Rabbi Frand on Parshas Bamidbar / Shavuos
These divrei Torah were adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi
Yissocher Frand's Commuter Chavrusah Tapes on the weekly portion:
Tape # 101, Teaching Torah to Women and Tape #102, Yom Tov Candle
Lighting.Good Shabbos!
Torah Takes Root In A Person Who Says, "Change Me"
The Medrash gives a parable in this week's parsha: There was a King
who wanted to build a palace and scouted around for an appropriate
site. He went into one city after another and in each city the
people ran away from him, indicating they did not want the palace in
their town. Finally he came to a deserted ghost town and the few
people there graciously and gratefully accepted the King's offer to
build a palace in their town. The King said, "This is the place
where I will build my palace."
The Medrash explains the parable: When G-d wanted to give the Torah,
he went to the sea and it ran away, as it is written "The sea saw and
fled" [Tehillim 114:3]. G-d then went to the mountains and they ran
away, as it is written "The mountains skipped like rams" [114:4]. He
then came to a desolate desert (Sinai), which accepted Him with open
arms, and G-d gave the Torah in a desert.
What are our Rabbis trying to tell us with this parable?
Why didn't those cities want the King's palace? Because they knew
that building the palace in their cities would impact on their
lifestyle. They had certain ways of doing things; they had certain
customs. They knew that building a palace in their city would mean
changes for them. The ghost town knew that it had nothing. They
were saying, as it were, "Remake us. We have nothing anyway. We
want you. We'll accept you and we'll take with your palace all the
changes that accompany it."
If one wants to accept Torah, he must be like a desert -- ready and
open with no baggage. Torah takes root in a person who says, "Change
me."
Many of us have had the experience of dealing with apparently "religious"
brethren and have sometimes come away disappointed. Our reaction
invariably is "This is Torah? This is all that Torah can do for a
person? I thought Torah was supposed to change a person! Here is a
stereotypical guy with 'beard and payos' and he is ripping me off!"
Someone once said, and it is a very important point: "Never judge
Judaism by Jews." Judaism is bigger than most any Jew that one will
find. If one wants to judge Judaism by a particular Jew, he must
look at the Chofetz Chaim or Rav Chaim Ozer or Rav Moshe Feinstein.
Why? Because they made themselves like a desert and said, as it
were, to G-d, "Change me." They let themselves become desolate and
open for the Torah to permeate them.
The rest of us are like those cities. We are not really ready to
fully change. If we accept it, we want to accept it on our terms.
Therefore the Torah cannot change us, because we are not willing to
be changed.
This is what our Sages are hinting at when they tell us that Torah
was given in a desert. Torah can only really change someone who is
willing to be changed. When a person makes himself like a desert in
his acceptance of Torah, that is when he can be changed to the extent
that G-d can say, "You are My Servant, Israel, in whom I can be
glorified." [Yeshaya 49:3]
When people are not prepared to make themselves like the desert, the
Torah can not make them over. The result is that sometimes we find
people to be less than we would expect.
Shavuos
A Tale of Two Versions: Whoever Teaches His Friend's Son Torah...
In Parshas Bamidbar the verse states "And these are the children of
Aharon and Moshe on the day G-d spoke to Moshe at Mt. Sinai" [3:1].
However, the pasukim continue and enumerate only the descendants of
Aharon.
Rash"i raises the obvious question -- why does the Torah refer to the
children of Moshe if only Aharon's children are mentioned? Rash"i
answers that Nadav, Avihu, Eleazar and Ithamar are considered to be
like Moshe's children, because he taught them Torah. "For anyone who
teaches his friend's children Torah, is considered as if he gave
birth to them" [Sanhedrin 19a].
Another Gemara in Sanhedrin [99b] expresses a similar concept with a
slightly different expression: "Anyone, who teaches his friend's
child Torah, is considered as if he made him." Rash"i quotes the
verse with Avraham "... the souls he made in Charan" [Bereshis 12:5].
Onkelos there translates "d'shabidu l'oraita" (he subjugated them to
the Torah).
We thus see two different ways of formulating the accomplishment of
one who teaches his friend's son Torah -- one Chazal says "its like
he bore him" and one Chazal says "its like he made him." How are these
two versions reconciled?
Rav Schlessinger, a Rosh Yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael, suggests that the
Chazal are trying to paint for us the Rebbe, par excellence, in
Judaism.
We as parents have something going for ourselves in the education of
our children that a professional teacher does not have On the
other hand, a professional teacher has something that we as parents
do not have.
We as parents have a natural love and a natural sense of compassion
for our children. The words of our Sages and the words of our Siddur
are replete with expressions such as "as a father has mercy on his
children." Such a feeling is necessary in teaching any child. But
sometimes those feelings of compassion can be a detriment. Sometimes
a person as a father has to mitigate his natural feelings for his
children because such feelings are detrimental to the child's
education.
