Re: Dvar Torah from Rabbi Yerachmiel Seplowitz

On 2007-08-02, moshes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <moshes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I saw this on Rabbi Seplowitz' website. It reminded me of some of
discussions we had here.

Mind if I offer gut instinct rebuttal? :-)

The various commentaries offer interpretations as to what is referred to as
"punishment" and what their sin was to deserve it. There is a Midrash that
tells us what went wrong when they traveled from the Mountain of G-d. The
Midrash tells us that they left Mount Sinai "like a small child running out
of school. They said, Perhaps He'll give us more Commandments!'"

I picked up my six-year-old nephew from Yeshiva the other day. There were all
these cute little kids, rambunctious with pent-up energy after a full day of
school. They were happy to have some free time after the discipline of a
classroom. Finally! The pressure's off!

There is nothing wrong with the above scenario. Kids are kids. The problem is
when adults start acting like kids. The Israelites spent a year at the base of
"the Mountain of G-d," learning G-d's Torah and living a life of holiness. Yet,
it seems that deep down there was this feeling of, "Let's get out of here
before the Teacher assigns us any more work!"

How many adults have sat through long meetings at work, in which
their boss seemingly assigns an endless stream of tasks to one person?
Wouldn't everyone rush out of the meeting room as soon as the meeting's
over, the one individual saying "I need to run before the boss gives
me any more work to do!," the others saying "The boss didn't assign me
anything, but I need to run in case he changes his mind!" ?

I don't see it as adults acting as kids, I see it as both kids and
adults acting with inate human instincts. One could make the argument
that the adults in the meeting above acted like children, but most
would see their behavior as justified under the circumstances.

We now see what the sin was. But where is the punishment that Rabban Shimon
refers to?

The answer, it seems, is that the attitude itself was its own punishment. When
a Jew wakes up every morning with a hunger for holiness and a thirst for Torah,
there is no such thing as reward and punishment. The opportunity to live as a
Jew and perform G-d's Commandments is a reward unto itself. It is a privilege
and an honor to be counted among those who are devoted to living as G-d wants
us to live.

The problems start when we begin to resent our lifestyle. The people at the
base of Mount Sinai followed all of the Torah's Laws. They studied Torah all
day and kept strictly Kosher. They did everything that was required of them.

But they were apprehensive. "Enough Mitzvahs already!" they must have thought.
How many more Commandments can we be expected to follow?!"

I can understand that. Children have 12 or 13 years in which to get
accustomed to following so many mitzvot. Converts have a year or two
of "practice," slowly building up the number of mitzvot until they're
ready for the plunge (literally). At Sinai, they agreed to do
everything right off the bat. And then they saw just what that
entailed. I can imagine the conversation:

"Okay, here are these 10 commandments."
"Hey, no problem, those are easy."
"Oh, and don't cook a calf in its mother's milk."
"What a cruel thing to do, I wouldn't do that anyway."
"Oh, and don't serve meat and milk together, and don't benefit from
the combination, and buy separate plates."
"Um... okay."
"And here are these 39 things you can't do one day out of every week."
"Um..."
"And all of these other activities that can be categorized into one of
these 39."
"Whoa, hey now, what's saving my hamster from the fire got to do with
building the mishkan?"
"Now, let's get started on taharat hamishpacha...."
"That's it, I'm outta here."

And so they ran. These spiritual giants, these righteous people, had
proclaimed, "We will do and we will obey!" (Exodus, 24:7) They had fully and
unconditionally accepted G-d's Torah. Yet, they ran away like schoolchildren,
relieved of the burden of additional work.

These spiritual giants, these righteous people, only 7 weeks before
had been on the second-to-lowest rung of the ladder, though. And had
already complained about their situation a number of times.

It's not good enough to observe the Torah. We need to appreciate the Torah. As
soon as we see Torah as a burden, we have reached the beginning of the end. And
that is the worst punishment of all.

We pray every day for G-d to return His Divine Presence to Zion and rebuild the
Temple. We implore G-d to remove idolatry, immorality, and hatred from the
world. We beg Him to bless us with world peace.

It's time for us all to go back to school.

I agree with the ultimate conclusion, just not the arguments to get there. ;-)

Tim

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Timothy A. Meushaw
meushaw@xxxxxxxxx

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