The Short Vort
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The Short Vort (4/2/09)
The Short Vort
Good Morning!
Today is Thursday the 8th of Nissan 5769 and April 2, 2009
If Only…
Ever have one of those moments? You know which ones I mean?
– I certainly do, I have them at least 10 times a day-
I am referring to those times you wished you did not press the send button on your mouth.
How often in life do we allow the flood gates of unnecessary blab to open up and gush forward?
How often even before the lips have re-closed, do we wish, “if only I had not said that!”?
How many times during the day do I say to myself, “Did I really say that”?
Unfortunately, this is the tragedy of life!
We are given two wonderful security gates which have to be opened in order to allow the message to escape; nevertheless, too often we are trigger happy and leave the gates on open auto-pilot.
And then we are left to say, “If only…”?
How much tragedy could have been averted if only we would learn the golden secret of the sounds of silence?
As Mark Twain once said: “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt”.
Why do we- as the expression goes- ‘shoot’ off our mouths?
Indeed, the expression is very precise, because when you speak without thinking you are shooting. Shooting? Yes, shooting, and your shots will hit their mark with disastrous effects!
We read in the Haggadah, VaYeired Mitzrayma: Anus Al Pi HaDibur, "And he went down to Egypt" forced by Divine decree.
This passage from the Haggadah refers to Yakov Avinu. The Haggadah is informing us that Yakov was ‘forced’ by the ‘dibur’ to go down to Mitzrayim.
Almost all of the commentators on the Haggadah explain the passage as follows: Yakov went down to Egypt. He was coerced by Hashem -who here is referred to with the strange and unusual title: HaDibur-.
Because of the fact that the commentators assume that it was Hashem who coerced Yakov to go down to Egypt, the commentators are ‘forced’ to find the verse which indicates that Yakov was actually ‘forced’ to go down to Egypt. This is especially difficult in light of the fact that the passuk says explicitly: And Israel said, "Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die." (Bereishis 45:28).
This certainly does not sound as if Yakov was ‘forced’ down to Egypt!
In light of this difficulty, the commentators point to verse 46:3 where Hashem says to Yakov: “And He said, "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid of going down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation”, as proof of the fact that Yakov was hesitant to go to Mitzrayim and therefore Hashem had to ‘force’ him to continue his journey. Since the passuk indicates that Yakov was ‘afraid’ to go down, it must be therefore that Hashem is forcing him to continue to Mitzrayim.
However, there is a novel and innovative approach to explain the original passage offered by HaRav Shlomo Kluger. With Rav Kluger’s approach all the difficulties simply melt away.
HaRav Shlomo Kluger who lived in Galicia and passed away in 1869 wrote a very beautiful commentary on the Haggadah titled Yerios Shlomo.
HaRav Kluger offers a totally different and original approach to this passage. According to Rav Kluger the verse VaYeired Mitzrayma: Anus Al Pi HaDibur, does not refer to Hashem’s ‘forcing’ Yakov to go down to Mitzrayim at all.
Rather, suggests Rav Kluger is has to do with an incident many years before the birth of Yakov.
Rav Kluger postulates that although Avrohom was told by Hashem that his children would be enslaved, as the passuk says:And He said to Abram, "You shall surely know that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them, for four hundred years” (15:13); however, it never states who will enslave this.
Why, asks Rav Shlomo Kluger did Hashem have to pick the Egyptians who were so morally polluted and decadent to enslave His people?
To this answers Rav Kluger the following: In truth the Jews did not have to be enslaved by the Egyptians, Hashem could have picked a more hospitable incarceration. However, we read in the Torah the following incident.
After Sorah was unable to conceive, she gave over her maidservant Hagar to Avrohom as a wife. The Torah tells what happened next: “And he came to Hagar, and she conceived, and she saw that she was pregnant, and her mistress became unimportant in her eyes” (16:3).
How did Sorah react to her for maidservant’s insolence? The next verse states: And Sarai said to Abram, "May my injustice be upon you! I gave my handmaid into your bosom, and she saw that she had become pregnant, and I became unimportant in her eyes. May the Lord judge between me and you!"
Sorah became verbally abusive and angry with her husband Avrohom!
However, it did not stop there, as the next passuk says: And Abram said to Sarai, "Here is your handmaid in your hand; do to her that which is proper in your eyes." And Sarai afflicted her, and she fled from before her” (16:6).
Sorah’s anger led her to act physically abusive to Hagar the Egyptian maidservant.
We know that no improper deed goes unpunished and everything is punished measure for measure.
When Hashem saw the anger which Sorah verbally directed to Avrohom and which then led to the physical abuse of the Egyptian Hagar, Hashem in His ultimate justice decreed that if Sorah could be the tormentor of this Egyptian woman, than divine justice would decree that Sorah’s own children would be equally tormented by the very children of the victim of Sorah’s abuse.
Therefore, years later when Hashem had to chose the nation where in to fulfill his decree of “You shall surely know that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them, for four hundred years, he decreed that the oppressors would be none other than the children of she who was persecuted by Sorah many years before.
This therefore is the real meaning of the phrase: VaYeired Mitzrayma: Anus Al Pi HaDibur; it does not mean as we previously stated that he (Yakov) was forced by the divine decree, no, not at all! Anus Al Pi HaDibur is to be translated according to Rav Shlomo Kluger as “Yakov- and his children- went down to Mitrayim, because they were anus- forced- because of the improper dibur- speech of Sorah many, many years before!
It was that insolence and exploitation of Hagar years before at the hand of Sorah, which now ‘forced’ the children of Yakov to go to Egypt and be enslaved by the Egyptians!
How careful we must be of our words! If our holy mother Sorah was taken to task for her slight slip of the tongue to the extent that her sons had to be enslaved to the children of she whom she tormented; how much more so we all must be with our words!
Especially in these last few days as we approach the Seder, how careful all of us and especially the holy mothers our there, must be not to allow words of hurt and abuse to escape from our mouths. They can be so hurting and damaging and you can never retrieve them.
Let us strive to make these last few days before we sit down at the Seder, days where we never have to say, “if only…”.