Patience and Imagination: Ingredients for Redemption

 Why didn’t the Jews listen to and rejoice in the news of redemption that Moshe was spreading? Didn’t they want to leave Egypt, or at the very least be free from the slavery in which they currently found themselves? The Torah itself gives us the answer (Shemot 6:9):

Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel, but they did not hearken to Moses because of [their] shortness of breath and because of [their] hard labor.

Bnai Yisrael did not listen to Moshe due to two factors: the hard work, and “Kotzer Ruach.” A type of “shortness of breath” What exactly is Kotzer Ruach?

According to some commentators, Kotzer Ruach refers to a lack of perspective. As much as they may have wanted to, Bnai Yisrael were unable to see beyond their current reality. It is possible to be so entrenched in a situation that one cannot imagine anything different.

In Key West, there is a beautiful building designed over 100 years ago by William Freret of New York, the Supervising Architect of the United States Government at that time. This building has a number of unusual features. For one, the building has a tin roof. The architect felt that a tin roof would be most beneficial in capturing the huge amounts of snow and helping to quickly melt it into drinking water for the use of the building’s employees. The building was also equipped with eleven huge hearth fireplaces, capable of keeping the building warm through the fiercest of winters.

This impressive building with its shiny tin roof and fireplaces sits in Key West, Florida as testimony to the difficulty man has in adapting to new environments and situations.

Bnei Yisrael may have wanted freedom. But this desire was tainted by an inability to truly envision the reality of their freedom. Kotzer ruach occurs when the comfort of familiarity overpowers any goals for the future. We may want something, and yet be stymied by unwillingness or inability to imagine what that goal would actually look like when realized.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, whose yahrzeit was Friday, explains that “kotzer ruach” refers to impatience. The Jews may have desired to be free, but could not wait for a process to unfold. They wanted immediate gratification. For Bnai Yisrael it was “now or never”- if freedom could not be achieved right now, then it might as well never occur. Impatience was an ongoing problem for Bnai Yisrael during the early stages of their development. For example, no matter how one understands the sin of the Golden Calf, the precipitating cause was the Jewish People’s impatience.

The American poet W.H. Auden wrote, “Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.” Impatience breeds fear, stress and discouragement. Around this time of year many Americans make resolutions for the new secular year. Many of us may follow suit or just review those resolutions we may have made almost 4 months ago on Rosh Hashana. The greatest impediment to fulfilling resolutions is impatience. When results do not come as quickly as we would like, we give up. This is the attitude of kotzer ruach that Bnei Yisrael suffered in Egypt. And this is the kotzer ruach that we must be mindful of in our pursuit of success.

Along with hard work and help from Hashem, a desire is crucial for success. But that desire must not be tainted with Kotzer Ruach. When striving for our goals, we have to be able to envision what actual success will look like, while at the same time remaining patient. 

The Dignity of Difference

 The opening of Sefer Shemot raises one of the most unsettling questions in Jewish history: how did the Jewish people descend from honored guests to oppressed slaves? Chazal describe a slow and calculated beginning. Pharaoh did not start with whips. He began with opportunity. “Whoever produces a brick will receive a shekel.” Fair wages. Public projects. A chance to succeed. The Midrash notes that Jews worked themselves to exhaustion, driven by incentive, ambition and a desire to fit it. Only later, once their strength and spirit were weakened, did slavery fully take hold. But Shemot is not merely a historical telling of our exile. It is Sefer HaGeulah, the Book of Redemption. Sefer Shemot is a guidebook for how to navigate, and ultimately extricate ourselves from, exile.

In describing why something needs to be done with the Jews Pharaoh says, “lest they increase… and leave the land,” Sforno reads this not as a fear but as an objective: let us make them leave the land. Pharaoh wanted the Jews gone; not because they were failing to integrate, but because they were integrating too well. “Va’timaleh ha’aretz otam” “the land was filled with them.” Jews were no longer confined to Goshen. They were becoming prominent in Egyptian society, culture, and commerce. This visibility made the Egyptians uneasy. Paula Fredriksen, the renowned historian of early Christianity, makes an important observation: One of the earliest roots of antisemitism is not Jewish difference alone, but Jewish refusal to fully assimilate. Jews live among the nations, contribute to society, and yet insist on remaining distinct. That combination, participation without full acculturation, has always unsettled host societies.

Pharaoh sensed this tension. The Jews were present everywhere, but they were not Egyptians. When crisis would come, Pharaoh feared they would remain distinct. His solution was not immediate expulsion, but pressure. His plan was to make life difficult enough that the Jews would choose to leave on their own. But they didn’t. Why didn’t Bnei Yisrael simply return to Canaan? In Shemot the Torah describes Jewish growth using several verbs, including “va’yishretzu.” While usually translated as “they swarmed,” Sforno links it to sheratzim, creeping creatures. After Yaakov’s immediate family died, the Jews began to lose their inner dignity. Detached from their roots and their mission, they no longer saw themselves as carriers of a sacred identity. They began to see themselves like creeping insects i.e.  small, dependent, and insignificant. Once a people loses self-respect, enemies and opportunists will take advantage. This can explain why Bnei Yisrael didn’t just leave Egypt. They no longer believed they deserved better. It also explains why Moshe struggled to inspire them with his message of redemption. The Torah says they could not hear it due to “shortness of breath and hard labor”. It was not only physical exhaustion, but their inability to hear was due to spiritual constriction and decreased sense of self-worth. Slavery had already taken root within the Jewish People.This tension appears already in the very first verse of Shemot: “Ve’eleh shemot Bnei Yisrael haba’im Mitzrayma” “the children of Israel coming to Egypt. But the Jews had already arrived in Egypt. Why the present tense? Many explain that The Jews in Egypt never fully arrived; they never entirely belonged. Rabbi Nissan Alpert notes that the verse ends with “et Yaakov”; they came with their patriarch. As long as Yaakov’s presence, values, and vision accompanied them, they were protected from the spiritual descent associated with Egypt. The tragedy was not that Jews lived among Egyptians. It was that they began to forget why they were different. While antisemitism often erupts when Jews refuse to assimilate, Jewish survival depends on that refusal. Shemot reminds us of the balance that is essential to Jewish identity: engage the world, contribute to society, be present and also remain distinct and proud of our differences. Exile becomes dangerous not when we highlight what makes us different as Jews, but when we forget why we must remain so.

Actions May Be Loud, But Words Are Also Necessary

After all the trials and challenges that Yosef experiences over the course of the past three Torah portions, Parshat Vayechi ends off on a note that seems to add insult to all of the previous injuries. Yosef was able to arrange for the burial of his father Yaakov back in Israel, instead of Egypt. On their way home from the funeral Joseph’s brother once again conspire against him: “They said, ‘perhaps Joseph will nurse hatred against us and then he will surely repay us all of the evil that we did to him.” To protect against that possibility they inform Yosef of a message their father Yaakov wanted him to know: Forgive your brothers. Were the brothers justified in having such a fear, or were they just slipping into old patterns in their thinking about their younger brother? Yosef responds by crying. Yosef cries at being unfairly suspected of wrongdoing. The brothers are not the first to be suspicious of Yosef, even at this late juncture in the story. The Talmud in Masechet Kallah (3a) develops an approach that views Yaakov as also being suspicious of Yosef’s righteousness at the initial meeting after decades of separation.

In last week’s Parsha (46:29) we read how during the reunion between Yaakov and Yosef, “Vayipol Al Tzavarav, Vayevk al tzavarav od.” “He fell on his neck, and he cried on his neck.”

The verse is ambiguous. Most commentators understand that Yaakov fell on his son’s neck, and Yosef cried in response. However Masechet Kalah explains that Yosef does both: Yosef fell on his father’s neck and Yosef wanted to kiss Yaakov. However Yaakov refused to be kissed by Yosef, as he would not allow himself to be kissed by someone whom he suspected of impropriety. Upon seeing that his display of affection would be rebuffed, Yosef cries in frustration at the injustice of it all. Masechet Kallah utilizes this approach to explain why at the time of Yaakov’s death we are told:

“Yosef fell on his father’s face, he wept over him and he kissed him.”

As Masechet Kallah puts it, “Yosef said, “I have been in the presence of my father for all these years and I have not kissed him. Now when I am about to bury him, should I not kiss him?” After all Yosef did for them, why does his family still suspect him of wrongdoing? 

The answer is that although Yosef never once said the three words that would have cleared everything up, “I forgive you.” Sure, he says to his brothers, “It was all part of G-d’s plan, don’t worry about it.” But we all know that if a person responds to an apology by saying “don’t worry about it” – then we definitely have something to worry about. Yosef takes care of his father, but it appears that Yosef never sits down with his father to clear the air. If they had, then Yaakov would have realized the extent of Yosef’s righteousness and would not have suspected him of any wrongdoing. Instead of directly communicating, Yosef attempted to show his feelings through actions, but he had difficulty expressing himself. The man who had been dubbed Tzafnat Paneach, (revealer of secrets) could reveal other people’s secrets through dream interpretation. But he had a much more difficult time clearly revealing his feelings to others. There is an old adage that talk is cheap, and that what really counts is action. Nonetheless our words must be used to frame our actions. Actions can be misunderstood, words are much more difficult to misconstrue. Pirkei Avot says to say little and do much. Your words should be fewer than your actions- but you still need to say something! We must express ourselves, especially to our loved ones. Yosef may have done all the right things, but he failed to say the right things, to verbalize those feelings in a way that would have been clear and unambiguous. As we navigate the challenges of interpersonal relationships let us be ready and willing to not only do what needs to be done, but to say what needs to be said.