Drasha - Parshas Miketz
Stuck on Gum
Volume 3 Issue 10
In this week's parsha Yaakov wanted to appease
the viceroy of Egypt who had taken his son Shimon as a hostage
and had demanded that Binyamin be sent down to Egypt. Yaakov sends
a variety of food gifts, among them an item the Torah terms botnim.
(Genesis 33:11) Rashi says, "I don't know what botnim
are," then he adds, "Rabbi Meir explains them as pistachios,
and I think they persimmons."
When I was a child my rebbe told us, "you see?
Rashi said, 'I don't know!'" We were supposed to learn something
from that -- although I was not sure exactly what until I heard
a story last week.
The dark-coated boys gathered around the Rabbi
who had just emerged from a store in the Meah Shearim section
of Jerusalem. Craig, who was spending a year of Torah study in
Israel after graduating from a coed Jewish High School, saw the
scene out of the corner of his eye. Then he realized that a picture
of the Rabbi who had attracted all the attention hung on his classroom
wall. Indeed, his favorite teacher could not stop singing the
praises of this brilliant and equally humble Torah Sage. "Yes,"
thought Craig, "it is none other than Rabbi Shlomo Zalman
Auerbach."
Quickly, he raced over to partake of the conversation
-- he, too, wanted to speak to the great man.
The Yeshiva students were peppering Rabbi Auerbach
with complex Talmudic questions.
"How does one reconcile the opinion of Rambam
with the Gemorah in the third chapter of Bava Kama?"
one asked. "How can one answer the contradictory opinions
of the Shach in Choshen Mishpat " another
demanded.
"Does the Rav concur with the ruling of the
Chazon Ish (Rabbi A. Y. Karelitz) regarding the completion of
electrical circuits on the Sabbath and Festivals?" another
probed.
To each young man the sage had a simple reply.
"Look at the Pischei Tshuva in Yoreh
Deah," he nodded at one.
"The Maharam Shick asks
your question in Bava Kama;" he smiled at the next,
the complex Talmudic reasoning flowing effortlessly.
"Look in the 12 chapter of my work Minchas
Shlomo," he replied humbly. I discuss it there
in detail.
So it went: deep question; short answer. Eventually,
some of the boys went away, and the crowd got smaller. Craig's
mind raced. While he was no student of the Talmud, he badly wanted
to partake in the banter, but what could he ask this great scholar?
Suddenly, a warm hand was outstretched and a broad
smile appeared on Rabbi Auerbach's face. The rabbi was shaking
his hand. A few of the older boys were watching the encounter
of the Gadol HaDor and the American high school kid.
"And how can I help you?" asked the
Rabbi.
Craig's mind raced. "Umm… Umm…,"
he stammered. "Is it true that Bazooka® Bubble Gum
is really kosher in Israel?"
Rav Shlomo Zalman stopped. He pondered. He shook
his head. "This is something I really don't know," he
said. "You have truly stumped me."
Craig went back to his Yeshiva a different boy.
He, a simple graduate of a Hebrew day-school had asked the generation's
leading sage a question that he could not answer! Thus encouraged,
Craig finally got serious about Torah study. All his frustration
about not understanding Talmudic complexities had dissipated.
After all, the great Rabbi Auerbach could not answer his
question!
When I learned the Rashi for the first time
at the age of seven, I could not get over the fact that Rashi
did not know something. I was even more amazed that although
Rashi had two alternate explanations, he boldly opened
his commentary by stating, "I don't know."
Rashi sends a message to every student. You can
still be a Rashi -- the single greatest commentator on
the entire Torah, Prophets, and Talmud and still not know the
translation of a simple word!
Rashi clearly sends a message that one not need be
afraid to declare on a tiny and perhaps insignificant translation
-- one that can be interchanged with a variety of variables from
pistachios to persimmons -- "I don't know."
What is the exact reason for Rashi's declaration?
Did he have in mind all the intensity that I set forth?
I have grappled with those questions since that day
in third grade. I got from Rashi what I had to get.
What he meant -- I really don't know.
Good Shabbos
©1996 Rabbi Mordecai Kamenetzky
Drasha is the internet edition of Fax-Homily -- a project of
the Henry & Myrtle Hirsch Foundation Yeshiva of South Shore
- 516-328-2490 - Fax : 516-328-2553
Text Copyright © 1996 Rabbi M. Kamenetzky and Project Genesis,
Inc.
