Parshas Shemos: 5786 Common is not Normal

Torah Parallels 

Parshas Shemos 

לעילוי נשמת האדא בת מרדכי 

 

Common is not Normal 

The Torah (Shemos 2:11) tells us, “...וַיֵּצֵא אֶל־אֶחָיו וַיַּרְא בְּסִבְלֹתָם...”, Moshe went out to B’nei Yisroel and saw their burdens. Rashi (based on Medrash Shemos Rabbah) emphasizes that Moshe did more than notice their hardship; he fully empathized, feeling their pain as if it were his own, as a nosei b’ol im chaveiro; he literally felt the pain that they were going through. This profound empathy, which we see repeatedly in the parsha and throughout Moshe’s life, enabled Moshe to understand B’nei Yisroel deeply and to assume the role of their premier advocate, remaining steadfast through every challenge.  

This middah of empathy, though, was certainly not unique to Moshe. The Torah (Shemos 5:14) describes the Egyptian taskmasters beating the Jewish guards for failing to enforce quotas. Rashi notes that these overseers, themselves Jewish, refused to increase the suffering of their fellow brothers. Instead, they accepted punishment themselves. Rashi adds that because of this rachamim that they demonstrated, these guards were chosen to later be the members of the Sanhedrin. Here too, empathy is evident, so what sets Moshe apart? How is Moshe’s seeing B’nei Yisroel’s burden different from the guards’ bravery of accepting punishment instead of carrying out their tasks?  

The Seforno (Shemos 2:11) explains with a seemingly subtle shift from Rashi, but perhaps together we could understand the depth of Moshe’s greatness. The Seforno simply writes that “Moshe focused to see the burdens of his brothers”. Unlike Rashi who emphasizes his emotional empathy, the Seforno highlights the effort of Moshe’s observation itself. What does the Seforno mean by this? What effort was needed for Moshe to simply see what was right in front of him? 

Let’s take a step and remember what was happening at the time in Mitzrayim. Before Moshe was even born, conditions in Mitzrayim were steadily worsening. B’nei Yisroel were enslaved under harsh labor, Pharaoh repeatedly ordered to increase the workload, and the decree was in place that all Jewish boys be thrown into the Nile. It is within this context that Moshe was born and raised. For Moshe, this was the environment he grew up in. It would have been easy to accept the cruelty as “normal”. Yet Moshe recognized that what was common was not normal. Slavery, cruelty, and injustice were aberrations, not realities to be accepted. This refusal to normalize what was commonplace and to then empathize within that perspective, is a demonstration of Moshe’s ability to perceive the bigger picture, the essence of K’lal Yisroel, and see suffering that others may have grown blind or accustomed to.  

In January 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after launch, killing everyone on board. While the technical cause was a flaw in the O-rings, the deeper issue was the normalization of danger. Engineers had repeatedly observed a dangerous flaw in the shuttle’s O-rings, but in each simulation the shuttle survived. Over time, the flaw became common, routine, and unremarkable, until catastrophe struck. Sometimes a fatal flaw could be looking at you square in the face, but with experience of it not proving to be fatal, even if the danger is real, it is easy to get sucked in to thinking that “common is the new normal”. Sociologist Diane Vaughan coined the term “Normalization of Deviance” to describe the calamity. This is what Moshe was able to break. Moshe’s greatness was that he never allowed the abnormal to become normal, he was able to identify the abnormal for what it truly was, even when it was common. 

Leadership, and particularly of B’nei Yisroel, requires combining perception with empathy. Sympathy is one thing, empathy is deeper, but greatness lies in perceiving and remaining steadfast to the principles of truth and refusing the common to influence an understanding of what emes is.  

In the same way that we must battle to resist the common to define normal, we must also celebrate and cherish what is truly normal and be proud to be the gatekeepers of what is principally true. The Medrash (Yalkut Shimoni) teaches that B’nei Yisroel merited geulah (redemption) from Mitzrayim because they didn’t change their names, language, avoided lashon harah, and refrained from arayos, despite years of Egyptian influence and forced labor. The B’nei Yisroel upheld their core identity and values, those of Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, and the Shevatim, and remained committed to a higher purpose of kedusha. Their steadfastness shows the importance of protecting what is normal in a world of common, and the foundation of the grit needed to keep the Torah through millennia of galus and outside influence. 

May Hashem help us resist the pull and allure of the common, so that like Moshe rabbeinu we can consciously pause, see, and act in alignment with what is right and truly normal.