Hashem’s Bekeshe by Rav Moshe Weinberger

From the Fire Parshas Bo Hashem’s Bekeshe

By Rav Moshe Weinberger Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf

This is the parsha of yetzias Mitzrayim, the exodus from Egypt, which is the foundation of our emunah, our faith in Hashem. “I am Hashem your G-d who took you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.” Shemos 20:2.

Perhaps the most well-known Ramban in all of Chumash is on the last pasuk in this week’s parsha, commenting on the mitzvah of tefillin. There (Shemos 13:16), the Ramban says that in the world Hashem created, people have free will because Hashem is hidden and people can deny all of the fundamentals of emunah. To counter this confusion, the miracles of yetzias Mitzrayim, the Exodus, demonstrate Hashem’s existence, His creation of the world, His knowledge of the events in the world, His providence, and His rulership over all Creation. The Ramban says that Hashem gave us the mitzvos of Shabbos, Pesach, tefillin, and many others so that we would constantly remember yetzias Mitzrayim, the Exodus, which will sustain and strengthen our emunah in Hashem.

Many tzaddikim, including Reb Tzadok Hakohen of Lublin, explain an even deeper reason why yetzias Mitzrayim is the foundation of our emunah, our faith. They explain that when a person wants to start being an eved Hashem, a servant of Hashem, whether it is a bar mitzvah boy or someone in his thirties, forties, or fifties, the yetzer hara, the evil inclination, makes certain claims to dissuade him. It claims, “How can a nobody like you think that you can possibly be a great servant of Hashem?” Or it says, “After what you have done, how can you think that you will be able to serve Hashem?!” The answer to this is zecher l’yetzias Mitzrayim, remembering how Hashem took the Jewish people out of Egypt. One should remember that if Hashem raised up the Jewish people in Egypt, who were slaves on the 49th level of impurity, to receive the Torah on Har Sinai over the course of just a few weeks, then surely any Jew can become a true servant of Hashem no matter who he is or what he has done. Rav Naftali Ropschitzer offered an explanation of the words we say in Kiddush, “First of the holidays (lit. “the calls of holiness”) a remembrance of the exodus from Egypt.” The Ropschitzer said that when a Jew first hears the call to holiness, he should not give up on himself or lose hope that he has the ability to change. He should remember yetzias Mitzrayim, how Hashem lifted the Jewish people up from the lowest place to stand on Har Sinai to receive the Torah, and he will be strengthened to know that he, too, can change and become great.

The last pasuk in this week’s parsha is the mitzvah of tefillin. There is a story of Rav Yisroel Husiatiner, the son of Rav Mordechai Shraga and descendant of the Maggid of Mezeritch. Rav Yisroel said that when he first put on tefillin as a bar mitzvah bachur, his father, Rav Mordechai Shraga, told him the following story:

At the beginning, the Maggid of Mezeritch, their ancestor, traveled from place to place teaching the path of chassidus. He came to one town and started speaking to a group of talmidei chachamim. Soon, other villagers came to listen as well, and soon the whole town was on fire with the light of chassidus. After a few months, the Maggid told them that it was revealed to him that he needed to move on to a different place. The people of the town told him that they would be lost and begged him not to leave them because they did not have anyone else to lead them in the service of Hashem. The Maggid then gave one of them his bekeshe and gartel and told them to go to the nearby town of Vitebsk. He told them that in this town, they would find a Jew named Mendel. They should put his (the Maggid’s) bekeshe and gartel on Mendel, and then he would be their leader.

The Jews of the town traveled to Vetebsk and asked about someone named Mendel. People pointed out a young talmid chacham named Mendel, so they went to him and told him to put on the bekeshe and gartel. From the time that Mendel put on the Maggid’s bekeshe and gartel, he was filled with a new light and became the tzaddik we know today as Reb Mendele Vitebsker.

Rav Mordechai Shraga told his son, Rav Yisroel Husiatiner, that if the bekeshe and gartel of the Maggid of Mezeritch could turn a Mendel into Rav Mendeleh of Vitebsk, then surely tefillin, which are Hashem’s garments, can turn any Jew into a tzaddik.

The story is beautiful, but it is very difficult to understand. It seems that the only reason the gartel and bekeshe had the power to turn Mendel into Reb Mendeleh of Vitebsk was because he already had all of the qualities of a Mendeleh of Vitebsk hidden inside. If they had put the bekeshe and gartel on some other Mendel, nothing would have happened. Furthermore, we have all been wearing tefillin, Hashem’s garment, for years, and we are still not big tzaddikim.

The answer lies in the pasuk of the mitzva of tefillin, which says (Shemos 13:16), “And it shall be a sign upon your hand and as Totafos between your eyes that it was with a strong hand that Hashem took us out of Egypt.”

We must remember that Hashem took the lowest people in the world out of Egypt and made them great. But just like Reb Mendeleh Vitebsker putting on the bekeshe and gartel of the Maggid of Mezeritch, they must have already had the latent potential

to stand on Har Sinai and receive the Torah even before they were taken out. When we put on the tefillin of the Master of the World, it must be that we already have a heart and a neshama capable of ahavas Hashem, love of Hashem, and yiras Hashem, fear of Hashem.

We have learned that the pasuk says that we put the tefillin “al yadecha, on your hand,” which the Gemara derives to mean that the tefillin should be placed on the “yad ka’hah, the weak hand.” We wear the tefillin on the weak hand to remind us that even when we feel incapable of growing and weak, we must remember that we have a Mendeleh of Vitebsk inside waiting to come out and that Hashem can take us out of our own personal limitations, our own personal Mitzrayim and that we can become great.

Similarly, the head tefillin are called “totafos,” which Rashi explains is not even a Hebrew word. It comes from foreign languages. Hashem is telling us that even if real service of Hashem feels foreign to us, even if we want to say, “that is not me,” the tefillin remind us that real service of Hashem is not foreign to us at all. It is already within us, deep inside. We just have to remember and believe does not have a “a weak hand.” He has a strong hand which can bring us out of our personal external limitations to long for and achieve greatness. When we put on Hashem’s bekeshe and gartel, it reminds us that He has

When we put on Hashem’s bekeshe and gartel, it reminds us that He has the power to bring out the Mendleleh Vitebsker within each of us.

that it is there and that Hashem can bring it out of us.

“Hashem took us out of Egypt with a strong hand.” We may find it difficult to believe that people like us can go from where we are to receive the Torah on Har Sinai. But Hashem the power to bring out the Mendleleh Vitebsker within each of us.

I heard an interesting observation from a certain chochom. In the old Gemaras, the title page had a statement to the effect that all references to goyim or nachrim, non-Jews, do not refer to the non-Jews of today who believe in G-d, but rather to the non-Jews who lived at the time of the Gemara, who served idols and were heathens. This chochom observed that, unfortunately, many Jewish people today make the mistake to think that the references to Jews in the Gemara also only refer to the Jews of that time but that they do not speak to us today.

Tefillin, and all of the mitzvos which are a zecher l’ yetzias Mitzrayim, remind us of how Hashem took us out of Egypt and remind us that we can strive for holiness and service of Hashem no matter who or what we are right now. Just like Hashem redeemed the Jewish people from Mitzrayim, may He remember us again

b’geulah sheleima b’karov.

Rav Moshe Weinberger, shlita, is the founding Morah d’Asrah of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, NY, and serves as leader of the new mechina Emek HaMelech.