Parashas Yisro, Issue #2134 - By Rabbi Pinchas Winston
I WOULD PERSONALLY like to dedicate this week’s Perceptions to the refuah shlaimah of a very close friend, Michaela Leeba bas Hendel Blima, amush. May she have a speedy and complete recovery. Please have her in mind if you can.
Many stories in the Gemora need more than one run-through. Sometimes, as casual as they may be told over, they don’t sound right. It’s not what you would expect, which makes them seem as if they demand more thought and investigation. There is a message there, but it may not be what it seems like on the surface.
This is one such story:
Rebi Elazar bar Rebi Shimon came from Migdal Gedor, from his teacher’s house, and he was riding on a donkey along the river bank. He was very happy, and his head was swollen with pride because he had studied much Torah. He happened upon an exceedingly ugly person, saying: “Greetings to you, my rabbi.”
Rebi Elazar did not return his greeting. Instead, Rebi Elazar said to him: “Worthless person, how ugly is that man. Are all the people of your city as ugly as you?”
The man said to him: “I do not know, but you should go and tell the Craftsman Who made me how ugly is the vessel You made!”
When Rebi Elazar realized that he had sinned, he got off his donkey and prostrated himself before him and said to the man: “I have sinned against you; forgive me.” (Ta’anis 20a)
How could such a thing happen to such a great man after doing such a great thing? One would expect just the opposite from someone as great as the son of Rebi Shimon bar Yochai, and certainly after having learned so much Torah! Lesser people can become overly proud from their Torah prowess, but it should have had the reverse effect on someone like Rebi Elazar, and made him more humble.
It’s not what it seems to be. For example, when he and his father emerged from hiding in a cave for twelve years to escape the Romans (Shabbos 33b), Rebi Shimon was appalled to see a farmer tending to his fields. How could he give up the eternal world of Torah for the temporal world of farming?
So Rebi Shimon gazed at the unwitting farmer, and it burned him up, prompting a Bas Kol to call out, “I didn’t bring you out of hiding to destroy my world! Go back for another year!” Which he and his son did.
The extra year did Rebi Shimon good, because the next time he emerged from hiding and saw a Jew busy with mundane matters, he saw only good. And not just because he was afraid to be sent back to the cave, but because his view of the world had changed in that thirteenth year.
The question is, why wasn’t Rebi Shimon guilty of murder when he caused the farmer to burn up? For the same reason why Yonason ben Uziel was not held responsible for burning up the birds that flew overhead while he learned Torah (Succah 28a). And that reason is similar to the one used to explain what might have seemed like behavior unbefitting a forefather here:
So Ya’akov worked for Rachel seven years, but they appeared to him like a few days because of his love for her. And Ya’akov said to Lavan, “Give me my wife, for my days are completed, that I may come to her.” (Bereishis 29:20-21)
Can you imagine talking to your future father-in-law about his child? What would they think of such crude language? What was Ya’akov thinking? Rashi explains:
…My days are completed, for I am already eighty-four years old. When will I raise up twelve tribes? This is what he [meant when he] said, “that I may come to her.” Now, isn’t it true that even the most degenerate person would not say this? But he (Ya’akov) meant [that he intended] to father generations. (Rashi)
In other words, Ya’akov Avinu was a man on a mission of God. He wasn’t only partially devoted to fulfilling it, which would have left room for his personal life. He was completely devoted to building the Jewish People that he lost his sense of self and with it, his social context. He was so otherworldly that he didn’t act like others in this world.
The same thing can be said of Yonason ben Uziel and Rebi Elazar bar Shimon. It wasn’t arrogance from which others on lesser levels might be affected, but the result of being above the everyday world in which most people live and respond to emotionally. When the man did, he brought him down to that everyday world, and he realized his contextual mistake.
It is a warning to everyone, but especially talmidei chachamim. The Torah is called an elixir for life and an elixir for death, depending upon who is “taking” it. Torah is our life and ticket to the next one, but only if we use it to build good bridges, not burn them. Be otherworldly, but not at the cost of this one.
My latest seminar, “Da’as: The Only Frontier” (based on the book of the same name) began last week, b”H. There are still four more sessions to go, and you will receive the video and material for any you missed to date. To register and for more details, go to: https://www.shaarnunproductions.org/seminars.html.
Thirtysix.org
Rabbi Pinchas Winston
Shabbat Shalom