In my line of work, sometimes I have the pleasure of meeting with
parents of my students. I remember once telling a father what a good
student his son was. He replied to me, "Yes. I had no Rachmanus
[mercy] on him!"
His philosophy of education was "No Rachmanus." He sounded like a
drill sergeant. While I can not agree with him completely that this
should be the only theory of education, what he was saying had truth
to it. Sometimes parents, because of the natural love they have for
their children, do not do what must be done to properly educate the
children.
On the other hand, the professional teacher has the advantage of
being "like one who has made the student." We see from the verse
with Avraham, that there is a concept of bringing a person under the
yoke of Torah. Sometimes it is not easy, but it has to be done. The
professional teacher always has that advantage. But sometimes he
lacks the aspect of "as if he gave birth to him" -- the matter of
compassion and personal love that the parent naturally has and that
the true educator should have.
These expressions in the Talmud are telling us that in the eyes of
the Rabbis, the perfect teacher must have both the sweetness and
compassionate traits of a father (as if he bore him) and also the
strength of 'subjugating him to Torah' (as if he made him).
One without the other is an incomplete teacher. Moshe Rabbeinu had
both aspects. Therefore the verse treated him as if they were his
children.
Old Enough To Be Counted at 30 Days
We are taught (Bamidbar 3:15) the command to count all males of the
Tribe of Levi from the age of one month. While everyone else in Klal
Yisrael was to be counted from the age of 20 years, the members of
the Tribe of Levi were counted from the age or 30 days.
The rest of Klal Yisrael was counted from age 20, because that was
the age when they were eligible for being drafted into the army. The
census was geared to when one's service to the nation began. That
was age 20 for the other tribes.
It would therefore seem to follow that the Leviim would be counted
from when their service began. The 'tour of duty' of the Leviim
(when they were to serve in the Mishkan) however, was from the age of
30 years, not 30 days.
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch offers a beautiful thought in his
commentary on Chumash on this issue. He says the 'tour of duty' of
the Leviim in fact began when they were 30 Days old. Even though
they did not begin serving in the Mishkan until they were 30 Years
old, the Leviim also performed a different role in Klal Yisrael.
They were not only the people who took care of and who carried the
Mishkan. They were the individuals who were entrusted with the
spirituality of the Jewish people. They were charged with the duty
of "teaching Your statutes to Jacob and Your Torah to Israel"
[Devorim 33:10]. They were the teachers, the poskim, the Rabbis, the
Rosh Yeshiva, the Dayanim, the spiritual guardians of the Jewish
people.
Part of that duty was to take care of the Mishkan. But their
communal duties went far beyond that role. The Gemara [Yoma 26a]
states that if one sees a scholar who knows how to pasken he must be
either from the Tribe of Levi or the Tribe of Yissachar. They were
the spiritual guardians of Klal Yisrael.
To create this spiritual guardian who will be this teacher of Israel,
one cannot wait to start raising and training him when he is 3 or 5
or 10. Such an individual, in whose hands the spiritual life of Klal
Yisrael will be, must be raised for that job from the time he is 30
days old.
Whenever we he hear of someone who has become a great pianist, or a
great artist, or a great ball player we do not hear that they started
practicing at age 6 or 10. As soon as they could sit next to a
piano, they were playing. As soon as they could run, the parents were
already training them for the destiny they were supposed to achieve.
When we are trying to raise a son of Levi -- a Jew who will have in
his power the spirituality of Klal Yisrael, we should not start when
he is six. It must begin when he is an infant. That is how a dayan
is created. That is how a teacher is created. That is how a Levi is
created.
Since his training begins as an infant, he is already considered as
serving in his role as a Levi. He is consequently counted from the
age of 30 days, not 30 years.
Personalities & Sources:
Chofetz Chaim -- Rav Yisrael Meir HaKohen of Radin (1838-1933)
Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski -- (1863-1940) Vilna, Lithuania.
Rav Moshe Feinstein -- (1895-1986) New York City.
Rash"i -- (1040-1105) Rav Shlomo ben Yitzchak; France.
(Targum) Onkelos -- Authorized Aramaic translation of the Torah by
the proselyte Onkelos (around 90 c.e.).
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch -- (1808-1888) Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Rav Chaim Shmulevitz -- (1902-1978) Mir Rosh Yeshiva, Jerusalem.
Glossary
Rachmanus -- compassion
Klal Yisroel -- the nation of Israel
Mishkan -- Tabernacle used as a temporary Temple in the Wilderness
and during the period of the Judges and early Monarchy.
Dayanim -- Judges
pasken -- decide a halachic question
This week's write-up is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi
Yissochar Frand's Commuter Chavrusah Torah Tapes on the weekly Torah
portion (#101). The corresponding halachic portion for this tape is:
Teaching Torah to Women. The other halachic
portions for Parshas Bamidbar / Shavuos from the Commuter Chavrusah Series
are:
Also Available: Mesorah / Artscroll has published a collection
of Rabbi Frand's essays. The book is entitled:
