Welcome to our Shovavim Humility series. We've been going through the progression of the Galut. We started off that when the Jewish people came into Mitzrayim, Yaakov Avinu was only a Ger, as ut says, לגור שם,and the brothers came as Gerim.
Then, as is quoted in the Hagaddah Shel Pesach, from Ki
Tavo,
וַיְהִי שָׁם לְגוֹי. /They were a nation, which means
שֶׁהָיוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל מְצֻיָּנִים שָׁם. גָּדוֹל עָצוּם כְּמָה They were outstanding, they were gadol. They were great. And it quotes from the pasuk שֶּׁנֶּאֱמַר, וּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל פָּרוּ וַיִּשְׁרְצוּ וַיִּרְבּוּ וַיַּעַצְמוּ בִּמְאֹד מְאֹד, וַתִּמָּלֵא הָאָרֶץ אֹתָםThey multiplied and they were strong. They were strong, very, very much. The land was filled with them. But the next pasuk says,
וירעו אתנו מצרים
And the Egyptians did evil to us."
Why? What happened? What caused the change? They went from 'Lagur Sham,' to 'they're doing evil to us?'
The Maharal Diskin explains (based on Midrash Tanhuma Shemot letter six) that it says
וַתִּמָּלֵא הָאָרֶץ אֹתָם/the land was full with them, meaning
שנתמלאו בתי טרטיאות ובתי קרקסיאות מהם, מיד גזרו עליהם /The theaters and circuses were full of them. They were no longer in their ghetto of Goshen. The land was full of them means they no longer felt like they were immigrants and aliens.
And מיד / immediately, says the midrash, the decree came against them.
But what's wrong with going to a theater and a circus? There was probably separate seating, and everything was kosher. And the answer is, it no longer qualifies as Galut. You are no longer humble. You feel you belong everywhere. We went everywhere. We were no longer in Goshen. We spread out all over the place.
Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch on Shemot 1,12 where it says ויקצו, says the Egyptians were disgusted with them. Why? Because wherever they went, Jews were there. When they went to the theater, there were Jews there, when they went to the circus, there were Jews there.
But we don't belong there. It's like the private golf course that used to say, No Jews Allowed, and now they're there and everywhere. And we don't belong everywhere!
That is the job of the host nation- to make us feel, Hey we don't belong here.
I once heard a beautiful thought from Rav Elya Brudny. He asks, Why is it that if you're at the Bronx Zoo and some nice family is there on a Chol Hamoed trip, and the kids leave the ice cream wrappers on the floor, the people say, "Oh my gosh, look at those unruly people!" And they roll their eyes and snicker. But if some immigrant from another country does the same, they don't say anything. Why are we being held more accountable? He answered with a mashal: When you're in your own house, and you decide to leave your robe and pajamas on the floor in your bedroom, that's okay, It's your bedroom. You can do whatever you want. But if a guest walks in and leaves their shoes in the middle of your living room or whatever it may be, it's a little odd. What are they doing? They're a guest. They don't belong here.
And the nimshal is, we don't belong here. The reason we can't do things that other people can do is that we don't belong here. This is Galut. We're only sojourners. And the job of Galut is to remind us to be humbled.
The Sefer Aperion, a commentary on Chumash from the author of Kitzur Shulchan Aruch the says on the pasuk וַיִּרְבּוּ וַיַּעַצְמוּ they were strong, בִּמְאֹד מְאֹד /they were very powerful.
What does it mean In Me'od Me'od
And he says that when the Torah says in Devarim 6,5
ובכל מאודך
Rashi, based on the Mishna says it means with all your money. So ויעצמו במאד means they became very wealthy. And when you become very wealthy, you now have a lot of capabilities. You're able to travel, you're able to do things. And that's when they started feeling overly comfortable.
The Meshech Chochma tells us a beautiful, almost prophetic thought, written 10-20 before the Holocaust.
In his commentary on Vayikra 26,44, he says, what happens in history is that the Jews go to a new country and after being there a little bit too much time, ישכח מחצבתו ויחשב לאזרח רענן, יעזוב לימודי דתו, ללמדו לשונות לא לו, יליף ממקלקלתא ולא יליף מתקנתא They forget where they came from. And they think of themselves as very comfortable citizens and they start to forget their religion.
He was talking about the German Jews at that time, who were extremely cultured, and he said,
יחשוב כי ברלין היא ירושלים/they think Berlin is like Jerusalem. And he says, when that happens, אז יבוא רוח סועה וסער, יעקור אותו מגזעו:/A tornado of a wind will come, and uproot them from where they're rooted.
This is something that repeats itself. History repeats itself. And this is the history of Galut. As was once said, Those that do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
It was that way in the Spanish Inquisition. It was that way throughout the generations. Whenever the Jew forgot that he was a stranger, that he was a sojourner, they'd come and remind us that, as we started our class with, Galut is in the eye of the beholder, and the eye of the receiver. We must view ourselves as, I don't belong here, I'm a stranger. I have to keep a low profile and not demand anything because I'm a visitor.
But once we start demanding, feeling, What about my rights? What about my xyz…it's a problem.
Of course, we live in a democratic country, and we want to have rights, but we have to understand that deep down, this is not where we belong. And as long as we have that understanding, we can go back to a quiet, serene galut like Yitzhak Avinu's Galut. But once we start feeling, Hey, this is mine, the problems start.
This is an important lesson in how to receive Galut and how to stay safe in Galut.