The Ark of Yosef and the Ark of the Covenant
STUDENT
SUMMARIES OF SICHOT OF THE ROSHEI YESHIVA
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With
gratitude and in honor of the bar mitzvah,
this year b'ezrat Hashem, of our
twin sons,
Michael and Joshua - Steven Weiner and Lisa
Wise
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This shiur is
dedicated by Drs. Jerry and Barbara Belsh.
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Parashat
beshalach
SICHA OF HARAV MOSHEH
LICHTENSTEIN SHLIT"A
The Ark of Yosef and
the Ark of the Covenant
Adapted by
Parashat
Beshalach begins with the
exodus from Egypt; the next logical step is direction. The verses describe the Jews as armed;
even though they will not be fighting, they are ready for skirmish. The third verse is somewhat strange
detailing Moshes retrieval of the bones of Yosef. This seemingly insignificant detail is
linked to their leaving: the nation leaves with arms, Moshe leaves with a
corpse. Now, this could have been
tucked away in a narrative somewhere earlier (while discussing the gold and
silver) or later (when Yosef is reburied).
For some reason, the Torah wishes to emphasize Yosef and the fact that
this was Moshes individual project; it is not the nation taking Yosef, but
Moshe and only Moshe.
The Gemara
(Sota 13a-b) assumes that this account expresses a criticism of the
nation:
Our
Rabbis have taught: Come and see how beloved were the mitzvot upon Moshe
our teacher; for whereas all the Israelites occupied themselves with the spoils,
he occupied himself with the mitzvot, as it is said: The wise in heart
will receive mitzvot (Mishlei 10:8), etc.
At the time of the
messianic redemption, there will be some experiencing the Shekhina, and
others peddling T-shirts and souvenirs.
This is the message of the Gemara.
True, they had license to collect these possessions, but their order of
priorities was misplaced.
We need to address an
additional point: Moshe is coming full circle. To examine this, we need to contrast
Yosef and Moshe. Theres an
astonishing Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni, Vaetchanan 814) that he
who was identified with the land [Yosef] shall be buried there; he who was not
identified with it [Moshe], shall not be buried there. Both of our characters are
fugitives. Moshe conceals his
identity at the well, addressed as an Egyptian by the daughters of Yitro. On the level of peshat, this
makes sense he is undercover, running scared from the Egyptian secret
police. But Chazal found here a
layer of criticism, as he was willing to fully adopt this identity.
Yosef, on the other
hand, is in an even worse spot being in prison in ancient Egypt, he does not
require much imagination to assume the worst is in store for him. Yosefs striking characteristic is his
burning ambition he wants recognition and power, and ends up at a dead
end. He becomes a slave, and then
falls even lower. His dreams seem
forgotten, his ambitions destroyed.
Yosef, we must remember, has a dream which the Ramban sees as a
prophecy (Bereshit 42:9, s.v. va-yizkor) and when, out of nowhere,
Pharaoh summons him, imagine his feelings: his ambitions are about to
realized. He has two options life
or death, and everything is in Pharaohs hands. Presumably, Yosefs fate rests in his
ability to find favor in Pharaohs eyes his life and his dreams are balanced
on the edge of a knife. Yet, in the
chapter just before that episode, what does he do? How does he characterize himself to the
sar ha-mashkim, the butler?
He states forthrightly that his identity is as a Jew (40:15)! He is proud of being a Jew. Later, he presents his brothers to
Pharaoh (47:1-6), taking pride in his affiliation. And when he dies, his sole wish is to be
returned to the Land of Israel (50:25).
Not the land where he served, not land where he ruled, but the land of
his dreams. Chazal perceive
a struggle between Pharaoh and Yosef over the burial of Yaakov it is a
struggle of identity.
To go back to our
midrash, Yosef wore his Jewishness on his sleeve; Moshe did not. The
midrash, strikingly extreme in its willingness to criticize Moshe, notes
this fact as the reason, midda ke-negged midda, measure for measure, for
Moshes inability to enter the Land, even to be buried
there.
Yosefs actions are
startling even the slightest bit of antisemitism, and his plan would have
failed. Why go out on this limb,
seemingly unnecessarily? Moshe is
almost the reverse he abandons his people, his faith, his connection. Rashi (Shemot 2:14, s.v.
akhen) quotes the Midrash that Moshe, after speaking to the two
Jews who were fighting with each other, understood that the nation
deserved to be enslaved:
A
midrashic explanation is this: [Moshe said to himself,] Now is known to me that
matter about which I had been puzzled how has Israel sinned more than all
seventy nations, that they should be oppressed by this crushing servitude? But now I see that they deserve
this.
