MUSSAR D’ORAISA
Parshas Bamidbar 5764
"ואלה תולדת אהרן ומשה ביום דבר
ה' את משה בהר סיני." (במדבר ג: א)
ואינו מזכיר אלא בני אהרן ונקראו תולדות משה לפי שלמדן תורה מלמד
שכל המלמד את בן חבירו תורה מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו ילדו. (רש"י שם.)
"And these are the generations
of Aharon and Moshe on the day that Hashem spoke to Moshe at Har Sinai."
(Bamidbar 3:1)
It
only mentions the children of Aharon, yet they are called the generations of
Moshe because he taught them Torah. This teaches us that when one teaches his
friend’s son Torah, it is considered as if it is his own son. (Rashi ibid.)
The Torah compares here a Rebbe
to a parent, but not in the typical comparison of similar respect and honor due
a Rebbe and a parent. Rather, we learn that
one who teaches someone Torah is likened literally to being an actual parent.
Aharon’s children learnt Torah from Moshe Rabbeinu and so they are likened to
Moshe’s own children to the extent that the Torah calls them Moshe’s
descendents. What actually takes place when a Rebbe teaches his student Torah?
If the Torah here is not referring to respect and honor, in what special way is
the Rebbe compared to a parent, and accordingly, how should we view our Rebbeim
in light of this special relationship and status accorded them by the Torah?
The Gemara (Avodah Zara 9a) brings a statement that the world was created
for six thousand years- two thousand years of barrenness (without Torah), two
thousand years of Torah, and two thousand years of the period of Moshiach. The
obvious discussion that follows is when does each of these three periods begin
and end? If one would say that the period of Torah began with the giving of the
Torah at Har Sinai, we run into a slight mathematical problem, because the
Torah was given in the year 2448 after Creation. If the period of Torah started
then, we would lose 448 years from either the period of Torah or Moshiach, but
we learned that each of these periods was 2000 years. So the period of Torah
must have begun 448 years earlier in the year 2000 after Creation.
The Gemara concludes that the period of Torah did, in fact, begin 448 years
before Matan Torah, when Avraham Avinu was 52 years old, in the year
2000 after Creation. And this period begins with the pasuk (Beraishis 12:5)
“…And the souls they made in Haran…” referring to the people to whom Avraham
and Sarah taught Torah and helped to adopt monotheism. The period of Torah
could only have begun when Avraham and Sarah had taught people Torah. The Torah
refers to them as having “made these souls”. In this light, we can understand
how a Rebbe is like a parent. The pasuk here teaches us that when a Rebbe
teaches his talmid Torah, he becomes a partner is giving that student the gift
of life itself and that student is considered like his own child.
There is no greater love in the world than that of Hashem for the Jewish
People. In the second bracha (Ahavas Olam) of the evening Krias Shema,
we express to HaKadosh Baruch Hu recognition of how His love is manifested. We
say that He taught us Torah and mitzvos, statutes and ordinances, and
therefore, to try to reciprocate that love we keep His laws and we are
gladdened by the words of His Torah and mitzvos forevermore. Because they
[words of Torah] are our life, they lengthen our days.
In giving us the Torah, Hashem gives us actual life. Without Torah we
cannot exist and this gift is the greatest expression of love in the world. A
Rebbe who teaches his talmidim Torah gives a similar gift. A Rebbe pours his
life into his talmidim, giving his students actual life in a similar fashion
and with a similar love as that of Hashem for His children. Therefore the Torah
views a student as a Rebbe’s own child.
We must further develop a love and awe of our Rebbeim, the leaders of Klal
Yisroel, and to appreciate not just with honor and respect that is commanded of
us, but with a tremendous hakaras hatov, what we receive from our
Gedolim- the gift of life itself through the Torah that they pass onto us in
sincere love.
Yitzchok Pinkus
Yeshivas Mir Yerushalayim