Netvort Mishpatim 5773:       Young Israel

By Rabbi Joshua (vigorously known as the Hoffer) Hoffman

In honor of my aunt, Mrs. Shirley Shapira, on the occasion of her upcoming birthday. May God grant her many more years in good health and happiness.

            As part of the covenant at Mt. Sinai between God and the Jewish nation, Moshe sent people to bring animal sacrifices. Who were these people? The Torah tells us, “He sent the youths of the Bnei Yisrael and they brought Olah sacrifices and slaughtered bulls to God as peace offerings (Shemos 24:5). Why did Moshe send youths? Rav Hillel Leiberman HY”D, in his Ahavas Ha’Aretz, and in a somewhat different way, Rav Mordechai Ilan, in his Mikdash Mordechai, say that this was in reaction to what Pharaoh told Moshe and Aharon after their warning him of the impending plague of locusts. Pharaoh asked Moshe, that if he relented and let the Jews bring sacrifices to God in the wilderness, who would go? Moshe answered that the youngsters and the elders will go. Pharaoh responded that only the elders should go, reasoning that children do not usually bring sacrifices.  In reaction, Pharaoh sent Moshe and Aharon out of his presence (Shemos 10:8-13).  As opposed to Pharaoh’s approach, Moshe, at Mt. Sinai, sent youths to bring the sacrifices to God, so that no one would harbor any notions that Pharaoh was correct.  In fact, says Rav Leiberman, nothing brings God greater satisfaction than to see the youth serving him. 

            Rav Ilan cites the Talmud (Megillah 9a) which mentions that the seventy two elders, in their Greek translation of the Torah made for King Ptolmey, translated the words for youths – “na’arei” – as “za’atutei,” which Rashi explains is an expression of importance.  He also brings the Midrash Lekach Tov, which says that the ne’arim were actually elders who were called youths because they were vigorous.  The idea, says Rav Ilan, is that while, for Pharaoh and for the Greeks, religion is something for old people, who have left their strength, to engage in, the Torah view is that service of God can be done in a vigorous way, both by the youth, and by other people by retaining their sense of youthfulness.  The youth, in Israel, are the seeds of the future, and serve as examples for other people to serve God in that way. 

            The problem with the explanation of Rabbis Leiberman and Ilan is that it is not always the youth who are the preferred people to take the lead in the service of God.  On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, for example, it is preferable for older people to serve as the prayer leaders, and at Simchas Beis HaShoeivah, the most joyous celebration of the year, it was the most devout Torah scholars who rejoiced before the people in the Beis HaMikdash.  Why were the sacrifices brought at Mt. Sinai different?

            I believe that we can explain the difference between the different services with the explanation given by Rav Meir Eliyahu Bloch, in his Shiurei Da’as in our Parsha, as well as Parshas Bo, as to why Pesach occurred in the spring, and why we must always make sure that it continues to do so.  He says that nature is created to conform to the Torah, as the Midrash Rabbah in Bereishis and the Zohar say.  Since the Jews were redeemed in the spring, growth occurs in the natural world at this time as well.  In this way, the Jewish people will come to understand that freedom is not a burden, as many think (see Erich Fromm’s Escape From Freedom), but an avenue to growth.  This idea is reinforced by counting the days to Shavu’os when the Torah was given and the highest point of growth could be reached, since, as the Rabbis tell us, a person is truly free only through the Torah.

            Based on Rav Bloch, perhaps, we can understand why the sacrifices at Mt. Sinai were brought by youths, while the service on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and the rejoicing at Simchas Beis HaShoevah are led by older people and accomplished Torah scholars. At Mt. Sinai, which was part of the process of redemption, the element of growth needed to be emphasized, and that was done by having the service performed by youths.  Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as well as Sukkot, on the other hand, are times of retrospection, and to serve as examples to the people to engage in this process, older people are preferred.  The Talmud in Sukkah (63a) in fact, says that the pious people, when they rejoiced, would say “Happy is our old age that does not cause our youthful years embarrassment.”  In nature, this was a time of ingathering of the crops, reflecting the retrospection that needed to be engaged in at this period of the year, and the older people served as examples.  In the spring, the time of growth in the natural world, it was the younger people who played the prominent role.