Welcome to the SIMHA Wellness Minute. The Midrash Lekach Tov in Shemot chapter two describes Moshe Rabbenu’s greatness. Even though he was in the Palace of Paroah, he went to look at the troubles of Jewish people. The midrash says, “A person should not say, when the people are suffering, I'm going to go home. I'll eat, I'll drink, and I'll be fine. Rather, what should he do? Noseh B’Ol im Havero, which literally means to share the burden or carry the burden with your friend.
In a biography of Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz, it says, “Fools think that sharing a person's burden simply means helping him. They think that once an injured person has been treated, and he can again do things on his own, it is no longer possible to help him. If help means physical help, how can someone help someone after he is been treated? Sharing a person's burden means sharing his pain and suffering.
When he's carrying a heavy load, a physical load, everyone understands the necessity of lending a hand. When he's carrying a heavy load of anguish, one has to lend a heart. Does this help? Of course it helps. Have you ever seen a group of people in pain? When person, heaven forbid, is in mourning, he carries the entire burden on his shoulders. When two people are mourning, it's easier for them. They divide the pain between them. This is man's nature.
That is Moshe Rabbenu. Moshe Rabbenu went out to his people, and we see that this is not just Moshe Rabbenu, this is the leaders of the Jewish people.
The Midrash asks in Shemot (Bo, pasuk ב ), How does God test leaders? He tests them as shepherds. He tested Moshe as a shepherd. He tested David Hamelech as a shepherd. That seems strange.
If you were looking for a Jewish leader in the classified, it would say what college college degree was necessary. But what if it said, “Experience in shepherding necessary.” What does experience with shepherding have to do with being a leader of the Jewish people? The answer is, if you know how to shepherd the sheep, if you know how to get into the sheep's mind, you know how to take care of people.
We see this with David Hamelech. David figured out how to feed each sheep.
He held back the older sheep first, and let out the youngest sheep, so they'd get the softest grass on the top. Then he let the older ones graze and get the middle grass. Finally, he’d let the strongest ones out because they could eat the hardest ones. And Hashem said, “David, you know how to get into a sheep's mind, so you'll be capable of taking care of my people.”
As we mentioned earlier, this trait of Noseh B’Ol, of carrying the load is actually God's traits, as we see , when Hashem appeared to Moshe Rabbenu. He appeared in a burning bush. Rashi says it was because, “When the Jewish people are suffering, I'm with them in the suffering.”
When Moshe, Aharon and the 70 elders (Shemot 24 9), see a vision of God, they
see God with a sapphire brick under His feet. Rashi says, Why a sapphire brick? Because throughout the times of the suffering of the Jewish people, God had a brick, as if to say, under His legs. That is the trait that runs through God's revelations to the Jewish people, because that Middah is the all-inclusive Middah. The Elder of Kelm says that the trait of Noseh B’Ol includes all the good Middot..
And we see how, throughout the generations, great rabbis would act like this. The are stories of how the Chafetz Chaim was not willing to sleep on a bed during World War I, when the soldiers were suffering. This trait, that one is able to empathize and get into the lives of others, is a very necessary trait, not just for other people, but for your own wellness. Because the more we're stuck in ourselves, the more unhealthy we are. We have to get out of ourselves and get into other people.
Have a wonderful day.