From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 2:15
AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Yisro,
5765
Stop
People, What's That Sound
By
Rabbi Joshua (reverberatingly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
Before the revelation at Mt. Sinai, God tells Moshe to set
bounds around the mountain and warn the people not to touch it, on penalty of
death. He then tells Moshe, "When the blast of the ram's horn is drawn out, they
will ascend the mountain" (Shemos 19:12-13). The Talmud (Beitzah, 5a) explains
that the prohibition of touching Mt. Sinai was operative only as long as the
divine presence rested there, during the revelation. When the shofar was
sounded, marking the withdrawal of the divine presence from the scene, the
prohibition ended, and anyone who wished to touch Mt. Sinai, or to ascent it,
was permitted to do so. In light of this teaching of the Talmud, an incident
that took place shortly after the Six-Day War in 1967 is thrown into sharper
relief.
A short time after the war, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, then Chief Rabbi
of the Israel Defense Forces, and later Chief Rabbi of Israel, announced that he
would be making an expedition to climb up what he believed to be Mt. Sinai,
since it was now in Israel's possession. Many people were puzzled by this
projected trip, because of the Talmud's statement that Mt. Sinai had special
significance only as long as the divine presence was there during the
revelation. Some cynics, still upset over Rav Goren's foray onto parts of the
Temple Mount generally considered unapproachable because of our impure status
generated by contact with corpses, quipped that he wanted to climb up Mt. Sinai
in order to give the Torah back ! (It should be noted, in Rav Goren's defense,
that he marshaled halachic sources to show that what he did was permissible).
Rav Goren himself explained that Mt. Sinai still has special significance,
because, as we read in Pirkei Avos (6:2), Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said, ' Every
day a heavenly voice issues forth from Mt. Choreiv (Sinai) saying, ' Woe to the
'briyos' (people) on account of their neglect of Torah.' Interestingly, Rabbi
Yisroel Lifshitz, in his commentary Tiferes Yisroel, notes that he heard from
geographers that a rumbling sound is regularly emitted from the mountain
commonly identified as Sinai, and that is what the beraysa is referring to.
Although this remark is certainly fascinating in its own right, it does not, in
itself, tell us much about the meaning of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi's statement.
What, then, is the significance of the voice emanating from Sinai?
Rabbi Moshe Einstadter of Cleveland, in his recently published book
Yesodos of Sefer Shemos, presents a lengthy, beautiful essay on the words of
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi. The upshot of his remarks is that the essence of the
Jewish soul was defined by the revelation at Mt. Sinai, so that the Jewish
psyche, since that time, is a reflection of the mitzvos of the Torah. The voice
that emanates from Sinai, referred to as a 'bas kol,' or, or, literally, the
daughter of a voice, is the reverberation of the original revelation within the
psyche of the Jew. A Jew who does not engage in torah study, and who does not
observe the mitzvos of the Torah, is not responding to the voice of his own
soul. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi goes on to say that a person is considered free
only if he engages in Torah study. Freedom means to be able to bring out one's
own inner self, and, therefore, a Jew who does not observe the mitzvos of the
Torah is not really free. The voice reverberating from Sinai, thus, bids us to
be true to our inner self, as members of the Jewish people, engaging in Torah
study and observing its mitzvos.
Although Rabbi Einstadter does not
mention this, perhaps we can expand on his approach with a further insight from
a verse in parshas Vaeschanan. Moshe, in describing the revelation at Mt. Sinai,
tells the nation, "God spoke these words to your entire assembly on the mountain
from the fire, the cloud and the fog, with a great voice,'ve-lo yasaf' (which
did not end)" (Devorim 5:19). Rashi there, in his first interpretation of the
words, 'velo yasaf, explains them as Targum Onkeles does, and as we have
translated them, to mean 'which did not stop.' The Maharal of Prague, in his
super-commentary to Rashi, Gur Aryeh, explains that God is constantly imparting
wisdom to people, and in this sense His voice never stops. Rabbi Yehoshua
Hartman, in his notes to the Gur Aryeh, directs our attention to the remarks of
Maharal in his work Nesivos Olam, Nesiv HaTorah, chapter seven, where he notes
that in the blessing for learning Torah that we make each day, we refer to God
as the 'Nosein HaTorah' - the One Who gives the Torah, in the present tense,
rather then the One Who gave the Torah, in the past tense, because He is
constantly giving us Torah. This is the meaning, he says, of Moshe's description
of the voice heard at Sinai as one that never stops.
