Sermon Archives

The Shepshelle that Ran Away

I have learned a lot about diverse understandings of the Torah from the lessons that our children have brought home through the decades from the various schools they attended. (Our five children have attended a total of ten schools between them). When they were very young it was sometimes a challenge to reconstruct precisely what lesson they were intended to learn. Perhaps one day I can share the Torah insight for Parashat Lekh Lekha that was meant to be conveyed by our children coming home wearing muzzles that they had made themselves. And I will always remember the pathos in Noam’s voice the week of Parashat Shemot when he told us about learning the midrashic story in Shemot Rabbah  of “the shepshelle” the little ship that ran away from Moshe’s herd. Moshe followed after the shepshelle, saw the burning bush, and the rest, as they say, is Torah.

Unlike Avraham, who bursts onto the scene of Parashat Lekh Lekha with no origin story or any explanation for why he was chosen for a special mission from God, Moshe is not sent back to Egypt on his mission of liberation until we are told quite a lot about his parents and the circumstances of his birth and how he was raised in the palace of Pharaoh and how he intervened to protect one of his Hebrew brothers who was being beaten by an Egyptian and how he then tries to intervene in an internal Jewish conflict, and then he rescues his future wife who was being harassed at a well. We see Moshe’s passion for justice. We see Moshe standing up for the downtrodden and we see Moshe intervening to protect those who are victimized. And we understand how Moshe will be a great liberator and a great law giver. 

But those stories do not conclude with Moshe standing before God at the burning bush and being sent on his mission. And Moshe is not known, primarily, in Jewish tradition as our liberator or as our law giver. God redeemed us from Egypt and God gave us the Torah. Moshe was our teacher. Moshe Rabbenu.

The story immediately proximate to the burning bush is the story of Moshe working as a shepherd for his father in law. 

וּמֹשֶׁ֗ה הָיָ֥ה רֹעֶ֛ה אֶת־צֹ֛אן יִתְר֥וֹ חֹתְנ֖וֹ כֹּהֵ֣ן מִדְיָ֑ן וַיִּנְהַ֤ג אֶת־הַצֹּאן֙ אַחַ֣ר הַמִּדְבָּ֔ר וַיָּבֹ֛א אֶל־הַ֥ר הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים חֹרֵֽבָה׃

Now Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, drove the flock into the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. An angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire out of a bush. He gazed, and there was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed.

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֔ה אָסֻֽרָה־נָּ֣א וְאֶרְאֶ֔ה אֶת־הַמַּרְאֶ֥ה הַגָּדֹ֖ל הַזֶּ֑ה מַדּ֖וּעַ לֹא־יִבְעַ֥ר הַסְּנֶֽה׃

Moses said, “I must turn aside to look at this marvelous sight; why doesn’t the bush burn up?”

וַיַּ֥רְא יְהֹוָ֖ה כִּ֣י סָ֣ר לִרְא֑וֹת וַיִּקְרָא֩ אֵלָ֨יו אֱלֹהִ֜ים מִתּ֣וֹךְ הַסְּנֶ֗ה וַיֹּ֛אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֥ה מֹשֶׁ֖ה וַיֹּ֥אמֶר הִנֵּֽנִי׃ 

When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him out of the bush: “Moses! Moses!” He answered, “Here I am.”

After Shacharit one morning this week we discussed the theory of Rabbi Ilay Ofran that the proximate cause of Moshe’s selection for his mission of liberation was curiosity. Once God saw that Moshe turned aside from his mundane work responsibilities God understood that Moshe was the right leader to guide us to liberation. Compassion for those suffering and a passion for justice are necessary but not sufficient leadership characteristics. The sort of curiosity that Moshe displayed by turning aside to examine a burning bush indicated a capacity to recognize that things are not always as they seem and a capacity to recognize that the way things are is not necessarily the way things have to be. 

Midrash Rabbah suggests an entirely different angle. Chapter two of Sefer Shemot begins with the statement that Moshe worked as a shepherd for his father in law.  Why does the Torah include this extraneous detail? Are we worried that there is a gap in Moshe’s resume during the years between him leaving Egypt and returning as God’s messenger? Shemot Rabbah suggests that the concern that Moshe displayed for the sheep under his care caught God’s attention.

