Naftuli Schischa was flying from New
York to Florida on Wednesday evening when the woman across from him passed out
right into the aisle. Naftali is a
member of Hatzala, and he immediately began emergency care on the woman. He was able to stabilize her until the plan
landed in Fort Lauderdale, and he was hailed as a hero in the national news the
next day.
It was hard not to notice his long payes and Chassidic
garb in all the pictures and videos posted online and many were hailing
Schischa as making a tremendous Kiddush Hashem.
When asked for comment from Vos Is Neus, the
Jewish news outlet, Mr. Schischa declined to speak about the incident, saying
only that Hatzalah members have provided assistance to passengers in flight on
many occasions.
When asked
for comment, Chevra Hatzlah CEO Rabbi Yehiel Kalish said that the incident was
par for the course for his members.
Stating simply, “This is what we do,”.
The
time has come for Bnei Yisrael to leave Egypt.
Hashem announces to Moshe that there will be ONE FINAL PLAGUE, and then
Bnei Yisrael will be free.
And
it is at this moment, that the Torah presents two psukim, two verses, which create
quite a stir in the meforshim, the commentaries.
Says
Hashem:
(י“א:ב)
דַּבֶּר
נָא
בְּאָזְנֵי
הָעָם
וְיִשְׁאֲלוּ
אִישׁ
מֵאֵת
רֵעֵהוּ
וְאִשָּׁה
מֵאֵת
רְעוּתָהּ
כְּלֵי
כֶסֶף
וּכְלֵי
זָהָב:
Please
speak to Bnei Yisrael, and ask them to request from their neighbors, Silver and
Gold.
And
then the Torah tells us:
(ג)
וַיִּתֵּן
יְקֹוָק
אֶת
חֵן
הָעָם
בְּעֵינֵי
מִצְרָיִם
גַּם
הָאִישׁ
מֹשֶׁה
גָּדוֹל
מְאֹד
בְּאֶרֶץ
מִצְרַיִם
בְּעֵינֵי
עַבְדֵי
פַרְעֹה
וּבְעֵינֵי
הָעָם:
ס
And
Hashem caused Bnei Yisrael to find favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. Moshe, too, had become great in the Land of
Egypt, in the eyes of Pharaoh and the eyes of the nation.
I
want to ask three questions:
1) We
know that the Jewish People were promised that they would collect Gold &
Silver from the Egyptians, and they did.
Why, then, does the Torah say to take Gold and Silver Ish Me’eis rei’eihu? One person from his or her friend. Since
when were the Jews and Egyptians REI’IM?
They were our taskmasters?!
2) What
caused this transformation that a people who had hated us and enslaved us, now saw
us in a favorable light? Why did
Am Yisrael find CHEIN HA’AM, favor, in the eyes of the Egyptians?
3) When
Hashem wants us to do something, he COMMANDS Us, He gives us MITZVOS, which are
COMMANDS. Suddenly, in this case, he
tells Moshe, “Daber Na”, please speak to the people. Why the language of PLEASE in this
case?
Rav
Samson Raphael Hirsch explains, building on the medrash, that we
have to remind ourselves the context of this story. The plague of choshech, darkness, had just
ended. And we know that during this
plague the Egyptians were paralyzed in a thick darkness in which they couldn’t
even move, and the Jews had light wherever they wanted to go.
The plague of
Choshech, then, provided Am Yisrael with an INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY.
The Egyptians who had treated
them with disdain, who had beaten them and their children, who had MURDERED
their families, were frozen. They
couldn’t move and they couldn’t see.
They were the most vulnerable they would ever be in their lives.
This was the People’s
opportunity to EXACT REVENGE. They could
have taken advantage of them physically or financially.
Yet, for those 3 days
not ONE JEW touched an Egyptian nor their belongings. Because that’s not who they were.
And that is why almost
immediately after this story to the Torah records:
ג וַיִּתֵּן יְקוָק אֶת–חֵן הָעָם, בְּעֵינֵי מִצְרָיִם; גַּם הָאִישׁ מֹשֶׁה, גָּדוֹל מְאֹד בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם, בְּעֵינֵי עַבְדֵי–פַרְעֹה, וּבְעֵינֵי הָעָם.
God placed the favor
of the Nation in the eyes of the Egyptians.
This wasn’t some
miracle that HKBH had done to shift the hearts of the Egyptian people. Rather, when
the plague ended, and the Egyptians looked around their homes and saw that they
hadn’t been ransacked, no one had taken a THING, they began to see the Jews in
a new light.
