The Machpelah Cave – the year 2000 B.C. –
Eisav stubbornly blocked the entrance of the cave. "Nobody else will be buried
here," he said. "Half the cave is yours, half of it is mine. You already used
your half when you buried Leah. The second grave is waiting for me."
Yosef replied, "You sold your birthright to our father. You are
very well aware of that." But Eisav made believe he was innocent. "What does
that mean, I sold it? Bring me some proof." And everybody looked at Naftali, who
was the fastest runner of them all. Fast as a deer. There was no doubt that he
would be the one sent to Egypt to bring the written contract.
One of Yaacov's grandsons, Chushim, sat on the sidelines. He
was deaf and could not hear the discussion. He asked one of the others, "Why
don't we bury our grandfather?" And he was told, "We are waiting for Naftali to
return from Egypt with the contract."
Chushim screamed. "Are we going to leave our grandfather lying
in the sun until Naftali comes back from Egypt? Here he lies before us, and we
are waiting for a piece of paper?" Without waiting for any answer, Chushim
chopped off Eisav's head. The head rolled down and came to rest near Yaacov.
(See Midrash Agadda Bereishit 49.)
* * * * * *
The Golan Heights – The Yom Kippur War – "A
battalion quartermaster blocked the entrance to the armory with his body. Nobody
would get any weapons from him without the proper forms, filled out in
duplicate. He would not allow any weapons to be given out without the forms.
No matter what happens. He has had some bad experiences. Nobody
will tell him what to do – not a sergeant, not an officer. In the armory he is
the one who is in charge. Nobody else. If there will be any problems, they will
come to him, and then no explanations will be accepted. War or no war, nobody
will cover for him. He knows the ropes, this is not his first day in the
army.
Many soldiers crowded around the open window of the armory.
Everybody was under great stress, and the quartermaster was asking the next one
in line for his personal ID number. He was trying to write on a small piece of
paper with a pen, using the light of a small flashlight. The pen doesn't write,
why do they give such bad pens to a quartermaster? Does anybody here have a pen?
Nobody replied. In his anger, the man threw away the pen, closed the window,
locked the armory, and went looking for a pen.
An officer on patrol arrived at the warehouse, he needed a
scope to put on his jeep. He saw us all and started yelling: What is holding you
up? We told him that the quartermaster went looking for a pen. He shouted: Are
you nuts? Don't you understand what is happening? People out there are dying,
and you are looking for a pen?
Without waiting for an answer, the officer kicked the box
holding the weapons, and it fell apart. Dozens of well oiled Uzi rifles fell
onto the floor, and the soldiers grabbed them and ran to their tanks.
(Source: Rabbi Chaim Sabato, Te'um Kavanot (Adjusting Sights),
pages 89-90).
* * * * * *
Archimedes, the Greek philosopher, made great improvements to
the principle of the lever. By the proper use of the lengths of a lever, he was
able to pull on a rope and lift an entire warship out of the water. Without any
visible emotion, he told the amazed onlookers that he could also move the entire
earth.
The people said to him, "Okay, go ahead!" And Archimedes
replied, "No problem. Just get me a fulcrum outside of the globe..."
* * * * * *
It is very hard to decide what is a major issue and what is a
minor matter. Our daily routine inundates us with the mundane. It leads us to
forget why we came here. In order to return to the proper proportions, we must
find a balance point that is external to us.
Chushim the son of Dan managed to extract the sons of Yaacov
from their dizzy spin. The fact that he was deaf and therefore did not take part
in the discussion helped him see matters from a different perspecitve, an angle
that was purer in nature. Thousands of years later an anonymous officer on the
Golan Heights acted in the same way.
People who come from the outside are able to see things that we
cannot see.
* * * * * *
"In the Talmud Yerushalmi it is written that only with great
difficulty was permission given to greet other people on Shabbat." [Tosafot
Shabbat 113b].
* * * * * *
The Talmud Yerushalmi felt that on Shabbat we must avoid any
unnecessary talk. They found it very difficult even to allow people to greet
each other on Shabbat. Even though this approach was not accepted halachically,
we can still learn a lesson from it about an important gift that Shabbat offers
us – the concept of maintaining our silence.
Shabbat can allow us not only physical rest but also a unique
viewpoint of our lives. On Shabbat we can rest from the powerful flow of life
and - as it were - view ourselves from the sidelines. Shabbat allows us to be
Chushim, son of Dan, for one day.
