Shoftim - Make For Yourself A Rabbi
“You
shall inquire and they will tell you the word of judgment. You
shall do according ot the word that they will tell you, from that place
that Hashem will choose, and youshall be careful to do according
to everything that they will teach you.” Deuteronomy 17:9
The
Jews in Egypt had descended to the 49th level (out of 50) of Tumeh, and
the medresh says if they had descended to the bottom level they would
not have been redeemable. Their state of degradation is somewhat
understandable for a people oppressed as slaves for hundreds of
years. They needed rehabilitation.
When they came to Mt.
Sinai, they were told the 10 commandments, and Moses went up the
mountain to get the rest of the Torah. The medresh says that
after not returning for 40 days, the Satan told them that Moses had
died, and they were so despondent that they 'fell back' to their old
ways and worshipped a golden calf.
This was certainly a
terrible sin, after seeing all the miracles and hearing directly from
Hashem the commandment not to worship idols. But what is somewhat
difficult to understand is Hashem's reaction. He says to Moses 'I
will consume them, and make of you a new nation'. Hashem wanted
to kill them all, and start over again, and it's only because of Moses'
personal plea that Hashem was ready to give the Jews another chance.
Doesn't
this seem like a bit of an overaction? After all, Hashem is 'full
of compassion'. This was a nation of ex-slaves, having just been
pulled from the 49th level of degradation. Aren't they allowed a
little slippage here and there? And yes, idol worship is one of
the big sins, but shouldn't one take into consideration the situation,
that they thought that the leader whom they felt totally dependent on
had died? This is no excuse for their behavior, but to kill all
of them in an instant seems so severe.
I was told that some
time ago Rabbi Yaacov Kamenetzky (ztl) visited Los Angeles to help with
the fund raising of the Orthodox community there. The more
'yeshivish' members of the community had started their own minyan,
apart from the regular Orthodox Synagogue, and it was shown with pride
to their distinguished guest from the East Coast. To their
surprise, Rabbi Kamenetzky was upset. When asked why, he said
they must be at a minyan that has a Rabbi.
Pirkei Avos says 'Make
for yourself a Rabbi, asay lecha Rav'. This could be more than just a
bit of good advice for spiritual growth. It might be that there
is a fundamental rule of Jewish living here, that in order to have the
proper Yirah (awe) and obedience to Hashem, we must find a Rabbi that
we are ready to 'mekabel' to, to accept their psak even when
inconvenient. We have the right to choose a person we respect,
and work diligently on the relationship. But perhaps a Jew who
doesn't have such a relationship is missing something crucial.
Because perhaps a person has to have a relationship with a Rabbi that
has an aspect of 'obedience'.
Nowadays, many people feel
otherwise. They love the fact that they hop from shul to shul,
and feel free of religious authority. They rationalize that they
know how to look up halacha in the Mishna Brura, and feel they have
learned enough to poskin for themselves. But perhaps this
relishing of one's religious freedom is more reflective of our modern
age than the desires of Hashem and the nature of Judaism.
Perhaps
the sin of the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai was that when they heard that
Moses had died, they had mixed feelings. Perhaps after hearing
the first ten commandments, they were afraid of what other hundreds of
laws Moses would bring back with him from 40 days of communing with
Hashem. Even though they had said 'we will listen and obey',
perhaps an aspect of them was relieved when they thought that they
wouldn't have to obey their rabbi, that they were 'free', when Moses
hadn't returned when they expected him. And perhaps when they had
'broken loose' in celebration around the golden calf, in part they were
celebrating their freedom from rabbinic authority. Perhaps they
were celebrating that they wouldn't have to bend their lives to live in
accordance with all those rules that Moses would tell them about.
For, after all, why were they dancing instead of mourning when they
suspected that their 'rebbe' had died'?
And perhaps this is the sin
that compounded the sin of idol worship, and may account in part for
Hashem's extreme reaction.. Repentance and forgivenss takes place
in the context of a feeling of respect for moral authority, as
represented in our lives for the respect we feel towards a
Rabbi.. But if the Jews dancing around the golden calf were
celebrating that they didn't have a rabbi to listen to any more, this
may have shown that they wanted to break free from the whole concept of
obeying a moral leader. Hashem may have been suggesting to Moses
that such lack of awe is a character flaw that thwarts repentance
itself.
This was in a sense the sin of Korach. He said to
Moses: 'We want to fire you as our Rabbi, because we don't need you, we
are all holy enough to be our own Rabbis'. For this they were
swallowed up alive in the depths of the earth.
Perhaps the
injunction 'make for yourself a Rabbi' is not just a piece of good
advice, but a centrally important feature of how we must lead our lives
as a Jew. We must have in our lives a Rabbi who we respect, love,
fear, and obey - and we must 'mekabel' ourselves to him. If we
don't have such a rabbi, we should work hard to create such a
relationship. And possibly the tendency of many of us to relish
our freedom from such a rabbinic authority not only is wrong, but may
echo an aspect of the sin of the Jews as they danced around the golden
calf.