 אָמְרוּ רַבּוֹתֵינוּ, כְּשֶׁהָיָה משֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ עָלָיו הַשָּׁלוֹם רוֹעֶה צֹאנוֹ שֶׁל יִתְרוֹ בַּמִּדְבָּר, בָּרַח מִמֶּנּוּ גְּדִי, וְרָץ אַחֲרָיו עַד שֶׁהִגִּיעַ לַחֲסִית, כֵּיוָן שֶׁהִגִּיעַ לַחֲסִית, נִזְדַּמְּנָה לוֹ בְּרֵכָה שֶׁל מַיִם, וְעָמַד הַגְּדִי לִשְׁתּוֹת, כֵּיוָן שֶׁהִגִּיעַ משֶׁה אֶצְלוֹ, אָמַר אֲנִי לֹא הָיִיתִי יוֹדֵעַ שֶׁרָץ הָיִיתָ מִפְּנֵי צָמָא, עָיֵף אַתָּה, הִרְכִּיבוֹ עַל כְּתֵפוֹ וְהָיָה מְהַלֵּךְ. אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, יֵשׁ לְךָ רַחֲמִים לִנְהֹג צֹאנוֹ שֶׁל בָּשָׂר וָדָם כָּךְ חַיֶּיךָ אַתָּה תִרְעֶה צֹאנִי יִשְׂרָאֵל, הֱוֵי: וּמשֶׁה הָיָה רוֹעֶה.

Our Rabbis say: When Moses, may he rest in peace, was herding Yitro’s flock in the wilderness, a kid fled from him. He pursued it until it reached cover. Once it reached cover, it happened upon a pool of water, and the kid stopped to drink. When Moses reached it, he said: ‘I didn’t know that you were running due to thirst. You are tired.’ He carried it on his shoulder and was walking. The Holy Blessed One  said: ‘You have the compassion to behave with the flocks belonging to flesh and blood in this manner; by your life, you will herd My flock, Israel.’ 

This is how Moshe became Moshe Rabbenu. He was a caring and loving shepherd and that enabled him to be our first and greatest teacher. He was not “Moshe HaRav” but “Moshe Rabbeinu.” He is our teacher because we always knew that he had our backs and believed in our potential. This is what a great teacher does and, apparently, this is also what a great shepherd does. 

Rabbi Moshe Weinberger shared an additional layer of insight this week which moved me greatly. Rabbi Weinberger is a fascinating person. In his capacity as a faculty member at Yeshiva University and the rabbi of a shul in suburban Long Island composed primarily of professionals, he has tried to bridge the gap between bourgeois  centrist Orthodoxy and the world of Hassidut. This week he taught the understanding of this midrash that is taught amongst the Amshinover Hassidim.

The Amshinover Hassidic dynasty, with branches in New York and in Israel is an offshoot of the Polish Hassidic renewal established by Rav Simcha Bunim of Persischa and Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. The Jerusalem Amshinover Rebbe is famous for existing beyond time. He does mitzvot so slowly that Shabbos typically lasts until Tuesday. 

“It was very nice,” they ask in Amshinov, "that Moshe ran after that one little shepselle, but what about the rest of the herd?” How can a shepherd abandon his flock and go take care of this one animal? Sure this little sheep needed help, but what about the rest of the flock? Their shepherd disappeared and abandoned them.

The answer that they give is that this little animal was alone and it is unbearable to be alone. The rest of the flock had each other. Moshe Rabbeinu understood this. As long as Jews have each other we will be OK. 

All of us, I am sure, are spending this Shabbat on pins and needles as we count down the hours until the first group of our hostages return home. As I mentioned last night, we do not have to choose between hope and fear or between joy and grief. We can feel everything and we probably should feel everything. And I don’t have to tell you that the politics and strategic thinking behind this impending ceasefire and prisoner exchange is complicated. Months ago we studied some of the halakhic literature from decades and from centuries ago that support ransoming captive Jews despite the warning in the Mishnah not to pay an exorbitant price lest future captives be placed in risk.

Nobody has asked my advice on anything remotely connected to policy or diplomacy or anything connected to the course of the war or our response to it. They ask you those questions and not me. But a decision has been made to bring our hostages home under these confusing and complicated circumstances. The framework that I am choosing for understanding this choice is to see it as being in the spirit of  Moshe’s choice to prioritize the shepshelle who was in greatest harm because it had become separated from the herd. Whatever danger the herd would face during the time when Moshe could not protect them, they would be able to face that danger together. And in the meantime, a tired and lost sheep could be carried home.

Parashat Shemot is the first time Bna’i Yirael are referred to as an “Am” as a people or nation. And the one who first uses that language is Pharaoh in his paranoid fears of a mass of foreigners threatening his kingdom. When our enemies see us as an undifferentiated group, we understand that our true strength comes from noticing and caring for each individual. We lead with our hearts, we leave no one behind.  It is precisely the cohesive and collective nature of Am Yisrael that compels us to yearn for each of our lost brothers and sisters. It is as Am Yisrael that we know the names and faces of our brothers and sisters in captivity even in the midst of a war and geopolitical currents that impact millions. And we have seats in the shul waiting for them to join us. 

I usually end drashot by wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom - a peaceful day. This is not a day when I feel much peace or tranquility. And until the very last hostage is brought home to a loving family or laid to rest in an honored grave I am not going to feel much peace or tranquility. I will be awake before sunrise tomorrow morning because the last report I read before Shabbat started indicated that is when the first hostages will be released. But I am at peace with Am Yisrael’s commitment to carry the burden and to pay the price to maintain our identity as the students of Moshe Rabbeinu who could not abandon any of his flock left behind.