Sentences
It makes complete sense that after last week’s parsha of Yitro in which we received the Torah, that we would start delving deeper into its various statutes.
It might seem strange that the first couple of laws that are given to us have to do with a man’s selling himself into slavery, because we just left a tyrannical 210 years’ worth of slavery- a person would have to be pushed to desperation in order to choose that life path.
But I want to skip over the part for a moment, aand I want to jump to the retelling of ma’amad har Sinai.
You see, when we were little kids we were taught that when we were standing at the bottom of Sinai, Moshe asked us if we wanted the Torah the song goes that we immediately said “na’aseh v’nishma” that we will do, and we will listen.
A proverbial you-say-jump-we-say-how-high model.
Because when someone says jump, and you ask how high, you are affirming that you will jump, by asking how high the required jump must be.
And that is sort of what happens here…We don’t say “na’aseh v’nishma” as a conjoined phrase… at least at the very outset.
When we received Torah, we were very frightened by the thunder and HaShem’s voice. And after the conclusion of the dibrot, we answer thusly:
kol asher diber HaShem na’aseh (Exodus:19:8)
And Moshe returns their answer to HaShem, which in and of itself it’s fascinating, because HaShem hears all, and also knows all, so why does the answer need to be returned?
According to the Torah Shlomo who quotes the Mechilta, “v’chi tzarich haya Moshe l’hasheev elah lamda Torah derech eretz bah Moshe v’hasheev teshuva la’shulchan she’chain amar Moshe af al pee she’hu yodaya va’aid asheev teshuva l’shulchani”
Essentially, Moshe was acting with deference, returning the answer from the people.
Rav Yosef Bechor Shor says something similar, and that you wait for your Rabbi to ask you a question, you don’t just go over and answer your Rabbi with your open mouth, as is seen in masechet Brachot 27b.
I think it’s a fascinating thing that the Torah in its brilliance understands the desperation of people. That if a person who is is in a position in which he takes out a loan that he cannot repay, there are structure is built in to our system to allow him to work it off… legitimately.
He can essentially pay off his debt by becoming a slave…
But not forever.
Only for six years.
It is surely a long time to be beholden to somebody, but in the grand scheme of things, six years is not so long.
We all know the about Yaakov’s working seven years in order to marry Rachel were seen by him as v’hayu b’ainav k’yamim achadim that it was as though it took no time at all. Yaakov was in situation in which he was forced to work for his wife, and if a man is a slave, his master, and give him a wife, and then, if he wants to leave… And his love for his wife, he has to stay.
The Akeidat Yitzchak says that actually it means more that we said that we would. He asks why we said na’aseh before the iconic na’aseh v’nishma.
Because it is easy to agree to do some thing before you know all the details.
In my understanding, the Akeidat Yitzchak is saying that we have the laws of eved ivri, a Jewish slave who is meant to be paying off his debts, that might be something easier for him to understand conceptually than any other mitzvah or statute, given the fact that bnei Yisrael were slaves.
It’s easier to say yes to something that you’ve experienced or of which you have a concept.
It’s brave to say yes to a situation in which you will be learning the details in real-time.
A perfect example of this is me and my family, or really any one dealing with disability.
The complicated situation of a physical disability rather than any other kind (be that developmental, emotional, psychological or social) is that it is ever evolving.
Therefore, the goal-posts, the abilities and the skills are constantly changing.
More often than not, save from a miracle from HaShem Himself, you can’t predict what is going to happen.
Like leaving the hard, back-breaking known of slavery to the hard, thirstifying, vast unknown that is the desert.
In the end though, we repeatedly say ‘na’aseh’.
That we will do this.
Torah.
Self-imposed slavery.
Struggles in life.
Sometimes, we are sentenced to these choices, and sometimes the non-choice is laid before us as a path we must take.
HaShem didn’t ask me and my siblings if we want Juvenile Onset ALS.
I didn’t say ‘e’e’seh’, that I would do it.
It was put upon me.
However, ‘eshma’, I will listen.
To the message that I feel so strongly that HaShem is sending my family- that we are catalysts for change.