Rabbi Doniel Staum, LMSW
Rabbi, Kehillat New Hempstead
Rebbe/Guidance Counselor – ASHAR
Principal – Ohr Naftoli- New Windsor
STAM
TORAH
BEREISHIS
5776
“SLY AND CROOKED”
Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far
Rockaway, NY is an upstanding Torah institution, educating hundreds of
students. Some of the Rabbeim in the yeshiva, who reside in Brooklyn and travel
to Far Rockaway, drive a carpool of students who live in Brooklyn
to and from the yeshiva each day.
The drive from Brooklyn
entails traveling through Arvene, NY, which is known as a dangerous
crime-ridden area between Belle Harbor and Far Rockaway[1].
One day, Rabbi Leibish
Langer, a Rebbe in Darchei Torah who lives in Brooklyn, was driving with a few
students under the train-tracks in Arvene when his car suddenly sputtered and
stalled. All of his desperate efforts proved futile; the car would not start up
again. This was during the pre-cell phone era and Rabbi Langer was quite
apprehensive. He told the students to get down on the floor. He then closed the
windows and locked the doors, hoping that a fellow Jew would pass by soon and
help him out.
A few moments later a burly
African-American fellow who was more than six feet tall walked up to the car
and knocked on the window. “What seems to be the problem buddy?” Rabbi Langer
opened the window a crack. “I don’t know; the car stalled and won’t start up
again.” The stranger instructed him to pop his hood. Not knowing what else to
do, Rabbi Langer complied. He sat in his seat nervously listening to the
clanging going on under his hood.
Suddenly he noticed three
rambunctious teens walking towards the car. The stranger noticed them as well
and called out to them, “Hey, you get out of here; I’m helping this man!” The
teens stared at the stranger for a moment before turning around and walking away.
Within five minutes, he was
done. He instructed Rabbi Langer to try to start the car again. This time the
engine immediately revved back to life. The stranger turned around and began to
walk away. Rabbi Langer hastily opened the door and walked over to the stranger
and tried to hand him a few dollars. But the stranger refused the money. Rabbi
Langer was incredulous, “Why would you do that for me?” The stranger replied,
“Do you know Joseph and Nechama Katz[2]?
I worked for them and they always treated me with such dignity and respect.
Because of them I promised that if I ever see a religious Jew in need I would
try to help him in any way I could.”[3]
There is no animal that has
as negative a reputation in the Torah as the snake. Time and again the snake
appears as the symbol of evil and malevolence.
Immediately after the
creation of the world, it was the cunning snake that convinced Chava to partake
of the forbidden fruit, which had a perpetually fatal deleterious effect on all
of creation.
Years later, when Yosef was abducted
by his brothers, they cast him into a pit. The Sages relate that the pit was
devoid of water, but filled with snakes and scorpions.
When G-d first informed Moshe
to appear before Pharaoh to command him to let the Jews leave Egypt
Shortly before the Jewish
nation entered the Holy Land , towards the end
of their forty year sojourns in the desert, the nation sinned. G-d was angered
by their insubordination and multitudes of snakes entered the camp killing many.
Moshe instructed Aharon to erect a copper snake so that when the nation would
see it they would be moved to repent. It was only then that the plague ceased.
In addition, our Sages teach
us that the serpent is the symbol of evil - most notably it is symbolic of
Amalek - our nemesis and implacable foe.
What is the source for the
snake’s unmitigated ‘venomous’ reputation?
When G-d meted out
retribution to the snake for causing the primordial sin, it was given two
curses, “על
גחונך תלך –
On your stomach you shall crawl” and “ועפר תאכל כל ימי חייך – Dust you shall eat all the days of your
life.”
Prima facie, the snake’s
curse does not seem to be all that bad. While man was cursed that forevermore
he would be compelled to toil for his sustenance and livelihood, the snake was
ensured that he would never have to struggle for food, because there is no
dearth of dust anywhere.
The Chiddushei Harim
explained that the snake’s curse was in actuality the severest of all. It is
analogous to a wealthy man who becomes enraged with his wayward son. One day he
calls his son into his room and hands him a tremendous amount of cash, a deed
to a mansion in some distant country, and the keys to his new one
hundred-thousand dollar car. He tells his son to take it all and to leave and
never ever come back.
While it may seem that the
son really wasn’t punished for his negative behaviors, in truth he has received
the greatest punishment possible. He has been banished from his father who has
completely severed all ties with him. What is all the money in the world worth
when one is hated and despised by those he needs most?
That is essentially what G-d
told the snake. He would have all of his needs wherever he went, so that he
would never need to pray to G-d, for G-d was uninterested in hearing the
prayers of the snake. Man indeed must suffer and struggle but those struggles
force him to turn to G-d, who is only too eager to hear his prayers. Man’s
punishment contained the hidden blessing in that it ensures that there will
always be an inextricable connection between him and his Creator.
The second half of the curse
was that the snake travel on his belly. Because the snake has no legs his only
means of transportation is by slithering across its terrain in a zigzag
formation. When a person sees another person walking in an un-straight manner
he seeks to avoid him. Meandering in a zigzag fashion connotes deviousness and
abnormality. The curse of moving in a zigzag serves to distance the snake from
the rest of society who seeks to avoid it. When the snake was granted all its
needs and banished from society, it became persona non grata, hated and
disparaged by all.
The fact that the snake
transports itself by meandering perversely, and was the instigator of the most
catastrophic sin ever committed, makes it the perfect symbol of evil and
perversity.
When Yosef was cast into the
snake-infested pit by his brothers and he saw that they did not harm him, he
saw in that a divine message that G-d was still with him, for he had maintained
the path of straightness and had not succumbed to the perverseness represented
by the snake.
Moshe cast his staff onto the
impure floor of Egypt and it
transformed into a snake, symbolizing the impurity of Egypt land of Egypt
When the Jews were about to
enter the Promised Land, they were reminded of this lesson again. Their
complaints demonstrated a lack of belief in G-d, a form of perverseness. The
snake symbolized their fallacy. They had to strengthen their faith and
understanding of the straight path before they could enter Eretz Yisroel.
The Torah exhorts us, “ועשית הישר והטוב בעיני ה' – And
you shall do what is straight and what is good in the eyes of G-d[4].” A Jew has the
responsibility to always ensure that his actions are done with ‘yashrus[5]’. He must make certain that
all of his actions and words are with dignity and that he is an example for
others.
“האלקים עשה את האדם ישר והמה בקשו חשבנות רבים
– G-d
made man straight, but he has sought many calculations.[6]” One of the tragic
consequences of the sin of Adam was that it caused right and wrong to become
befuddled. Our world became a conglomerate of good and bad and it is often
extremely difficult to discern them. Our responsibility is to adhere to the
Torah, for only in doing so can we ensure that we will remain on the straight
path.
In his introduction to Chumash Bereishis,
the Netziv notes that the Book of Bereishis is referred to in rabbinic
literature as Sefer Ha-Yashar, the Book of the Upright/Straight. He questions why it was not called “the Book
of the Tzaddikim (righteous)” or “the Book of the Chasidim (pious)”?
The Netziv notes that at the end of the Second Temple Temple
In his words, “Mip’nei sinas chinam
b’libam chashdu es mi shera’u shenohag shelo keda’atam beyiras Hashem shehu tzeduki
v’apikores - On account of the enmity in their hearts they suspected anyone
who did not act like them in matters of faith to be a Sadducee and a heretic!” Even though they might have been acting ‘for
the sake of heaven’, nevertheless these actions caused the eventual destruction
of the Temple
The Netziv continues that the actions of
our patriarchs were the exact opposite. Avrohom, who was called ‘Av hamon
goyim –Father of the multitudes of nations’, prayed for the people of Sodom
The point of Bereishis is not merely to
teach us that the Patriarchs spread their teachings or that they built a large
family. It is also to teach us how they
acted towards others, even with the people with whom they disagreed. “Shehisnahagu
im ovdei elilim mechua’rim, hayu imam b’ahavah v’chashu l’tovasam ba’asher hi
kiyum hab’riah - They acted with great love towards idolaters, and were
concerned for their welfare, because that is what maintains the existence of
the world.”
In other words, Chumash Bereishis teaches
us how to live as yesharim in a world which stands in stark contrast to those
values. It is about being a light unto the nations in a world of moral
darkness.
The legacy that our Patriarchs and
Matriarchs personified is the opposite of what the snake represents: It is not
enough to be tzaddikim and chasidim, we must also strive to be yesharim!
“On your stomach you shall
crawl”
“And you shall do what is straight and what is good”
[1] ‘They say’
that if one drives through a red light in Arvene, the cops won’t give him a
ticket, because they understand the desire to get out of there as quickly as possible.
[2] Mrs Nechama
Katz is the cook in Darchei Torah. She and her husband Joseph are the owners of
Elite Caterers, and are known to be very special and caring individuals.
[3] Story heard
from the Mashgiach, Rabbi Mordechai Finkleman shlita, on 17 Tammuz 5769, in
Camp Dora Golding
[4] Devorim
6:18
[5] Yashrus
literally means straightness, but it connotes moral uprightness, extreme
precision to ethics, and dignity. The Yiddish word “mentchlichkeit” is
most apropos.
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