LEAVING THE IMPURITY OF EGYPT - PESACH

Even after the Jews left Mitzrayim, the dangers of their being affected by that corrupt nation remained very real. Accordingly, the Torah commands us: “Do not perform the practices of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelled….” Rashi writes that Mitzrayim was the most decadent nation, and the Jews dwelled in the most decadent areas of the country. Why did Hashem deliberately place the Jewish people in the most corrupt place on earth?

Rav Eliyahu E. Dessler, ztz”l, answers this question in an essay in which he discusses how one should react to negative surroundings. He observes that a negative society can have a very detrimental effect on a person. However, if he is so strong that its negative influences do not harm him, it can actually strengthen his service of Hashem. How so? Rav Dessler explains that when such a person sees the surrounding evil, it becomes more disgusting in his eyes, because he attains a greater recognition of its depravity. This clarity strengthens his appreciation of good. Based on this understanding of human nature, Rav Dessler makes a historical observation that can explain why Hashem placed the Jewish people in the most degenerate place on earth:

Every time a tzaddik has had to rise to an extremely high level, he has been flung into the most lowly and degenerate environments, so he can learn the lowliness of evil and strengthen himself in goodness to the opposite extreme.

Hashem placed the Jews in Mitzrayim so they could develop an intense hatred of its tumah, which, Rav Dessler writes, was indeed their motivation for crying out to Him to free them from this terrible place. This intense disgust catapulted them from the forty-ninth level of tumah to the level of being able to receive the Torah. Had they found themselves in a less immoral environment, they could not have risen to such a high level.

This approach would also seem to explain why the Jewish people had to go to a similarly abhorrent land, that of Canaan. Seeing the immorality of the Canaanite nations was intended to intensify the Jews’ revulsion at evil and, in turn, heighten their appreciation of Torah morality.

Rav Dessler’s principle helps us understand some important aspects of Pesach. We begin the Haggadah by discussing our ancestors who worshipped idols. Rav Dessler asks, how is this ancestry connected to the story of leaving Mitzrayim? He answers that through being surrounded by such negativity, Avraham Avinu rose to such kedushah that its power would never be nullified. The redemption from Egypt sprouted directly from this holiness. Therefore, we talk about our idol-worshipping ancestors to highlight that it was as a direct result of their impurity that Avraham reached such incredible heights, and his greatness in turn planted the seeds of yetzias Mitzrayim.

We can now gain a deeper understanding of why the Haggadah goes to considerable lengths to discuss such negative influences as our pagan ancestors, Lavan, and the Egyptians. Perhaps this focus is intended to arouse our disgust at such immoral people and, in turn, heighten our appreciation of Hashem’s freeing us from them and giving us the Torah.

In today’s world, the challenge of secular influences is unavoidable. Even if we live in observant communities, myriad negative influences bombard us daily. It is, of course, highly advisable to minimize their impact, but it is impossible to eliminate all exposure to them. Rav Dessler’s principle can help us deal with these influences and perhaps even use them positively. By observing the obvious problems of the secular world, we can enhance our appreciation for the beauty of a Torah lifestyle. May we all protect ourselves from negative influences and use them to grow closer to Hashem.

TAAMEI HAMITZVOS - CHUKAS

The Parsha begins “this is the chok of the Torah” and proceeds to discuss the laws of Parah Adumah (the red heifer), a mitzvo which is impossible to understand according to human logic. The Ohr HaChaim Hakadosh asks why this mitzvo is called the ‘chok of the Torah’, it would have been more appropriate to say ‘this is the chok of tahara’. He answers that the Torah is alluding to us that if we fulfil this mitzvo even though it has no reason to it, then the Passuk considers it as if we have fulfilled the whole Torah, because fulfilling a mitzva without reason shows that we are unconditionally willing to follow Hashem’s Ratson.

Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz zt”l explains that when a person fulfils a mitzvo that has an obvious reason to it, it is still not clear that he is prepared to fulfil the Torah purely because Hashem commanded it. It could be that he is doing it because it makes sense to him. However, once he performs a mitzvo that is without logic that proves that he keeps all the mitzvos, not because they make sense to him, but because Hashem commanded them.

