You Are Such an Adam

Shalom to all,

Ok. I'm trying to keep a hot streak here. This is two weeks in a row. I am very happy about this.

And there is a second reason that I am very now. This week, I would like to offer something that I have thought of myself. That probably means there is something wrong with it - so I'll leave it to you to figure out. Almost like a riddle.

At the very end of this week's parasha, the Torah, in only one verse, praises Moshe Rabbeniu.

וְהָאִישׁ מֹשֶׁה, עָנָו מְאֹד- מִכֹּל הָאָדָם אֲשֶׁר, עַל-פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה.

"The man ("ish" - איש), Moshe, was the most humble, more so than any other person ("Adam" - אדם) on the face of the earth."(Bamidbar 12:3)

Now, some will argue (they're wrong, but that won't stop them) that we don't have to learn something from every story in the Torah. Some will say that the Torah records historical events. There doesn't have to be a message in everything that the Torah says! Well, I'm not going to respond to those people now, except I will just say that I believe they are wrong. I believe that we can learn something from every letter in the Torah.

If I'm not going to respond to that now (maybe one day), then why do I bring it? Because this verse (the one I quoted) is not part of a conversation. It's not like one person told another person, "You know, that Moshe, he was very humble." Nope. If you look at the verses, you will see that there is a story going on, and suddenly, the Torah interjects and just throws in this information. Whom is the Torah speaking to? Miriam? Nope. Aharon? No, not him, either. It is speaking to the reader. To you. To me. To Rav Ovadia Yosef. To whoever is reading and learning the Torah. This praise wasn't said to anyone, and wasn't part of any conversation. It was placed in the Torah, by Hashem, and it is directed to the reader, and only to the reader. So those who suggest the the Torah quotes stories cannot say that this is simply part of a story. This is here to teach us something. After all, it is directed towards us! So if you don't take away something from it, you're missing the entire point.

I'm sure there are many things that one can learn from this passuk. I would like to offer something novel. Well the truth is, I don't know if it is novel. I came up with it either last night or this morning, I can't even remember. But I think it is true, and I can imagine that someone else says something like this. But until someone points out who preceded me in saying it, I will claim it for myself.

This passuk uses two different words that both mean "man." "Ish" and "Adam." Both of them mean "person." However, they have different connotations. The word "ish" implies "man of stature," an important person. Like when you say "ish," you're supposed be taken back and say, "Oh, wow! We're dealing with that type of person." There are many examples where ish is used to describe a man of stature. In fact, there is a pasuk in the az yashir that writes, "Hashem ish milchama!" - Hashem is the man of war. The word ish even is used in relation to Hashem.

The word "adam" has more of a negative connotation. It comes from the word "adama" - land, earth. Man of the earth. Lowly person. [Editor's note: My name is Adam. It hurts for me to write this. I'm thinking about legally changing my name it Ish. Ish Sabzevari. I like the sound of that. No?]

After explaining these different connotations, I think there is something very deep in this passuk, and I would like to share it with you.

Moshe Rabbeinu was the greatest of all men. He spoke to Hashem, one-on-one, consciously, "face-to-face." There was a very close relationship between Hashem and Moshe. Not only that, but he was the only one who ever has such a relationship. He was the greatest of all prophets. Now, you may ask, "Adam, what are you saying? How can you possibly know that Moshe was greater than all other prophets? What? Are you a prophet? Do you have some prophet-level-measuring-radar, or something?" So I'll let you in on my secret. At the very end of the Torah, there is a verse that states, וְלֹא-קָם נָבִיא עוֹד בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל כְּמֹשֶׁה, אֲשֶׁר יְדָעוֹ ה', פָּנִים אֶל-פָּנִים. - "And there has not ever arisen a prophet with Israel like Moshe, whom Hashem knew face-to-face." So we know that Moshe was pretty cool, you know.

Let me ask you a question. Do you think he had a right to be haughty? Like, do you think he did anything that was worth being proud of? Like, did he ever do anything cool in his life? OF COURSE! He was the closest man to G-d in this world! That's something to feel good about! I think he would be justified in being proud.

Comparatively speaking, let's say Moshe is an "ish." Basically, everyone else will be considered an "adam." Compared to Moshe, everyone is on a level lower.

Now lets go back to the pasuk for a second:

"The man ("ish" - איש), Moshe, was the most humble, more so than any other person ("Adam" - אדם) on the face of the earth."

Why does the Torah have to call Moshe an "ish." Why can't it just write, "Moshe was the most humble..."?

I think the Torah is trying to stress that in a world that Moshe was an "ish," and everyone else around was merely an "adam," (when compared to him,) he was still the humblest. To further stress that the word "adam" has a negative connotation, the Torah repeats the word when is says מִכֹּל הָאָדָם אֲשֶׁר, עַל-פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה. The word "adama" is repeated to stress that an "adam" is a man of "adama," an earthly man. On the contrary, Moshe was an ish, who would speak with Hashem "face-to-face."

I think the Torah is stressing here that one should not be haughty, even if he has reason to be haughty. If there was one man who would be justified in being haughty, it would be Moshe Rabbeinu. Nevertheless, he was not haughty. In fact, he was the humblest of all men. And that is what made him an "ish" is a world of adams. You may think that you are better than other people. And you really are. Like you are probably worth more than __________ (fill in the blank). But that doesn't mean anything. Wouldn't you agree that Moshe was worth more than _______________, too? He probably was. Nevertheless, Moshe was still more humble than _________. You should be, too.

My point is, you may think that you have the right to be haughty when comparing yourself to certain people. And you probably are better than they. But don't be mistaken - you are wrong in feeling exalted over others, even if you are better than they.

I don't know if I am clear at all in this email. Please let me know if you know of anyone who says this, or if there is something wrong with it that I am missing.

Thank you very much,

Shabbat Shalom!

Avraham Ish Sabzevari

I Must Confess...

Dear All,

There once was a time when I would write a Dvar Torah every week, or at least on a bi-monthly basis. Now, I think it has become something like bi-yearly (I'm being hopeful). I haven't sat down to write a Dvar Torah in a while, primarily because I have been busy in YU. Now, I know that some respond to that, "Excuses. Excuses." (A couple have told me that.) Others are happy that I don't clutter their inbox once a week and will keep quiet, hoping I don't remember. (A couple have told me that, too.) Others just haven't noticed. While I don't understand the ones that claim I clutter their inbox, because you can simply block me or set me as spam, I do understand the ones that suggest I am making excuses. What I wanted to make clear is that, I MUST CONFESS, I know I haven't been writing them, and I think I'm going to pick it up again. To begin this new streak, I have a funny story. You may not think it is funny, but the fact that I think it is funny should be funny for you.

This week's parasha, Parashat Nasso, is the longest parasha, in terms of verses. There are 176 verses (pasukim) in this parasha, which interestingly enough is the same amount of verses in Tehillim perek 119. Perek 119 is in acrostic form, which basically means that there is a letter for each letter in the alphabet. The first verse begins with the letter aleph, the second begins with the letter bet, the third begins with gimmel, so on, so forth. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and the psalm goes through the cycle 8 times. 22 * 8 = 176. Furthermore, the longest gemara (in terms of number of pages) is Masechet Baba Batra. You know how many pages there are in Baba Batra? 176! (The truth is, the masechet begins on page 2, so there are really only 175 pages -- but play dumb). So this number 176 is recurring! What does it mean? I'll leave it to you to figure it out.

In this week's parasha, we are taught the idea of confession.

When a man or a woman commits any of the sins against man, acting treacherously against Hashem, and that person is guilty, they shall confess the sins which they committed... (Bamidbar 5:6)

Here, we are taught that when someone commits a sin, he must confess what he did. According to the Rambam (Teshuva 1:1), this verse is the very source for repenting - doing teshuva. Actually, the Rambam doesn't write that there is even such a mitzvah of repenting. According to the Rambam, it is not a mitzvah to repent and do what is correct. What is the mitzvah according to him? "When a person sins and goes against any mitzvah in the Torah, whether intentionally or unintentionally, when he does teshuva and repents from his sin, he must confess in front of Hashem." According to the Rambam, everyone must do teshuva, and return from his ways. That's a given. For example, the Torah says "Put on tefillin." If someone doesn't put on tefillin, he doesn't need a separate mitzvah to tell him to do teshuva and put on tefillin! The Torah already tells him to put on tefillin. Why would we need another mitzvah to tell him to repent and put on tefillin? Rather, according to the Rambam, the mitzvah of repentance is simply to confess that you have sinned and to verbally accept upon yourself never to do it again.

This is amazing. There is a special obligation to verbalize your sin. Why? If I know I did something wrong, and I want to better my ways, why do I have to verbalize it? And it's not like you have to verbalize it in public - you can do it in the privacy of your own room. So why do you have to do it at all? Why is it so important to say, "I sinned and did such-and-such."

Well, I think the answer is clear. You can ask the AA, that when trying to fix something about yourself, the first step is admitting you have a problem. And you don't have to admit this to the world. You have to admit this to yourself. It's very easy to fool yourself. After all, you control what you think. If you want to convince yourself of something, you can probably do so easily. That is why the first step of teshuva is confessing the sin, as we learn from this week's parasha.

This is when I bring down the funny story. Now, I know that this is unrelated and really should be said at the beginning of the year, but I wanted to share it now anyway.

As you all know, in the times of Noah, Hashem decides to destroy the whole world. He tells Noah to build an ark, and two members from every species - a male and a female - go onto the ark. There are two lions, two bears, two wolves, etc etc.

There is a Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni Bereshit 56) that brings down the following story about Lies and Destruction. The Midrash speaks about them as though they are characters. I will name these characters Lie and Destruction:

Before the flood, Lie comes to Noah and wants to enter the ark. Noah tells Lie, "You can't enter alone! You have to come in with your mate!" Lie isn't sure what to do. He roams around until he bumps into Destruction. Destruction asks Lie, "Where are you coming from, Lie?" Lie responds, I just tried getting into Noah's Ark, and he didn't let me in. He said I have to come in with my mate....Hey, Destruction, do you want to marry me?" Destruction responds, "What will you give me if I marry you?" Lie responds, "I promise that any profit I every make, I will give it straight to you. You can do whatever you want with it." Destruction likes the deal, so she marries Lie, and they enter the ark together. After the flood is over, Lie and Destruction roam the land once again. Many people are involved in business, using Lie to help them make money. Any time anyone ever makes any money because of Lie, Lie hands over the money to Destruction. After a while, Lie asks Destruction, "Do you mind me asking - what have you been doing with all of my profits that I have been handing over to you? I just want to know where all my money is going." Destruction replies, "Don't you remember, you promised that you'll give me your profits and I can do whatever I want with it. So I have been destroying it. Anytime anyone makes any money because of you, I just go and destroy that money, that house, that car, etc."

That's where the Midrash ends. And I think this is very closely related to confession. The Midrash is making a point - where there are lies, there is destruction. Whatever comes about because of a lie will not survive. It is only a matter of time before it gets destroyed. They're married. They go hand in hand. Don't think for a second that if you get something through a lie that it will last. It will not. Lie promised it to Destruction.

If you understand the uselessness of lies, that wouldn't you want to be truthful? Moreover, wouldn't you want to be truthful with yourself?!?!? This mitzvah of confessing is exactly that! Be truthful to yourself. Don't be in denial. Don't convince yourself that you are doing nothing wrong, if you are. You owe it to yourself.

Anyway, I though this story is funny because, why would you ever marry Destruction? Who would do that? But now that I think about it, Lie probably just lied to himself and convinced himself that it's a good match. So why wouldn't he marry her?

May we be truthful with our friends and family, and most importantly, with ourselves.

Shabbat Shalom to all!

Avraham Adam Sabzevari

--
For questions, comments, criticisms, or suggestions, please email adamsabzevari@gmail.com. We are awaiting your feedback. :)
www.adamstorah.blogspot.com