They saw a people who
they had treated to this point as animals, rise above the morals of all the
people of Egypt.
In the words of Rav
Hirsch: “More than all the miracles he had performed, the moral greatness of
his people had made the man Moshe must esteemed in the eyes of the Egyptians.”
The Netziv, Rav
Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, the rosh yeshiva of Volozhin in the 1850s goes even a step further.
He asks a simple, but
penetration question: The Egyptians were literally frozen for 3 days. How did
they not eat anything for that entire time?
And says the Netziv, they did eat and drink. Because the Jews who had light brought
them food and drink, so they wouldn’t pass out from hunger and thirst.
And thus, we find that
the Torah, when it comes time to describe the relationship between the Egyptians
and Am Yisrael AFTER the plague of Choshech, does NOT say, ask the Egyptian people. Rather:
אִישׁ מֵאֵת רֵעֵהוּ וְאִשָּׁה מֵאֵת רְעוּתָהּ
Each man asked his
friend and woman her friend.
Jew and Egyptian,
argue Rav Hirsch and the Netziv, were no longer bitter enemies. Rather, because of the kindness the Jews
showed to the Egyptians at that time, they grown to respect one another.
And this also explains
why as Hashem tells Moshe to tell the people to collect the gold and silver
from the Egyptians, he does so with the language of NA, PLEASE.
Rav Hirsch explains
that the Jews were hesitant to take the Gold and Silver. They had just shown such high moral character
by RESISTING the TEMPTATION to take that which was not theirs that they didn’t
want to sully their reputations by taking it later. So, Hashem tells them, “I understand how you
feel, but you are going to need those resources and you are deserving of
them. So, please, for Me, make the
request of your Egyptian neighbors. And
know that I will not allow this request to degrade your status, and thus, ‘Vayitein
Hashem Es Chein Ha’Am B’Eienei Mitzrayim’, Hashem allowed the favor Bnei
Yisrael had created on their own, to REMAIN in the eyes of the Egyptians.
In
May of 2022, the 8th grade boys from Arie Crown Hebrew Day School in
Chicago flew into Washington DC for a 3 day trip. For the duration of the trip, Bill Riddick
was the group’s bus driver. And from the
moment the boys got on the bus, Bill became part of the group.
“The
boys were so much fun,” he recalls. “They were very mannerly and there was so
much love… They taught me some songs and we just clicked.”
After
spending three days together, the students and Mr. Riddick exchanged fond
farewells at the airport. A month later
at their graduation, one of the principals who had been on the trip, noticed a
familiar face in the crowd. It turned
out that Bill had been so enamored with the students, that he called the
school, found out the details of graduation, and booked a flight, so he could
be there to celebrate with the boys who had won over his heart. The valedictorian speaker even gave Bill a
shoutout in his speech.
The
school hosted a lavish graduation dinner and party, and Mr. Riddick sat in a
place of honor, at a table with the rabbis and teachers of the school.
During
the meal, on two different occasions, rabbis approached Mr. Riddick, offering
to pay for his flight and hotel. “I said no. I didn’t come to get nothing; I pay
my own way,” Mr. Riddick said. “I did everything from the heart.”
The
simple kindness those boys showed Bill Riddick showed him just how special they
were.
Sometimes when we go out into the world, and
maybe even more often when we’re out of our normal routine, on vacation, we
tend to feel a little embarrassed to identify as Jewish. We’d rather not stand out. Yes, sometimes it might be for safety
reasons, but more often than not, it’s more about a general discomfort with
standing out. Maybe it’s when we need to
daven mincha and we’re in the airport, or if we need to ask a vendor to check a
hashgacha.
And that’s too bad.
Because we are a community of people who are
really kind and nice. People who treat
others with menschlichkeit. Our children
say thank you to the guy at the ice cream store or the stranger who holds the
door. We have all the tools to make a
tremendous impact and a real kiddush Hashem.
And if we would only be willing to identify ourselves more clearly as
Jews, imagine the impact just the people in this room could have.
It doesn’t have to be by saving someone’s life. We all do so many kind things each day, and
if we would be more willing to proudly show who we are, the impact would be
incredible.
The Jews in Mitzrayim, Mr. Schischa, and those
boys at Arie Crown Hebrew Day School all teach us the same thing: When we are willing to not only be true to
ourselves but also proud of who we are, we can make an incredible impact wherever
we are.