This is a fundamental principle of the Torah - we accept that we must follow Hashem’s will without making any cheshbonos according to our own logic. Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l writes that this was Korach’s mistake in his theological attacks against Moshe Rabbeinu. He attempted to expose the fallacy of the mitzvos of tsitsit and mezuza by showing their illogical nature. He argued that the reason for wearing a thread of techeiles on each corner is because it resembles the sea, which resembles the sky, which resembles the Throne of Glory. Based on this reasoning Korach argued that one who wears a garment of techeiles should not need a thread of it on its corner because there is ample reminder of the sea, sky and the throne of glory in the actual garment. In reality, however, the mitzvo applies in all cases, even where the given reason has no apparent application because ultimately all mitzvos must be observed and should be viewed as a gezeira that cannot be questioned.

In light of this principle, a difficulty arises: Many of the greatest Torah scholars such as the Rambam, Sefer HaChinuch and, more recently, Rav Hirsch zt”l went to great lengths to explain the taamey hamitzvos - the reasons behind the mitzvos. Yet it is clear from Parah Adumah that the ultimate reason behind each mitzvo is beyond human understanding; Shlomo Hamelech had thought that he understood the deepest reason for every mitzvo until he came to Parah Aduma which he could not fathom. He then realised that he did not truly understand the definitive reason for any of the mitzvos. In light of this, how can anyone claim to understand a taam for any given mitzvo if Shlomo Hamelech, the wisest man, could not?!

My Rebbe answers by explaining that the commentaries are not claiming to understand the ultimate reason behind the mitzvo - we can have no concept of the genuine reason for any mitzvo - that is something that belongs in the highest olamos. However, this does not mean that the ‘taamey hamitzvos’ have no truth to them. Hashem, in his infinite wisdom ‘arranged’ it so that each mitzvo can make sense on many different levels of existence. For example they can help a person develop desirable character traits and can enhance relationships.

We see this in many mitzvos: The laws of tumah and tahara are among the most difficult to fathom. However, the most relevant of these laws today, taharas mishpacha, has obvious benefits. The Gemara explains that it is very beneficial for husband and wife to separate for a certain time every month so that they can avoid the problem of lack of excitement in the relationship . Based on this Gemara, the Sefer Hachinuch writes that this advantage is one of the taamey hamitzvos of taharas mishpacha . This does not mean that the reason we keep taharas mishpacha is because it helps one’s relationship, however, it is no co-incidence that it does so, Hashem clearly ‘intended’ it to be that way.

Another example of this is the mitzvo of shechita. The Ramban writes that it does not effect Hashem whether we kill an animal by shechita, by nichor or by strangling. However, Hashem instructed us to kill the animal in the least cruel way in order to teach us the mida of rachmanus even at the time of killing . Again this does not mean that we slaughter animals the way we do because it will help us be more merciful, we do it that way purely because Hashem commanded us to. Nevertheless this does not take away from the fact that Hashem also intended for us to develop favourable midos through observing the mitzvos.

Thus, notwithstanding the fact that we cannot fathom the ultimate reason for the mitzvos, we can nonetheless understand taamim to the mitzvos that are emes on a certain level. With this understanding we can now appreciate why the commentaries held it was so important to teach us taamey hamitzvos. It is true that we keep the mitzvos solely because Hashem instructed us to, however, it is not sufficient that we merely do the mitzvo robotically, without any thought as to what we are doing. Mitzvos are intended to change us into better people, and the way that they do this is through the taamey hamitzvos. The Sefer Hachinuch tells us the shoresh to every mitzvo - why? So that we can have an idea of what we are supposed to gain from performing this mitzvo and we can work towards achieveing that benefit.

The issur of lashon hara demonstrates this idea. Rabbeinu Yonah explains the taam of this issur with a maaseh. A chacham was walking with his talmidim when they came across the corpse of a dead dog. One of the talmidim commented on how disgusting this corpse was. The chacham replied that it had very nice, white teeth . He was teaching his talmid the mida of focussing on the good. This, Rabbeinu Yonah writes, is the taam of shemiras halashon. There is no actual issur of lashon hara for focussing on the unpleasant aspects of a dead dog, however one who sees things in a negative fashion misses the point of the issur of lashon hara. It is not enough merely to not speak badly about others, the root of the mitzvo is to focus on the good in people. In refraining from speaking badly about others, one should strive to transform himself into a person with a positive outlook on life.

