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By: Chaya Sora Jungreis-Gertzulin
This week’s parsha, Ki Sisa, tells of the tragic episode of the Eigel HaZahav, the Golden Calf.
Imagine Moshe Rabbeinu, descending from Har Sinai with the Aseres HaDibros. He heard sounds of partying, and sees his beloved people celebrating around the Eigel. Overcome with pain and heartache, Moshe casts the Luchos, shattering them at the foot of the mountain.
As distraught as he was, Moshe remained first and foremost “Rabbeinu”, the devoted, loving leader of Bnei Yisroel.
I think of a dedicated, caring father, painfully aware of his child’s acting up in school. Yet, the father has his son’s back, and stands before the principal on his behalf.
Though disappointed, Moshe was a faithful leader and felt a responsibility towards Bnei Yisroel. A duty that led him to tell HaShem, “If you do not forgive their sin, Macheini nah misifrecha asher kosavta, Erase my name from Your book that You have written.” (Shemos 32:32)
Moshe was not the first one mentioned in the Torah to face devastation. Generations earlier, Noach faced the destruction of the world due to torrential rains and floodwaters.
Two people. Two responses. When Noach learned of the impending flood, he listened to HaShem’s instructions and built a teiva that became a safe haven for him, his family and the various species of animals that he brought inside. While Noach was able to save his family, we do not find that he beseeched HaShem to save the world, to spare his fellow man. Not one prayer.
In contrast, after the sin of the Golden Calf, Moshe stood strong and steadfast before HaShem, asking for compassion and forgiveness on behalf of Bnei Yisroel. He was prepared to forfeit his own honor. A tefilla from the depth of his soul. A tefilla that saved the nation.
The Holy Arizal teaches that there are times when a part of a neshama returns to the world in order to fulfill mitzvos that were not performed properly. A gilgul neshamos, (from the word galgal, meaning a wheel, to come around), a reincarnation of the soul to return with the mission of rectifying past misdeeds.
Chazal teach that Moshe was a gilgul of Noach. We see many connections, an intertwining of the two neshamos. While Noach didn’t daven for the saving of his fellow man, Moshe pleaded and begged for his people.
There are many more soul connections. We find the word teiva used only twice in the Chumash. The teiva that Noach built as a refuge from the flood, and the teiva that Yocheved placed her baby Moshe in. Each teiva was a place of protection, of saving. Noach from the floodwaters, Moshe from the decree of Pharaoh – to throw every Jewish baby boy into the river. In both cases, the saving was from water.
In Noach’s time, it rained forty days and forty nights. Moshe was on Har Sinai for forty days and forty nights. Within Noach’s teiva, there was a tzohar, a source of light. And when Moshe was born, Rashi quotes the Gemara in Sotah that the home of Amram and Yocheved became illuminated with light. Furthermore, when Moshe received the Torah, his face radiated a Keren Ohr, a mystical, spiritual light.
Another parallel between Moshe and Noach is in Moshe’s plea, macheini, erase my name. The Hebrew spelling of macheini is mem, ches, nun, yud. One can rearrange the order of the letters to form the phrase mei Noach, the waters of Noach (mem, yud and nun, ches). Additionally, if we examine the Hebrew letters of macheini, we find Noach’s name within it, albeit, reversed (ches, nun). This signifies that Noach had it all backwards. He sought favor in HaShem’s eyes by doing only what he was told, doing for himself, and nothing more. He missed what it was all about, that HaShem wants us to be there for others.
Noach worked on his teiva for one-hundred-twenty years. Moshe lived to one-hundred-twenty. Finally, the Torah (Bereishes 9:20) refers to Noach as an Ish Ha-adama, a man of the earth, while Moshe was called an Ish HaElokim, a man of HaShem (Devarim33:1).
The Lubavitch Rebbe teaches that though our neshama is a gilgul of a previous neshama, mitzvos whose observance was performed properly in a previous lifetime, come easy to us to fulfill. It is the mitzvos that were found to be difficult to observe in a previous lifetime, that we, as a gilgul, are now given the opportunity to rectify.
My mother would tell a story she heard from her zeide, Rav Zvi Hirsch Cohen zt”l. It was about the rov of Chernovitz, whose son had a rebellious streak.
After much deliberation, members of the community decided that the rov must be told that his son should leave town, as he was a negative influence upon the youth of the village. A group was chosen to speak to the rov.
It was before Rosh HaShana. The delegation went to the rov’s home, where the gabbai asked them to please wait a bit, as the rov was davening in an adjoining room.
Suddenly, they heard the rov crying, pleading to HaShem. “HaShem, please find love, kindness and compassion for all of Klal Yisroel. They’re Your children. Please, love them and bless them. And, if you ask, who am I to say this, I will say that I have a son who falls and stumbles on Your path, who sometimes is very distant. But if someone would come and say ‘send him away’, I would fight for my son and not listen.”
Without saying a word, the contingent rose and left the rov’s home.
As Moshe looked beyond the misdeeds of Bnei Yisroel and pleaded with HaShem for forgiveness, so too should we look beyond the wrongs of others and be accepting and understanding. And, as HaShem forgave Bnei Yisroel, so too should we follow His ways, and be forgiving of others.
Shabbat Shalom!
Chaya Sora
Chaya Sora can be reached at [email protected]
This article was written L’zecher Nishmas/In Memory Of HaRav Meshulem ben HaRav Osher Anshil HaLevi, zt”l and Rebbetzin Esther bas HaRav Avraham HaLevi, zt”l
