Parshas Va’era

You Have Something of Mine and I Have Something of Yours

 

“These are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their generations: Gershon, Kehos, and Merari….” (Shmos 6:16)

In 1895 there was a terrible fire in the city of Brisk. Rav Chaim Soloveitchik zt”l spent day and night, devoting himself to help his fellow Jews. At night, Rav Chaim did not go home to sleep in his comfortable bed. Rather he slept on the floor of the shul. He said how could he sleep in comfort when so many fellow Jews did not even have a roof over their heads.

Early one Friday morning, the Plotnik family loaded up the van and drove to their summer house in the country. After unloading the van, Zev Plotnik got back on the road and headed to the nearest Walmart, half an hour away, to stock up on the basics. That first Walmart run of the summer was always a huge one, and Zev’s wagon was soon piled high with items. One by one, Zev unloaded the items onto the conveyer belt. When it was time to pay, Zev reached into his pocket but was unable to find his wallet. “I left it in the house!” he realized. There was no time to go back and get it. The people waiting on the line were getting impatient. One person in line, a religious Jew, stepped up and tapped his credit card on the scanner. “You can pay me back,” he told the startled and grateful Zev. “You know each other?” asked the amazed cashier. “We never met,” said the kind stranger.

The amazing thing about this story is that it’s not an isolated incident. Every day, Jewish people feel for each other’s needs and step up to save the day, because that’s how brothers and sisters take care of each other. (Aderaba Newsletter, Parshas Vayechi, of the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation)

The Torah lists the children of Reuven, Shimon, and Levi. …the sons of Reuven…The sons of Shimon…These are the names of the sons of Levi…. (6:14-16). When listing Levi’s children, the Torah changes its wording, “These are the names”. Why? The Shelah gives a beautiful explanation. Levi foresaw through Divine inspiration that his descendants would not be subject to the suffering of the backbreaking labor imposed upon the Jews by the Egyptians. Levi wanted, in some way, to show his empathy and compassion for the pain that the rest of the Jewish People would feel. Therefore, he hinted to their exile and suffering in the names of his own children. He called his first son Gershon because the Jewish People were gerim, strangers in a land that was not theirs. He called his second son Kehas because the teeth of the Jews kahu, became blunted or rotted from suffering. His third son he called Merari because the Egyptians mararu, embittered the lives of the Jewish People.

The Shelah says that we see from this the importance of joining with and participating in the pain of the tzibur, of the community. Even if one is personally removed and immune from the painful situation, one should do something to join in their pain. I personally know someone who had stopped listening to music because of the events that occurred on October 7th. She said that she would not listen to music again, until the hostages were freed. I know another person who stopped eating cake, while waiting for the hostages to be freed.

Rav Yechezkel Levenstein zt”l, mashgiach, spiritual leader of Ponevezh Yeshiva, told his students that feeling the pain and worry of others is also part of the mitzvah and obligation to love another as oneself. One must feel the pain of another as if he was a member of your family.

HaGaon HaRav Dovid Yosef spoke about the release of the three hostages in his weekly shiur broadcast on Kol B’Ramah Radio. “We’re all moved [by the release] of several hostages, who were in a pit, like Yosef hatzadik, for over a year… We rejoice in their happiness… “It’s still only the beginning of the way and I think we still need many, many tefillos. Today, each one of us should feel the pain of those who are still there, …. Each one of us should feel as if it’s our children who are there because ‘Acheinu Bnei Yisrael’ and we should daven that no harm befalls them.” (Yeshiva World News)

It says in Tomer Devora that this is the type of relationship that Hashem has with us. Hashem loves us so very much! When we are in pain or when Hashem must punish us then Hashem “feels” our pain, so to speak. This is how we should feel towards our fellow Jews. We all come from the same neshama, soul. There is a piece of our neshama in every Jew and a piece of their neshamos, in ours. When we show goodness to our friend in essence, we are doing goodness to ourselves. When our friend feels pain, it is also literally our pain, as our neshama within that person feels the pain. The mitzvah and obligation to “Love your fellow Jew as yourself”, is in essence, love your neighbor because that is yourself!

(based on a dvar Torah in Yalkut Lekach Tov by Rabbi Yaakov Yisroel Beifuss)

We must feel the pain of a fellow Jew. His pain should be our pain. That is part of the mitzvah that we must love our fellow Jew as ourselves. In reality, it is showing love to ourselves as we all come from one neshama and there is a part of our own neshama in every Jew.