Learning from the taamey hamitzvos is not merely a profitable exercise, it is essential to one’s relationship with Hashem. The Ramban in the end of Parshas Bo explains why there are so many mitzvos that relate to Yetsias Mitzrayim. He says that their purpose is to instill in us a deep sense of emuna in Hashem and His hashgacha . It is not sufficient merely to put a mezuza on the doorposts of one’s home and kiss it now and again. We are supposed to see the mezuza and be reminded of the message inside it, that Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim and is continually guiding us in our lives.

The Ramban goes even further and says that, in reality the tachlis of all the mitzvos is to bring us close to Hashem and acknowledge that He is our creator. “This is the purpose of creation, for there is no other reason for our creation, and the only thing that Hashem wants from us is that we know and acknowledge Him. ” This process, whereby a person is brought closer to Hashem through observance of the Mitzvos is not automatic. If a person commits mitzvos out of habit then, although he may have technically fulfilled them, he has not utilised them to achieve their purpose; closeness to Hashem. Some mitzvos do this by directly arousing a person to awareness of Hashem and some do it by encouraging development of certain midos. But the common denominator of all of them is developing our emuna.

We have seen how parah aduma teaches us that we are obligated to fulfil mitzvos without questioning their logic, and yet at the same time, we are also obligated to understand the taamim of the mitzvos so that we can grow from them in the intended way.
A recommended way to achieve this is to spend some time analysing the taamey hamitzvos; there are many sources, one can look to the earlier sources such as Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim and Sefer Hachinuch or turn to later commentaries such as Rav Hirsch or Rav Aryeh Kaplan zt”l. By doing this we can remind ourselves that each mitzvo has taamim that we are supposed to be aware of and use to grow from.

This is not an easy task because there is a strong yetser hara that allows us to do mitzvos as long as we miss their intended tachlis. The story is told of a Gadol who visited a home for the Friday night meal. As he and his host entered the house, they saw that the challah had not been covered as is the minhag. The host, upset at this failing in front of his honoured guest, proceeded to berate his hapless wife in front of his guest. After this outburst, the Gadol gently took him aside and asked him if he knew why we cover the challah? The reason is so as not to embarrass it when we bless on the wine before it. By embarrassing his wife the host demonstrated that he had clearly not internalised the message of this minhag. All the mitzvos have internal messages - it is up to us to learn them and use them in their intended way.

PURE BEGINNINGS - TETZAVEH

The Parsha begins with HaShem’s instructions to Moshe Rabbeinu with regard to the people who would make the vestments that Aaron, the Kohen Gadol, would wear during his service. “And you shall speak to all the wise-hearted people whom I have invested with a spirit of wisdom, and they shall make the vestments of Aaron, to sanctify him to minister to me.” It is evident from this instruction that it was of the utmost importance that the people making Aaron’s clothing be on a high spiritual level. The Netsiv zt”l discusses why this was so significant; he introduces a principle that the kavannos (intentions) that are present at the beginning of any spiritual endeavor will have a long-lasting influence on the spiritual capacity of that endeavor. In this vein, he explains that the kavannos with which the clothing was made would have a permanent effect on the holiness inherent in it. This would in turn enable Aaron to utilize the maximum possible holiness inherent in the clothing, during his Holy service in the Mishkan (Tabernacle).

The Netsiv in another place in his commentary on the Torah , elaborates on this principle in explanation of a fascinating Gemara . Two great Tanaic sages, Rebbe Chanina and Rebbe Chiya were arguing in Torah. They then proceeded to point out their respective merits . Rebbe Chanina pointed out that if the Torah would be forgotten, he would be able to retrieve it through his great deductive abilities. Rebbe Chiya replied that he had already ensured that Torah would not be forgotten. He proceeded to explain how he went through a lengthy and difficult process; it began by creating nets for trapping animals. He would then use those nets to trap deer. He would slaughter the deer and give its meat to orphans. He would use the skin as parchment for scrolls; he would write each of the five books of the Torah on one scroll each, and teach five children one scroll each. He would then do the same with the six orders of the Mishna. He would then have each child teach the others the section that they had learnt. In this way, he ensured that it was impossible that Torah be forgotten. The section ends with Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi’s praise of Rebbe Chiya – ‘how great are the deeds of Rebbe Chiya!’