Expanding on
the teaching of the Maharal, we may add that Rav Soloveitchik often spoke of the
unique role that each person has in revealing new explanations of Torah, and
that one can never know who will teach us the meaning of a particular part of
Torah. This is the meaning of the prayer we say at the end of each Shmoneh
Esreh, asking God to grant us our portion in Torah. In light of Rabbi
Einstadter's explanation of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi's teaching, then, perhaps we
can add that the voice reverberating from Sinai is that of God teaching each
person the unique part of Torah that defines his unique role among the Jewish
people in revealing the true meaning of the Torah.
I would like to
suggest another, completely different explanation of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi's
statement about the voice reverberating from Sinai. As we noted, the voice says
'Woe to the briyos on account of their neglect of Torah.' Although Rabbi
Einstadter understands the word 'briyos' to refer to the Jewish people, it may
well refer to mankind in general. Rabbi Goren, in his work Toras HaMoadim (pages
42- 43), discusses the term 'ahavas habriyos,' often found in Talmudic
literature, and demonstrates that, while 'ahavas Yisroel' refers to love of
one's fellow Jew, 'ahavas habriyos' refers to love of mankind, in general.
Perhaps, then, we can explain the term briyos in the statement' 'Woe unto the
briyos due to the neglect of the Torah' in the same way. The Jewish nation was
charged, at Mt. Sinai, to be a' kingdom of priests and a holy nation ' (Shemos
19:6). As we have noted in the past, Rav Kook explained this to mean that our
task is to demonstrate holiness within the context of a nation, to show all
nations that a life of holiness is not restricted to people living alone on a
mountain, but is something that has relevance to a nation involved in all the
various aspects of life necessary for a nation to exist. On the individual
level, too, then, connecting oneself to God in daily life can, and should, be
realized in all areas of life, by all people. When the Jewish people neglects
the Torah and does not live up to the calling it was given at Sinai, all of
mankind suffers, and the reverberating voice coming from Sinai declares,' Woe to
mankind due to the neglect of the Torah.'
On a further level,
perhaps we can add that Rabbi Naphtoli Tzvi Yehudah Berlin - the Netziv - in the
introduction to his Ha'amek Davar, notes that the book of Shemos is called, by
the author of Halachos Gedolos, 'Chumash Sheni,' or the second book. That
author, known as the Bahag, does not attach a number to any of the other five
books of Moshe in assigning them names. The Netziv explains that, according to
the Bahag, there is an intrinsic connection between the first two books of the
Torah. Whereas the book of Bereishis describes the physical creation of the
universe, the book of Shemos, or 'the second book,' in the terminology of the
Bahag, describes, in its presentation of the redemption from Egypt and the
giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, the spiritual completion of the universe.
The Netziv explains that this is because the creation of the world was not
complete until the Torah was given to the Jewish nation. (For more on this, see
Netvort to parshas Bo, 5760, available at Torahheights.com). Thus, when the
Jewish people neglects the study and observance of Torah, all of creation
suffers. Perhaps that is why, as Tiferes Yosreol notes, an actual rumbling is
heard from Mt. Sinai each day. This rumbling indicates that creation itself is
incomplete as long as the Jewish people does not properly observe the Torah and
fulfill its function in the world as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,
influencing all of mankind to live in accordance with the guidelines God has
mandated.
Please address all correspondence to the
author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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