Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: From Bilaam ha'Rasha to Moshe Rabeinu

When I first started to learn sefer Chafeitz Chaim, I found that there was another sefer at the end: Sh'miras ha'Lashon.  It turns out that sefer Chafeitz Chaim is the halachos related to lashon ha'rah, and sefer Sh'miras ha'Lashon is the mussar about how bad it is to say lashon ha'rah.  Since I was starting from zero, I wondered which to learn first.  Fortunately for me, I had a rabbi who told me that when it comes to s'farim, it is always important to learn the introduction first.  Even more fortunately, the introduction to sefer Chafeitz Chaim addresses my precise question.  He answers firmly that one must learn halachos first and mussar second.  It doesn't matter at all how motivated you are to do the right thing if you don't know how to do the right thing.  (On the other hand, if you have no thought to actually do the right thing, it might be worth spending a bit of time on that so you'll actually pay attention to the halachos.)

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to do both, and even in the right order.  As I already reported, I first went to R' Fuerst's halacha shiur.  I then had the z'chus to attend a siyum commemorating the shloshim for Mrs. Cherrick, Udi bas Moshe Chaim ha'Cohein.  I have rarely felt so inspired as I did after that morning of learning first more details about what a Jew needs to do, followed by a lesson in how to actually function as a  Jew.  There were a few speakers (very few, at the request of the nifteress), but I would like to focus on a few things I heard from R' Moshe Soloveitchik.

First, R' Moshe said, in the name of his father that the difference between the hespeidim at a l'vaya and at shloshim, is that at a l'vaya the intent is to talk about the person, while at a shloshim the purpose is to learn from the person's life.  As we are in parashas Balack, R' Moshe used an explanation of the difference between Moshe Rabeinu and Bilaam ha'Rasha to highlight what made Mrs. Cherrick, z"tzl, such an important  role model.

Chazal tell us that Bilaam was in some sense as great a navi as Moshe Rabeinu; the intent being to take away any excuse from the umos ha'olam that they would have been just as good as Klal Yisrael if only they had navi like Moshe Rabeinu.  So what was the difference?  Bilaam took the communication from HaShem and reported as a post man would.  Or, to be more up to date, Bilaam wrote his own email and then added d'var HaShem as an attachment.  Moshe Rabeinu, on the other hand, worked on himself to become a messenger.  Moshe Rabeinu didn't use an attachment at all; Moshe Rabeinu worked on himself until the emails he wrote didn't look any different than the message he had received.  Both delivered pure, unadulterated d'var HaShem.  Bilaam did it by passing on the message exactly as received, without even looking at it.  Moshe did it by completely rebuilding himself to the point that he never said anything that wasn't d'var HaShem.

One is born neither a tzadik nor a rasha.  HaShem offers communication to all.  The budding rasha looks to see how he can profit from that communication.  The budding tzadik looks to see how he can change to become a prophet from that communication.

Comments

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

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

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