Yisro; Yiras Shomayim

Vayishma Yisro, so Rashi quoted Chazal, Mah shama uva: Krias Yam Suf and Milchemes Amalek. So Yisro heard, presumably via CNN or some other news source, about the Krias Yam Suf and Milchemes Amalek. And this inspired him to forsake his homeland and his native people and journey to the desert and be misgayer. Now presumably if Yisro heard about Krias Yam Suf and Milchemes Amalek, stami he also heard about the makkos, also heard about the makkos. Likhora the makkos were much more impressive, certainly than Milchemes Amalek. Milchemes Amalek could certainly be interpreted bederech hateva. And even if you recognize that Milchemes Amalek was of course not bederech hateva, but it still doesn't seem to even approach the magnitude of the nissim which I thought Hakadosh Baruch Hu performed in the makkos. So why is it that Yisro was inspired by Milchemes Amalek more than the makkos? So Likhora as follows. The beraisa says in Yevamos in the fourth perek in talking about the procedure of geirus, when a ger comes lehisgayer: גר שבא להתגייר בזמן הזה omrim lo

מה ראית שבאת להתגייר, אי אתה יודע שישראל בזמן הזה דבויים דחופים סחופים ומטורפין

veyisurin ba'in aleihem? אם אומר יודע אני ואיני כדאי mekablim oso miyad. And then

מודיעים אותו מקצת מצוות קלות מקצת מצוות חמורות, מודיעים אותו עוון לקט שכחה ופאה.

They tell him about Shabbos, issur chelev.

וכשם שמודיעים אותו עונשן של מצוות כך מודיעים אותו מתן שכרן.

This is a little bit subtle. So the first thing they tell him is, don't you know what the plight of Klal Yisrael is? And then they begin telling him about mitzvos, and then they try to scare him off by telling him not only about mitzvos kalos but also about mitzvos chamuros and Rachmana Litzlan the onshim which are forthcoming. If telling him about Yisrael being dvuyim, dchufim, and schufim, meturafin, veyisurin ba'in aleihem were simply again a way of discouraging the potential ger, so then Likhora it should have been together with telling him the onesh of the mitzvos chamuros, about telling him what the consequences are for eating chelev, what the consequences are for Chillul Shabbos. So the impression you have is that there's more to the question of אי אתה יודע שישראל בזמן הזה וכולו וכולו. than simply making him aware of the responsibility and possible consequences of his geirus. So what else is involved in that question? So lich'ora the answer is as follows. And this also will help us with our question with Yisro, why Yisro responded to the impetus of milchemet Amalek and keriat yam suf but not of the makkos. Yisro saw in the makkos, he saw the yad Hashem and he recognized Hakadosh Baruch Hu's omnipotence, kol yachol, omniscience, yodeia hakol, and he also recognized hashgacha pratit, divine providence. All those fundamentals of yahadut he certainly inferred or observed from the makkos as well. However, Yisro understood that in order to be misgayer, a person can't simply be misgayer because he wants to have a closer relationship with the Ribbono shel Olam because he knows that הקדוש ברוך הוא אמת and his Torah emet. When a person is misgayer, he also has to join Klal Yisrael, has to join the Jewish people, and he has to be willing to identify with the Jewish people. The makkos didn't say anything about the character of Klal Yisrael. They only reflected something about Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It didn't reflect anything about Klal Yisrael. מה שאין כן, right, the famous midrash which says, right, that the waters didn't part at Yam Suf until, until it was up to, up to the eyes, up to the chin, different, different views of Nachshon. So what's the significance of that midrash? The significance is that the nes of keriat yam suf came in response to the emunah which Klal Yisrael demonstrated. According to some views in the midrash there was a big, there was a big fight about who should be the first one to go into Yam Suf before the waters split. So the nes came in response, as it were it was evoked by the emunah which Klal Yisrael displayed in the Ribbono shel Olam. Similarly, right, the famous mishna in Rosh Hashanah,

וכי ידיו של משה עושות מלחמה? שבזמן שהיו ישראל מסתכלים כלפי מעלה ומשעבדים לבם לאביהם שבשמים.

