Parshas Yisro
Rabbi Dovid Zauderer
This Saturday morning, in synagogues all around the world, we read publicly from the Torah about how our ancestors stood at the foot of Mount Sinai and received the Ten Commandments from G-d over 3300 years ago.
Truth be told, we Jews have always taken issue with others (and you know who they are) referring to our Torah as “The Old Testamentâ€. While the Torah that we have today is most definitely “old†in the sense that it has been around like forever, its deep wisdom and instructions for optimal living are as timely and timeless today as they were when it was first given to us long ago..
The Torah with its Divine wisdom has shaped and defined – and continues to shape and define – the worldview and mindset of the Torah-observant Jew (which most Jews were for the better part of our history), guiding him through life and teaching him how to think and what to say or do in every possible situation that presents itself.
I would like to illustrate the timeless relevance of the Torah and its ability to help us deal with all the challenges of life - with the help of a Torah insight from this week’s portion, a Talmudic teaching regarding tzedakah and money loss, and the profound wisdom of the Chafetz Chaim – all of which share a similar theme:
Here is the Torah insight from Parshas Yisro:
We can all understand when a parent tells a child not to take away his younger brother's toy train, that this is a normal demand to make of him. However, if the parents would demand from their son that he not even want his brother's toy train …. we would think they were out of their minds. After all, the child is human. Of course he wishes he could have his brother's toy. The most we can ask of him is that he realizes that although he wants it, he still can't take it away from his brother.
If this is the case, how can we understand what G-d asks from all of us in the Tenth Commandment? He asks us not to covet our friends' house, wife, job, etc. (see Exodus 20:14). What kind of demand is that? Our actions can be legislated, but surely not our emotions! If I see my neighbor's Rolls Royce, and I want it really badly, how can G-d ask me not to even want it? And how is that even a healthy way of dealing with one’s jealousy? Just command me to stop coveting?!
If we look carefully into the text of the Tenth Commandment, we can find an answer to our question. When prescribing the act of coveting, the Torah commands us not covet “everything that belongs to our neighborâ€. This teaches us a profound lesson for life in how to deal with jealousy, as it points to the fact that we tend to covet selectively, rather than perceiving the entire picture when it comes to the object of our desire. It is as though G-d says to us, “Really, you covet your friend’s job? You want to have what he has? You want to be him? Okay, fine with me. You’ll get the money he has. But you’ll also get everything else he has. You’ll have to put up with his tyrannical boss, his wife who makes his life miserable, and his kids who are spoiled rotten and who never talk to him unless they need money!â€
Once we begin to see the full picture, we can more easily let go of that particular object that we had been coveting, secure in the knowledge that G-d knows exactly what He is doing by giving us what He gave us, and that we don’t even want what the other guy has.
It’s like the old Jewish folktale they tell about the few inhabitants of a small village who gathered around in a circle, each carrying his ‘peckel’, his package representing his life’s troubles and personal sorrows. They all threw their sacks into the middle and were instructed that they could pick up anyone else’s. They could give up all their problems and take on someone else’s peckel. After seeing what was in all the other sacks, each of the villagers chose their own sacks once again and made their way home with a renewed confidence.
Now for the Talmudic teaching:
The Talmud in Bava Basra 10a relates the following: Rabbi Yehudah ben Rabbi Shalom lectured: Just as a person’s income for the year is determined on Rosh HaShanah, so are his losses determined on Rosh HaShanah. If he merits, those losses will take the form of the tzedakah he gives … but if he does not merit, then tax collectors will take his money. An illustration of this is the case of the nephews of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai. He saw in a dream that they were going to lose seven hundred dinars in the coming year. [During the course of the year] he urged them to give this amount of money for tzedakah, [and they gave it,] until on Erev Rosh HaShanah, they were short seventeen dinars [of the 700 dinars; they had given only 683 dinars]. On Erev Yom Kippur, government agents seized seventeen dinars. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai told them, “Don’t be afraid [that they will take more]; you had seventeen dinars, and those they took.†They asked him, “How do you know all this?†“I saw in a dream,†he replied. “Then why didn’t you tell us, so that we could have given the whole amount to tzedakah?†He replied, “I wanted you to give tzedakah purely for the sake of the mitzvah [and not because of the decree I saw in my dream].â€
This Talmudic passage is a source for the time-honored response when a Jew is faced with a loss of money etc. He declares to himself that “G-d runs the world†(or, in Yiddish: “Der Eibishter feert der veltâ€) and knows exactly what He’s doing, and that the money loss was going to happen to him anyway, so better to give the money to tzedakah before losing it some other way.
And now for the profound wisdom of the Chafetz Chaim:
King David writes in Psalm 23 verse 6: “May only goodness and kindness pursue me all the days of my life …â€This verse is difficult to understand. Why would King David be ‘running away’ from goodness and kindness in the first place that he is now requesting from G-d that they ‘pursue’ him?
A wealthy magnate who was noted for his extraordinary generosity, once became completely overwhelmed by the countless requests for assistance which were addressed to him incessantly. He consulted the saintly Chafetz Chaim on this matter. As the man entered the room, the Chafetz Chaim happened to be explaining the verse mentioned above. He expounded, “No man can live out the days of his life in complete tranquility. Everyone is pursued by worrisome bother. Often it is serious, as when pursued by enemies, or bill collectors or sickness. Fortunate is the man who discharges his ‘obligation’ by being pursued by institutions of charity which harass him continually for support. This is what King David meant when he said, ‘May only goodness and kindness pursue me all the days of my life’. The magnate understood the message. He returned home reassured and doubled his charitable efforts.
These Torah insights and stories (and there are many more!) serve to illustrate in a very small way the timely and timeless wisdom and beauty of our “old†– but “good as new†– Torah. I hope you enjoyed them!
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