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Showing posts with label Shemot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shemot. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Friday, March 26, 2021
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Friday, December 28, 2018
Parashat Shemot: Horizontal Thought
Horizontal Thought
Thoughts on Shemot 2018
Click here to view as PDF
The Torah’s description of Am Yisrael’s
slavery in Egypt bears several striking similarities to the earlier episode of Migdal
Bavel. Whereas the people of “all of earth” had once come together to
construct a “city and a tower with its top in the heavens” with mortar and
bricks (Bereshit 11:1-4), Am Yisrael were now forced to use mortar and
bricks to build store-cities (Shemot 1:10-14). And similar to the motive of
that initial construction to “make a name” amidst the fear of becoming
“scattered over all the earth,” Pharaoh – “King Rameses” now feared that Am
Yisrael would “go up from the land” and thus commissioned the building of
“Rameses,” a city that bore his name.[1]
What is the underlying message of these parallels?
Consider, in this
context, the Torah’s very next narrative in Sefer Bereshit: the life of
Avraham. God’s first words to him of “Lekh lekha – go forth” (Bereshit
12:1) contrasted to the anticipated settling of Bavel’s city-construction. And
whereas the people of Bavel had futilely pursued a “name” with their stable
city, God then promised Avraham “a great name” (12:2) by means of his movement.[2]
We possess the
ability, as individuals and a society, to grow in two different directions:
vertically and horizontally. Growing upwards means strengthening preexisting
foundations by continuing along the path that was already begun. Growing
sideways, in contrast, means chasing your thoughts or dreams into the
precarious realm of the undiscovered. The “builders of Bavel” had singularly
focused their growth on a vertical trajectory. They feared the
instability of venturing out sideways, and so they built up on steady
foundations. Avraham’s growth was differently focused, however, as he followed
God’s word to spread out and grow horizontally. By doing so, Avraham
endeavored into the realm of the unknown and sought growth along the uncharted
paths that loomed at his sides.
The verdict is
still out regarding the essential role of the Internet to our intellectual
growth. There is no doubt that we have grown by the unprecedented ease of
access to information that it has brought. The question remains, however,
whether our continued intellectual growth as its result points horizontally
or vertically.
Describing the way
that the Internet changed his mode of thinking, Nicholas Carr wrote: “Once I
was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy
on a Jet Ski.”[3]
He explained that a well-rounded mind requires both an ability to find and
quickly parse a wide range of information and a capacity for open-ended
reflection.[4]
Carr therefore bemoaned our increased tendency to superficially skim
information as a result of Google’s immediate search result, and yearned for
the “deep, prolonged engagement with a single argument, idea or narrative”
which he had once enjoyed.[5]
Tom Nichols similarly
suggested that the art of “research” has been lost to people’s “search for
pretty pages online to provide answers they like with the least amount of
effort and in the shortest time.”[6]
Citing studies which found that people don’t actually read the articles from a
search on the Internet, but rather glance at the top line of the first few
sentences and then move on, Nichols reflected: “This is actually the opposite
of reading, aimed not so much at learning but at winning arguments or
confirming a preexisting belief.”[7]
Living in a world
that is increasingly governed by Google searches, our thoughts have become vertical.
We busy ourselves with building higher and higher in our collection of data.
The skill of horizontal thinking, however, is at risk of extinction. We
are slowly forgetting the art of creative and in-depth thinking.
The Torah’s
parallel descriptions of Am Yisrael’s slavery in Egypt and the episode
of Migdal Bavel teaches about the shortcomings of a society stuck in vertical
growth. Although Am Yisrael proliferated in Egypt – “And Bnei Yisrael
were fruitful and swarmed and multiplied and grew very fast, and the land
was filled with them” (Shemot 1:7), their growth was stunted by an inability to
move outward. They were trapped in a land of vertical growth and the only way
out was redemption.
Although distant
from a life of physical servitude, today’s intellectual environment also suffers
from the difficulty of horizontal growth constraints. Paving our own path to
redemption, we must seek return to a world of imaginative thought and
discovery. Embracing our generation’s unique tools for vertical growth, we must
focus our minds upon the path of horizontal growth.
[1] For a further analysis of the similarities
between these two episodes, see Judy Klitsner’s Subversive Sequels in the
Bible (New Milford, CT, 2011), pg. 31-62.
[2] Recall our lengthy discussion
of this in our message for Lekh Lekha, “Movement.”
[3] Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What
the Internet is Doing to Our Brains,” The Atlantic July/August 2008.
[4] Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet
is Doing to Our Brains (New York, NY, 2010), pg. 168.
[5] Ibid., pg. 156.
[6] Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise: The
Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters (New York, NY,
2017), pg. 111.
[7] Ibid., pg. 120.
Monday, December 24, 2018
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Friday, January 5, 2018
Parashat Shemot: Speech
Speech
A Message for Parashat Shemot 2018
Click here to view as PDF
The story of yessiat Misrayim is
structured around Moshe’s constant conversations with Pharaoh. Time and again
he approached Pharaoh with the fruitless demand of freedom for Am Yisrael.