So that's what Yisro saw in milchemet Amalek. He saw that capacity again for emunah, for משעבדים לבם לאביהם שבשמים, and that's what he observed in milchemet Amalek and keriat yam suf which he didn't observe in the makkos because he understood that to be misgayer means to join Klal Yisrael. It doesn't only mean to change one's individual status, an individual transformation. What it means is to join Klal Yisrael. So Yisro was inspired to take that step not only, he needed to know more than just about the Ribbono shel Olam, he wanted to know who Klal Yisrael were, he wanted to know about the people who comprise Klal Yisrael. So מה שמועה שמע ובא? He heard about how they evoked the nes of keriat yam suf and how they again, as it were, elicited the nes in milchemet Amalek. So then Yisro said now I'm ready to go and be misgayer. And lich'ora from a different angle that's also when the גר שבא להתגייר בזמן הזה they tell him later we're going to tell you about mitzvot kalot and mitzvot chamurot and later we're going to scare you with issur kareit and with איסור סקילה וכולי but the first yesod we want to tell you is that you should know that if you're going to convert, so it means that you're going to come to join Klal Yisrael and you're going to be identifying with Klal Yisrael. Don't think that what you're just doing is that as an individual so you're now going to live differently. You have to know that what's involved in geirus is joining Klal Yisrael, is joining Klal Yisrael. And that's why they separate this question because it's not simply a tactic to discourage him the way. to make sure that he's really committed, but it's rather to tell him that you have to understand that don't make any mistake, don't think that geirus involves just making a private bris with the Ribono Shel Olam. There is no such thing. That bris is by joining Klal Yisrael. And that was the same that you see from Yisro that he responded to milchemes Amalek and Krias Yam Suf, which were reflections about the Klal Yisrael as well. Mah she-kein the makkos, there was no reflection on Klal Yisrael in the makkos. And the immediate attainment of yiras shamayim. And be-emes this lich'ora is a meforeshe Gemara. The Gemara in the beginning of the fifth perek in Berachos:

רבי ירמיה הוה יתיב קמיה דרבי זירא חזייה דהוה קבדח טובא.

He thought that he was too light-headed, that there was an element of kalus rosh. So he rebuked him. So amar lei, he defended himself and said ana tefillin manachna. You have no need to give me mussar about the issur of kalus rosh because ana tefillin manachna. So what's the pshat? So lich'ora this is where the Rambam, one of the mekoros from which the Rambam infers his halacha that tefillin when worn properly with proper attention to the issur hessach hadaas automatically result in yiras shamayim because those two go hand in hand. Lack of hessach hadaas allows the natural instinctive reaction of yiras shamayim to occur. Lich'ora that's the pshat in the story with the Kotzker Rebbe. That's what he was trying to communicate. That the question is misplaced. And what he was trying to answer was that if only a person would have the same awareness of being in the presence of the Ribono Shel Olam that מלא כל הארץ כבודו the way להבדיל אלף אלפי הבדלות he has that awareness when confronted with danger, so if he would have that same awareness, so then there would be no question. Then the reaction again it would be immediate because it's instinctive. Perhaps this is also the pshat? Not sure if this is pshat or perhaps a little bit of beyond pshat. The Gemara says in a couple of places on that same pasuk in Parshas Eikev of ועתה ישראל מה ה' אלהיך שואל מעמך. So the Gemara says אטו יראה מלתא זוטרתא היא? That the Torah seems to be downplaying. What HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't want so much from you, all He wants is yiras shamayim. So the Gemara says אטו יראה מלתא זוטרתא היא? It's such a trivial affair, such a trifling that the Torah dismisses as מה ה' אלהיך שואל מעמך? So the Gemara answers אין לגבי משה מלתא זוטרתא היא. Yeah, for Moshe Rabbeinu it was takeh wasn't a big deal. So the obvious kasha which everyone deals with, while it's true that Moshe Rabbeinu is addressing Bnei Yisrael here in saying מה ה' אלהיך שואל מעמך, I don't know, is the Gemara simply telling us that Moshe Rabbeinu was sort of imposing his own personal experience and speaking to Klal Yisrael that way even though it wasn't relevant to them? What does it mean that אין לגבי משה מלתא זוטרתא היא? So perhaps in light of what we've been discussing, the Gemara can be understood as follows. What was the ma'alah of Moshe Rabbeinu? So we know that the Gemara tells us in Yevamos, Shabbos, that of the gimmel devarim that Moshe Rabbeinu asa mida'ato and... הקדוש ברוך הוא הסכים על ידו. And one of them was peirosh min haisha. Peirosh min haisha why? That he should be constantly ready to receive nevuah. That he should be able to receive nevuah at any moment. Right? And that's what Hakadosh Baruch Hu explains to Miriam and Aaron that it was necessary because he appears to them when they weren't in a state to receive nevuah. Explaining to them why Moshe Rabbeinu had to do what he did. So Moshe Rabbeinu prepared himself to receive nevuah at any moment or in other words his awareness of being in the presence of the Ribbono Shel Olam was as sharp and as acute as is humanly possible. So much so that he felt that at any moment the Ribbono Shel Olam might be about to address him. So what the Gemara is answering is in לגבי משה מלתא זוטרתא היא, doesn't mean that the Gemara is telling us well the Torah dismisses it as a milsa zutrasa because for Moshe Rabbeinu who was one of a kind it was a milsa zutrasa. The Gemara is saying no if only we will emulate that midah of Moshe Rabbeinu, that bechinah of Moshe Rabbeinu, of the acute awareness of שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד, so then takeh the yira is a milsa zutrasa. As the Rambam says here with the emphasis of miyad. The Rambam in the Moreh Nevuchim which the Rama quotes in siman aleph, the Rambam in Perek Beis of Yesodei HaTorah that it's miyad a person is nirsa v'achora. Miyad hu yarei and he has a sense of hachna'ah and pachad because it's a natural and instinctive reaction. Kimani, I think I once saw in in the Maharal, I think it was in the Maharal I'm not sure. He says pshat in the Gemara of כפה עליהם הר כגיגית that at Maamad Har Sinai Hakadosh Baruch Hu kofah aleihem har. So the simple pshat seems to be that there was coercion and intimidation that Klal Yisrael should be mekabel Torah. So he says that it's not what it means. It doesn't mean that Hakadosh Baruch Hu threatened them. But what it means is as follows: At Maamad Har Sinai when Klal Yisrael were asked to accept the Torah, so it was right after the entire experience of Yetzias Mitzrayim and Krias Yam Suf. In Krias Yam Suf is

