Guarding the Bones
Beshalach 5773
Shmuel Herzfeld
This past week many people came in to Washington to be part of President Obama’s
inauguration festivities. Many folks braved the weather and the lines just to feel like
they were a part of history. Of course, four years ago there were even more people
who joined in the inauguration weekend. People stood on the lines then too,
because they wanted to be a part of a historic moment.
There is a story I read about President Obama that as he was leaving the podium
after taking his oath he lingered a little bit and said that he wanted to hold onto the
moment a little longer because he was never going to see this powerful moment
again. The inauguration is something that people focus on for its symbolic value.
The Jewish people had their own inaugural moment in this week’s parashah. Aside
from standing at Sinai, the splitting of the sea is the most defining moment in Jewish
history. The Benei Yisrael leave Egypt via the desert and the sea splits at yam soof.
This moment where the Jewish people leave Egypt is really the inaugural moment of
the Jewish people.
I want to share with you what Moshe Rabbenu was doing during the inaugural
moments of the Jewish people because his actions carry a deep and symbolic lesson
for all of us.
In order to learn this important lesson from Moshe Rabbenu, let us first look at a
basic question that commentators raise about the parashah.
After Hashem leads the Benei Yisrael out of Egypt, the army of Pharaoh begins to
close in on the Jewish people. The Jewish people get scared and so they say to
Moshe: “Hamibli ein kevarim lekachtanu lamut bamidbar, Is it because there are no
graves in Egypt that you have taken us to die in the desert?” (Shemot 14:11).
Hashem has just performed the most amazing series of miracles ever done in the
history of the world by bringing the ten plagues upon the Egyptians, why would the
Jewish people respond in this negative way at the very first sign of adversity?
One answer to this question is that simply put, the Jewish people sinned. According
to the Talmud in Eruvin (15b), this was one of the ten times that the Jewish people
tested God in the desert. Zeh echad mei-asarah nisyonot shenisu avoteinu bamidbar
la-Hashem. In other words, the Jewish people are weak and no matter what Hashem
does for them as soon as something doesn’t go their way they question God.
Ramban tries to soften this a little by saying (14:10) that it wasn’t all of the people
who started questioning God; it was just a small minority of folks. But this small
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minority raised their voices and as a consequence it reflected poorly on the whole
nation.
In any event, this approach looks at these remarks as being part of a pattern that fits
in with later remarks that the Jewish people will make in the desert; i.e. the Jews of
the desert are ungrateful and always complaining and never remember what God
does for them.
A second answer to this question comes from Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (d.
1888, Germany).
In Rav Hirsch’s mind the comment, “What there weren’t enough graves in Egypt!” is
actually an atypical biblical comment. It is an ironic or even sarcastic comment that
doesn’t appear elsewhere in the Five Books of Moshe.
The most similar comment that I can think of in Tanakh is when David has to run
away from Saul and hide amongst the Philistines. But, David had previously been an
enemy to these same Philistines. So the servants of Achish, the King of the
Philistines, want to punish David. David, getting wind of this, starts pretending he is
crazy so that they will not suspect him of being a threat. He goes around knocking
on doors and letting spit roll down his beard. To which Achish responds: Chaser
meshugaim ani ki haveitem et zeh lehishtageh alai, Am I short of crazy people that
you needed to bring me another one?” (I Samuel 21:16).
Clearly Achish doesn’t really want more crazy people in his life. And clearly the
Jewish people know that there are in fact plenty of graves in Egypt. So these are
sarcastic comments.
Rav Hirsch sees the irony and sarcasm expressed by the Jews as they left Egypt as
being atypical in the bible but typical of the way Jews will respond to dire moments
throughout Jewish history.
He writes: “This sharp irony even in moments of deepest anxiety and despair is
characteristic of the witty vein which is inherent in the Jewish race from the earliest
beginnings.” (The Pentateuch, commentary by Hirsch, vol. 2, 181.)
Rav Hirsch actually praises these comments as proof that the Jews were a level
headed people who were not following Moshe blindly into the desert. They
expressed themselves with humor that would make their descendant, Jerry Seinfeld,
proud. Their sarcasm is a coping manner in the way gallows humor has often
helped our people deal with a difficult situation.
But I want to suggest a third approach, which I believe is close to the actual peshat,
or literal interpretation of the text.
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The Jewish people chose their words carefully. Their question to Moshe wasn’t just
an offhand comedic statement or a blanket complaint, but a biting remark based
upon an act that they had just seen and disapproved of in their leader Moshe.
Just a few verses earlier as the Torah is telling us about the path that the Benei
Yisrael chose on their way out of Egypt, the narrative is interrupted to share with us
the following information:
“Vayikach Moshe et atzmot Yosef immo, Moshe took Yosef's bones with him, for he
[Yosef] had adjured the sons of Israel, saying, God will surely remember you, and
you shall bring up my bones from here with you” (Shemot 13:19).
This interruption of the narrative that deals with the travels of the Jewish people in
the desert to add this one verse seems out of place. The proper place for this verse
should really have been when the Jewish people were getting ready to leave Egypt,
in parashat Bo. Many commentaries note this fact and try to explain it.
I suspect that it is included here because the fact that Moshe takes the bones of
Yosef with him relates to the question that the Jewish people ask about the lack of
graves in Egypt. They were complaining to Moshe, do you really need to be using
your time to take all these bones with you out Egypt, when there are plenty of
graves in Egypt?
