Our
eldest daughter has been incredibly busy working for Hilary Clinton in the
state of Iowa. Since last Pesach she has lived in Des Moines, Iowa. Knowing that she has a few days to recuperate,
her younger siblings are full of questions. Where does she go next? And after
that? What happens when the primaries are over? Does she ever return one place
and live in it like we do? Does she move to New York, Washington D.C. How long
does she keep living in places for short periods of time? What does she do when
there campaigning is finished and the election is held? As I listened to the
questions and tried to answer them clearly and succinctly I became aware of
what was underlying all these questions. From our younger children’s
perspective, their oldest sister’s pace of life seemed incredibly busy leading
up to a primary or election, then there would be a moment of down time and then
she would have to ramp it back up for the next primary. Underlying all their
questions was their picture of a normal life. From their perspective adults go
to work and return home from work. There may be errands to run, late night
meetings but essentially there was a sense of routine and mundane activity. Not
every day can be16 hour days, being followed by a reporter, explaining the candidate’s
“ground game” or being interviewed by the national news on the night of a
primary, or giving a speech for a candidate. Our younger children wanted to
know when their big sister will begin to lead a “normal life” with “normal work
hours”.
Last
week we read about the revelation at Sinai, with the thunder, the lightening,
and a big booming voice. Last week we read the Aseret Dibrot, the Ten Commandments.
Last week we were inspired by the words “I
am the lord your god, you should have no other gods before me” “you shall keep the Sabbath holy”,
respect your parents, and so on and so on. Of course these commandments are the
bedrock of Judeo- Christian morality and society. However when the thunder and lightning
are finished, and the big booming voice stops booming, B’nai Yisroel has Ten
Commandments. However they still had a problem. They told Moshe to return to
the mountain but they never acknowledged their acceptance of the Ten
Commandments. We can almost imagine Bnai
Yisroel so awestruck that they couldn’t muster an answer. After all, seeing a mountain on fire, the
thunder, the lightning and a big booming voice, does not exactly lend itself to
people nodding their head in understanding and approval. The moment was so awesome, so inspiring, that
it utterly paralyzed Bnai Yisroel. Even
the commandments themselves were so awe inspiring that Bnai Yisroel has no way
to deal with the day to day issues of everyday life.
However, B’nai Yisroel, like the rest of us, could not
and cannot live life in a state of revelation, spiritual awe and euphoria
unable to function in the everyday world. As human beings, our ability to stay
that awe-inspired, can only last a brief moment before we understand that we
live here on earth and not in the spiritual realm. Now B’nai Yisroel must learn
how to behave like a nation of priests here, in this world, on an everyday
basis. This week’s Parshah, Mishpatim, begins: V’Eilah Hamishpatim, And
these are the judgments or laws that you [Moshe], shall put before them.
God then lists a plethora of rules and regulations by which everyday life must
be lived. The list enumerates how to
solve problems that occur between community members: the treatment strangers
and slaves and how to be a mentsche.
Except for attorneys, this list of laws and statutes might seem
incredibly uninspiring, dry, and non-spiritual.
Even in the dry, seemingly uninspired
promulgation of these everyday laws, we learn a very valuable lesson. Parsha Mishpatim,
with its plethora of laws, judgements, and statutes provide us with the tools
for everyday life. This generation of former slaves need to learn how to take mundane
activities and add meaning and holiness to it. Torah gives us the tools. We
learn that revelation doesn’t happen too often. Grand, powerful, awe inspiring
events don’t happen every day. If such moments did occur every day then those
moments would cease being so grand, so powerful and so awe-inspiring. Or we
would become so overwhelmed that when those moments ended we wouldn’t be able
to return to a normal mundane life. We are capable of experiencing revelation
everyday; it just won’t be the “Ten Commandments” type of revelation. B’nai
Yisroel’s response of Na’Aseh V’Nishmah
We will do and we will learn to Moshe’s
presentation of these laws suggests that we are capable of inspiring ourselves,
and able to experience revelation even in the mundane aspects of life. We do
this learning and struggling to combine the sacred and the profane and the holy
and the mundane. For now, our eldest daughter loves what she does and is able
to handle the pace of life on a political campaign. As she makes her way from
state to state, as the campaign draws to a close, hopefully she figures out how
to return to a more balanced life and able to bring the revelation she
experiences on the road to a more settled life. But for now, as a young politically
passionate woman, she still has a candidate to get elected at least once if not
twice; then maybe she will be ready for the more mundane aspects of life.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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