Why did he do so? Whereas the Torah made clear that the purpose of the plagues
was to punish the Egyptians and show God’s might, the importance of Moshe’s
repeated encounters with Pharaoh was never explained. What role did his many
discussions with Pharaoh play in the grand scheme of yessiat Misrayim?
Let us first take note of a surprising
reality that is reflected in the Torah’s description of Am Yisrael at
the beginning of Parashat Shemot:
…And Bnei Yisrael groaned from the bondage and cried
out, and their plea from the bondage went up to God. And God heard their
moaning. (Shemot 2:23-4)
Am Yisrael employed a strange means
of expression at that time. Instead of talking, they groaned, cried
out, and moaned. The hard work of slavery had seemingly paralyzed
their human ability to speak.
Indeed, the kabbalists describe the nation’s spiritual
status at that time as one of galut ha-dibur – “exiled speech.” R.
Joseph B. Soloveitchik z”l explained this reality as a direct effect of Am
Yisrael’s servitude. He wrote:
The
slave lives in silence…He has no message to deliver. In contrast with a slave,
the free man bears a message, has a good deal to tell, and is eager to convey
his life story to anyone who cares to listen.
R. Soloveitchik furthermore explained that
the Torah’s repeated obligation to tell the story of yessiat Misrayim to
our children comes in direct contrast to our slavery. It is the proof of our
freedom.[1]
Moshe’s many conversations with Pharaoh,
then, were stark representations of Am Yisrael’s freedom. His
ability to bring forth a voice, to speak about a future and to vocalize his
wishes were the fundamental signs of Am Yisrael’s liberation. Moshe was
able to accomplish a task that had until then been impossible for the nation of
slaves: speak.
Although it has been several thousand years
since our slavery in Egypt, many of us still live in the sad state of spiritual
slavery. We do not speak. Driven by fear or self-doubt, we never express
our true hopes, beliefs or ambitions. By structuring the story of our national redemption
around Moshe’s countless speeches to Pharaoh, the Torah urges each of us to
find our voice – and sound it.
Shabbat shalom!
Rabbi Avi Harari
[1] R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik,
“Redemption, Prayer, Talmud Torah,” in Confrontation and Other Essays
(New Milford, CT, 2015), pg. 65.
Monday, January 1, 2018
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Parashat Shemot: Loneliness
Loneliness
A Message for Parashat Shemot 2017
Click here to view as PDF
And God saw that he had turned aside to see, and Hashem called
to him from the midst of the bush and said “Moshe, Moshe!” And he said, “Here I
am.” (Shemot 3:4)
…And God’s messenger called out to him from the heavens and
said, “Avraham, Avraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” (Bereshit
22:11)
Moshe’s first encounters with God bear
several striking parallels to Avraham’s experience at the Akedah. The
way in which God first addressed the individuals and how they responded is
identical. Each underwent fateful moments on identified mountains – Har
HaMoriah by Avraham and Har Horev by Moshe. Both missions centered around the
destiny of a “unique son” – Avraham’s
Yitzhak, and God’s “My son, my firs-born, Israel” (4:22). And both Avraham and
Moshe experienced the near murder of their son – Avraham by his knife-wielding
hand, and Moshe by God, who “sought to put him to death” on his way at a night
camp (4:25).
Most important among these parallel
narratives, however, is the immediate aftermath of the individual’s adherence
to the command of God.
Avraham’s ascent to Har HaMoriah progressed
as a joint mission with his son, the verses twice stating “And the two of them
went together” (Bereshit 22:6,8), but his retreat from the mountain was alone –
“Avraham returned to his young men, and they stood up and went together to Beer
Sheva” (22:19). Avraham experienced
the tragic irony of reaching the height of his relationship with God at the
very moment his connection to his son was diminished.
Moshe’s mission
began with the support of others, as well. Following an emotional embrace with
Aharon, the brothers addressed the elders of the nation who “believed and
heeded” (Shemot 4:31). The two then addressed Pharaoh, as commanded by God, but
were met by an angry group from the nation upon their departure. The group
shouted at them, “Let God look upon you and judge, for you have made us
repugnant in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants” (5:21). It
was then that Moshe came to know the lonely existence of an eved Hashem.
It was a state-of-being first endured by his great-grandfather Avraham, several
hundred years before.
The person who finds God
is homeless, fatherless, and childless – not biologically but spiritually. He
is related neither to his parent nor to his child; he has to give up and
disengage. (R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik)[1]
The similar stories
of Avraham and Moshe are the sobering paradigms of true commitment to God. The
life of an eved Hashem necessarily entails difficult moments of
loneliness. As we strive to become genuine servants of God, we must be prepared
to summon our courage and strength during those moments of separation, when
choosing His word over that of society.
[1] Abraham’s Journey: Reflections on the Life of the Founding Patriarch (New York, NY, 2008), pg.
78.
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