Yisro 5775:     Compulsion

By Rabbi Joshua (compulsively known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

 

Yisro observes Moshe’s dealings with the people, and asks what he does for them all day. Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, as presented by Rabbi Avishai David in the work Darosh Darash Yosef, explains that Yisro was not criticizing Moshe. Rather, he was wondering what Moshe was doing for the people, that had such a mesmerizing effect on them.  Moshe answered that he counseled them, answered their halachic inquiries, prayed for them, and, most importantly taught them Torah.  Rav Soloveitchik, in explaining Moshe’s role as a Torah teacher, provides us with a fascinating insight into the nature of that role.

 

In order to teach Torah, says Rav Soloveitchik, one must embody the quality of chesed, which, he says, means love, rather than mercy, as it is commonly translated. Teaching, he says, constitutes chesed in that it is an act of emanation, just as chesed is typified by its overflowing nature. The Rambam, in his Moreh HaNevochim (2:37), says that a person who has an abundance of knowledge feels compelled to give this knowledge over to others, rather than just keep it to himself.  We find that prophets such as Yirmiyahu, also, could not contain their prophecy within themselves.  There was a fire within them that compelled them to transmit their message to others, even when it put their life in danger. This feeling of compulsion was at the core of Moshe’s success as the quintessential teacher of Torah.

 

Rav Soloveitchik’s explanation of the process of teaching Torah helps us understand the remarks of his grandfather, Rav Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk.  When asked by a newspaper writer what the main task of a rabbi is, he said it was to do chesed.  Other famous rabbis who were asked this question answered that the rabbi is primarily a halachic decisor, or a Torah teacher, and, actually, this is the kind of answer we would expect from Rav Chaim, who some consider to be the greatest teacher of Torah in recent generations, and whose method of Talmud study is emulated in many yeshivos.  Rav Chaim, however, not only said that the primary role of the rabbi is to do chesed, but, according to his grandson, directed that the only thing that should be written about him on his tombstone was that he did chesed.  Following Rav Soloveitchik’s explanation of Torah teaching, however, it turns out that chesed and Torah teaching are intrinsically connected, and one incorporates the other. 

 

Interestingly, Rav Chanan Porat, in his posthumously published work, Torah She-Be’al Peh, utilizes the same remarks of the Rambam cited by Rav Soloveitchik, to explain Moshe’s first encounter with the Divine at the burning bush.  The burning bush, says Rav Porat, represents, symbolically, the fire within Moshe, compelling him to give over the divine message of redemption to the people, just as Yirmiyahu later felt compelled to transmit the message given to him.  The inner fire that motivated Moshe to do for the people, continued to move him, and left him to become the master teacher of Torah to the Jewish people.