A thought On Parshas Shelach
"...v'aron bris HaShem u'Moshe lo moshu...""...and the Ark of HaShem's Covenant, and Moshe did not move..." (15:44)
The Torah pairs our Master Moshe with the Holy Ark. The verse incorporates them into a single clause, suggesting that if the Ark was not traveling, then Moshe would also stay put.
This thought goes deeper. There is a difference between a simile and a metaphor. A simile is when a comparison is made between two things as a means of borrowing an idea about one of them in order to describe a quality of the other one. For example, I could say that "my rebbe's words are as good as gold", and this would mean that I want others to attribute some quality of gold to those words. This might mean that his words were precious, or that his words were appealing to hear, or that I was greedy to take all of them for myself. That would be the use of a simile. If I said, however, "my rebbe's golden words", I would want you to fuse your image of gold with the image of my rebbe speaking, and experience that image at more than a cognitive level. I would want for you to have an almost transcendent sense of what it was like to learn from my great rebbe zichrono l'vracha.
Our verse's comparison could be understood as a simile: wherever you would find the Ark, there you would also find Moshe, as the words Aron bris HaShem u'Moshe imply. Moshe was similar to the Ark in the sense that he stayed with it. However, I think that Rabbeinu Bachya is interpreting these words metaphorically. There was an entity in the desert known as "the Ark and Moshe." Moshe was the embodiment of exactly what the Ark embodied. They were both entirely dedicated to containing HaShem's Torah. They were both the holders of the Covenant of HaShem. Moshe was a Holy Ark.
I believe that Rabbeinu Bachya employs this idea further in our parsha. The Torah vilifies one who blasphemes the Name of HaShem "...ki dvar HaShem bozza..." - for he has scorned the word of G-d. Some of us are aware that Chazal derive from this verse that one who is rude to a Torah scholar is also included in the category of ki dvar HaShem bozza. Now what we may not understand is how our sages inferred from those words that the verse is also referring to one who is confrontational and disrespectful towards a Torah scholar. Rabbeinu Bachya understands that here also, the Torah is making a metaphoric analogy between "the word of HaShem" and the talmid chocham. A Torah scholar is the word of HaShem. It is not only that he speaks and teaches HaShem's words. He is to be regarded as HaShem's words. He is actually the Torah come alive.
I can remember many years ago attending an emergency gathering in Baltimore following a much publicized moment when a well known figure cast aspersion on Rav Schach. This shocking statement made the international press and fomented horrible machlokes. Rabbi Ruderman zt'l, the Baltimore rosh yeshiva, delegated his son in law, the venerable Rabbi Yakov Weinberg zt'l to address the large crowd.
I still remember his screaming message "They ripped a Sefer Torah apart and they tore it to shreds!" That was no simile. It was pure metaphor. He viewed the great Rav Schach not as if he was a like a Torah, but as a living dvar HaShem!
We need to get hold of this thought. Our Torah scholars are our embodiment of the word of HaShem. Our Torah leaders are our Arks of the Covenant. And we too, when we learn and imbibe the Holy Words of Torah, we become containers for His Sacred Ways. Rav Moshe Feinstein zt'l went as far as saying that although we refrain from kissing a friend or even our child upon encountering them within a synagogue, if we encounter someone with whom we are close because we have high regard for the Torah they have learned then we may embrace and kiss them on the spot. We are giving reverence to their Torah.
Good Shabbos. D Fox
The Torah pairs our Master Moshe with the Holy Ark. The verse incorporates them into a single clause, suggesting that if the Ark was not traveling, then Moshe would also stay put.
This thought goes deeper. There is a difference between a simile and a metaphor. A simile is when a comparison is made between two things as a means of borrowing an idea about one of them in order to describe a quality of the other one. For example, I could say that "my rebbe's words are as good as gold", and this would mean that I want others to attribute some quality of gold to those words. This might mean that his words were precious, or that his words were appealing to hear, or that I was greedy to take all of them for myself. That would be the use of a simile. If I said, however, "my rebbe's golden words", I would want you to fuse your image of gold with the image of my rebbe speaking, and experience that image at more than a cognitive level. I would want for you to have an almost transcendent sense of what it was like to learn from my great rebbe zichrono l'vracha.
Our verse's comparison could be understood as a simile: wherever you would find the Ark, there you would also find Moshe, as the words Aron bris HaShem u'Moshe imply. Moshe was similar to the Ark in the sense that he stayed with it. However, I think that Rabbeinu Bachya is interpreting these words metaphorically. There was an entity in the desert known as "the Ark and Moshe." Moshe was the embodiment of exactly what the Ark embodied. They were both entirely dedicated to containing HaShem's Torah. They were both the holders of the Covenant of HaShem. Moshe was a Holy Ark.
I believe that Rabbeinu Bachya employs this idea further in our parsha. The Torah vilifies one who blasphemes the Name of HaShem "...ki dvar HaShem bozza..." - for he has scorned the word of G-d. Some of us are aware that Chazal derive from this verse that one who is rude to a Torah scholar is also included in the category of ki dvar HaShem bozza. Now what we may not understand is how our sages inferred from those words that the verse is also referring to one who is confrontational and disrespectful towards a Torah scholar. Rabbeinu Bachya understands that here also, the Torah is making a metaphoric analogy between "the word of HaShem" and the talmid chocham. A Torah scholar is the word of HaShem. It is not only that he speaks and teaches HaShem's words. He is to be regarded as HaShem's words. He is actually the Torah come alive.
I can remember many years ago attending an emergency gathering in Baltimore following a much publicized moment when a well known figure cast aspersion on Rav Schach. This shocking statement made the international press and fomented horrible machlokes. Rabbi Ruderman zt'l, the Baltimore rosh yeshiva, delegated his son in law, the venerable Rabbi Yakov Weinberg zt'l to address the large crowd.
I still remember his screaming message "They ripped a Sefer Torah apart and they tore it to shreds!" That was no simile. It was pure metaphor. He viewed the great Rav Schach not as if he was a like a Torah, but as a living dvar HaShem!
We need to get hold of this thought. Our Torah scholars are our embodiment of the word of HaShem. Our Torah leaders are our Arks of the Covenant. And we too, when we learn and imbibe the Holy Words of Torah, we become containers for His Sacred Ways. Rav Moshe Feinstein zt'l went as far as saying that although we refrain from kissing a friend or even our child upon encountering them within a synagogue, if we encounter someone with whom we are close because we have high regard for the Torah they have learned then we may embrace and kiss them on the spot. We are giving reverence to their Torah.
Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 10:13 PM
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