He loses faith in
people, in history and destiny, and wanders off to the desert, alone for many
years. Here he stays, devoid of any
human contact, let alone identification with the Jewish people. When it is time to return, he tells
Yitro something ambiguous:
And Moshe went and
returned to Yitro his father-in-law, and said to him, Let me go, I beseech you,
and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still
alive. And Yitro said to Moshe, Go in peace. (4:18)
Is he describing
their suffering, or a broader quest for reconnection to the people? Are the Jews alive; is their destiny
still beckoning? God must come and
motivate Moshe, put him on the track towards recognizing the God of his
forefathers, the God of history, not the philosophical/esoteric God. The identification of Moshe as an
ish Mitzri, an Egyptian man (Shemot 2:19), wasnt just
coincidence or disguise. It was his
abandonment of Jewish identity to engage with God, yes, but this was a
detachment nonetheless.
Later, Moshe comes
full cycle in cheit ha-egel, the sin of the golden calf. Moshe has
absorbed the lesson of the seneh, the burning bush God is the God of
the forefathers and he reminds God, as it were. He understands that his role is to come
back to the seneh, not alone, but as a nation. This is the background for our cursory
analysis.
By fulfilling Yosefs
directive, Moshe redeems himself as well.
There was a constant glimmer of hope and destiny stirring within the
nation. Chazal speak about
this, but it appears to be clear there was an oral tradition of redemption;
Gods message to Moshe presupposes some expectation on the part of the
nation. Where did this begin? Yosef himself, at the end of
Sefer Bereishit, foresees and foretells this. He transmits this with an oath on his
deathbed (Bereishit 50:25).
Nobody would take an oath in vain minutes before being judged; this
reflects his deep inner conviction about the future redemption. Additionally, Yosef would have had the
option of a royal burial, yet he sacrifices the pomp and glory for an aron
be-Mitzrayim, a casket in Egypt (50:26), which could be transferred to
another land. The commentators
explain that the aron, the ark of the covenant, had permanent poles for a
similar reason so it could be taken anywhere at a moments notice. Yosef is convinced of redemption and
acts accordingly. Let us remember
his biography his life was a tunnel with, seemingly, no end: first with
Potiphars wife, then with jail.
And yet, out of nowhere, the sun rose. Yosefs life is, itself, this very
message!
And when Moshe takes
Yosef, it is not just gratitude to Yosef, but out of a recognition of this very
redemption. For the entire
servitude, Yosefs aron was the only sign metaphorically and physically
of the coming redemption. It
remained a mere aron, waiting for the day of its transfer. And Moshe now takes it with him. Let us return to the
Gemara:
But how
did Moshe know the place where Yosef was buried? It is related that Serach, daughter of
Asher, was a survivor of that generation. Moses went to her and asked: Do you
know where Yosef was buried? She answered him, The Egyptians made a metal
coffin for him which they fixed in the river Nile so that its waters should be
blessed. Moshe went and stood on the bank of the Nile and exclaimed: Yosef,
Yosef! the time has arrived which the Holy One, blessed be He, swore, I will
deliver you, and the oath which you imposed upon the Israelites has reached
[the time of fulfillment]; if you will show yourself, well and good; otherwise,
behold, we are free of your oath.
Chazal add elements
of tension: Moshe must appeal to Yosef, giving his aron a choice. They perceived a struggle of
identity. The Rav zl liked
to mention how the French were insulted when Rothschild insisted on being buried
in Zikhron Yaakov. They had thought
that the wealthy businessman and philanthropist was one of them! But the ultimate sign of identity is
burial, the house for eternity.
When all is said and done, your identity is where you lie in your
death. The Egyptians wanted Yosef
to be one of them, so they sunk him in the Nile, a symbol of Egypt.
Another opinion
deepens this attempt to swing Yosef to the Egyptian
nation:
Rabbi
Natan says: He was buried in the sepulcher of the kings.
Even more strikingly,
he was buried a pyramid the most recognizable symbol of
Egypt.
Moshe comes to Yosef
and asks him: Are you Egyptian or Jewish?
Knowing Yosef, we are not surprised by the answer.
Immediately,
Yosefs coffin floated [to the surface]
.
At that moment, Yosefs coffin shook, and Moshe took it and carried it
with him. All those years that the Israelites were in the wilderness, those two
arks, one of the dead [i.e., Yosefs coffin] and the other of the Shekhina
[i.e., the Ark of the Covenant], proceeded side by side, and passersby used
to ask: What is the nature of those two arks? They received the reply: One is
of the dead and the other of the Shekhina.
Strikingly, this
Gemara draws a linguistic and conceptual parallel between the two
aronot, the Ark and the casket.
Why and how do these go together?
They are incongruous! Would
we place a corpse in a shul?! The
Gemara asks this very question:
But is
it, then, the way of the dead to proceed with the Shekhina? They were told, This one
[Yosef] fulfilled all that was written in that one.
I would answer
differently. It is not that Yosef
fulfilled, but he brought about the aron ha-kodesh! In effect, he created the other
aron. These two
aronot represent two different ideas: in one box, we have God above
history, the desert, the luchot (tablets), kedusha (sanctity)
alone; in the other, we have kedusha within history, the Land and its
destiny. This is the combination of
Torah and Eretz Yisrael, Torah and the Jewish people. Yosef epitomized the Land and the
People, and it is this combination with the luchot that is Chazals
vision of travelling to Eretz Yisrael.
It is not an aron shel met, the casket of a deceased person, but
an aron chai the living body of Jewish identity and continuity. This is the message of the dual
aronot.
Moshe realizes this, and needs to bear the two aronot to redeem
his own identity. Yosef is not the
only one answering: I am a Jew!
Moshe has heard the question, and is answering too. Torat chayim, the living Torah,
and Am Yisrael chai, the living Jewish people, walk hand in hand. The idea of Moshe, greatest of all
prophets, taking personal care of aron Yosef means combining the vision
of history, identity, destiny and the Land, with its twin, Torah.
At times, there have
been groups that espoused Land without Torah classic Zionism, Herzl, Ben
Gurion. This was a fight to return,
to struggle and sacrifice for the Land, but one devoid of religion. Rav Kook accurately referred to them
Mashiach ben Yosef. But
there also exist groups espousing the opposite approach: Torat Moshe
without the ideal of Yosef, Torah without struggle and sacrifice for the nation
and the land.
In our
haftara, we read how Devora criticizes the other tribes for not coming to
war:
Why
then did you sit among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleating of the flocks? For
the divisions of Reuven there were great searchings of heart. Gilad dwells beyond the Jordan; and why
did Dan remain by the ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode by his
bays. (Shoftim
5:16-17)
Most of these tribes
appear to be looking for comfort.
Sitting at home and watching television is always easier than fighting in
the Gilad. But there is another
group, whose role is somewhat unclear:
Cursed
be Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse bitterly its inhabitants; because
they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the
mighty men. (5:23)
Based in part on
Moed Katan 16a, we can explain that these were righteous people, careful
about kashrut and other mitzvot, but they had disengaged from the
nation, refusing to join in battle at a time of danger. In the Rambams words, they were
poresh mi-darkhei tzibbur, people who separated themselves from the
ways of the community (Hilkhot Teshuva 3:11). For this they are excommunicated they
will not engage with others, and others should not engage with them.
The ideas of the dual
aronot is to combine these two elements.
I would like to add
another point in conclusion. I have
spoken about extremes of the one idea without the other. However, it is also possible to possess
both values, but in varying degrees both in Zionism and in Modern
Orthodoxy. The proper balance
requires both ideas. On the one
hand, we emphasize an intense Torah education, deep and committed. This requires the ideal of keviat
ittim, setting aside time for Torah study, be it in the study of
Tanakh, Ketzot, Chiddushei Rabbenu Chaim, or
Daf Yomi it must become part of your daily routine and
life. But this is not enough. A proper education requires being
identified with the Land. This is
essential not only when you are here in Israel, but even when you return to the
Diaspora.
What do I mean by
identifying with the Land? Not
just reading the paper in the mornings.
You must live by the Lands rhythms; it should become part of your
mentality. You should feel hurt by
attacks here, unable to be happy that whole day. You should follow the elections and the
economic struggle, not only on Wall Street, but here. You are a part of the nation from afar
maybe, but a part nonetheless. The
Internet should be used not only for the Virtual Beit Midrash, but for Israeli
newspapers. This ideal is Yosefs
prophecy he had no other choice but for his bones to make it to Israel. Live people can bring their bones along
with the rest of them to this land.
Let me be clear. Living here has spiritual fulfillment in
any profession in which one is engaged.
Of course, this is all true anywhere chessed is possible
throughout the world. But an
engineer in Yerushalayim is building the land, a part of Jewish development and
history. Building a subway system
in New York is working for a government; building a skyscraper in England is
working for a queen, a nation. But
it will not be linked to Jewish pride.
If this is true of an
engineer, how much more so regarding those working for social justice. Social workers here are not just aiding
the individual, but they are building a society in accordance with Yeshayahu and
the prophets. In the Diaspora,
there is less of a communal element, and certainly no national aspect. Living and working here builds a
nation. You go back to the Diaspora
as Yosefs, but like Yosef, you must retain the plan and the dream to
return. The point is to recognize
how to combine the two aronot; if it was true in the desert, it is still
true today: twinning the aron of Torah with the aron of Am
Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael.
(This sicha was
delivered to Overseas Students at