Troubled About His Humanity

Rav Mordechai Greenberg - Rosh Yeshivat Kerem Bi-yavneh in Shabbat Bishabbato. Translated by R' Moshe Goldberg

The sages interpret the name "Di Zahav" in the beginning of the book of Devarim as a reference to the sin of the Golden Calf. They described a parable of a man who had a son. He washed him, anointed him with oils, fed him, and gave him to drink. He then tied a bag with money around his neck and sent him to the entrance of a place of ill repute. Could this son avoid sin? That is how Moshe defended Bnei Yisrael. He said: You gave them an abundance of gold, until they were satiated. Why is it surprising that they made a calf?   Rabbi Soloveitchik found this difficult to understand. While it is true that the story has elements in common with what really happened, it is basically illusionary. What father would ever do this to his own son? The rabbi replied that just like Egypt, which was the height of civilization at the time of the exile, so all of the places where Bnei Yisrael were sent to exile were considered the most sophisticated cultures of their times. This includes Babylon, Greece, and Rome (and perhaps Germany in our generation), which were all at the highest levels of culture, technology, and science when they conquered the people of Yisrael. Why did G-d specifically choose to send Bnei Yisrael in exile to these places? The answer is that this was meant to oppose any possible suggestion that just as the Jews have the Torah the other nations have just laws and regulations, culture, and behavior patterns of their own. The Holy One, Blessed be He, therefore sent us into the most civilized centers, so that we would be able to compare the Torah and the culture of the other nations from our own experience.   Based on this approach, Rabbi Soloveitchik was able to explain a verse from this week's Torah portion. "And he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man from among his brothers. So he turned to and fro and saw that there was no man, and he struck the Egyptian and hid him in the sand." [Shemot 2:11-12]. It is interesting to note that at first we are told that Moshe saw "an Egyptian man," but in the end he struck "the Egyptian" – without the title "man." At first Moshe thought that the Egyptian was a man, somebody who was important and learned. But when he saw how ruthlessly he struck the Jew, he was troubled about his humanity. "He turned to and from and saw that there was no man" – Moshe realized that this was not a man but a two-legged beast who strikes others and pushes them around, and therefore, "he struck the Egyptian" - without the title "man."   This is similar to what Malbim wrote with respect to the verse, "I said that there is just no fear of G-d in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife" [Bereishit 20:11]:   "He [Avraham] told him that even if he or his nation appeared to be great philosophers and that they had written upright laws and acted in good ways and followed justice and the law according to their intellect – Avraham could not be sure that their intellect would prevail when lust moved such a man or nation to perform an evil act. The opposite was true. At a time when they would have a fiery lust for another man's wife or his fortune without any witnesses, then the intellect would also follow the inclination to murder and adultery and all kinds of evil. There is only one force in the soul of man that we can trust not to sin, and that is the trait of fear that is planted in the soul."   It is remarkable to see these thoughts that Malbim wrote before the Nazis came to power in Germany. "You chose us from among the nations" (the primitive ones) "and lifted us up from all the other peoples" (who are cultured). [Shabbat Mincha prayer].