Just As You Are With Me…

 

When God spoke to Moshe (Moses) at the burning bush, He revealed His holy Name “Ehiyeh Asher Ehiyah – I will be as I will be” (Shemot 3:14).  According to the Midrash, (see Rabbeinu Bachaya on Bereishit 2:4, and Shnei Luchot Habrit, at the beginning of Sha’ar HaGadol) God was telling Moshe:  “Just as you will be with Me, so I (Hashem) will be with you.”  In other words, the way we relate to God determines the way that God will relate to us.  If we use a particular midah (character trait) to serve God, God will show us that same midah.  To the degree that we struggle to overcome our evil inclination and to do good, that is the extent to which God will shine His light upon us.

 

In describing Yaakov’s (Jacob’s) dream, the Torah writes: “He dreamt, and behold, there was a ladder standing upon the earth, with its head reaching to the heavens, and the angels of God were going up and down upon it” (Bereishit 28:12).  But it is possible to read these words with a different twist: “the angels of God were going up and down upon him” – upon Yaakov!  The implication is that a human being is like a ladder joining heaven and earth.  Even when a person is standing on the earth, his head reaches to the highest heavens, and hence his words and actions can affect all the worlds  (See Toldot Yaakov Yosef, Ekev, p.181, and Kedushat Levi, Beshalach, s.v. “Hinei yadua beshem HaBaal Shem Tov”).

 

Dovid Hamelech (King Dovid) alluded to this idea when he said, “God is your shadow” (Tehillim 121:5).  Just as a shadow mimics a person’s movements precisely, so too the way God treats us is a reflection of our own behaviour.  If we treat our family and friends in a certain way – be it with anger and criticism or with patience and kindness – we create a pattern that God will follow in dealing with us.  For example, the Gemara says, “When a person shows compassion to others, heaven will show compassion to him” (Shabbat 151b).  This is especially true of Tzaddikim, who are often confronted by opposition and hostility, as described by the verse: “the wicked circle around” (Tehillim 12:9).   But when a Tzaddik treats his opponents with love and compassion, God will treat him in the same way.

 

 

The Torah tells us that “God spoke to Moshe face to face…” (Shemot 33:11).  The Baal Shem Tov compares this to a person who looks at his reflection in a pool of water.  When he stands upright, he can see his reflection, but it will appear somewhat distant.  As he bends down, his image will move closer, and when he lowers himself all the way to the water, his reflection will be literally “face to face” (Baal Shem Tov al HaTorah, Ki Sisa, 15, from the sefer Ohr HaChochmah).

           

God is great, so much higher than what the human intellect can comprehend, that it would be impossible for us to know anything about Him through the power of our own minds.  Yet because God has a great love for His children – a love that is beyond human understanding – and because the Jewish people were His first thought in creating the world, God gives us the possibility of searching for Him and knowing something of His ways.  But in doing so, God must lower Himself, so to speak, to a level we can understand.  If we are humble, we awaken God’s own “humility,” and so He descends from His true greatness to meet us at our level.  Since Moshe was the humblest man on earth, God responded by “humbling” Himself, and He spoke with Moshe face to face, just as a person speaks with his friend.

 

Thus it is precisely by conducting ourselves with humility that we are able to bring God into our lives.  True closeness to God, true spiritual greatness, is always accompanied by humility; and this is the meaning of an interesting connection between the end of the Torah and its very beginning (Mishmeret Itamar).  The last verses of the Torah speak of Moshe’s awesome and unparalleled greatness: “And there never arose another prophet in Israel like Moshe, whom God knew fact to face.  (Nor anyone whose deeds could be compared) to all the signs and wonders that God sent him to do in the land of Egypt…and to all the might and all the tremendous awe (of the deeds) that Moshe performed in the sight of all Israel” (Devarim 34:10-12).

 

When the Torah is read in public and we reach these concluding verses, we turn almost immediately back to the very beginning of the Torah and the word Bereishit, “In the beginning…” (Bereishit 1:1).  Since the end is connected to the beginning there also should be a connection in their contents, and we may expect to find an allusion in the word Bereishit that will help us to understand Moshe’s greatness.

           

The allusion is the following: The letters of the word Bereishit can be rearranged to form the word BeShe’eirit, which means “among the remnants” or “with the remnants.”  In other words, although Moshe was a unique prophet who performed awesome miracles, he stayed utterly humble.  He regarded himself as nothing more than a “remnant” or a “leftover” – like some unimportant person who stands to the side.  The truth, however, is that because Moshe was so humble he could perform all the miracles of the exodus.  Thus the beginning of the Torah explains the end: Bereishit tells us why Moshe had the ability to perform the awesome miracles of the exodus “in the sight of all Israel.”

 

Similarly, the Torah says, “And you (Moshe) shall take this staff in your hand, with which you will perform the wonders” (Shemot 4:17).  The Hebrew word for “staff,” mateh is related to the word for “bending,” hatiyah.  In other words, Moshe’s humility, the fact that he bent himself low before God, was the trait that allowed him to perform miracles and to redeem the Jewish people from Egypt.

 

 

It is true that none of us can imitate Moshe’s humility.   Nevertheless, each of us, by working to become more humble, can bring God closer, as it is written:  “I will dwell with the lowly and the humble” (Yeshayahu 57:15).  And when God is close to us, He will help us to keep His mitzvot and to do His will.

 

How is God’s help manifest in our lives?  Sometimes, in the midst of a trial, just as we feel we are about to succumb, God sends us a thought, a verse, or a quote from Chazal that gives us the strength to overcome the challenge.  It might even be a fear of physical or spiritual punishment.  But God “Clothes” Himself in such thoughts, and in doing so, He gives us the strength to continue.  This is a sign of God’s own “humility,” for He must “lower Himself” in order to speak to us on our own level.  Hence it only a humble person who merits such help from above.

           

An arrogant person, on the other hand, pushes God away.  He does not arouse God’s humility, and so God does not “come down” To “clothe” Himself in his thoughts.  “I cannot dwell together with him,” God says about such a person (Sotah 5a).  Hence, when an arrogant person is faced with a test, he receives no help from above, and he fails (See Rabbeinu Yonah, Sha’arei Teshuvah).

 

 

(Excerpt from The Scent of Gan Eden, by Rabbi Yaakov Meir Shechter, Keren Ohr Publications. Used with author’s permission.)