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Near the end of our Parsha, we read “And the hands of Moshe were heavy and they took a rock and placed it under him and he sat on it.” (Sefer Sh’mos, Perek 17, posuk 12)
Rabbi Pliskin in Growth Through Torah cites a Rashi which states;
That Moshe did not sit on a comfortable pillow, but a rock. There was a battle going on with Amalek and Moshe wanted to feel the suffering of the people. This, said Rabbi Yeruchem Levovitz, is a lesson in feeling for another person’s suffering. Not only should we mentally feel their pain, but it is proper to do some action in order to feel some of the discomfort yourself when someone else experiences pain. This way [through empathy] you actually feel his pain. (Growth Through Torah, Rabbi Zelig Pliskin, page 177, citing from Daas Torah, page 152)
What this and other citings from our Parsha and from throughout Torah indicate is that Moshe Rabbeinu was as one with the entire B’nai Yisrael. He made himself to feel what the B’nai Yisrael was feeling in order not to lead from aloof or afar, and to beseech Hashem on their behalf, knowing what suffering they were undergoing.
This spirit within Moshe Rabbeinu, set a standard which we, in contemporary times, are hard-pressed to emulate. That is, when situations are critical, there is the need, the compulsion to act in tangible, meaningful ways to manifest our oneness, our unity and bonding with both our Land with our Brethren regarding the myriad gross injustices, harrassment, persecution, explusions, high court legalized thefts, at gunpoint, and more suffered at the hands of a regime in Israel diabolically opposed to and divorced from Torah and which seeks to eradicate the Jew from Israelis.
This same standard of spirit within Moshe Rabbeinu is needed regarding bonding with one’s fellow Jews regarding more localized but no less important needs.
Again this year, as in recent previous years, this author cites this quote from a Parsha sheet for Parsha Vayeshev written several years ago by Rabbi Yaakov Haber. It bears repeating here;
Has anyone said “Hineini” lately? Our kids are at risk, our brothers and sisters are being shot at and bombed! Our communities are fragmented. We have shiduchim problems and parnossa problems. Assimilation is at an all time high.
Most of us sit at the sidelines, observe and comment. It’s not good enough – we have to do something, we have to say “Hineini”! If there are kids that need help, come find out what you can do with a couple of hours a week.
Make a connection with a terrorist victim in Israel that is being ignored.
As the world is changing so drastically and quickly, we have to change. We have to change our priorities and our schedules. Like Yosef, we can no longer avoid the issues…. Like Yosef, each one of us has to consider what we can do, and say “Hineini” – I’m here and I’m ready – to do what ever needs to be done for G-d and His people; and like Yosef, we will succeed.
May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard, captive Gilad Shalit and the other MIAs be liberated alive returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem and that we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Good Shabbos!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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