רפואה מן התור
Healing from the Torah
Exodus 13;17-17:16
Israel is free at last to leave Egypt. Pharaoh could no longer stomach the power of
God’s wonders from the plagues and grants Moses his wish to take the people into
the wildness to sacrifice to their God.
Yet, Pharaoh could not help himself and goes after the people by the sea,
so in response God tells Moses, “Then I will
stiffen Pharaoh’s heart and he will pursue them, that I may gain glory through
Pharaoh and all his host; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD. And
they did so” (Exodus 14:4). This is read in the light of what Maimonides
called, הַרשׁוּת בְּיַדוֹ (harshut
b’yado), or free-will. For the initial
five plagues Pharaoh makes up is mind and hardens his heart whereas for the
final five plagues God does it for him. What
happened to Pharaoh’s harshut b’yado if God is now in charge?
Maimonides
teaches in Mishnah Torah that harshut b’yado can be taken
away. Yet this does not just happen,
according to Rabbi Netanel Wiederblank from Yeshiva University, “automatically”
but only when a “person lives and acts thoughtfully and actively” in doing the
wrong thing. What is the wrong thing? In the case of Pharaoh it was his evil treatment
of the Hebrews, treatment that was “thoughtfully and actively” carried out against
them that resulted in their harm. In fact R’Weiderblank
says that Pharaoh’s misuse of his actions took “away his own free-will, and
thus as a punishment God took away the rest.”
Wiederblank also spoke of this in terms of middah keneged middah,
or a trait in opposition to a trait. So without
the middah of anavah, or humility, the opposite will result in ga’avah,
or arrogance. All this to say for Wiederblank
that a choice “between right and wrong [is] not merely the ability to choose
between x or y” since free-will is based on doing the right thing and just not just
an arbitrary decision that justifies undo harm.
This was the case with Pharaoh who choose the x of evil in order
to get the y of personal gain as opposed to the right behavior of how to
treat others in contrast to their mistreatment. A lack of one lead to the other,
or middah keneged middah.
In other words, from the perspective
of Torah הַרשׁוּת בְּיַדוֹ (harshut b’yado),
or free-well, is not an excuse for bad behavior which is just simply wrong. I have to go back to the summer with all the protests
we were experiencing and how the x verses the y mentality existed
for some. Some who protested participated
in illegal activity, destroying property and stealing from looted stores. I recall reading a Tweet from an activist
that basically said the destruction of property is justified because it does
not compare to the mistreatment of black people at hands of the police, hence the
justification to destroy and rob was based on a x verses y thought process. The right and wrong way to
think can be found in the words of Martin Luther King who said, “the
arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” meaning that
while change will take time it will happen and needs to happen the right way. In this case right behavior reflects true
free-will even though the desired results include a painful process. This is not a commentary on what we have experienced nor I am comparing the acts of a few to the evil of Pharaoh, let alone an observation
on the acts of a destructive few as opposed to the rightful protests for the social
equality of the many. It is about using free-will
improperly with the intent to justify wrong, just like we also saw at the
Capitol on January 6.
Rabbi Yitz Greenberg writes of the
two sides for free-will when in Exodus 13:17-18 we read that upon leaving Egypt
God “did not led them by
the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near [but] when
they see war, and they return to Egypt … [instead they went] by
the way of the wilderness by the Red Sea.” R’Greenberg says that if they went the first
way God removes from them “all free-well” whereas via the second route “the Torah accepts the realities of human nature
and human limitations.” In this
case Greenberg refers to the teaching of Maimonides who says that out of
respect for human beings God chooses the second option that allowed for the people
to forge their own path along the way that likewise called for their choices as
well. In fact when we look to our celebration of Passover, the narratives we read at our Seders while recalling the story of slavery
to include the plagues and the hardships ultimately are redemptive, looking
toward the hope of the future both for tomorrow and beyond. The Rabbis used their
free-will to create a celebration that leaned in one direction as opposed to the
other.
So הַרשׁוּת בְּיַדוֹ (harshut b’yado), free-will, must be seen as electing to
do the right thing and not simply an activity of choice. In our morning prayers we say, “Blessed
are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe who made us to be free,” or בֶּן חוֹרִין,
ben chorin. Every time I read
this prayer I am reminded that embedded in the words בֶּן
חוֹרִין is the root of בּ ח ר (b-ch-r)
that becomes the word בָּחַר which means to choose. Freedom is a gift that we choose
to use not only for our sense of personal freedom and choice but for the
betterment and concern for all around us.
Free-will is never an excuse to harm others who disagree with us or for
gain at the expense of someone’s loss. That might sound like a utopian society
but really in underscores the value of Torah. Torah is about the other, we are our brothers keeper, which is why after crossing the sea Israel sang a song in unison to memorialize
what had happened. Singing not only unifies but wakes
up the personal music within the soul, it reminded the people that their own personal journey was connected to each other, family, friend and even foe.
Israel is free now and are going to be
asked to use their freedom the right way and not for an excuse to do whatever
they please. In fact today is Tu BiShevat,
a Jewish Holiday occurring on the 15th day of the Hebrew Month of Shevat, which this year corresponds with January 27 and 28. In contemporary Jewish
life it is a day where in unity a nation celebrates what is really a day of ecological awareness when tress are planted in celebration. In the same way this day unifies the people the
power of harshut b’yado is supposed to do the same thing. Use your own filter as I am using mine, to “thoughtfully
and actively” seek the answer to the following question, “I am free for what?” Freedom is a precious gift and we need to do right
by it.
Shabbat Shalom
No comments:
Post a Comment