Rather
than acting on our instincts as would lower beings, or simply repressing them,
we can act as higher beings by channeling our instincts towards the good. This
is however the lower end of high-level action. At the highest levels we are
perhaps challenged to totally overcome our nature for higher purposes.
Avraham’s
culture was known for hospitality to travelers; Avraham
was the symbol of chesed, not simply waiting for
guests to arrive, but actually running out to them to offer water. He was asked
therefore to do the complete opposite, to cast his wife Hagar and son Ishmael
in to the desert without water, an act that must have humiliated him to all
neighboring peoples. He longed for a son and the elder son has a privileged
place in that society, and he cast him out instead. He was given a son to
continue his heritage and was expected to kill him. He was campaigning to bring
people close to God, away from paganism, and was asked to perform the
abomination of child sacrifice. He wanted to be a man of chesed,
reaching out to others, and instead he had to wage wars against them. He wanted
to be close to God, and was asked for the ultimate self-sacrifice: to do the
act (bringing Isaac to be sacrificed) after which there is no record of communication
between him and God.
Yitschak:
was the brother who was favored over the other, Yishmael,
who was cast out, with an eternal enmity of Yishmael’s
family to Yitchak as a result, through no fault of Yitscahk himself. He wanted nothing better than to
enfranchise his own son Esav, to ensure that Esav felt close, and wanted to give him the blessings to
strengthen him in his way. He could see the positive in Esav,
and blind himself to the negative, his strength was this blindness, the love
for the one who was so different than him. But he was forced to cause Esav the ultimate anguish and alienation, and to see his
two sons locked in eternal enmity as a result, just as he and his brother.
Yakov
was “a simple man, a man of the tent” (to sit in the tent = to study Torah). He
had to be a liar and cheat all his life: to connive against his brother at the
behest of his mother, who was following God’s message to her to ensure that the
blessings would go to Yakov not Esav),
and to deal with the cheating Lavan.
Yosef
started as a vain and arrogant boy, tattling on his brothers. And when he
received dreams which he felt were prophetic, he didn’t involve God at all. At
the end he changed and was operating at the highest level. His total focus on
matters at this high level was usually interpreted as arrogance by those around
him. Paradoxically it was the two Egyptians, the jailer who elevated him and
later Pharaoh, who did not see him thus. Yosef
received dreams which he knew to be prophecy but was totally oblivious to the
effect the telling would have on his brothers, he was aware of the higher
level, but was arrogant as well. He was also oblivious to the effect his dream
interpretation of the minister to be executed would have on that man, but he
attributed his power to God. And his chutzpah at telling Pharaoh what to do
when all he was asked was to interpret is an act that should have earned him
execution. And Pharaoh could easily have suspected Yosef
of ambitions to overthrow him. But Pharaoh also operated at the highest level
and recognized Yosef as a peer in this sense and knew
he was not a threat, not a man after power or wealth or fame, simply a man
above others, operating at that level, uninterested in vanities of power and
wealth. The brothers at the end still did not “recognize Yosef”:
he told them that he could not harm them for their deeds since he could not
hold them responsible for those deeds since these were not their own actions
but rather God acting through them to place him in his pre-destined role of
savior of the world [45:5-8 , 50:19-21]: a supreme arrogance to those operating
at the usual human level, but an indication of his superior level to those
capable of recognizing this.
Moshe was
the most humble of men, and was asked to be a powerful leader. He wanted
nothing better than to give honor to his older brother, but was asked, even
forced, to assume the role of his brother’s leader and authority. He wanted nothing
more than to enter into the Land, towards which he had faithfully led the
Jewish People for 40 years, and was denied this, he
had to accept dying just before his people would enter.
Redirecting Life
Goals
A person who
struggles with deep challenges, achieves self-understanding, and acquires a
compassion for themselves has the potential to develop into a great person
(especially if as a result they develop empathy for - and acceptance of -
others). It is clear that such development can be more significant than the
mere memorization of information – even that from holy books – and more even
than the intellectual understanding acquired from intellectual study.
It can in
some cases be of equal significance to the spiritual development of a saintly
individual, or the ethical development of one who engages exclusively in acts
of chesed etc.
It is not
for us to decide what the fundamental circumstance of our lives will be, only what we do with those circumstances. A person who
intended in 1939 to be the biggest lamdan in
It is
possible also for a person to actually get to their original goal despite
having to refocus those goals: let’s imagine that Christopher Reeve desired to
be president as Ronald Reagan was or Arnold S might be, at some time before the
accident he intended to start his campaign, he would have had to convince
people he was worthy, not simply a wealthy movie star, and he’d have had an
uphill fight, trying to cash in on the image of him in a superman costume.
However he redirected his energies after the accident, gave up on his political
ambitions.
He became
a very unusual individual; imagine he continues to grow, and that people in 10
years from now appeal to him to run for president - without ever knowing that
this was his secret ambition – because he is an extraordinary person by then;
he will have ‘lost’ 15 years, but he would be a much more appealing candidate,
and possibly much more likely to achieve his original goal. And he’d be such a
better leader, so much more valuable to his country and to the world.
So it is
possible sometimes – not always (the 1939 aspiring lamdan
had no chance) – to change focus and then discover that one has in the end
actually achieved the original goal.
For
example, growing via struggle and self discovery, compassion for self and
eventually compassion for others, can lead one to greatness, and if one is also
intellectually gifted and can apply the insight gained in self-exploration and
development to help others, it can even result in one becoming seen as a
leader, not the greatest posek or knowing shas b’al peh
etc, but the deepest seer into the human heart, maybe a person to whom others,
even the poskim and shas-memorizers
would come for advice or even a brocho.
</ul>
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NOTE: I wrote this
for Yeshivish-speakers, I intend to translate it into English
IY"H