BOOT CAMP
With this week’s Parsha, Shemos, the Egyptian exile begins and will last 210 years. In the final 86 years of this period, the slavery intensifies. This horrid experience was the prelude to our becoming HaShem’s chosen people. How do we understand this? Should HaShem’s chosen people not have great beginnings instead of horrid degrading slavery? What was the purpose of slavery and how did it prepare us for our destiny?
Our Sages teach us that this exile was already predestined several hundred years be-fore. When HaShem told Avraham that his children would inherit the Land of Israel, Avraham asked HaShem how could he know for sure that they would merit the Land. His question was not questioning HaShem’s intent. Rather his question was that per-haps his descendants would not be deserving of the Land. How could he be confident that they would retain their worthiness to be owners of the Land. In response to this question HaShem told Avraham that his descendants would be exiled for a period of 400 years and would rise from that exile with great riches and would inherit the Land. How does the 400 years of exile resolve Avraham’s question? How does an exile ensure that we will forever merit the Land?
In the Parsha of Behar, the Torah teaches us the nature of our relationship to the Land. If one inherits his portion of the Land he has no rights to sell that parcel in perpetuity. It can only be leased for the duration of time until the Yovel year, which oc-curs every 50 years. The reason for this limitation is because “the Land is HaShem’s and He allowed us to live in it. It is not ours to sell.” Behold! HaShem never really gave us the Land. The most He gives us is the right to dwell there. Hence, we have lowered the level of requisite worthiness. We do not own the land we simply have rights to live in it. We do not need to be worthy of owning it only dwelling in it. Certainly, the cost of using it is less than the cost of owning it.
Nevertheless, even if we have succeeded in lowering the level of worthiness required to live in the land, the question still remains how does an exile ensure us that merit? The answer is that our relationship with HaShem is not only that we are His chosen people. It is that we are His servants! We actually belong to Him and are His property. We do not even have the basic rights over our identity that the non-Jews have. To illustrate this; if a non-Jew wishes to sell himself as a slave to his neighbor, he may do so and the sale of his self is final. There is no backing out. Just as when he sells his car the sale is final and there is no backing out, so too, if he sells his very self to his neighbor he no longer has autonomy, the sale is final. A Jew on the other hand, cannot sell himself. If he does attempt to sell his self, the sale is not valid. The reason for this is because HaShem already owns us. We are already owned by Him and do not have those basic rights over our own identity to alter it.
Once we recognize our relationship to HaShem as belonging to Him we no longer need the merit to live in HaShem’s estate. A slave is always entitled to live in the estate of his master. This is not to suggest that HaShem may wish to send us out because of one reason or other but the right to live in His estate is guaranteed.
Perhaps the function of the Egyptian exile was to be our boot camp to becoming servants to HaShem. As devastating as it was for us to endure that terrible exile, we came out understanding that we truly owe our very existence to HaShem and He has all the rights to our identity in the most profound way. And everyone is welcome home!
Have a wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind