| Dear Yeshiva Family:
In this week's parshah the names of Bnei Yisrael are repeated and the Torah notes that Amram and Yocheved gave birth to Moshe and Aharon. Interestingly, last week's parshah (2:1) states this same information anonymously; "and a man from Levi went and took a woman and she had a son…," not identifying the names of the parents.
The Meforshim ask why the Torah initially writes the names anonymously, and only in this week's parshah finally identifies the parents as being Amram and Yocheved, the Gadol Hador (leader of the generation) and his wife. The Sefer Aznayim LeTorah from Rabbi Zalman Sorotskin explains that the Torah is sending a message to all parents. Here was the start of arguably the most important and influential person the planet has ever seen; the rebbe of Klal Yisrael. We would imagine that such a person would come from an illustrious family, a product of generations of grooming for kedusha and leadership. Someone born into the role, made for the job. In truth, Moshe did come from such a line of great people: Amram was the Gadol Hador, the leader of the Jewish people, and Yocheved was the midwife for the nation; however, the Torah was concerned that people would imagine this was a prerequisite for his greatness, a requirement for being a Torah leader, so the Torah initially kept his lineage anonymous to dispel this thought.
Expounding on this thought, there are several dangers in believing that lineage is a prerequisite to leadership. One concern is that people may erroneously construe that Moshe Rabbeinu did not have to work hard for his greatness, rather he was born into it. The Torah, by describing his birth as if it came from the non-elite, is assuring us that greatness in Torah is not inherited. Kings and queens can be born or married into the role of monarchy; not so with Torah leadership. Any Torah leader who happens to have a father who was also a Torah leader is because the father was also a good mechanech, a good teacher! Moshe Rabbeinu, and most great leaders, worked hard to get where they were, and were not simply products of the elite.
An additional concern with the focus on lineage is that is can arouse fear for the future of society; that if the elite did not produce a leader in a particular generation, will there be no hope for society? With the reassurance that leaders can come from any family, the Torah is assuring us that there will always be potential leaders in existence. If Moshe Rabbeinu had not worked on himself to become the perfect leader that he was, an equally deserving individual from another anonymous family would have worked on himself and done the job. There is an expression "Harbeh shluchim lamakom," meaning Hashem has many messengers. There was no specific family that a leader like Moshe Rabbeinu had to come from, and if Moshe did not work out another deserving individual would have filled the role.
Another potential pitfall of the catastrophic mindset that leaders can only come from and are made in the houses of the elite, is that it would cause many in Klal Yisrael to despair of acquiring greatness. They would imagine that since they are not born into the elite, they have no hope of becoming a leader. The Torah tells us that this mindset is categorically false by stating that the birth of our national Rebbe was initially identified as having come from an anonymous family; just the product of a regular man and woman in Klal Yisrael. The Torah specifically hid the lineage of Amram and Yocheved to ensure that we do not make this mistake. Only in this week's parshah does the Torah review the lineage to now give credit to Moshe's parents for indeed being his parents.
Success in ruchniyus, even leadership in the realm of ruchniyus, does not necessarily come from inheriting the position; it comes from within. There are countless leaders throughout the generations who were born to "regular" families. Granted, these families were irregular in the fact that they brought up their children with amazing chinuch and superb core good values that turned and influenced their children to become amazing people and leaders, but they were nevertheless "regular" in the fact that they were not part of the elite.
This conclusion has halachic ramifications. The halacha is that one may allow his baby to nurse from a non-Jewish woman, for all human milk is considered kosher. Yet, the Rema in Shulchan Aruch (Y.D. 81:7) cites a stringency not to allow one's child to do this, just like Moshe Rabbeinu did not nurse from a non-Jew. Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky (on Shemos 2:7) questions how one can apply a lesson from what happened to Moshe Rabbeinu to a regular child. The Gemara states that the reason why Moshe Rabbeinu did not nurse was because he was going to speak to Hashem in the future, something that seemingly would not apply to the average child. But R' Yaakov explains, using the above idea; every child, regardless of his background, has the potential to develop into one of Klal Yisrael's leaders. Your children, regardless of who you are, have the potential to be the greatest leaders of Klal Yisrael.
This lesson is also critically important for a person to know about himself, He too may become a future Gadol Hador, leader of the generation!
One thing I like to tell new parents is that their brand-new baby is a blank canvas. Over the next couple of years, they are going to paint that canvas and create a person, a personality. If this child were brought up in Gaza under a terrorist regime, he would evolve into a hard-core terrorist himself, gleefully mutilating people with justification and no remorse. If this baby was brought up in a loving, caring, Torah family, this would be reflected in the outcome. Every action and interaction with this child will shape his future. Of course, mistakes in parenting happen, but parents must strive to keep those mistakes to a minimum. Being aware of the awesomeness of a parent's position, the chief architect of someone else's life, helps them treat their job of parenting with its appropriate seriousness and minimizes errors. May Hashem guide us in this critical role we play in shaping our children's lives and help us navigate their chinuch successfully, treating every child as a potential future leader of Klal Yisrael.
Rabbi Moshe Revah Rosh HaYeshiva, HTC - Beis HaMidrash LaTorah moshe.revah@htc.edu | 
No comments:
Post a Comment