5-Bullet Friday: Parshas Va'eira

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5-Bullet Friday

This week is Parshas Va'eira! Check out this week's d'var torah here.

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Here is this week's 5-Bullet Friday, a quick summary of thoughts I’ve been pondering during the week:
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• Question I'm pondering (on the parsha): Blocked lips  Back in last week’s parsha (Shemos 4:10) Moshe said to Hashem that he (Moshe) was unfit to relate to and convince the B’nei Yisroel that they were going to be redeemed from Mitzrayim since he was “kevad peh u’chevad lashon”. Hashem responded to Moshe by essentially telling him that He runs the world and decides who has power of speech, walking, hearing, seeing, etc; Hashem therefore intimated to Moshe that if He was asking Moshe to do something there is obviously no valid argument back. Moshe seemingly agreed but then countered and said that it should be Aharon that goes to lead B'nei Yisroel. Hashem then replied that Aharon is thrilled that Moshe is the one chosen to be leader of K’lal Yisroel and is in fact on his way to greet Moshe. From that dialogue it seems that the fact that Aharon went with Moshe was not specifically to help with Moshe’s speech impediment, since that was not Hashem’s response to that “issue”. In this week’s parsha Moshe mentions his speech impediment two more times, these times referring to himself as “aral si’fasayim” (Shemos 6:12 and 6:30) and both times Hashem responds by saying that he should go with Aharon, who will essentially act as Moshe's mouthpiece. Why is it that the first time (in Shemos) Hashem answered so strongly back to Moshe that He runs the world and decides who speaks, etc. and yet these times not only does Moshe seem to have the “audacity” to repeatedly bring it up, but Hashem responds by basically agreeing to Moshe’s “issue” but that he could go with Aharon? 

• Concept I am considering: Ben-Gillo. This concept comes up a number of times in shas, for those learning daf hashavuah it most recently appeared in Megillah 11a, relating to Achashveirosh and Nevuchadnetzar, where Rashi describes a ben gillo first as a “ben mazal” but elaborates that it means two people of same mind/similar thoughts. The better known area relating to ben gillo is in the Gemara Nedarim 39b based on a statement of Rav Aḥa bar Ḥanina that: Anyone who visits an ill person takes from him 1/60th of his suffering. The Chochomim replied to him, if so, then sixty people should go visit the sick person, each one removing 1/60th of the illness and the sick person will be fully restored to health? Rav Acḥa bar Chanina answered that the way the 1/60th works is that each visitor removes 1/60th of the sickness that remains; consequently a degree of suffering will always remain with the sick person. Rav Acha bar Chanina continued and said that visiting is effective in easing the suffering of the ill person only when the visitor is a ben gillo of the sick person. There are different opinions in the rishonim and achronim ranging from ben gillo simply meaning two people the same age to that they are born under the same constellation; from meaning that the visitor loves the sick person like himself to someone who simply brings optimism and raised spirits to the sick person. Either way, point is we all have multiple types of doppelgangers walking around this planet; some look like us, some think like us, some are born like us.

• Hashkafic idea I'm reflecting on: Look to the brothers-in-law. The passuk (6:23) says that Aharon married “Elisheva, the daughter of Aminadav, the sister of Nahshon…” Rashi comments (based on the Gemara Bava Basra 110a) that we learn from here that  one who contemplates taking a wife must first investigate her brothers. Think about it: The people we are exposed to deeply influence who we are and become. The family we are born into, the friends we keep close, the relationships we make all are part of who we are both in terms of shaping ourselves with our own decisions of who we associate with as well as the influence and pressures that come from those we keep around us. Think about the people in your proverbial outer concentric circles and the impact they have on you. 

• Middah on my mind: Hope. As Moshe Rabbeinu witnessed first-hand when trying to speak to the B’nei Yisroel, the people were pretty depressed and had a feeling of helplessness about them. In 1965, a scientist names Martin E. P. Seligman performed an experiment “inspired” by Ivan Pavlov's famous experiment with what became known as “Pavlov’s dogs”. In Pavlov’s experiment, he had demonstrated that if you ring a bell every time you bring a dog its food, then you will observe that at a later time you could ring the bell, and even without having any food present, the dog will begin to salivate. This proved the concept of conditioning. The object of Seligman's experiment was to prove a similar concept by shocking dogs. Seligman had a bunch of dogs which he shocked while they were restrained. Later, he put the dog in a shuttle-box which had two sides with a low fence dividing the two compartments. He went to the side the dog was in and shocked it, expecting it to utilize its freedom and jump to the other side. However, the dog just stayed put. Seligman showed from here that there is a concept of “learned helplessness”. The restrained dogs had learned to just give up hope without exploring other options. Therefore, even when the opportunity existed for the dogs to escape pain and suffering, they refused to make any such effort. It is often easy to get looped in to non-stop feelings of lost hope and depression when things don’t work out time and time again. We have to try to always hold on to some aspect of hope to be able to pull ourselves out from the inside, however it is always a good idea and a huge help to have someone externally who could always help from the outside.  

• Part of Tefillah I'm concentrating on: Re’eh v’anyeinu. We daven every day in shemoneh esreh that Hashem see the hardships we go through and to help us fight our fights and ultimately redeem us. This is what the B’nei Yisroel davened for in Mitzrayim, and during the various galuses in our history. May Hashem indeed look down at all the hardships and sufferings that we are fighting as individuals and as a tzibbur and bring the ultimate ge’ulah very soon!

What's on your mind? 

Have a wonderful Shabbos!

P.S:

• Completely random thought I'm thinking about: Skin. Not talking about game or music or iphone skins, rather would like to focus a little on human skin. Our skin is absolutely amazing! It is the largest organ in (on) our body covering, on average, 19 square feet and consisting of 16% of one’s body weight.  Using the countless free nerve endings in our skin we are able to touch, sense pressure, feel texture, recognize vibration and movement, and stretch. Skin allows for sweating in order to regulate body temperature and your skin completely regenerates itself during the course of approximately four weeks; that means that every month there really is a whole new you! (more on that another week) The skin is able to allow things to be passed through it into the body, while other things it locks out. It is waterproof and resistant, could withstand a range of temperatures, and somehow keeps everything inside us despite being flexible and movable. Weird. Fascinating. Challenge: 1. Think about something which you take for granted, some aspect of life or nature that is just really absolutely incredible when you just take a moment to stop and think about it. 2. As good a protection that the skin is for our bodies, it does have some major holes - our eyes, ears, nose, and mouth which we are primarily in control over what goes in and out. We have the tremendous responsibility in guarding these seven holes in the head. 

Have comments or thoughts on this week's bullets? Have other random thoughts on your mind? Send an email to torahparallels@gmail.com. Thank you!