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Backstage Passes to Divine Service by Rav Moshe Weinberger
From the Fire
Parshas Nitzavim A Backstage Pass to Divine Service
By Rav Moshe Weinberger Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf
The Torah (Devarim 30:11-14) tells us, “For this mitzvah which I command you today is not concealed for you, nor is it distant. It is not in Heaven that you should say, ‘Who will go up to Heaven for us and take it for us that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it on the other side of the ocean...for the matter is very close to you in your mouth and in your heart to do it.”
When the pasuk says “this mitzvah,” which mitzvah is it referring to? According to Rashi, the Ohr Hachaim, and others, this refers to all the mitzvos of the Torah. According to this, the Torah is telling us that all of Yiddishkeit, all of Torah and mitzvos, is attainable and within our grasp. According to the Ramban, however, because it says “this mitzvah,” it seems to refer to one specific mitzvah rather than mitzvos generally, so he explains that it refers to the mitzvah of teshuva. But even according to the Ramban, teshuva also means a return to the totality of Torah, to all of Yiddishkeit, not just one mitzvah.
In any case, the Torah seems to take a person’s initial feeling that true attainment of Torah is impossible seriously. Rather than dismissing the false feeling that the Torah’s demands of a person are too difficult to fulfill, the Torah expends several pesukim addressing this misimpression head-on.
Rav Leib Chasmin, zt”l, one of the great baalei mussar, asks a serious question on these pesukim. Anyone who has studied Gemara is familiar with the concepts of “hava amina” and “maskana.” A “hava amina” is an explanation or opinion which is considered but ultimately rejected by the Gemara. The “maskana” is the Gemara’s ultimate conclusion. Usually, the hava amina has some relationship to the maskana and is not completely off-base.
For instance, if one person says that flights from New York to Los Angeles last six and a half to seven hours, but someone who has actually taken the flight corrects him and says that the flight lasts only six hours, this is a good example of a hava amina and a maskana. The hava amina is not totally off-base but shares some resemblance to the maskana. In contrast, it would be absurd if someone had a hava amina that the flight lasts only five minutes. Such a thought is not even worthy of being considered as a viable hava amina. In fact, the Gemara and later commentaries often go to great lengths to understand the basis of each hava amina of the Gemara notwithstanding the fact that it is ultimately rejected. The two are usually someone close to one another.
Rav Chasmin asks why the hava amina and maskana of the pesukim seem to have absolutely no relationship to one another here. The hava amina is that Torah and mitzvos are virtually impossible to attain. But the maskana is that, in fact, they are easy, a cinch. Why would the Torah take our natural basic tendency to see Torah and mitzvos as seriously demanding and nearly impossible to truly attain seriously if such an impression is completely and totally off-base?
Rav Chasmin offers an incredibly deep explanation. He explains that there are two perspectives: the view of the outsider and the view of the insider.
The outsider’s perspective is the view of one who, even if he is religious, has not yet entered into the world of serving G-d. We can understand this by considering someone who is not Jewish and cannot fathom how a person can go 24 hours with-
out watching TV, checking his email, going on the internet, or driving in a car. Such a life seems impossible, intolerable. But that is only because he is an outsider. For us, who are insiders and experience Shabbos every week, we cannot imagine life without Shabbos. Rather than seeing Shabbos as an impossibility, we recognize that it is the source of life and is therefore a cinch to keep.
The Torah’s recognition of our hava amina is addressing the perspective of the body, our physical nature which is not yet initiated into the world of G-dliness. From that outsider’s perspective, Torah and mitzvos seem impossible, distant, and out-ofreach. Yet the Torah’s maskana is that Hashem invites us to come inside, to try out Torah and mitzvos from an insider’s perspective. When we do that, we will see that our previous perspective, the perspective of the body, was totally off-base.
I have spoken with a number of people who have told me, “I cannot get up early in the morning to learn before davening. I must not one of those people. It’s too hard.” The truth is that they only say this because they’re looking at Torah and mitzvos from an
outsider’s perspective. If these people would just try it out for a few days, their neshamos would receive such nourishment from the experience that they would experience a jolt of energy and begin to wonder how anyone could live without starting their day with Torah. Those who do this know that when a person starts his day with learning instead of going straight to work, his whole day is different. This is the perspective of an insider.
So Hashem is inviting us in and telling us, “Precious children, do not remain outside. Come in and taste the sweetness of Torah. The truth is that when you know what it is, it’s not
an impossible mountain to scale. It’s a cinch and you will wonder how you ever lived without it.” How is He able to tell us this? Because He knows us better than anyone else.
Many of us have heard our children tell us that they cannot do something we expect of them. But because we know our children and their potential better than they know it themselves, we can tell them that we know they can do it, that they are entirely capable, and that it is a cinch if they would just come inside and see themselves as capable and worthy. Similarly, Hashem knows us better than anyone else and recognizes that we are ready and able to enter into His service as soon as we muster up the strength to see ourselves as insiders and walk into the world of Divine service.
It is only the outsider who says, as Bilaam did (Bamidbar 24:17), “I see it but it is not close.” He can see G-dliness and the ultimate redemption but they seem so far away. This is only because he is looking in from the outside. The Jewish people, on the other hand, say, as Yeshaya Hanavi did (Yeshaya 56:1), “For My salvation is near to come and My goodness to be revealed.” We recognize that even the ultimate redemption is not some faroff ideal, but an imminent revelation worth hoping and davening for.
Our job in educating our children is to show them the excitement of Yiddishkeit so that they will realize that Hashem, Torah, and mitzvos are already in their minds and hearts. They will realize that they are insiders with backstage passes to a world of G-dliness.
Rav Shlomo Freifeld, zt”l, the rosh yeshiva of Sh’or Yoshuv in Far Rockaway, NY, whom I was zocheh to be close to, once related that he met a Jew from Tulsa, Oklahoma. This Jew told Rav Freifeld that when his friends heard he was traveling to New York, they told him he should go to Broadway to see the show “South Pacific.” So, when he came to New York, he went to Broadway to the theater and tried to buy a ticket to the show. But the box office staff told him that the show for that night was sold out. He could buy tickets for two months in the future but there were no more seats for that night. He tried explaining that he was an important person in his industry, but it was no use.
Rav Freifeld related that the man told him that he came up with an idea. He came back to the theater later that night and asked one of the people coming out of the show for their ticket stub. That way, he could show the stub to his friends back in Tulsa and they would think that he had seen “South Pacific” on Broadway.
What a foolish concept! Rav Friefeld warned the listeners not to be like this person, never going inside but carrying the trappings of Yiddishkeit around with us as if to say, “Look, I put on tefillin this morning. I finished the daf today. I davened Shacharis, Mincha, and Maariv today. I must be an insider,” when we have never experienced the inside of the service of G-d. Hashem calls out to us, “The matter is very close to you! In your mouth and in your heart to do it!” A person doesn’t need to look in from the outside. All we need to do is serve Hashem in truth and, we will see that it is not as impossible it is seems from the body’s perspective. We will see that we already have it within us to come inside and live Torah and mitzvos with vitality because we were born to do it.
May Hashem bless all of us that we should enter into the world of the service of Hashem as insiders and recognize that Torah, rather than being impossible, is the most natural thing in the world.
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