It's Worth Repeating
“So then my Aunt Sylvia said to my Uncle Morris, wait, was it Aunt Sylvia telling Uncle Morris or did Uncle Morris tell Aunt Sylvia? Hold on a minute. Ah yes, it was Aunt Sylvia telling Uncle Morris…”
I am sure most of you have had conversations with people who enjoy telling stories and seem to be in no rush to finish and want to get every detail right, no matter how insignificant it is to the actual story, similar to the example in the preceding paragraph.
To be honest, I am usually too impatient of a person to sit and listen to people tell me stories while fixating on every minute detail. “So last Tuesday I went, no wait it was Wednesday, not Tuesday. Anyway, I went to CVS and hmmm, it might actually have been Walgreens. Which was it?” At that point I usually feel like blurting out “IT DOESN’T MATTER! IT WAS A DRUGSTORE! WHO CARES WHICH ONE IT WAS?!” But because I am polite I don’t actually say that. But all that is going through my head by that point is “when will this story ever end so that I can get back to what I was doing?”
Recently I saw a thought on this week’s Torah portion that me think of my deficiency in this area and gave me pause to change my attitude when confronted with the above types of scenarios.
This week’s Torah portion is the longest of all portions in the five books of the Torah (176 verses for those keeping track at home). In fact, it could have quite simply been condensed to a much smaller number. You see, a significant part of the portion details the gifts and offerings that the leaders of each of the 12 tribes brought on the altar in the brand new Tabernacle erected by Moses in the Wilderness.
Interestingly enough, each leader brought an offering which was identical to his counterpart’s offering so that there were 12 offerings and gifts that were all exactly the same, down to the smallest detail! Being that there are six verses to describe each leader’s offering, a total of 72 verses are dedicated to this topic! The question is obvious: why did the Torah not condense it all and simply state that “all 12 leaders brought such-and-such”? It could have saved a tremendous amount of ink!
What makes the question even stronger is that normally the Torah is very terse and uses very concise language. In fact, countless laws are derived in the Talmud from the additional letter or word used in the Torah precisely because it is so out of character for the Torah to write extraneous things. If so, why did the Torah go to such extensive detail in this instance?
A great rabbi had a student who was drafted into the Russian army in the 1800s. Being drafted, especially for a Jewish youngster, was practically a death sentence. The only way to avoid serving in the army was to get an exemption from a doctor but even then it was not a sure thing that the army would honor it.
There was a fellow named Yankel who was drafted and tried desperately to get an exemption. While he did get a letter from a doctor providing some reason for an exemption, the government was cracking down on honoring these letters and his fate was very much in balance. After waiting several weeks for a decision from the army, Yankel finally received a letter addressed to him. With trembling hands he opened it up and much to his great relief he saw that it was a letter excusing him from service! His joy knew no bounds and he shared the news with his friends.
Yankel was a student of the great Rabbi Yitzchok Spektor. Rabbi Spektor was involved in an important meeting when a fellow student, excited to share the good news with his rabbi, interrupted the meeting to tell his rabbi about Yankel’s exemption. Delighted to hear the good tidings, his face beaming with joy, Rabbi Spektor thanked the student profusely for sharing the wonderful news.
A few minutes later, another student who was unaware that he was already beaten to the punch, interrupted the meeting to tell his rabbi the news about Yankel. Not letting on that he already knew, Rabbi Spektor answered with the same enthusiasm and joyous expression that he had exhibited with the first student, thanking him for sharing the terrific news.
This scenario repeated itself no less than SIX times as student after student came to the office to be the one to share the good news with their beloved teacher. Every time the rabbi, not wanting to dampen his student’s excitement at being the bearer of good news, reacted as if it was the first time he was hearing about it.
Rabbi Eliezer Shach, one of the foremost rabbis in recent generations, once explained in a talk to his students that the attention to the honor of a fellow Jew is one of the most important lessons we can learn. It is for this reason the Torah repeated the offering of each tribe’s leader, despite it being the same as all the others, to teach us the importance of respect for the individual.
And now that the story of the repetitive offerings was incorporated into the Torah, the lesson of individual attention, too, becomes not just a lesson in morality, but a portion of the Torah, whose study merits the same value as the most intricate laws that are contained in the most difficult portions.
So the next time I find myself getting impatient listening to someone who is taking their grand old time sharing something with me, hopefully I can try to remember the lessons of Rabbi Spektor and Rabbi Shach and not let my shortcomings get in the way of the respect my fellow Jew deserves!
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Yosef Koval
