The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.
R' Frand began the vort by quoting the pasuk in Shemos 6:5 - וְגַ֣ם | אֲנִ֣י שָׁמַ֗עְתִּי אֶת־נַֽאֲקַת֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר מִצְרַ֖יִם מַֽעֲבִדִ֣ים אֹתָ֑ם. The pasuk begins with the words - וְגַ֣ם | אֲנִ֣י שָׁמַ֗עְתִּי - and also I heard. R' Frand quoted the Chassam Sofer who asked - who else heard the cries of the Jews?
The Chassam Sofer explains that the Egyptians were so cruel that they would not allow the Jews to cry about their troubles. The only exception was when Pharaoh died they were allowed to cry, although their tears were for their tragedies and not Pharaoh's death.
R' Frand observed that when someone is generally undergoing troubles, it is hard to be sympathetic to someone else's troubles. It's not that the person is callous, it's just that when a person is in pain, he does not necessarily feel someone else's pain.
However in Egypt the Jews were able to do just that. Not only did they cry about their individual troubles, but they were able to cry about other people's troubles as well. It was this crying for others that Hashem said "I also heard" - I have people's crying for themselves and that they can still cry for others as well.
R' Frand tied this into a story in the sefer L'Mromem about R' Gud Eisner (sp?). He had been in the camps towards the end of the Holocaust at a time when the Nazis knew the end was near. They ordered the weak prisoners to march through the snow in a "death march" where anyone who fell was immediately shot.
R' Eisner was marching with his friend R' Nechemia Blustein when R' Eisner felt that he had no more energy and he fell to the ground. R' Nechemia yelled at him "Gudele, run." And he got up and began running and was not shot. He lived through the march and eventually became the Mashgiach at the Yeshivas Sfas Emes.
R' Eisner said that he learned three things from this: (1) that everyone has hidden strengths that just need to be unlocked as he did not know that he could push through; (2) that encouragement has the power to help someone who is down get back up, and (3) that knowing that someone else cares is significant enough to help someone persevere.
R' Frand closed the vort by acknowledging that we live in a world where people are very lonely. This is not just a COVID, or post-COVID effect. He observed that when you see people on a train or a plane they are all absorbed in their screens and he theorized that the smart phone and internet cause people to feel isolated and alone because others are not interacting with them. But a little encouragement and showing that you care can be enough to help someone who is lonely feel that they are no longer by themselves.
If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!
No comments:
Post a Comment