STAM
TORAH
PARSHAS VA’ERA
5777
“FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE”
A Paul Harvey classic[1]…
“It was a sweltering hot day,
and word was traveling like a brush fire through the countryside: “The British
are coming”.
“No false alarm. The British
army was closing in fast. Looking for one man. A prominent patriot with a price
on his head.
“In the mounting rebellion
against the British, of the small but courageous forces opposing the Crown, he
was commander-in-chief. And he was hiding in a coffin-like compartment in the
ceiling of his home!
“The secret compartment had
been prepared for this purpose. But the heat of August made it like an oven.
So, with barely enough room to lie flat in the sweltering, suffocating,
starving, thirst-searing delirium of that quiet darkness, the fugitive patriot
would try to fight off madness by remembering.
“His men had tried to warn
him that the British were coming. He had not taken the warning seriously. He
had awakened before dawn to hear his dog barking in the yard and the clatter of
approaching British troops in the distance.
“In minutes the town would be
isolated and a house-by-house search would begin.
“Fortunately, his home
appeared on the official register of the Crown under a name that was not his
own. Yet even as he took comfort in that thought there came a knock at the
door… the army of King George! He had ascended to his secret hiding place in
the ceiling only moments before.
“The patriot’s wife let the
soldiers in, answered to the alias by which she was addressed. Her husband was
visiting in another town, she said. After searching the house, the soldiers
ordered her and her two little children to come with them. Temporary
headquarters had been set up nearby. They would be held for questioning.
“So now the patriot was alone
in that torrid tomb, sealed in the ceiling of his own home.
“On the brink of
unconsciousness he recognized the ultimate horror: If something should happen
to his wife and children, he would be left there to die in an unmarked crypt.
His forces, leaderless, would surely be crushed by the troops of King George.
“Days passed.
“No food, no water. The only
sounds were the occasional voices of British soldiers taking refuge from the
August sun – and the miraculously incessant pounding of his own heart.
“On the evening of the third
day, when he would almost have welcomed capture by the British, came a tapping
at the boards on which he lay. And then he heard his wife’s voice.
“It was over. The British
troops had given up the search, had gone.
“The dream for a new nation conceived
in liberty - lived.
“The fugitive patriot with a
price on his head, the hunted commander of the freedom forces, had survived a
premature tomb to lead his men to victory, eventually to lead his country.
“The nearness of his capture,
during those three days in purgatory, is measured in a coincidence.
“The British soldiers,
choosing a site at random, had unknowingly arranged their temporary search
headquarters in the courtyard of the man they sought!
“And that man, who might have
suffocated in the ceiling of his own house – the dissident leader with a price
on his head, hiding from the troops of King George VI, in Tel Aviv, in the
August of 1946, was Menachem Begin.
“And now you know… THE REST
OF THE STORY.”
The time for the process of redemption
had finally arrived. G-d instructed Moshe to inform the battered nation of
their glorious future, which was now imminent. Moshe was to inform them that
the servitude would cease, they would emerge triumphantly from the shackles and
confines of Egyptian oppression, they would become the Chosen People, and they
would receive the Holy Land as an inheritance.
But when Moshe tried to relay the message his words were unheard. “They did not
heed Moshe, because of shortness of breath and hard work.”
Moshe
became very dejected from that encounter. “Moshe spoke before G-d saying,
‘Behold, the Children of Israel have not listened to me, so how will Pharaoh
listen to me?”
The
Tiferes Yonason explains that this was part and parcel of Pharaoh’s
methodically diabolical plan. His astrologers informed him that the savior of
the Jews was going to be a member of the tribe of Levi. Therefore, he deliberately
granted the Levites a mass exemption from the enslavement. It was not simply a
clerical exemption but a brilliant way to ensure that the savior would be
doomed to failure.
Pharaoh
understood well that a leader who could not relate and understand his followers
was hardly a leader. In the words of the wisest of men[2], “The protector of a fig tree
will eat its fruit.” But one who was not involved in the laborious task of
planting and guarding the fruit will not be welcomed to eat the fruit in when
it finally ripens.
Pharaoh
exempted the entire tribe of Levi so that when the savior arose to fulfill his
mission he would fail abysmally. The weary embittered slaves would surely not
follow the lead of a Levite who did not endure the pain and suffering they had
experienced for generations.
Pharaoh’s
scheme was initially successful. The nation didn’t hear/hearken to his words
because of the severity of the servitude. They saw Moshe as an outsider who
could not appreciate the extent of their suffering and the depth of the exile,
and therefore they turned a deaf ear towards him. Moshe himself realized this
point when he stated that if the Jews wouldn’t listen to him surely Pharaoh
wouldn’t listen to him.
The
Torah Ohr[3] explains that ultimately
Pharaoh’s scheme did not work however, because Moshe went way beyond the call
of duty. The Torah relates that Moshe grew up in the lap of Egyptian
aristocracy, in fact in the palace
of Pharaoh Egypt Egypt
The
Egyptians sought to destroy his ability to lead by disconnecting him from his
people, but the very attribute which made him worthy to be the leader – his
love and empathy for his people - foiled their plan. When the nation realized
this truth about Moshe they began to hear his words, despite the fact that he
was a Levite.
The
gemara[4] states, “We do not appoint a
caretaker upon the public unless he has ‘a box of insects’[5] hanging from behind him, so
that if he becomes too haughty they say to him, ‘Turn behind you’.” A leader who never struggled, at least on some
level, will not be able to relate to his followers. Such a leader is severely
deficient.
By
definition, a leader is one who can understand the challenges of his followers
and can relate to their pain. Yet at the same time he must have the ability to
lift his followers above and beyond their limitations and shackles.
Moshe
Rabbeinu was the quintessential leader because he had an uncanny ability to do
just that. He understood the needs of every individual and appreciated their
individual struggles. At the same time, he was (eventually) able to help them
recognize that they had the ability to traverse the morass of the exile they
were muddled in. As soon as Moshe was able to convey to the people that sense
of hope and confidence he was able to demand that Pharaoh not impede the
fulfillment of that vision.
“The
protector of a fig tree will eat its fruit”
“There
arose none like Moshe”
Rabbi
Dani Staum, LMSW
Rabbi,
Kehillat New Hempstead
Rebbe/Guidance
Counselor – ASHAR
Principal
– Ohr Naftoli- New Windsor
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