|
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Chomer Lidrush
Some ideas to turn your gears heading into the parsha.
1) “Chosen People” – Chosen for What?
For Rav Adin Even-Yisrael Steinsaltz, z”l, the Jewish mission – the one we are charged with at Har Sinai – is not only a national or religious identity, but rather a calling to elevate the world. Rav Steinsaltz emphasizes that Judaism is inherently tied to a global responsibility—a duty not just to preserve itself but to serve as a guiding force for all moral and spiritual progress; we are charged with fixing the world and making it better by being better. This is, of course, deeply rooted in the Torah, particularly in our parsha, with the giving of the Torah, marking them as a "mamleches Kohanim v’goy kadosh."
2) A Divine Identity
The soul of a thing defines that thing; this is true of ourselves, of Eretz Yisrael, and Am Yisrael – which is, of course, the Torah, given in this week’s parsha.
In the Fall-2004 issue of Jewish Action, then-Rav of Neve Tzur R’ Jonathan Blass presents important and compelling selections from the writings of Rav Kook on national and personal Jewish identity as linked to the Torah. Remarkably, R’ Blass does a terrific job of importing Rav Kook’s ideas on the importance of the non-religious in the context of early Zionism to the non-religious around us in our everyday lives.
In R'Blass' words:
Rav Kook Writes:
One might think that the entire difference between Israel and the nations is that difference [in the realm of action] which is given prominence by the active observance of mitzvot... This view is mistaken.... It is the element of neshamah that sets Israel’s character apart as a distinct unit, unique in the world. From that difference spring all the differences in behavior [i.e., mitzvot], and even when these last are impaired [by lack of observance], that impairment cannot touch the ... psychic element from which they derive. Therefore the difference between Israel and the nations will remain forever (Orot Yisrael 5:7).
What is the nature of Israel’s national identity? What is Am Yisrael? Rav Kook teaches that Israel’s identity is one with God’s wisdom and will. By its nature, Am Yisrael strives to realize those truths embodied in the Torah. As Rav Kook writes: “The Mind [sechel] of Israel, because of its Divine spiritual source, is a Divine Mind, and its will is a Divine will” (Orot Hatechiyah 11).
“The aspiration to fulfill the Divine Ideals ... has manifested itself in Israel, in the nature of its national neshamah” (Da’at Elokim, Ikvei Hatzon 136).
See the rest of the piece.
3) Advice
When you think about it, Yisro’s advice to Moshe seems basic enough – there is only one Moshe, and so many people and cases to adjudicate; isn’t it obvious that Moshe simply needed to appoint judges?
R’ Nathan Lopes Cardozo examines exactly what was it about Yisro’s advice – and the fact that it came from him – that made such a big difference:
In other words, Moshe, with all his greatness, lacked the basic insight necessary to guarantee the proper administration of the juridical process. God denied him this insight in order to prove to later generations that he could never have been a lawgiver, and that the laws of Torah were not the result of his superior mind.
We would, however, like to suggest a second reason, which at the same time answers our own question. God denied Moshe his usual strength so as to allow a non-Jew to come forward and give him advice! The Kabbalist Rabbi Chayim Ibn Attar, known as Ohr HaChayim, indeed alludes to this when he writes that the very purpose of God causing Yitro to come and visit the camp of the Israelites was to teach the Jewish people that although the Torah is the all-encompassing repository of wisdom, the gentiles (although not obligated to observe all of its laws) are fundamental to its success and application. There are areas in which Jews do not excel, and where non-Jews are far more gifted. One area seems to be the skill of proper bureaucratic administration.
Judaism was, and is, never afraid to admit that the gentile world possesses much wisdom and insight. While Jews have to be a nation apart, this does not preclude them from looking beyond their own borders, and benefiting from the wisdom of outsiders.
The gentile world may not possess Torah, but it definitely does possess wisdom.
(Eicha Rabati 2:17)
See the full piece here
Parperet
A Shtikl on Shukling
The Zohar (Pinchas 218) records a question by R. Abba as to why only Jews shake during their service of God. Why can’t our people sit still?
R. Shimon bar Yochai responds that a Jewish soul is hewed from a holy fire. When this fire is lit through the Torah, it cannot rest, flickering like a flame. (See further in Pischei Tehuvos 48:7)
Matan Torah is accompanied by a great flame; that flame is reignited when we re-engage with Torah and its Giver.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Manning the Media
1) Incoming
Sometimes, the smallest-seeming threats are the scariest. Other times, something that seems significant enough to “end the world” turns out to be nothing. Asteroid 2024 YR4, discovered in December 2024, has a 2% chance of impacting Earth on December 22, 2032. This story in The Atlantic explores dangers from outer space, but also how the mind processes – and reacts – to a threat like this.
2) Enough
The president’s threats are long overdue. Anyone who thinks that Hamas can be allowed to continue to torture Israelis, tyrannize Palestinians and remain the ruling power in Gaza, free to someday set fire to the region again, needs to be disabused of the idea. That goes especially for Arab states like Qatar and Egypt that depend on U.S. protection and largess even as they have harbored Hamas leaders or failed to stop the group from arming itself to the teeth before Oct. 7.
President Trump’s recent proposal to relocate over 2 million Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries, aiming to redevelop the area into a resort destination, certainly shook things up. In The New York Times, Bret Stephens notes the complexity of such a plan, but argues that regardless, the time has come for the West to stand up to Hamas.
• • •
Read something that made you think? We’d love to read it, too – and then feature it! Drop us a line and let us know how we’re doing.
Did our chomer help you over Shabbos? Want to see more of less of an idea? Let us know!
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
| 
