[Avodah] RSRH Digest - parashas Shemos

[Yitzchok Levine]

[This week I combined two posts. -mi]

Date: Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:56:15 -0500
Subject: Definition of the Noun Tzadik

How would you define the word Tzadik? To put it another way, how would
you characterize someone who is a Tzadik?

RSRH in his Essays on the Psalms (Collected Writings of RSRH, Volume IV)
writes on pages 264 - 265

    The noun Tzadik, righteous, denotes the one who accords every being
    and every relationship its due, and does not tamper with or destroy
    them by acts of commission or omission.

This definition was certainly an eye-opener for me.



Date: Sun, 03 Jan 2010 05:55:52 -0500
Subject: Yissachar/Zevulun Partnership

Most people understand a Yissachar/Zevulun partnership to mean that
Zevulun works and supports Yissachar, who spends /all/ of his time
learning and does not work at all. However, the following commentary
on Bereishis 49:15 by RSRH does not seem to agree with this. Indeed,
it is clear from the remarks of Rav Hirsch that the members of the
tribe of Yissachar were farmers who, as a result of their profession,
had more time to learn than those involved in other occupations.
YL

	15 He [Yissacjar] saw that leisure is the good thing, and that
	the land is suited for it; so he bent his shoulder to bear and
	became one who pays the tribute imposed by landwork.

    Yissachar is happy to work, but only to the extent and in such a way
    that the work is of value to the Jewish people. While Yehudah is the
    tribe of rulers and Zevulun the tribe of traders, Yissachar represents
    the true nucleus of the Jewish people: the Jewish farmer. He does not
    work so as to labor without letup and accumulate wealth. The Jewish
    man of the people does not subjugate himself to his work; he works in
    order to gain Menucha. He leaves it to Zevulun to earn millions with
    his products; as for himself, he prefers to stay at home. He regards
    the leisure he earned by his own labors as his greatest asset and
    most prized possession. For leisure enables a person to stand tall
    and to find himself. Yissachar therefore lowers his shoulder to bear
    burdens, leaving the rulers scepter to Yehudah and the merchantmans
    flag to Zevulun. Neither military glory nor business profit attract
    him. He knows other conquests, other treasures, which can be won
    and retained only in hours of leisure.

    Thus, it was the tribe of Yissachar that became the guardian of the
    nations spiritual treasures.

    When, after the fall of Shaul, the tribes of Israel rallied around
    David, thousands and hundreds of thousands came from all the tribes.
    Yissachar sent only two hundred, the Roshim, the heads of the tribe;
    the others stayed at home and worked. But these two hundred were
    Yodeah binah laitim (Divrei Ha-Yamim I, 12:33); they brought with
    them Binah, discernment, the ability to see between (bein) things,
    to recognize the interrelationships of persons and things and their
    potential effects on one another. This insight, attained by Yissachar
    during his hours of leisure, was Daas binah, concrete perception,
    not sophistry but practical understanding of the true relationships
    of persons and things, which is acquired through genuine Chochmas ha
    Torah. And it was laitim: it came through correct evaluation of the
    uniqueness of any given moment. That was why Kol Acheichem al pihem
    (ibid.), all of Israel lived by their pronouncements.

    Knowledge of Torah and its practical application to current
    circumstances are not attained by one who immerses himself in
    business. Rather, they are attained by one who, in his hours of
    leisure, frees his mind of all else, of whom it can be said that
    Vayar menucha ki tov, he regards leisure as the true profit to be
    obtained from work; thus Oseh Torahso keva oo'malachto aroiy (see
    RAMBAM halochos talmud Torah 3:7), he regards Torah study as the
    main goal, and work as merely an incidental means.

    Yissachar regards Ha'aretz, agriculture, as the surest path to this
    goal. Hence, he devoted himself with enthusiasm to the taxing chores
    of tilling the soil: Vayehi l'mas ovad.

    Use of the term Am Ha'aretz to denote an ignorant person dates from a
    much later period, when Jews were prevented from enjoying the quiet,
    leisurely life of the farmer. This was a time when knowledge and
    culture were concentrated in the cities, and Jewish villagers lived
    scattered about, a few here and a few there. Cut off from the centers
    of learning, they degenerated intellectually and often also morally
    under the heavy burden of their daily labors.

    In Tenach, Am Ha'aretz denotes the general community, in the noblest
    sense of this term.

Yitzchok Levine