Monday, April 05, 2021

geulah b'prat and geulah b'chlal

Last week we discussed the Sefas Emes (5635) that it was not seeing the splitting of the sea that triggered Klal Yisrael to sing shirah, but rather it was their emunah, "ya'yaaminu b'Hashem," that triggered "az yashir."  It's very strange to speak of Klal Yisrael becoming maaminim at this point after they already witnessed 10 makkos, they witnessed the destruction of Egypt, they witnessed kri'as Yam Suf.  Way back in chapter 4 of Shmos, as soon as Moshe returned from Midyan and delivered the message that Hashem was going to redeem Klal Yisrael, the Torah tells us "va'yaamein ha'am," the people had emunah and believed Moshe's message.  Kal v'chomer at this point in time they should have had emunah!  

Emunah is not a one size fits all garment. There are levels and levels of emunah, and one's faith can, and should, grow over a lifetime.  So true, way back at the start of the process of yetzi'as Mitzrayim the people had emunah, but precisely because they experienced seeing 10 makkos, they experiences geulah, they saw kri'as Yam Suf, the emunah they had earlier is no longer sufficient.  Their experience is mechayeiv them to have even greater faith in Hashem and rise to even greater heights.  Va'yaaminu ba'Hashem means reaching a more exalted level as demanded by their new circumstance.

On the last days of Y"T my daughter reminded me of the end-of-Pesach question I like to ask: "What did you gain over the Y"T?"  For some people, the answer is 5 lbs, for others 10 lbs.  For some the answer is a new chiddush in the haggadah, a better understanding of a sugya in Pesachim.  The point is that the experience of Y"T is a mechayeiv.  "Chayav adam li'ros es atzmo..."  We just went through a yetzi'as Mitrayim and witnessed geulah.  Is out emunah coming out of the chag different than it was going in?  Is our va'yaaminu now the same as the va'yaamein going in, or have we grown?

The haggadah contrasts the makkos in Mitzrayim, which were "etzba Elokim" with makkos that took place at the Yam, which were "yad Hashem."  The haggadah goes through a whole calculation of how many makkos the Egyptians were hit with on the Yam compared to what they were hit with in Egypt, but the difference between yad and etzba is more than quantitative, it is qualitative.  Let me give you an analogy: you go to work and every day there is a different issue to deal with.  Monday the boss wants a project done yesterday, Tues is an irate customer, Wed you are late to the office and hope you don't get a tongue lashing, and so it goes day after day, week after week.  You know the merry go round -- once you solve one problem, there is another one right behind it that needs fixing.  If you change jobs, different place, different hours, but pretty much the same struggles, the same stress.  But what if you had the good fortune to one day marry the CEO's daughter?  Suddenly, in one fell swoop, all the problems become much more manageable if not gone completely.  You think the son-in-law of the CEO gets a tongue lashing if he is a few minutes late?  You think his boss sits on his back to finish a project?  It's a different world!  When we left Egypt, we switched from being avdei Pharoah to avdei Hashem.  A different boss -- certainly a better one -- a different workplace, but at the end of the day, an eved is an eved.  The day by day struggle does not go away.  Instead of fighting to get up to go make bricks, not we are fighting to wake up to go to minyan.  Sheishes yamim tochal matzos is just like sheishes yamim taaseh melacha.  The daily grind is still there.  But comes the seventh day, the shabbos of Pesach, the "atzeres l'Hashem Elokecha," it's a different story.  "Hamaavir banav bein gizrei Yam Suf...  v'ra'u banav gevuraso shibchu v'hosu li'shmo."  Comes shevii shel pesach you are no longer an eved -- now you are a ben, you are like a son, you are related to the CEO in the closest possible way.  In one fell swoop the day by day struggles are gone because a son has a completely different relationship than an eved.  Sefas Emes tells us that etzba Elokim is geulah b'prat, just like each finger is a separate digit.  It's making it through the struggles of that particular day, that particular moment.  Yam Suf is geulah b'chlal, it's the whole hand as one unit.  It's changing the relationship between you and G-d so in one fell swoop all those struggles go away because when you feel close like a ben to an av obeying is not a struggle anymore.

I think that's why Chazal speak about marriage as "kashe l'zavgam k'krias Yam Suf."  If you think marriage is about taking out the garbage to make your wife happy instead of taking out the garbage to make your mother happy, then you are missing the boat.  You are stuck in the vision of pratiyus.  The entire experience of marriage is a different experience, the entire relationship is a different relationship.  It's a klaliyus-dik change.

I'm going to fast forward a few short weeks to say something about Yom haAtzmaut.  For 2000 years we have gone from place to place in galus, the same ups followed by the same downs, till we get kicked out and the merry go round starts up somewhere else.  One prat's ups and downs lead right to the next prat and the same process.  1948 was klaliyus-dik.  Coming back to Eretz Yisrael completely changed the dynamic.  1967 completely changed the dynamic again.  If you think learning Torah in Yerushalayim in a free State of Israel, no matter how secular, is the same as learning Torah in any country where a Jew might have freedom and liberty to do as he pleases, then you are missing the boat of Jewish history and destiny.

All this is mechayeiv us.  Hashata hacha, l'shana ha'ba'ah b'ara d'Yisrael.  In ha lachma anya we look forward to geulah, to coming back to Eretz Yisrael.  So why do we also add hashata avdei...l'shanah habaah bnei chorin?  Isn't that the same thing, not having to work as a slave in galus, being free in our own country?  The Tiferes Shlomo explains that this second phrase is speaking about our avodas Hashem.  Hashata avdei, we've replaced the struggle of making bricks in Egypt with the "avdus" struggle of waking up for minyan, but we are still working as slaves.  We've traded one burden for another.  The details, the pratiyus, has changed, but the big picture of how we think hasn't,  The goal is to change that dynamic, to go from being an eved to being a ben, a klaliyus-dik change in the entire relationship we have to Torah, to Hashem, to have a relationship of love, which is true freedom.

1 comment:

  1. -- "When we left Egypt, we switched from being avdei Pharoah to avdei Hashem"

    or a few days earlier, the tenth of Nissan, 12:3, when the klal did work for the G-d, kinyan chazakah?


    -- "etzba Elokim is geulah b'prat"; "geulah b'chlal...[is] the whole hand as one unit"

    on the flip side, Pharoah had his own struggles b'prat-- the children of Israel, or the flocks, or X, may not go to serve Hashem b'midbar. but finally, "[i]n one fell swoop", he recognized the national totality (12:31-32), and the Hebrews were whole-handedly shoved out of Egypt (12:33).

    and so it is, in Nissan of 5781, that the nations would by red lines and green lines and Party lines impose conditions, one by one, on Israel, by finger-pointing, b'prat; impose presumptions one by one, like democratic governance, or access for all religions...

    but the time will come, bimheira b'yameinu, when the nations will raise both hands to Heaven* and declare, 'on Your terms shall this people be established, Hashem, on Your terms alone, on Your terms altogether, >b'chlal.<'.

    on that day, the right hand will know b'emes what the left hand does, and the left hand the right, and only one Prat will remain in the greater 'Middle East'-- that chaver of old, the river (Bereishis 15:18)...


    *al netilas yadayim

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