact on the ground, don't seem prone to this excess. but the Rabbis can come across as tipsy(!): soberly speaking, only blessing 2 of birchas ha'mazon sounds m'doraysa. though Berachos 48b tries to ground blessing 1 and 3 and even blessing 4 in pasuk 8:10, it all seems-- not so unusually --yesh mi'ayin (a feat that only G-d can pull off truly). one is left holding a heritage of hats with rabbits inside (or kippas, as the case may be)...
So we're saying that the only person in history to "speak" with Hashem panim el "Panim" needed to refer to Him in third person while in chu"l, but regular Jews in Israel experience him in first person?
ReplyDeleteNot to mention the question of how chu"l the midbar was. Alonzo already mentioned the first-hand experience of G-d in being fed by mon and hoursed in clouds. More so than when we work the fields, build bridges and trains, where we can cry "mi yemalel gevurot Yisrael?" They had the mishkan. For that matter, we say Hallel Shalem every day of Sukkos, as though it commemorated a neis in EY....
Your points are good, of course, if somewhat harsh. But you can't do better for a raya to Reb Chaim than Moshe Rabbeinu's own desperate desire to enter Eretz Yisrael, even if only as a bird. Medrash Devarim 11:6
Deleteאמר משה לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא, רבונו של עולם, אם אין אתה מכניס אותי לארץ ישראל הניח אותי כחיות השדה שהן אוכלין עשבים ושותין מים וחיין ורואין את העולם, כך תהא נפשי כאחת מהן. אמר לו (דברים ג, כו): רב לך. אמר לפניו רבונו של עולם ואם לאו, הניח אותי בעולם הזה כעוף הזה שהוא פורח בכל ארבע רוחות העולם ומלקט מזונו בכל יום, ולעת הערב חוזר לקנו, כך תהא נפשי כאחת מהן. אמר לו, רב לך,
>>>So we're saying that the only person in history to "speak" with Hashem panim el "Panim" needed to refer to Him in third person while in chu"l, but regular Jews in Israel experience him in first person?
DeleteYes.
Then what does panim el "Panim" even mean, if you rob it of meaning a first hand encounter with the Divine (or as close as is humanly possible)? One doesn't say "You" when "looking" at the other's "Face"?
Delete