Some of the Jewish people might have been critical about the fact that this is what
Moshe chose to spend his time on at that moment. After all, the Jewish people were
in the process of leaving Egypt and Moshe was in charge. They were facing the
strongest army in the world, they had limited provisions, and all this involved the
logistical nightmare of transporting three million people that were just released
from slavery.
The Midrash tells us that Moshe accepted the responsibility of exhuming Yosef’s
bones as a personal responsibility.
Here is how the Midrash tells the story:
How did Moshe know where Yosef was buried. They told him that Serach the daughter
of Asher remained from the generation of Yosef. So she showed Moshe where Yosef
was buried. She told Moshe that the Egyptians made Yosef a metal casket and they
threw him into the Nile. Moshe came and stood on the Nile. He took a golden board,
wrote on it the name of God, and cast it into the Nile. He shouted out, “Yosef son of
Yaakov, the oath that God promised to Avraham is being fulfilled, if you ascend, good,
and if not, we are free from your oath. Immediately the casket rose and Moshe carried
it. (Shemot Rabbah 20:19)
The Talmud tells us that Moshe didn’t just bring up the bones of Yosef from Egypt, in
fact, they stayed with Moshe the whole time in the desert. The Talmud says (Nazir
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45a), “Vayikah Moshe et atzmot Yosef immo—bemechitzato, And Moshe took the
bones of Yosef with him – ‘with him’ means in his confines. “ The bones stayed with
Moshe the whole time in his tent.
Did Moshe really need to be the one personally carrying the coffin? Surely he could
have delegated that task!
No one complained about Moshe’s handling of the bones of Yosef at the time of the
departure from Egypt, but now a few days later, at the first sign of trouble, the
naysayers remember that they were critical of Moshe for not allotting his time
appropriately. When they ask, “were there no burial places in Egypt,” they are
critiquing Moshe for spending his time on the bones of Yosef instead of worrying
about more important things like splitting the sea and eluding Pharaoh.
Why was Moshe so focused on the bones of Yosef? What was it about these bones
that made it so important for Moshe to personally handle them?
Lets go back to the idea of the Exodus as the inaugural moment of the Jewish people.
The Midrash (Melkhilta) describes the pageantry of a parade involved with the
Exodus from Egypt: “the Kohanim, Leveim, elders of Israel, and the seven clouds of
glory were all marching.”
And where was Moshe?
Moshe was running to care for the bones of Yosef.
The Mekhilta points out that, “all of Israel was engaged in plundering the spoils of
Egypt and Moshe was engaged in the burial of Yosef.”
Moshe stepped back from the pageantry and the spoils and personally focused on
kindness. At this critical moment in history, Moshe led by example and taught us
through his actions about the enormous importance of chesed, kindness.
All chesed is important, but the rabbis teach us that caring for the dead is considered
to be the highest form of kindness, chesed shel emet—true kindness, since it is a
kindness that we can not expect to be repaid.
Our shul has amazing people who are very generous and great performers of chesed.
But sometimes even in our shul there is a vacuum. The hardest job to find a
volunteer for in any community is the person who will oversee the shul cemetery.
For years our cemetery has been lovingly cared for by Leonard Goodman. Recently,
Leonard’s senior years have prevented him from continuing with this task and so
our shul sought a new person to take over this very important job of finding
someone to help with our cemetery on a consistent basis. It took us a really long
time to find another volunteer for this responsibility. Fortunately, we finally found
an amazing person from our shul for this important project.
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Moshe’s guidance to us as a growing community is that the more we grow the more
we must focus on chesed to others. And when it comes to chesed we should not only
focus on the projects that we personally like, but on the projects that need to get
done. We should make this a calling card of our community.
In honor of Anna’s 100th birthday our shul has undertaken a variety of different
chesed projects. There is still time for you to sign up and perform a chesed in honor
of Anna’s birthday.
Of course the big secret of chesed is that the one who performs the chesed always
gets the most out of it. Last week, in honor of Anna’s birthday, our family
volunteered to clean the interiors of people’s cars. This is a very small chesed
project, but it was a lot of fun, and it made others feel loved and it made our own
family feel great. The feeling one gets by helping someone else out is incomparable
and priceless.
The chesed projects our shul has undertaken for Anna should not end with Anna’s
birthday, it should be the catalyst for something bigger that defines who we are as a
community.
Our shul should be about acts of kindness on behalf of others.
This week I was visited by a representative of a major hospital in the area. He
wanted members of our shul to sign up for a project in which when someone from
our congregation enters the hospital the patient has the option of notifying their
fellow congregants that they might need help when they get home—e.g. reading the
doctor’s instructions, helping out with an errand, and just checking in.
I said to this person: I think that is a great idea, but what if we expanded that project
and allowed all patients –Jew and Gentile--who lived in the Shepherd Park
community to reach out to our volunteer base from our synagogue –their neighbors-as a source of help in their time of need. My visitor and I began to dream of the
possible ways we could help others through this project.
True chesed is when we reach out to others in need. The importance of chesed
trumps even the departure from Egypt. And when we engage in true chesed we will
truly be guarding the bones of Joseph. We will then be students of Moshe and
worthy of the sea parting on our behalf!
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