The Netsiv asks why it was necessary for Rebbe Chiya to go through so much effort in order to make the scrolls upon which the Torah and Mishna would be written? Why could he not have simply bought the parchment from a merchant and then written on that? He explains with the principle that we mentioned above – that the kavannos present at the beginning of a spiritual undertaking have a great effect on the future ability of that undertaking to succeed. Rebbe Chiya desired that the scrolls would be created with the purest of intentions – in this way they could have a greater effect in entering into the hearts of the children who would learn from them. This is a further example of how the intentions that a person has at the very beginning of his endeavor have a great effect on its future success.

We see another example of this principle, but this time, in the negative sense, where impure kavannos have a detrimental effect. The Gemara in Chagiga discusses the sad story of a great sage by the name of Elisha Ben Avuyah who became a heretic. The Gemara tells us of reasons as to why he finally abandoned Torah. Tosefos on that Gemara brings a Talmud Yerushalmi that informs us that the defining event in Elisha’s abandonment of Torah actually took place when he was a baby. It describes the festive meal in celebration of the bris mila of the young Elisha. His father, Avuyah, invited all the greatest Sages of the time to the meal. During the meal, two of the sages were in another room learning Torah on a very high level. Their learning was so great that a fire came down from Heaven and surrounded them. Avuyah entered into the room and saw that his house was on fire. He expressed his concern that his house would burn down, but they explained that there was no danger. Their learning was on such a level that it was comparable to the day that the Torah was given on Sinai when fire came down from Heaven. Avuyah was so impressed by the power of Torah that he said that if the power of Torah was so great then he would strive to dedicate his son to the learning of Torah. The Yerushalmi explains that since Avuyah’s intentions for his son were not purely lishma (for the sake of Heaven), his son eventually left the Torah path. We see from here that just as pure intentions facilitate future holiness, so too impure intentions can result in subsequent impurity.

We have seen the importance of the purity of intentions at the beginning of spiritual endeavors. However, there is another important Torah principle that brings into question the above idea, in particular the account of the negative impact of Avuyah’s intentions for his son: The Gemara in a number of places, tells us; “one should always toil in Torah and Mitzvos, even loh lishma (not for the sake of Heaven), because from the loh lishma will come the lishma.” This means that even if a person is not at the level of performing Mitzvos and learning Torah purely lishma, nonetheless, he should continue in his performance of the Mitzvos with impure intentions. And as a result of doing the Mitzvos for the wrong reasons, he will inevitably come to do the Mitzvos for the right reasons. If this is the case, then why did the impure intentions of Avuyah have such a detrimental effect on the future of his son?

It seems that the key to answer this question is found in the words of Rav Chaim Volozhin zt”l in his commentary to Pirkei Avos: He argues that there is a very important limitation to the Gemara’s assertion of the inevitability that Avodas HaShem that is loh lishma will lead to lishma performance. He stipulates that this is only the case if the person who performs the Mitzvos loh lishma, also has the active intentions that he will eventually come to do the Mitzvos lishma. This means that even though he recognizes that he is currently at the level where his Avodas HaShem is not totally pure, he realizes intellectually that the ultimate goal is to serve HaShem lishma. As Rabbi Akiva Tatz expresses it, the person ‘wants to want to do the Mitzvo for the right reasons’. In this way, his impure Avodas HaShem is acceptable in that it will surely bring him to pure service at a later date. However, if he does the Mitzvos loh lishma with no future goal of being lishma then there is no inevitability at all that he will ever come to perform Mitzvos lishma. Based on Rav Chaim of Volozhin’s explanation, we can now understand why Avuyah’s intentions had such damaging consequences. It seems clear from the Yerushalmi that Avuyah’s intentions were totally loh lishma, without any hope of attaining the level of lishma in the future.

We have seen how powerful the kavannas that are present at the beginning of spiritual endeavors (which include marriage, having children, starting learning, and many other undertakings) are in determining the future outcome of those endeavors. Therefore, it is very important that a person strive to have the purest possible intentions. However, it is clear that attaining such high levels of purity is very difficult and takes a great deal of time and effort. Rav Chaim Volozhin teaches us that even if we are not yet on the level of lishma we can realistically strive to have the attitude that we want to get to lishma – in this way we can inject our actions with a significant level of purity.

Moreover, it is important to note that even if a person has already began his endeavor without the highest levels of purity, he can always achieve a ‘new start’ through the miraculous process of teshuva (repentance). Accordingly, a person who, for example, is already married or already has children can restart the process through teshuva and thereby create a greater capacity for future holiness. May we all merit to have pure intentions in everything that we do.