Parashat Yitro has in it the Ten Commandments.
Number one is,
אנכי ה׳ אלוקיך אשר הצאתיך מארץ מצרים
Anochi Hashem- I am Your G-d who took you out of Egypt.
Why is that the opening line? Simply speaking, it’s because before a king gives decrees to his constituents, they must first believe in his kingdom.
First, we have to believe in the king, and then he can tell us the laws of the land.
As the midrash says, we must first accept the yoke of G-d’s kingdom, and then we can accept the yoke of the mitzvot.
That’s the simple reason. A deeper explanation is that, as we have discussed many times, the command “Anochi Hashem- I am your G-d that took you out of Egypt” is the source for Hashgacha Peratit- G-d’s individual supervision of every single person. Just like when Hashem took us out of Egypt, He was able to differentiate between the Egyptians and the Jews, He was also able to differentiate between a Jewish firstborn and Egyptian firstborn, and He was able to differentiate between a Jewish glass of water and an Egyptian glass of blood- even in the same cup. That’s what we call Hashgacha Peratit.
So, I’ve always understood that since this is the most important thing, it is the first thing that G-d tells us.
But this year I saw a beautiful Hiddush, in Sefer Eretz Tzvi, written by Rabbi Froemmer, the Gadol in prewar Europe who took over as Rosh Yeshiva of Hachmei Lublin after Rav Meir Shapiro, the founder of the Daf Yomi, passed on.
Rabbi Froemmer was a hero in the ghettos, constantly learning.
ה׳ ינקם דמיו( May Hashem avenge their blood)
In his sefer Eretz Tzvi, in the Haftara of Parashat VaYetzeh, Rabbi Froemmer says that Hashgacha Peratit is, of course, important in our daily emunah. For example, if I missed a plane, I know it was Hashem’s decision. If I get stuck in traffic, it was Hashem’s decision. It’s a way to keep calm, cool and collected throughout the day.
But he adds a Hiddush:
He says that Hashgacha Pratit will save you from stealing, from over-charging, from interest or from eating something that’s not kosher. How so?
I always thought it’s that knowing that G-d is watching, and that He’s going to punish me for any wrong thing I do would keep me from doing that wrong thing.
But the Rav says it’s not that. It’s actually the belief that all of your hishtadlut/efforts don’t do anything, that everything that happens is only decided by Hashem, and that you can’t take anything for yourself unless it was decreed on Rosh Hashanah- not a drop more of anything- not honor, nor pleasure or anything. For example, if someone said, “ I can’t take it- I’m gonna eat that unkosher pizza because I want that pleasure” Well, you can’t take pleasure that you weren’t supposed to get, so if you’re going to enjoy that unkosher pizza, you would have enjoyed the kosher pizza all the same. If you’re going to get the enjoyment anyway, why steal it? Why take it in an improper way? If you believe in Hashem’s Hashgacha, you’re going to get it anyway, in the right way. Just wait a little. You are not going to get anything that’s not meant for you. If you only get what you’re supposed to get, why grab?
That’s why this is the first commandment. Because that’s the secret of how to keep the Ten Commandments. Don’t take something that is someone else’s, don’t want something if it’s someone else’s, because you’re not going to get it anyway. If you’re supposed to get it, you’ll get it legally and if you’re not supposed to get it, you aren’t going get it illegally! What a Hiddush!
There’s a beautiful story told by Rabbi Biderman that relates to this. A certain Hassidish Rebbe had a Gabbai, an aid, that had torn shoes, so he decided to collect money to buy this man new shoes. He collected money and he put it in his drawer, planning to give it to the man the next day. But the next morning, the money was missing. Somehow, he was able to figure out that it was this Gabbai that stole the money. He called the Gabbai in and said, “Silly! If you would have waited a little longer, you would have gotten the money legally. You can only get money if you were supposed to get it. Why did you grab it? You were supposed to get it legally.”
That’s the yessod/principle here. The first step of the Ten Commandments is to realize “I’m in charge-There’s nothing you can take if you’re not supposed to get it.”
We’ll end with one of my favorite stories, that any veteran listener must have heard already:
When I was young, I attended the Yeshiva of Spring Valley Elementary School. They had an excellent English department, and I must thank them for my ability to understand any secular subject. As in all good schools, we had to choose famous figures, read books about them and write book reports. I chose Harry Houdini (who was actually named Harry Weiss, but we will save that story for another time), and Lucky Luciano. Lucky was a mafia boss responsible for the death of many people, and he was put in jail for his crimes. During World War II, however, he was very helpful to the country. Because the mafia ran the docks and ports, they helped catch Nazis and spies. So, in appreciation for what he did, the government sent him back to Sicily.
At the end of his life, Lucky Luciano was asked by his biographer what his take-away lesson on his life was, as an 80-year-old, accomplished mafia boss.
He said, “I ran a very good company (organized crime is an organized company). With the same amount of effort that it took to make an illegal dollar, I could have made a legal dollar. I could have been the CEO of IBM. I could have run a fortune 500 company. I used all of my abilities to run an illegal company. With the same amount of effort that I put in for an illegal dollar, I could have made a legal dollar.”
That is really our fundamental here. If you’re going to get something, you’ll get it legally, and if you’re not going to get it, you won’t get it illegally either.
You might as well take the legal path.
Have a Shabbat Shalom.