In this week’s parshah (18:10) Yitro says “baruch Hashem asher hitzil etchem miyad Mitzrayim,” blessed is Hashem who saved the Jewish people from the hands of the Egyptians. The gemorah in Sanhedrin (94a) says that Yitro was the first person to ever recite these words baruch Hashem. My father, Rav Yitzchok Fingerer shlit”a mentioned that the Radomsker Rebbe asks, “It is unconceivable and unfathomable to think that the Jewish people themselves never said baruch Hashem, blessed is Hashem. After all, they stood at the sea and they sang the shirah, the great song in euphoria and jubilation. They said baruch Hashem countless times! How can it be that Yitro was the first person to say these words?
Answers the Radomsker that Yitro was indeed the first person to say baruch Hashem - thanking Hashem for a miracle that happened to someone else. Thanking Hashem that someone else had success. That someone else had salvation. The lesson to us is as follows: It’s easy for us to revel and it’s easy for us to take joy when a miracle happens to us, when we’re saved G-d forbid from a tragedy or a terrible predicament. But how many of us take joy and pleasure in other people’s successes? In other people’s victories? In other people’s miracles? That is what differentiated Yitro, the first person to proclaim, “Baruch Hashem.” Although he wasn’t there and didn’t experience it personally, nor did it have anything to do with him. He had no vested interest, and yet he took joy in someone else, in another people, in a foreign people. That is why he’s credited as saying baruch Hashem.
There was a woman who decided to send her child, her little girl, to Bais Yaakov instead of sending her to public school. She was not a religious woman, and she initially wanted to send her daughter to public school. Someone asked her why did you send your daughter to a religious school instead of the public school? The lady answered that one time she was on the bus and there was a little religious girl, a six-year-old girl sitting there. Suddenly, an ambulance passed by, and she saw the little girl murmuring. She saw her whispering something. So, this lady asked the little girl’s mother what is your daughter doing? The mother answered that her daughter was taught in school that anytime she hears the sirens, she hears an ambulance, she should say Tehillim for whoever it is that needs a recovery.
When this secular woman heard this, she said if that’s what they teach in religious schools, that’s where my daughter will go. Let’s start thinking about others. Let’s get beyond ourselves and start sharing in the joy and the pain of others and saying baruch Hashem, blessed is Hashem for other people’s successes and for other people’s joy! In this zechut (merit) may we all merit to see the ultimate joy of Moshiach in our days!
Parshat Mishpatim: Are You An Angel?
In this week’s parshah (22:30), the Torah commands us to be Anshei Kodesh - “people of holiness.” Other times the pasuk just says to be holy. However, here there’s an extra word – to be People of Holiness. Isn’t this wording extraneous? Isn’t it obvious that Hashem is addressing human beings? Can’t the pasuk simply say, “Be holy?” Why does the pasuk emphasize that we should be “people” that are holy? My father, Rav Yitzchok Fingerer shlit”a explains that Rav Menachem Mendel of Kotzk taught that we shouldn’t try to conduct ourselves as angels in our pursuit of holiness. He says that Hashem has enough angels in Heaven. Rather we should consecrate our physical and bodily needs to use them in service of Hashem. This is why it says to be “people of holiness”, meaning “people” and not angels.
Rav Meir of Premishlan said that the Torah is teaching us that in order to attain holiness one must first be a person, a “mentch.” One cannot be holy if one doesn’t have basic decency and mentchlichkeit (ethical behavior). That is why it says to be “people” of holiness. First, behave like a good person, be respectful and kind to others, care about their property, and then you can achieve holiness.
Someone once came to Rav Shlomo Kluger zt”l and told him, “I work for a man who has a wine cellar. He has many barrels of wine and I’m his employee. One day I took my purse with all my earnings, and I hid it in the wine cellar. I came back and it was gone. I know that it was my boss, the owner of the wine cellar who stole it because he’s the only other person who has a key.
So, Rav Shlomo Kluger called in the owner of the wine cellar, and he said your employee had a purse with all his earnings and it’s gone. What do you think happened to it? The owner says, “I didn’t take it. It wasn’t me. I would never do such a thing.” Rav Shlomo Kluger said to the owner, “It must have been that one of the non-Jews stole your key once and got in there. However, I have terrible news for you. Because it was one of the goyim that stole it, you have lost thousands of dollars because nobody can drink the wine anymore due to yayin nesech (prohibition of a non-Jew touching uncooked wine). I’m sorry, but hopefully, you will find the thief. The man said what? I lost thousands?! Suddenly he screamed, “It was me! I stole his purse! I admit it!
Rav Bunim of Pshischa says that parshat Mishpatim which deals with interpersonal laws comes right after the Torah discussing Matan Torah – the receiving of the Torah because Hashem is telling us what a Torah Jew is. Do you want to know what a Torah Jew is? A Torah Jew is somebody who cares about other people’s possessions. A Torah Jew is somebody who cares about other people’s property. Somebody who cares about other people’s money. Somebody who cares about the welfare, health, and safety of somebody else - that’s what a Torah Jew is. The Torah gave us mishpatim, rules, ordinances, and protocols to follow. We must follow these laws and protocols.
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Parshat Yitro: From Public School To Bais Yaakov!
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