Parashat Shemot: In a Big Way

Living Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear

The pasuk says in this week's Parasha, Shemot, that Pharaoh decreed all the Jewish baby boys should be thrown into the Yeor . But the Torah testifies that the Jewish midwives feared Hashem and did not listen to Pharaoh, but rather they kept the babies alive. The Chafetz Chayim asked, the words, "ותחיינה את הילדים," that they kept the babies alive, seems superfluous, being that the Torah already told us they feared Hashem and did not listen to Pharaoh. The rabbi explained that the Torah here is giving us an insight into the great mesirut nefesh that these women portrayed. The midwives could have easily said that they did not want to continue doing this job anymore, in which case they would've been exempt and had no claims on them from anyone. Pharaoh wouldn't be able to have a claim against them for not violating his decree because it wouldn't be their job anymore. And Hashem wouldn't have a claim against them for killing the babies because they wouldn't be. But they did not want to just exempt themselves. They truly cared about saving the Jewish babies and did not want to take the risk of their potential replacements listening to Pharaoh. So they put their own lives at risk to save others, and Hashem rewarded them for that in a big way. It is very easy for a person to find reasons to exempt himself from something. But if instead he goes out of his way to want to please Hashem, then Hashem gives him Heavenly help in a big way. The sefer Toratcha Sha'ashuay tells the following story about the great zechut that a woman got from going out of her way to help someone in need. There was a 13-year-old boy learning in one of the great yeshivot in Europe. He was the youngest in the yeshiva and one of the only ones without a bench to sleep on at night. The boys learned in an old shul and ate the meals by people's houses. They slept in the shul and whoever didn't get a bench had to sleep on the floor. In the bitter cold winter, this was extremely hard. This boy couldn't sleep at night and was therefore having trouble learning during the day. One day he received a letter from his uncle asking him if he wanted to come and work in his business. This uncle did not have any children and he promised his nephew if he would come work for him, he would leave him all his possessions when he would pass on from this world. The boy had a very big internal struggle deciding what to do. On one hand, he knew how valuable Torah study was, but on the other hand, he was having an extremely difficult time with it. And that night, as he was lying down on the ice-cold floor, he decided he was going to take the offer. About an hour later, a widow came knocking on the front door of the shul. This boy was the only one awake and he went to see who was there. The widow explained she just finished sitting shiva for her husband. He sold blankets for a living and left a lot of them in the house. She said she wanted to donate some to the yeshiva. This boy took the blankets and for the first time was able to sleep normally. That made him decide to stay in the yeshiva, and eventually he became the Gadol Hador who affected tens of thousands of people in his lifetime: Maran HaGaon Harav Shach. When the widow passed away in 1975, Rav Shach attended her funeral and told the students how she saved his life with that act of kindness. The Hashgacha of her coming in the middle of the night on the same night that the young Rav Shach was planning on leaving was amazing. We can say about this woman ותחיינה את הילדים, she gave life to the boy. She was motivated l'shem shamayim , and Hashem gave her tremendous s iyata dishmaya to benefit from that act of chesed for all eternity. We should always do our best to go out of our way to help others, even if we may be exempt, because we never know what each act will produce. Shabbat Shalom.