Rabbi Frand on Parshas Beha’aloscha
This dvar Torah was adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Tapes on the weekly portion: # 196, Vegetarianism. Good Shabbos!
“Statistical” Cruelty
This week’s parsha contains the positive Biblical command [Rambam Hilchos Ta’anis Chapter 1] of “crying out and blowing trumpet blasts regarding every calamity that befalls the community”. According to some opinions, this law is applicable even nowadays (in the Land of Israel); according to other opinions, it is only applicable when the Beis HaMikdash is built.
The Rambam, quoting the pasuk in this week’s portion [Bamidbar 10:9], explains that every communal calamity — be it a plague or pestilence or locusts or any public suffering — requires crying out and blowing of trumpets.
The Rambam explains that this is part of the Teshuvah [Repentance] process. When we Jews hear the sound of the trumpet we know that the troubles befalling us are because of our deeds. This introspection and determination to repent and improve our communal and individual ways will eventually stop our misfortunes.
But, says the Rambam, if the response of the community is not to blow and not to pray, repent and think any differently, but rather to attribute the misfortune to “the ways of the world”, to statistical chance, to the “realities of life” — this is derech achzariyus [the way of cruelty]. Such attitudes cause people to remain attached to their evil ways and cause G-d’s response to be “more such statistics”.
This expression of the Rambam — “derech achzariyus” — has always bothered me. If the Rambam would have called it “the way of heretics” or “the way of fools”, I would not have been bothered, but “the way of the cruel” is a perplexing choice of words. What does this have to do with being cruel?
Not long ago, I heard an interesting insight from Rav Nosson Scherman into the meaning of this Rambam. Rav Scherman compared this matter to an intersection in one’s neighborhood where accidents are constantly occurring. It is just a terrible corner — again and again, another accident, another person killed.
Someone approaches the government and petitions that they do something about the intersection. “Put up a stop sign; put up a red light; do something — there is a carnage going on out there!”
The bureaucrat responds “No, the department has determined that there is no need for a stop sign.” That bureaucrat is cruel, because he can stop the carnage, he can stop the accidents; but he is not willing to do anything about it. It is simply cruel to preside over carnage and do nothing, when it is within your power to stop the carnage.
This is what the Rambam is telling us. Troubles befall a community, and the community can do something about it — because the blowing of the trumpets and doing Teshuvah will cause the troubles to stop — however, the community fails to do something about the troubles, but rather attributes them to “the realities of life”. Such a community is cruel to its own members.
So many times, when we see things go wrong in our communities, we have a tendency to react by saying, “Well, that’s just the way it is”. That is cruel. This is not the reaction that the Torah expects from us. The Torah wants us to put up a stop sign — to stop and think and react and try to improve. A community that fails to react is as bad as the bureaucrat who fails to put up the stop sign on the carnage-prone intersection.
Glossary
daven — pray
shidduch[im] — matche[s] (finding a match for marriage)
bachur / bochrim — single man / men
sedarim — regular hours for learning (literally order)
Beis HaMikdash — Temple
Technical Assistance by Dovid Hoffman; Yerushalayim.
This week’s write-up is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Torah Tapes on the weekly Torah portion (#196). The corresponding halachic portion for this tape is: Vegetarianism. The other halachic portions for Beha’aloscha from the Commuter Chavrusah Series are:
- Tape # 015 – Reinstituting the Semicha
- Tape # 060 – Waiting Between Meat and Milk: Adults and Children
- Tape # 103 – The Seven Branched Menorah
- Tape # 149 – Bringing the Sefer Torah to a Temporary Minyan
- Tape # 196 – Vegetarianism
- Tape # 242 – Military Service and Potential Halachic Problems
- Tape # 286 – When Do We Stand In Honor of a Sefer Torah
- Tape # 332 – Tefilas Tashlumim: Making Up a Missed Davening
- Tape # 376 – Davening For A Choleh
Tapes or a complete catalogue can be ordered from:
Yad Yechiel Institute
PO Box 511
Owings Mills, MD 21117-0511
Call (410) 358-0416 for further information.
Also Available: Mesorah / Artscroll has published a collection of Rabbi Frand’s essays. The book is entitled: