STAM
TORAH
PARSHAS
NASO 5779
“PLAN
B”[1]
On Nov. 18, 1995, the acclaimed violinist,
Itzhak Perlman was performing at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. Perlman had
polio as a child, and has braces on both legs, and walks with the aid of two
crutches. Walking out onto stage isn’t easy for him.
On that evening, Perlman walked slowly
and painfully across the stage, placed his crutches on the floor, undid the
clasps on his legs, tucked one foot back and extended the other foot forward. He
then bent down, picked up the violin, placed it under his chin, and nodded to
the conductor to begin.
Almost immediately something went
wrong. Just as Perlman finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his
violin broke. The snap was audible, and the crowd held its breath. They assumed
he would immediately limp off stage and search for a new violin.
But he didn’t. Instead, he waited a
moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again. The
orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. He played like he
had never played before.
Everyone knows that it is impossible
to play a symphonic work with just three strings. But Itzhak Perlman refused to
know that. They could see him modulating, changing, recomposing the piece in
his head.
When he finished, there was an awesome
silence in the room. And then everyone stood up and cheered.
He smiled, wiped the sweat from this
brow, raised his bow to quiet the crowd, and said to the crowd in a quiet,
pensive, reverent tone, “You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find
out how much music you can still make with what you have left.”[2]
The Torah describes the laws regarding
the Nazir, the person who seeks added holiness by accepting upon himself aesthetic
restrictions of not drinking wine, cutting his hair, or becoming impure via
contact with a dead body. Accepting Nezirus is viewed as a tremendous
undertaking, “For the crown of his G-d is upon him.”[3]
It is strange however, that the Torah
first delineates the laws of the Nazir who was unable to properly fulfill the
terms of his Nezirus, before it relates the laws of the Nazir who properly completed
his Nezirus. Wouldn’t it make more sense to state the laws of one who kept his
pledge before discussing one who violated it?
At the end of his life, when Yaakov
Avinu was nearing his death, Yosef brought his two sons, Menashe and Ephraim,
to his father so that he could bless them. “And Yisroel saw the sons of Yosef
and he said, ‘Who are these?’”[4] Rashi explains that although
Yaakov knew very well who his grandchildren were, he was asking why he sensed
that they were unworthy of receiving his blessing?
Despite Rashi’s explanation, it is
still strange that Yaakov was specifically asking now why his grandsons weren’t
worthy of a blessing. They frequently visited their grandfather during the last
seventeen years since he arrived in Egypt. Yaakov even learned privately with
Ephraim. How did he not realize until this point that they were unworthy of his
blessing?
The answer is that just prior to his asking
about their worthiness, Yaakov had proclaimed “Ephraim and Menashe, like Reuven
and Shimon they will be to me,” elevating them to the status of tribes. Thus,
although Menashe and Ephraim may have been worthy of a blessing based on their previous
status, now that they had been elevated they were somewhat lacking. Once they
had received that promotion they were viewed and judged on a different level.
Great as they were, their new status demanded that they rise to the occasion, to
be worthy of the new status conferred upon them.
The Gerrer Rebbe, Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh
Alter, explains that whenever someone aspires spiritual growth, he may think
that because he has noble intentions it will all be smooth sailing. He may feel
that spiritual doors will swing open before him and he will instantly be
catapulted into greater spiritual spheres than he could have ever imagined. However,
that is a terrible mistake, and a person who has such expectations will quickly
become discouraged and disheartened.
The road to growth is always littered
with roadblocks and resistance. If one isn’t prepared for struggle, he will
never be successful. Before he even begins his upwards trek, he needs to mentally
prepare himself to encounter inevitable setbacks.
Before a Nazir begins his period of
Nezirus he needs to be aware that he may fail, and that the Torah has already anticipated
that possibility and paved the path for him to begin anew. Only armed with that
understanding can he begin his quest for added growth.
Throughout life a person is constantly
changing and growing, and at each stage, he is judged based on his current
status. Behaviors and attitudes once appropriate and even considered laudable
when one was single, may be callow and inappropriate in married life. What may
have been innocuous during one’s single years, may be unsuitable for a parent
who has impressionable young children.
With growth comes added responsibility,
as well as resistance. One must be patient with himself and prepared to weather
the struggle.
Rabbi Yisrael Reisman[5] notes that, fascinatingly,
the entire world runs on a Plan B, contingency plan. When the world was created,
the intention was for all of mankind to live in Gan Eden and have a perpetual
direct connection with G-d. Adam and Chava sinned and were banished, and after
ten generations, the world sunk to an irreparable level of depravity and
corruption and had to be destroyed. Following the flood, it took ten generations
before Avrohom Avinu arrived on the scene and began to preach about G-d and man’s
mission in this world.
When the Jewish people finally entered
Eretz Yisrael and built the Bais Hamikdash 390 years after the exodus, their
national unity lasted for less than a century, before a permanent rift divided
the nation.
Rabbi Avrohom Pam zt’l noted that even
creation itself was fraught with disappointments. Originally, the bark of every
tree was to have had the same taste as the fruit it produced, but the trees did
not do so.[6] The sun and the moon were to
have the same strength, until the moon complained that two kings cannot share
one crown, and G-d diminished the light of the moon.[7] The world was originally to
have been created with the attribute of strict justice, but G-d saw that the
world would not survive, and had to primarily run the world with compassion.[8]
Yet, at the conclusion of the Torah’s
account of creation, the pasuk states “Hashem saw all that He made, and behold
it was very good.” All its failures notwithstanding, G-d still declared that
the world was very good.
We live in a world in which things do
not always go as planned. If G-d Himself deemed
Plan B as still being ideal and “very good”, should we have any higher
expectations than the Divine?!
“For the crown of His G-d is upon him”
“And behold it was very good”
Rabbi Dani Staum, LMSW
Rebbe/Guidance Counselor – Heichal HaTorah
Principal – Ohr Naftoli- New Windsor
[1] The Following
is the lecture I was privileged to give in Kehillat New Hempstead, Shabbas
Kodesh parshas Naso 5773.
[2] Although
some question the veracity of this story, its poignant message is undoubtedly
true. It’s worth noting that on
July 26, 1981, 14-year-old Midori Goto performed with the Boston Symphony
Orchestra. During her performance of Bernstein’s “Serenade,” Midori broke her E
string, and had to replace her 3/4 size violin with the concertmaster’s full-size
violin. Then she broke the E string again. Yet, she continued playing what was
to become a legendary masterpiece.
[3] Bamidbar
6:7
[4]
Bereishis 48:8
[5] Pathway
of the Prophets, “Plan B”, p.82-83
[6] See
Rashi, Bereishis 1:11
[7] See
Rashi, Bereishis 1:16
[8] See
Rashi, Bereishis 1:1
0 comments:
Post a Comment