Divrei Torah - good idea?

MountainRose

Wed, Feb 11 2015, 4:51 am

I try to write a weekly dvar torah, but I have been lacking motivation lately because no one ever hears them, or even reads them. DH suggested Imamother, so I will try posting here. If you like it, let me know and will keep posting.

Mishpatim

לֹא-תִהְיֶה אַחֲרֵי-רַבִּים, לְרָעֹת; Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil;

Rabainu Bachya explains that if you see many people doing something wrong, you should not follow their example. This seems obvious - right up there with “If all your friends jumped off a bridge . . .?”, yet it is so easy to get caught up in a group. All of us have been warned against “following the herd” and have heard horror stories about the “mob mentality”.

This pasuk teaches that we are each responsible for our own morality. Yiddishkeit calls on us to learn all we can to that end, and to ask a Rabbi when in doubt. It can be all too easy to observe most of your kehilla doing an aveirah and just join in, either in the effort to be part of the kehilla or because you manage to convince yourself that if all these good guys are doing it, it can’t be all that bad.

I’m not even talking about big aveiros here. Let’s take talking in shul. I don’t think that anyone goes to shul with the intention to have a chat during the haftarah. Yet somehow, an average shul is buzzing with chatter by the time the sefer is closed. And we feel free to join in because everyone is doing it. But no one thinks it’s right. One lady heard another lady who heard the lady in front of her having a chat. But the first lady only broke the silence to tell her daughter the page number. No one can be said to be encouraging the chatting, yet very few seek to avoid it either. “Everyone” obviously thinks it’s ok, when in fact, no one does.

A rational approach might be to avoid the community. If each person must judge their own morality, and they should consult no one but a rabbi, then why become overly familiar with the rest of the minyan?

Late in the same perek, the Torah addresses this:

וַעֲבַדְתֶּם, אֵת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם, וּבֵרַךְ אֶת-לַחְמְךָ, וְאֶת-מֵימֶיךָ; וַהֲסִרֹתִי מַחֲלָה, מִקִּרְבֶּךָ And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

The Baal Haturrim notes that the pasuk begins in the second person plural (continuing in the voice from the previous pasuk), but switches to the second person singular. He explains that when we serve our collective deity, it must be done together. We each seek our own result - bread, water, health - and we may pray fervently for it, and sometimes even get it.

But in Berachos it says that the prayers of a community, davened in unison, are never rejected. The state we were in at Har Sinai - k’ish echad, k’lev echad - is our strongest possible state. That unity is required for individual growth, and it cannot be attained simply by showing up for tefilos and shushing the person behind you.

For me, these two pasukim identify the central struggle of Yiddishkeit. Jews are infamous for our love/hate relationship with each other. Throughout our history there has always been machlokes, but there has also always been achdus. They are simple facts of our religion. It is our responsibility try to keep them l’shem shamayim. To avoid machlokes which will lead to sinas chinam, and to avoid achdus which will prevent you from judging things for yourself.

Judaism is not a religion that can be practiced in a vacuum, the kehilla is vital. The larger the kehilla, the larger the variety of opinions. We must not blindly follow the practice of any single group of Jews.

But, for all our sakes, we must be able to daven with each of them.