From: JoshHoff@aol.com
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007
2:19 PM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort: parshas Lech
Lecha, 5768
A Sad
Story
By Rabbi Joshua (sadly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
In this week's
parsha, God tells Avraham ( then still known as Avram) to leave
his homeland and go to the land that He will show him. Avram
complies, and eventually enters the land of Cana'an. The first place that he
stops at to is the site of Shechem, until Elon Moreh ( Bereishis,12:6).. What is
the significance of this site, for reason which Avraham stopped
there?. Rashi notes that he stopped at Shechem to
to pray for the sons of Ya'akov when they would come to wage war to retrieve
their sister Dinah after she had been raped. Ramban cites Rashi's
comment with approval,but,in his version of Rashi, there is an additional factor
mentioned,which is not included in our version,as pointed out by Rabbi Yaakov
Lifshitz in his commentary Ikvei Binyamin.This added facto ris that that
the sons of Yaakov came in from the field with feelings of sadness over
what had been done to their sister. In order to appreciate the significance of
this addition of the Ramban, we need to read the next comment of Rashi, as well,
and view the entire episode through the lens of the midrash, as cited by the
Ramban, which teaches us that the actions of the fathers are signs for the
children. Simply translated, this dictum teaches us that what our forefathers
are signposts for what we would do as a nation. On another level, it means that
the actions performed by our forefathers enabled us to do similar actions at a
later date on a national level. Following the second approach, let us try to
understand what happened at Shechem.
Rashi tells us
that at Elon Moreh, or Shechem, the Jewish nation would enter a covenant
concerning the Torah, at the site of the mountains of Gerizim and Eival. It is
interesting to note the order of events here. First, Rashi tells us that
Yaakov's s sons joined to wage war to avenge their sister's honor, and then he
tells us that the Jewish people entered a covenant in respect to observance of
the Torah. This order is not by chance, but of great importance, particularly
when we take the Ramban's addition into consideration. As we noted, the Ramban
points out that the brothers were saddened by Dinah's rape. This is important,
as Rabbi Yaakov Lifshitz points out, because it reflects the feeling of
unity that the brothers had, and their brotherly concern for one of their
own. Only after that are we told of the covenant in respect to the Torah.
That covenant, the rabbis tell us, created the institution of areivus, or
surety, by which each Jew is responsible to see to it that all other Jews
observe the mitzvos as well. Rav Kook, in his Oros HaKodesh,
(vol.3,pg.26) writes that there are two kinds of mussar, or ethics-
mussar tiv'i , or instinctual ethics and mussar Eloki, or
theological ethics. Mussar tiv'i, says Rav Kook, is every person's
innate sense of the proper way to act and feel, while mussar Eloki goes
beyond human ethics, and consists of God's instructions to man regarding
how he should act and feel towards others. Mussar Eloki, says Rav Kook, can only
build on mussar tiv'i and add to it, but not contradict it. Any notion of
Mussar Eloki that does contradict mussar tiv'i, says Rav Kook, is by
definition a misconception of God's word,and unacceptable. In light of
this distinction of Rav Kook,we can better understand the order of events that
Avraham took cognizance of when he came to Shechem.
Avraham first
prayed for the brothers of Dinah, who displayed a feeling of unity arising out
of their sadness over what had been done to their sister. These feelings of
unity and shared sadness reflect the development of basic human feelings
over their sister's plight, which constitute a first step which is
necessary before the higher level of Torah observance is reached. That is why
the covenant at the mountains of Gerizim and Eival was noted by Avram only after
he noted the incident with Yaakov's sons. even though one may have seen
the Torah covenant as being more important and worthy of being noted first.
In paving the way for the future Jewish nation, Avram first prayed
in regard to the development of mussar tiv'i, and only after that did he
note the development of mussar Eloki. It was, in fact, the deterioration
of their sense of mussar tiv'i among Yaakov's sons that generated their
loss of brotherly concern that was behind their conflict with Yosef, which led
to the sale of Yosef in Shechem and the beginning of exile. The process of
redemption from that exile also began with the development of brotherly love
between Moshe and his brother, Aharon, and, eventually, among the people
in general, as a prior step that was necessary before they could receive the
Torah at Mt.Sinai. Here again, mussar tiv'i had to be aroused before they could
go to the next step of mussar Eloki, as Avram taught when he first entered the
land of Cana'an. Avraham,by praying at the site of Sehchem and anda t Elon
Moreh,implanted this approach to ethical development in the psyche of the nation
that would arise from him
Note: Netvort is being sent a
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