Parasha Shemot
By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.
SAN DIEGO — When someone came to the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Lubavitcher rebbe, for a blessing, the rebbe said, “Think positive and it will be positive.” This week our lesson in living optimally, comes from Shemot.
Moshe, we learn, wasn’t always a positive thinker. Recall the day following Moshe killing and burying an Egyptian who murdered a Jew, Moshe sees two Jews fighting. He tries to break up the fight and is asked, “Are you going to kill us the way you killed that Egyptian?” Moses is stunned. The Torah reveals that Moshe was fearful upon knowing his actions became public knowledge. Moshe, fearful? Why would he be fearful that “…the matter had become known?” And what can we learn from this?
Enter the power of positive thinking. Thinking, it’s clear, is given birth from deep within us, some might say, within our souls. And we believe that we are connected to shemayim through our souls in such a way that how we think, talk and act have impact in heaven. So what we think can change our realities. Perhaps this is one key lesson in the parasha.
Moshe has a negative thought and immediately Pharaoh, we are told, hears of the incident and attempts to kill Moshe. What if Moshe didn’t have fear or any negative thoughts about the incident becoming public? What if Moshe thought positively that what he did was right, was the correct thing to do and had no fear of others becoming aware of the incident? Perhaps Pharaoh would not have responded negatively? Was Moshe’s negative thought tied to Pharaoh’s negative intent? You think it was coincidental? No. This is our lesson.
The next time you are given obstacles, challenges in life, which are always for your benefit when seen through a healthy lens, remember the Tzemach Tzedek’s wisdom, and Moshe’s behavior. Hashem wants to help, and we need to do our hishtadlus, we need to put in our effort, by thinking and acting in positive ways. “Think positive and it will be positive.” He either catches you when you are falling…or teaches you how to fly.
Indeed, we see how one’s perspective leads to positive or negative behaviors. In Moses, we see someone who is a servant of Hashem, someone who brings light and redemption, and in Pharoah we see a man who served not others, but himself and his own agenda and as a result brought destruction. Yes, they shared a word, “Behold!” But as a result of their mindset, what they beheld brought about events that were either positive or negative.
In Shemot 3:11, after Hashem asked Moses to go to Pharaoh in Egypt, Moses asks: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should take the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Hashem answers, “For I will be with you, and this is the sign for you that it was I Who sent you. When you take the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Not just with you, near you, but to be one with you, to experience fully your struggle, your anguish and your pain in accomplishing what is being asked of you.
Hashem appears to be saying “I will be one with you just as you are one with the people for whom you care so much.” Five times in the parasha, Hashem tells Moses that He feels the suffering of the Israelites. Moses, too, felt a tug to connect with his people. Hashem sees this and recognizes Moses’ special quality. We learn in this week’s Torah reading a most contemporary and timely lesson: We are not to simply see the suffering of others, but to experience it fully, as if it is our own–and act to reduce that suffering. As we reduce the pain in others, we then reduce our own.
Undoubtedly you can offer many answers as to why Moses, the most exceptional leader we have ever known, was selected by Hashem. Moses is portrayed as someone who consistently cares for others and is beyond empathy, demonstrates compassion by acting on his feeling of care. Just as Hashem is one with his people, Moses is always filled with love, empathy and compassion for others as well.
Is this not the key to our thriving and flourishing at this time? Does it take a special person to turn towards others and to then help them lift their burdens? In Shemot Rabbah (1:27), we learn “He called out to him in the midst of the bush.” Why did Hashem say he would speak only to Moses? Because Hashem saw that Moses “put aside his own affairs to share in the suffering of others.” He did not look away.
Rav Eliyahu Lopian, teaches us that Hashem wanted the Israelites to earn His compassion by living it. Open your eyes to today and see this through the lens of our contemporary times. The Israelites, remember, had no real merit at that time, having sunk to a low level of impurity. Rav Lopian tells us that Hashem created a series of events in which the Israelites could behave with compassion one to another. Hashem would then show B’nei Yisroel, the children of Israel, His compassion. To receive Hashem’s compassion, we need to show it to ourselves, feel the pain of each other and open our hearts and hands with sensitivity in the way we behavior with others. We are, after all, “Rachamanim B’nei Rachamanim,” merciful people and children of merciful people. Simply saying we care, simply saying we need to do better, simply preaching how one should behave but not doing it is worth nothing…or worse, it’s harmful.
In Shemot Rabbah (2, 2) we learn that “Our teachers have said: Once, while Moses our Teacher was tending [his father-in-law] Yitro’s sheep, one of the sheep ran away. Moses ran after it until it reached a small, shaded place. There, the lamb came across a pool and began to drink. As Moses approached the lamb, he said, “I did not know you ran away because you were thirsty. You are so exhausted!” He then put the lamb on his shoulders and carried him back. The Holy One said, “Since you tend the sheep of human beings with such overwhelming love – by your life, I swear you shall be the shepherd of My sheep, Israel.” And recall it says in Shemot 2:11, “Now it came to pass in those days that Moses grew up and went out to his brothers and looked at their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man of his brothers.” The sages tell us “do not read ‘grew up,’ but rather, ‘became great’ גָּד֖וֹל since Moses chose to experience the exile for himself by opening his eyes and his heart to his people’s suffering.
We learn from the “Alter,” Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv of Kelm, one of the earliest leaders of the Mussar movement, about the role the psychological process of compartmentalization plays in ethical behavior. Moses was not satisfied with simply hearing about the suffering of others, compartmentalizing it, but “went out” to see for himself. Moses did not want to push aside such feelings, but to fully arouse all of his emotions to inspire his behaviors to help others. Seeing, feeling and acting, seen in Moses, are components of ethical behavior. Not looking away, not compartmentalizing, not avoiding our responsibility one to another, but stepping forward, are traits of ethical behavior.
We are being called, right now, to open ourselves similarly one to another. To act responsibly to prevent the spread of disease during this pandemic, to stay connected and create ways to help others, to open our hearts so that no one ever feels alone, to step in with our empathy and demonstrate compassion. If we want to earn Hashem’s compassion, the parasha shows us a clear pathway. We learn from contemporary psychology that empathy involves responding to another’s emotions with emotions that are similar. Sympathy involves feeling regret for another person’s suffering. But compassion is caring for another person’s happiness as if it were your own and acting in a way to help others lighten their burden. For Moses, compassion, love and kindness were not indicators of weakness, but rather strength. The presence of compassion has the power to heal and its absence can be fatal. Moses reminds us to bring compassion to each other, to act kindly, to open our hearts to others, and then we too, as Moses, will be one with Hashem.
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Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D., prepares a weekly D’var Torah for Young Israel of San Diego, where he and his family are members. They are also active members of Congregation Adat Yeshurun. He may be contacted via michael.mantell@sdjewishworld.com