Beshalach 5783: If I were a Rich Man

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January 29, 2023

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Beshalach (Exodus 13:17-17:16 )

GOOD MORNING! A hot topic of late has been the concept of sufficiency. Historically, the word sufficiency has been understood and utilized to express the concept of having enough (e.g. in order to convict there has to be a sufficiency of evidence). In recent years, the term has come to be used by progressive liberals as a moral ideal to which society should strive.

In their view, we should adjust our wants and “needs” to achieve a goal of desiring sufficiency – a feeling of having enough and making do with less, which they believe will lead to a more socially responsible way of living (i.e. taking actions to reduce over-consumption of natural resources or drastically reducing society’s carbon footprint to protect our environment).

In and of itself sufficiency can be a valuable concept, but like many things in life it depends on how and by whom it is defined and applied.

Let's face it, since the dawn of civilization affluent groups and societies have made material over-consumption a cornerstone of their lifestyle. After all, what’s the point of having so much wealth if you don’t figure out ways to spend it? Still, I have always been perplexed by individuals who buy cars that can go 180 mph and 0-60 in under 3 seconds even though they spend 99% of their time driving in bumper to bumper traffic in cities and on highways that have a speed limit of 65 mph. Applying the concept of sufficiency to one’s life can help a person focus on what’s really important and necessary versus what is plain vanity and ultimately unnecessary and wasteful.

Encouraging people to choose temperance and self-restraint is a noble cause, but forcing it on society is not. Progressive liberals get absolutely lost when it comes to understanding that promoting values and morals is not the same as compelling everyone to live the same way. It’s the classic misunderstanding of equality versus equity.

Equality is giving everyone equal rights and opportunities. This is one of the foundations of American society, one that is built on capitalism. Though historically not everyone was treated equally (e.g. immigrants and certain races and religions were marginalized), this ideal of equality was the basis of the Declaration of Independence and further outlined in the American Constitution. Religious equality was enshrined in the First Amendment and The Civil Rights Act of 1964 provided for societal equality.

On the other hand, equity is trying to make everyone the same – with the ideal of creating a “classless society.” This is the foundation of socialism and communism. We have to remember that one of the fathers of communism – Karl Marx – blamed all of society’s problems on capitalism stemming from the Industrial Revolution (what we might term today Big Business). It should therefore not surprise anyone that many progressive liberals espouse the same attitude as Marx. Classic examples of equity include the concept of affirmative action and race based decisions in school admissions.

It is interesting to note that while sufficiency has been adopted as an ideal of the progressive left, the ideal of self-sufficiency is largely the ideal and domain of the conservative right. Amazingly, two thousand years ago the sages of the mishna in the classic work on morality known as Pirkei Avot – Ethics of our Fathers – combine these seemingly disparate concepts into an axiom of life.

In the very beginning of the fourth chapter we find the following statement: “Who is a rich person? He that is happy with his lot.” On the face of it this seems almost shockingly obvious; of course a person who is happy with whatever he has can be considered rich because wealth is only meaningful if you have whatever you need. What is the mishna coming to teach us?

The answer lies in the verse that the mishna uses to prove this axiom; “You shall enjoy the fruit of your labors; you shall be happy and you shall prosper” (Psalms 128:2).

The sages are teaching us a critical principle of life: A person is only happy with his lot in life if it is something for which he has worked hard – i.e. the product of his labors. Meaning, it doesn’t make a difference how much a person has – whether a person was born with a trust fund or is living on welfare – a person can never rejoice in what they have if they didn’t work to achieve it. In fact, no matter how much you give them they will never be satisfied or feel rich.

By contrast, one who is happy and rejoices in what he has accomplished through his own hard work is already a rich man. It really doesn’t make a difference how much he actually has. The Talmud (Bava Metzia 38a) confirms this principle with the following statement, “Rabbi Kahana says, ‘A person prefers one measure of his own, rather than having nine measures from someone else.’”

