Welcome to SIMHA Wellness Minute. The Middah Rabbah, when talking about Moshe Rabbenu’s Noseh B’Ol ( Shemot א, Piska 27), says that Hashem points out Moshe Rabbenu’s greatness and says, “You left your business to see the suffering of Jewish people. I'm going leave the heavens and come down and talk to you.”
What exactly does it mean that, “You left your business?”
Rav Chaim Friedlander, in his sefer Sivtei Chaim, explains that we have difficulty empathizing because we are constantly stuck in ourselves. We are egoistic and focused on our own problems. And since we're always on our minds, we can't possibly think about anybody else.
We're always thinking, “What's my benefit?” He says, that's why it says about Moshe Rabbenu, “He left his business.” It means that he got out of his own self, and into the business of others, not looking at people as strangers, not thinking – This has nothing to do with me, or, What's in it for me?
I recently thought of a different approach to explain You left your business, based on an interesting study that was done at the Princeton University campus. Students were walking from one building on the campus to a neighboring building, where they were supposed to be graded on the quality of the sermon that they were giving. Two psychology researchers were waiting for them halfway between the two buildings. One feined having a heart attack while the other called out to the passing students, “I need help! Can you do CPR?” Some students stopped to help while others rushed off, pretending not to see the sick man. Now, this is a little strange. They were supposed to be on their way to give a sermon, actually on the topic of helping people in distress! Waiting for them in another building were researchers, who asked them, Why didn't you practice what you were about to preach? You were about to give a speech on helping people. Why did you rush by to get to your speech?
The main predictor of who stopped to help and who evaded the responsibility was how much of a rush they were in. The students who felt stressed and in a hurry weren't able to step back and look at the big picture. They weren't able to pay attention.
That's an important point- the Rabbenu Bachye, in Hovot Halevavot, quoting a hasid, asks that “God should help me from being scatterbrained or literally, from the brokenness of the scattering of the soul.”
When a person is not focused, they can't possibly have empathy. The fact is that we're very busy today, and there are studies that show that empathy levels have dropped since technology has been introduced, because, going back to what we originally said about Da’at/to know, to focus, if you're incapable of knowing and focusing, you're incapable of having empathy.
The Baal Shem Tov, on his commentary on the Torah in Parashat Ekev explains,
that we say in Keriat Shema, “You'll be lost (literally) from the land, speedily. Simply, this means that God's going send you into Galut fast. But the Baal Shem Tov has a different explanation: A person always has to be calm and not be in a rush. And that means you will lose that being in a rush. A great source of bad middot can be traced back to being in a rush, because, from a scientific perspective, when a person feels rushed and under pressure, cortisol is released in the brain, which shuts down the thinking part of the brain.
That's why we have to always stay calm and relaxed in order to have empathy.
If we connect the concept of being in a rush and being able to contemplate, we see that it also interferes with our own self-help. The Mesilat Yesharim tells us that Paroah’s main strategy was to cause the Jewish people not to contemplate their ways (And he says that's the way the Yetzer Hara works) by making their workload heavier. If the workload is heavier, you have no time to think, because if you would have time to think, everything would turn around.
This is a very important part of our discussion on Da’at and empathy- the need to be slow it down.
We live in a world of rushing, and being in a rush interferes with everything.
Have a wonderful day.