Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Passing Our M'sora to the Next Generation

The first Shabbos after klal yisrael began to be fed by the the mahn, a few Jews went out to look for mahn.  Of course they didn't find any; mahn was only delivered six days a week.  The response is mind boggling: HaShem said to Moshe, "For how long will you (pl.) refuse to keep My mitzvos and My Torah?!"  (Sh'mos 16:28).  Startling not only because it was only a few Jews, not only because they didn't actually violate Shabbos (there was no mahn to be found, so none was retrieved), but also because Moshe Rabeinu, alav hashalom, was also included in the rebuke.

The fact that only a few Jews went out evoked a general response we see often; kol yisrael areivim zeh la'zeh -- all Jews are responsible for one another.  The that no actual violation occurred can also be answered; they certainly intended a violation and this is the inception of klal yisrael.  Such an intention following on the heels of all the miracles is certainly an indication that things are in danger of going very badly wrong.  With all that, how does Moshe get included in "refusing to keep My mitzvos and My Torah"?

The S'porno gives an answer that I had to read over and over.  I urge you to look yourself, the words are powerful.  The S'porno says (I am quoting because I don't want any doubt), "The sin of [not] keeping [Shabbos] was done by all of you.  Even though you didn't go out with them to collect, you caused them to go out." (Emphasis mine.)  The S'porno continues, "You didn't teach them hilchos Shabbos and what Shabbos is.  You only told them to collect [mahn] for six days, but not on the seventh day.  You told them that the seventh day is Shabbos, so there won't be [mahn] that day."

What should Moshe Rabeinu have done?  What does it mean "hilchos Shabbos and what Shabbos is"?  Moshe did, after all tell them not to go out and that there wouldn't be mahn that day.  Not enough, says the S'porno.  Hilchos Shabbos means to teach the details; collecting the mahn involves the malachos of tolesh (plucking) and carrying from r'shus to r'shus.  That's the details.  Then there is what Shabbos is.  It's not just a mitzvah, it is a precious gift from HaKadosh Baruch Hu; a gift He saved to give only to His treasured and beloved klal yisrael.  Of course, therefore, there is great reward for keeping it and suffering for denigrating it.  Without doubt, anyone who knows all that will certainly be scrupulous in guarding the Shabbos.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Love in the Time of Corona Virus/Anxiously Awaiting the Mashiach

Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: David HaMelech's Five Stages of Finding HaShem In the World

Many of us "sing" (once you have heard what I call carrying a tune, you'll question how I can, in good conscience, use that verb, even with the quotation marks) Eishes Chayil before the Friday night Shabbos meal.  We feel like we are singing the praises of our wives.  In fact, I have also been to chasunas where the chasson proudly (sometimes even tearfully) sings Eishes Chayil to his new eishes chayil.  Beautiful.  Also wrong.  (The sentiments, of course, are not wrong; just a misunderstanding of the intent of the author of these exalted words.) Chazal (TB Brachos, 10a) tell us that when Sholmo HaMelech wrote the words "She opens her mouth Mwith wisdom; the torah of kindness is on her tongue", that he was referring to his father, Dovid HaMelech, who (I am continuing to quote Chazal here) lived in five worlds and sang a song of praise [to each].  It seems to me that "world" here means a perception of reality.  Four times Dovid had to readjust his perc
Post a Comment
Read more