(Oddly enough, Karl Marx actually uses this very same concept in his “Theory of Alienation” to demonize capitalism and justify socialism. Marx argued that working in a capitalist structure of industrialization in effect separates laborers from their end product – thus they are alienated from their labor and don’t feel accomplished or content. Marx somehow missed the equally obvious concept that basically making everyone equal with no individualized achievement will not help anyone feel content or accomplished either.)

This week’s Torah reading teaches us a similar lesson regarding wealth. God decreed that Abraham’s descendants were to go to a land that was not their own and become slaves for four hundred years (Genesis 15:13). In the next verse, God promises Abraham that when his descendants leave the land of their bondage they will do so bearing great wealth. How did God fulfill this promise?

God pleaded with Moses that the Jewish people should ask their Egyptian neighbors for fine jewelry and clothes so that when they left Egypt they would have wealth (see Exodus 11:2). They did so and managed to accumulate significant going away presents (ibid 12:35-36). Yet according to our sages, all that they managed to get from the Egyptians as they were leaving paled in comparison to the booty they seized from the Egyptian soldiers who came to slaughter them but instead were drowned by God in the Red Sea.

In reading the above two paragraphs (or the original story in the Torah for that matter), one might walk away with the feeling that the Jewish people wrongly plundered the Egyptian populace. In fact, according to the Talmud (Sanhedrin 91a), this very accusation was raised before the court of Alexander the Great once he had conquered all of Eurasia.

The Jewish people were subpoenaed to answer the claim of the Egyptians that they stole their gold and silver upon leaving Egypt and never returned it. After all, the Egyptians had proof; the Jewish nation’s own Bible corroborated their accusation!

Gaviah Ben Pesisiah, a sage who appears just this one time in the entire Talmud, gave the following answer: “You have a legitimate claim, for the Torah records that we left Egypt with much of your gold and silver.”

“But the very same Torah says that we were slaves for four hundred and thirty years (Exodus 12:40) – so in fact, we have a counterclaim! Pay us the wages for 600,000 slaves who labored day and night for four hundred and thirty years; for those wages surely exceed anything we might have taken when we left Egypt!” Alexander the Great turned to the Egyptian plaintiffs and demanded that they answer the counterclaim. “Give us three days to answer” the Egyptians pleaded. He granted them the time and they promptly disappeared and never returned.

Thus, according to the Talmud, all the money with which the Jewish people left Egypt can be considered payment for their years of hard labor. This was the fulfillment of the Almighty’s promise to Abraham.

Torah Portion of the Week

Beshalach, Exodus 13:17 – 17:16

The Jewish people leave Egypt. Pharaoh regrets letting them go, pursues them leading his chosen chariot corps and a huge army. The Jews rebel and cry out to Moses, “Weren’t there enough graves in Egypt? Why did you bring us out here to die in the desert?” The Yam Soof (the Sea of Reeds – usually mistranslated as the Red Sea) splits, the Jews cross over, the Egyptians pursue and the sea returns and drowns the Egyptians. Moses with the men and Miriam with the women – each separately – sing praises of thanks to the Almighty.

They arrive at Marah and rebel over the bitter water. Moses throws a certain tree in the water to make it drinkable. The Almighty then tells the Israelites, “If you obey God your Lord and do what is upright in His eyes, carefully heeding all His commandments and keeping all His decrees, then I will not strike you with any of the sicknesses that I brought on Egypt. I am God who heals you.” (This is why the Hagaddah strives to prove there were more than 10 plagues in Egypt – the greater the number of afflictions, the greater number from which we were protected.

Later, the Israelites rebel over lack of food; God provides quail and manna (a double portion was given on the sixth day to last through Shabbat; we have two challahs for each meal on Shabbat to commemorate the double portion of manna). Moses then instructs them concerning the laws of Shabbat. At Rephidim, they rebel again over water. God tells Moses to strike a stone (later in the Torah God tells Moses to speak to the stone, not here!), which then gave forth water. Finally, the portion concludes with the war against Amalek and the command to “obliterate the memory of Amalek from under the heavens.”

Candle Lighting Times

A person can spoil his grandchildren if he parents his children. If he spoils his children he will end up parenting his grandchildren.

Dedicated in Honor of

Rabbi Yitzchak Zweig

by Drs. Jack & Alice Gish

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