For the past several weeks,
my kids have been asking me questions about food. No, I don't get too many
questions about Kashrut. However, I am asked numerous questions about food,
calories, fat content, and exercise. Apparently, I have a new job in our family.
Perhaps I have a certain degree of "street cred" with my kids because
of my weight loss and because of my daily work-out; a regimen including
push-ups, crunches, and an hour on the elliptical machine. I have become our
family's personal trainer/nutritionist/life coach/guru. Before I was just a
dad. Primarily their questions are about food, nutrition, exercise, and
anatomy. Invariably my answers drift into making sure to get enough sleep,
avoiding stressful situations, developing healthy outlets for stress so that no
one becomes emotionally overwrought and overwhelmed, being extremely
disciplined in these new behaviors. They listen, and engaging in trial and
error, they figure out what works for them, and only then do they realize that
the hardest part is putting it into disciplined practice.
This week's Parsha is Yitro. Named after Moshe
father-in-law, who happens to be a Midianite priest, the Parsha begins with
Moshe leading B'nai Yisroel toward the wilderness of Midian where he meets up
with his father-in-law, his wife, and his two sons. Yitro suggests that Moshe
should create a bureaucracy whereby others administer the small everyday
rulings required of a judge. Difficult legal issues would be administered by
Moshe. Moshe is then commanded by God to bring B'nai Yisroel to Har Sinai. For
three days they will purify themselves, clean their clothes, not have marital
relations, and purify their souls for a revelation. There with the mountain
smoking and thunder billowing from the heavens, God begins to speak. B'nai
Yisroel is absolutely petrified and fearing death, they beg Moshe to go up the
mountain as their Shaliach (appointed
messenger). Moshe ascends the mountain and receives the Aseret HaDibrot (the Ten
Commandments), then descends. Upon his descent, he tells B'nai Yisroel the Aseret HaDibrot. The Parsha concludes
with B'nai Yisroel readily accepting the Ten Commandments, Moshe re-assures the
people not to fear the thunder and the flames, God attests to the fact that
B'nai Yisroel has accepted these commandments and then commands Moshe to build
an altar of earth.
The Ten Commandments are bound by several
themes. The first five commandments are God-oriented. The second five
commandments are people oriented. Violation of The Aseret HaDibrot is punishable by death. Through our modern
perspective, we may not agree but we can understand the concept of capital
punishment in terms of murder, testifying falsely, (in which false testimony
leads to death), or even kidnapping. However, how do we explain capital
punishment as a punishment for not honoring your parents, keeping the Shabbat
or committing Avodah Zarah
(Idolatry)? Certainly violating Shabbat or violating the first five
commandments that are all God oriented does not necessarily hurt someone else.
Even not honoring one's parents might not warrant capital punishment in today's
day and age. So how do we understand that each commandment is punishable by
death? We know that if we do not take care of our bodies, there
is a chance our bodies will be hurt. If we don't eat right, get enough sleep,
and exercise then our resistance is low and there is a chance we will get sick.
If we don't fasten our seatbelts then there is a chance that we won't be able
to walk away from an accident. If we drink too much and too often or if we
smoke, we know that we are doing damage to our body. As human beings, we also
have a soul. Just like we know to do things that help our physical existence,
there are things that we do to help our spiritual existence. Failure to take
care of our souls is also detrimental to our existence. Failure to take care of
our souls leads to emptiness, purposelessness and a misguided existence. The
first five commandments are about the welfare of our souls in the context of
our direct relationship with God. The
first five commandments give us a sense of purpose for own existence in
relation to God. The second five commandment is also about the welfare of our
souls, however, these second five commandments are within the context of our
relationship to our fellow man beginning with our parents. By violating these
second five commandments, we not only hurt the other person but in a sense, we
damage ourselves, we diminish the holiness within our souls. As such, we are
sentencing ourselves to a spiritual death.
In a sense, our own ignorance, our own anxieties, our own
insecurities, our lack of purpose and our lack of focus imprison us. The Aseret HaDibrot offers us a means to
transcend that which imprisons us. We are provided a blueprint to live a life
that is part of a community (the second five commandments) and accounts for our
own sense of self-worth and purpose (the first five commandments). The Aseret HaDibrot teaches us and commands
us to transcend time and space by adding meaning and holiness to our lives. The
Aseret HaDibrot teaches us that our
spiritual well being is just as important as our physical well being. When our
soul is complete, filled with a sense of purpose, filled with love, and filled
with the acknowledgment that there is God, we are able to transcend the
physical. As I continue answering my
kids' questions about nutrition, exercise and trying to be healthier, I find
that my answers not only focus upon their physical health: their nutrition,
their physical fitness, their physical development, and the habits that support
their physical beings. My answers and my deep-seated concern focus upon their
spiritual, emotional, and moral health: their ability to handle stress, their
positive demeanor, their sense of faith, their concern for others, their
tolerance for those who are different, and to be part of the world rather than
retreat from it. Finally, I remind them that health is as much a physical
orientation as it is a spiritual/emotional orientation.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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