There are three kinds of reaction from people who break
the Shabbat, when they happen to run into the local rabbi.
The first kind are sitting in their car they see the
rabbi, they either duck to prevent
themselves being seen or they pretend
that they haven’t seen him.
Next there are the types who will stop and say Good
Shabbos to the rabbi whilst they’re in the car.
Finally you have the third kind who will actually stop the
car, wind down the window and say to the Rabbi.. “Good Shabbos Rabbi- you need a lift?”
One of my previous communities, I’m not saying where; most
of the people were not Shomer Shabbat. Indeed most of the membership lived 5-10
miles from Shul, so I would have had to be very naïve indeed to believe that
they had walked. Shul on Shabbat morning began late at 10 and went on to well
after 12.45 Around 11 in the morning every Shabbat, I noticed a few members
went out for a few minutes and then came back, and I wondered why, later I was
to find out that it was to feed the
meters.
So here I was, one bright Shabbat morning walking to Shul
and one particular man who I knew well with his kippah serugah got out of his
parked car and noticing me-came running over to me. He said the following:
“What do you think rabbi? Should my wife be lighting
Shabbat candles, yet we are not observant?
Isn’t it a bit hypocritical to be driving on Shabbat yet my wife lights
up every week?”
I could have said the following: “You know what I think –
your Judaism is entirely worthless because how could you be driving to Shul and
doing other things on Shabbat which openly profane the Shabbat day? However,
you want to be frum in other aspects!? What do you think- that Hashem sees
certain things but He doesn’t see others?”
But that’s not what I said.
Instead I told him the following:
“The fact that you are lighting your Shabbat candles is
not negated by the fact that you don’t keep Shabbat. In other words: you’ve
done something positive by doing one mitzvah- and one mitzvah leads to
another….The most important thing is that you are ascending; climbing up your
own spiritual ladder.”
This very same man together with his entire family later
on became totally observant, they now live in Israel, and I still keep a strong
connection with him and his family. The moral is; you cannot write somebody off
completely because they are not 100%. At any rate who is 100% any way? I am reminded of the words of King Solomon: There
is no man under the sun who has never sinned.
Nobody is perfect
This morning’s Sedrah, is left over from last week on a
cliff hanger. Moses had gone to Pharaoh to tell him to let the Jewish people go
free. But Pharaoh tells him no way. Instead of making it easier for the Jews he
makes it harder.
Moses, having been approached by representatives of the
people who come to complain, then goes to G-d and says: “Why have You dealt so
wickedly with this people and why have You not delivered them?”
Our Sedra opens with the response to Moshe from Hashem
with the promise of freedom and redemption. Moses is now instructed by G-d to
go back to the people and tell them everything that he has been told and that
indeed the children of Israel
will go free.
So Moses does as he has been ordered by Hashem. He tells
them that it will be G-d who will take them out of Egypt.
The reaction of the Israelites was as follows:
“They did not listen to Moses because of [mi-kotzer ruach]-shortness of breath and
[avodah kashah]- hard work.”
It’s easy to understand the avodah kashah, the hard work. Here are the Israelites and they’re
suffering on a bad scale. So Moses is coming with this message of freedom. And
their reaction is: Moses- you’ve got to be kidding!-We’re living a life of hard
labour and you, Moshe are telling us that we’re going to go free?!!
But what is meant here by mi-kotzer ruach-shortness of breath? On a simple level you could explain it that
their spirit had almost completely been crushed by the servitude of the
Egyptians.
But I would like to suggest a novel explanation from the Yalkut Reuveni, a Kabbalistic work from the 17th
century. He says that Kotzer Ruach
means lacking in ruach- which means
spirit or religiosity. They are saying: you know we just don’t have what it
takes, we’re not good enough, we do not deserve redemption because we’re not on
the level to deserve redemption.
I think there is a very profound message that each and
every one of us can take out on our own level. There are people who reject a
deeper or a greater involvement in Judaism because they have what I call the
ALL OR NOTHING syndrome.
If I am not keeping Shabbat, How can I keep Kosher? Or, if
I am not keeping Kosher, how can I have the chutzpah to walk into Shul. They
fail to understand that sometimes I can excel in one aspect of Judaism but there
are other aspects on which I need to work.
So does that make me a hypocrite if I am good at one
mitzvah and not good in another?
I suppose there are Jews out there who would judge me
unfavourably. They would say it’s an all or nothing approach, and if you’re not
doing it all then you’re a nothing. But I don’t ascribe to that view.
First, there is no aspect of my life to which I apply the
all or nothing approach. If I cannot make a million pounds it doesn’t mean that
I give up and go on welfare. If I have a row with my wife, it doesn’t mean I give
up and get divorced, because I know that life has its ups and downs and there’s
a lot of grey in the middle.
Remember Yaakov’s dream. He has a vision of a ladder which
is firmly planted in the ground and its top is reaching up to the heavens. The
ladder represents our spiritual life. Each wrung of the ladder is another step
up.
It’s not important to know which wrung of the ladder I am
on at the moment because ultimately we do not know where we are. But it’s
important to know that we’re on our way up.
Mitzvah goreret mitzvah- each mitzvah leads to another
Shalom,
ReplyDeleteI would like to comment about driving and doing melakhah on shabbat. Driving to beit ha-kneset on shabbat is not melakhah according to the most ancient and logical melakhah-definition.
"The rabbinic definition of what comprises מְלָאכָה is based, firstly, on the non sequitur of the adjacency of the Scriptural passages (Shәm•otꞋ 31.1-11) describing work on the Beit ha-Miq•dâshꞋ being immediately followed by the prohibition against doing מְלָאכָה on Shab•âtꞋ . From this non sequitur, the rabbis of Tal•mudꞋ "identified" (Ma•sëkꞋ ët Sha•bâtꞋ 7b) 39 categories of labor that were employed in the building of the Beit ha-Miq•dâshꞋ and, "therefore" (ex falso quodlibet) they ruled forbidden on Shab•ât′ (..)"
According to science, driving a car does not constitute lighting a fire.
Futhermore: "Notice that in the Scripture that is the basis for prohibiting "fire" (b'-Mi•dbarꞋ 15.32-36), the transgressor of Tor•âhꞋ never even kindled or ignited a fire! He was not executed for lighting a fire! He was executed for gathering kindling – מְלָאכָה that should have been completed before Shab•âtꞋ ! There is no basis whatsoever for rabbinic arguments about "creating" since he never even lit the fire. The intelligent and logical analyst of Ha•lâkh•âhꞋ must reorient his or her thinking away from "magic" associated with fire (or electricity) and recognize that the transgression was the doing of מְלָאכָה – actual worldly-oriented, profane work – on Shab•âtꞋ . Most likely, the "lighting" of the fire would have been what is today called "transferring fire," from a next-door neighbor's fire. It's unlikely that everyone preferred to spend a half-hour rubbing sticks or hitting flint rocks together. In that sense, today's automatic switches and matches would probably not have qualified as מְלָאכָה. But medieval belief in "magic" predominated." [Quote: www.netzarim.co.il ; Glossaries; Melakhah]
Doing melakhah on shabbat is very serious since it results in being kareit from the b'rit Am Yisraeil has with haSheim. [Documentation: Link
I hope that each and every individual will increase in his Torah-observant each day!
Selectiveness is not acceptable before haSheim, but hopefully those whom are selective will start doing their utmost to keep the mitzwot of Torah non-selectively --> enabling a relationsship with haSheim and His forgiveness.