Dear Pele Yoetz,
Thank you for the fascinating content and articles that you send each month. With my kids growing up, I’ve been wondering what I can do and what steps I can take now, before Shavuos, to prepare my family—both my children and myself—for kabbalas haTorah?
Hagaon Harav Dovid Levy shlit”a replies: Dear Reader, Your question is a beautiful one, revealing how seriously you take not only the chinuch of your children, but also your own personal growth—which, actually, is the key to proper chinuch.
Chazal teach that the weeks of Sefiras Haomer are essentially a hachanah, a preparation, for kabbalas haTorah. Many sefarim discuss the avodah of Sefiras Haomer, and what we are meant to do and achieve during these 49 days as we count the Omer, rectify the Sefiros Elyonos and perfect our middos. Obviously, this is not the forum to discuss the meaning and process of these exalted concepts, however in this brief column, I’d like to focus on one idea that is appropriate to the framework you mentioned in your question – the family.
Parshas Yisro describes Bnei Yisrael’s arrival at Har Sinai, “Vayichan sham Yisrael neged hahar, and Yisrael camped there, opposite the mountain” (Shmos 19:2). Rashi famously elucidates the word “vayichan, and [YIsrael] camped”, which is written in singular form, as “K’ish echad b’lev echad, as one man with one heart.”
Slightly less famous are Rashi’s words on an earlier passuk in Parshas Beshalach, “U’Mitzrayim nasa achareihem, and Mitzrayim traveled after them” (ibid 14:10) in the Yam Suf, which he elucidates as “Belev echad, k’ish echad, with one heart, as one man.”
Let us examine the difference between these two verses. In regard to Yisrael, the passuk writes “as one man” before “with one heart”, whereas with Mitzrayim, the passuk writes it in the opposite order.
Why is there a difference in this order? Why did Rashi express himself one way in regard to Bnei Yisrael and in the opposite way regarding Mitzrayim?
One explanation is that Rashi’s order drew from the actual reality. With Bnei Yisrael, the achdus came first, so when there was a collective desire to accept Torah, their strength was doubled with emotional unity and a joint purpose, which is the explanation of “k’ish echad belev echad.” In contrast, the Egyptians lacked unity and closeness, yet their collective goal of reclaiming their servants and wealth unified their hearts and actions, as expressed in the order of “belev echad k’ish echad.”
How does this difference impact us?
The acceptance of Torah and forming of a nation requires more than just a common goal; it also requires emotional unity among Bnei Yisrael that is expressed in the fulfillment of the mitzvah “V’ahavta l’reiacha kamocha”. Only such achdus has the power to generate mutual responsibility, which is a bedrock of our nation that has escorted us throughout 2000 years of Galus, through the formation of kehillos around the world, through the voluntary initiatives to found mosdos Torah, chinuch and chessed, and through the unparalleled sums of tzedakah and acts of chessed that our nation gives and does to benefit one another.
Only A Yid who needs help marrying off his daughter can think of traveling to a foreign country where he knows not a soul, ask for help, and actually receive a generous donation along with warm words of blessing!
During the notorious Beilis Affair blood libel in 1913, when Menachem Mendel Beilis was falsely accused of murdering a gentile teenager in Kiev, one of the prosecutor’s key arguments culled from the words of Chazal, “Atem kruyim adam, v’ein umos ha’olam kruyim adam, you [Bnei Yisrael] are called man, and the nations of the world are not called man.” He used this to accuse Jews of regarding gentiles as animals and thus wantonly permitting their murder. Responding for the defense, Rabbi Yaakov Mazeh delivered a long, detailed speech quoting passages from the Torah and Gemara to debunk this testimony. Basing his words on a letter written by Rabbi Meir Shapira of Lublin, he explained that the Gemara’s intention are “Events such as this trial when people come to judge Mr. Beilis and condemn him to death for the blood libel of murdering a gentile lad for religious reasons; and here the entire Jewish world rises in his defense, that even in far-off America, people are screaming to bring the truth to light and release him. Here, the word ‘adam, man’ refers to the entirety of a nation which is as one man who suffers an injury of his small toe, but his entire body is wracked with pain agony. This is contrast to gentile nations where, if one man is tried and condemned to die, it bothers no one.”
This is also why we mourn and accept upon ourselves the customs of mourners upon the 24,000 talmidim of Rabbi Akiva who perished during Sefiras Haomer since they failed to regard one another with sufficient honor.
If we wish to perpetuate the legacy of our forefathers and instill within our children one important trait, it behooves us to reflect upon the basis and foundation of kabbalas haTorah, which was rooted in achdus.
The next step is to ingrain achdus and love within the family unit, from eldest to youngest, distancing ourselves from machlokes, criticism and lashon hara, especially about other kehillos in Klal Yisrael, and strive to truly feel achdus with all our fellow Yidden.
May Hashem grant that we should all be zocheh to a lichtige kabbalas haTorah!
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