----- Forwarded Message -----From: "Rabbi Moshe Revah" <htcnews@htc.edu>To: "mates57564@aol.com" <mates57564@aol.com>Sent: Thu, Nov 30, 2023 at 5:07 PMSubject: Dvar Torah from the Rosh HaYeshiva
Dear Yeshiva Family:
Words cannot describe the relief and joy felt by all, and especially what the parents and relatives must have felt, when hostages were released earlier this week. Releasing hostages in exchange for money or prisoners is a multifaceted Halachic and political issue beyond the scope of this week's Torah thought. Suffice to say, that we are beyond joyful that there was a happy ending for the hostages released, and we wish a similar ending to all the rest of the hostages.
Such situations are not new to Klal Yisrael. In this week's parshah (34:1-4), Dina ventures out from Yaakov's camp and is captured by Shechem. She remains captive there until Shimon and Levi, her brothers, come to her defense (34:4-12). They convince the entire town to undergo a bris milah, thereby incapacitating them, and then on the 3rd day, when the townspeople were sufficiently uncomfortable, Shimon and Levi raided the town, killed everyone and rescued their sister (34:13-29). The Torah (34:30-31) describes Yaakov Avinu's unfavorable reaction to this subterfuge and describes the brother's response – "Shall he make our sister like a harlot", and that concludes the episode. The Torah does not record a response from Yaakov, seemingly indicating that Yaakov accepted their response.
Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky points out that actually Yaakov does respond. In Parshas Vayechi (49:7) Yaakov curses their anger, and seemingly punishes them by declaring that he will divide them and disperse them amongst Klal Yisrael. Yet, Rashi there points out that this is not to be understood that he was separating them so that they would not cause any more trouble by joining forces; rather, he was assigning them jobs as school teachers, who commonly have to travel from city to city, and that is what is meant by being dispersed.
How are we to understand this? While certainly classroom management would not be an issue for Shimon and Levi when they would become school teachers/rabbeim, why is Yaakov's response that their descendants will become school teachers appropriate to their decimating a city?
R' Yaakov explains that what Yaakov saw in Shimon and Levi's response to him, and in their response to the crime against Dina, was exactly what a school teacher/rebbe needs to be! These brothers, over and above the other brothers, were willing to do anything and everything, even putting themselves at risk, to protect and salvage their sister's honor. They treated her situation as if it was their own, as if their own honor was at stake. Not only did they rescue her, but they felt the pain that she felt and reacted accordingly. They were able to put themselves into the shoes of another person completely and react as if the problem was their own.
Yaakov's assigning them the job of rebbeim was not a punishment, rather a badge of honor. He who is able to make sure that every individual is cared for, as if he was caring for himself, is worthy of being a rebbe. In fact, only such a person will be a good rebbe, someone who cares for the talmidim. A rebbe can only be successful if he treats his students as his children. A well-known motto of a successful rebbe was, "we don't teach Torah, we teach talmidim!"
Those who are able to care for everyone are the ones worthy of being in caregiving positions, which is epitomized in the schoolteacher, the rebbe.
This, then, was indicated by Yaakov's silence in response to the brother's statement, "Shall he make our sister like a harlot". He saw in them the personal pain that they felt upon seeing their sister in distress, and recognized that they were acting completely with proper intentions. This came from the middah of being able to entirely identify with someone else and to participate in that person's pain as if it were their own.
The Jewish world is a tight-knit one. We are all brothers and sisters. When looking at the question of hostages and what should be done about them, we have to feel completed connected to the situation. What would our stance be if the hostages were people that we knew personally? What if they actually were our brothers or sisters? Well, we are all brothers and sisters in Klal Yisrael and we have to orient ourselves to feel that way. Even if these decisions are not in our hands, we can ask ourselves: are we saying Tehillim with the appropriate concentration? That is certainly in our hands! If our brother was there, would we be as nonchalant? We witness the joyful reunions of families who spent the last nearly two months filled with anxiety, and we recognize that the future is still uncertain for many. We have to identify with our people, with the soldiers who are still continuing the war, with those displaced and those living under the threat of rockets, cognizant of the fact we are all brothers.
I once passed a car stranded in the middle of a main road, and no one was stopping to help the people in the car. It was the morning rush and there were many vehicles in a rush passing by, carpools, work, school etc. In a perfect world, I may have thought of stopping to help, but I had a car full of people needing to get to school and I couldn't stop. Not several blocks later there was another car, this time with people clearly Jewish, in a similar predicament. There was not only one or two people who stopped to help, it looked like they had a minyan there. I also stopped and asked if everything was OK, and after getting an affirmative OK, I continued on my way. If you're in a rush, you likely won't stop for a stranger, but you would still stop, even in a rush, for your brother or sister. We look at every member of Klal Yisrael as a brother and sister. (Of course, I'd stop and tell the school that my brother needed help with his tire!) Chaveirim, Hatzalah, Shomrim (Magen), CCF; the list of completely volunteer organizations who run to help their "brothers and sisters" in our community goes on and on.
Going through life feeling that we are part of a world-wide family is so comforting, as we know we have Klal Yisrael to rely on wherever we go. It's also invigorating, as we know we can be there for Klal Yisrael wherever we go!
May Hashem continue to watch over his precious nation and provide us with more moments of national joy!
Rabbi Moshe Revah
Rosh HaYeshiva, HTC - Beis HaMidrash LaTorah
HTC
Hebrew Theological College is a member of Touro University
and a partner with the Jewish United Fund in serving our community
Thursday, November 30, 2023
Fw: Dvar Torah from the Rosh HaYeshiva
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