ראתה שפחה על הים מה שלא ראה יחזקאל בן בוזי.

The gilluy Shechinah to which they were zocheh at Krias Yam Suf was unparalleled. So he explains that to be mekabel Torah when hesech hadaas is impossible because the gilluy Shechinah is so overwhelming and so powerful, that was the kfiyah. The kfiyah was and the modaa raba le'oraisa is that kabbalas haTorah happened on the heels of the most overwhelming experience of gilluy Shechinah ever. When hesech hadaas was impossible. And yet the entire nisayon of our avodas Hashem is to combat hesech hadaas and not to allow ourselves to be masiach daas. That's what the Gemara means modaa raba le'oraisa that ledoros what are we called upon to do? We're called upon to prevent and combat this hesech hadaas and to struggle 24 hours a day to have an awareness of שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד so we can have this natural instinctive yira. But at Maamad Har Sinai, that's not what we bargained for because at Maamad Har Sinai the gilluy Shechinah was so powerful and so overwhelming that it was impossible to be masiach daas. Can a person be masiach daas he's sitting at a table? Can a person be masiach daas from the table? You can't be masiach daas from something which is so immediate and so vivid. So too at Ma'amad Har Sinai they had been overwhelmed by Giluy Shechina. That's what it means kofah aleihem in that sense. And that's why the הדר קבלוה בימי אחשורוש was a time of Ester hastar astir, of hester panim, where on the contrary so the Shem Hashem is not mentioned in the Megilla. So there it was at a time where hesach hadaas was possible. On the contrary, then they had the nisayon of hesach hadaas, so that was the optimal time for hadar kibelua, for hadar kibelua. So that's the yesod that our task is not to look, we don't have to search for yiras shamayim. Yiras shamayim is natural and immediate and our task is not to be mesiach daas. Not to be mesiach daas means that periodically throughout the day, Chaim Volozhiner has this in Nefesh HaChaim, that periodically throughout the day a person is supposed to stop and remind himself of what the context is of what he's doing. A person can't spend all day studying sifrei yira and sifrei mussar. That's what Chaim Volozhiner says that the Gemara in Shabbos says that יראת ה' היא אוצרו. It's the treasury house, but it's not but the treasury house has to be filled. So the hesach hadaas can't be avoided by spending twenty-four hours a day in sifrei yira and sifrei mussar. We have to be busy. We have to be busy with Talmud Torah and we have other responsibilities, we have to discharge those also. So how do we ensure that we discharge those without being drawn into the abyss of hesach hadaas? So the answer is what Chaim Volozhiner says in Nefesh HaChaim that simply periodically a person has to stop and remind himself of what the context is of what he's doing, why he's doing it and leshem what he's doing it. And that applies even in learning. על אחת כמה וכמה it applies. It applies in when a person is going to college classes, when a person is in the office working, it certainly applies there that a person has to constantly remind himself of why he is doing what he is doing and דע לפני מי אתה עומד. But even when a person is involved with Talmud Torah, even there a person has to constantly remind himself of what he's doing and why he's doing it and that he's not just learning but he's learning Ribbono Shel Olam's Torah. And with that constant vigilant mindfulness, so that's what the Rambam based on these mamarei Chazal is telling us that that will produce yiras shamayim as an automatic consequence. Continue next time from there.