Bostoner Torah Insights: Bostoner ‘Chassidus’ in Hebrew and English: Parshas Bereishis – 26 Tishrei 5786
Bostoner Torah Insights - Yerushalayim
Bostoner Torah Insights
Bostoner ‘Chassidus’ in English
Parshas Bereishis – 26 Tishrei 5786
Bostoner Rebbe shlit”a – Yerushalayim
Secretariat Email: bosto...@gmail.com
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There is a story told about the Vilna Gaon, who for a time wandered around the countryside in a self-imposed Galus of exile – as was the practice of many Torah personalities in history as a method of atonement. He would dress in the simple clothes of a peasant and wander from hamlet to hamlet, reliant on the Chesed and Tzedakah of strangers, for food and shelter.
When he arrived in the vicinity of Berlin, Germany, he was discovered by others in the inn that he was staying. The owner of the inn asked the Gaon if he could say over some original Torah thoughts. The Vilna Gaon answered the innkeeper that all of the Oral Torah, the Torah Sh’B’Al Peh has roots in the Written Torah, the Torah Sh’Bichtav, and a source for the former can always be found in the latter. Furthermore, the Gaon maintained that all of the Written Torah can be traced back to an origin in the Book of Beraishis. He then concluded that all of the Sefer Beraishis can be traced back to the first word in the Torah itself – Beraishis
In response to his statement, the innkeeper tested the Gaon with the Mitzvah of Pidyon HaBen, asking the Gra where this Mitzvah of redeeming a firstborn son can be found in the word Beraishis. Immediately, the Vilna Gaon replied that the six letters of the word Beraishis – ב-ר-א-ש-י-ת – may be understood as an acrostic for Ben Rishon Achrei Shloshim Yom Tifdeh – the first son after thirty days you shall redeemed.
Similarly, Chulin 139b asks where Haman, Esther and Mordechai are found in the Torah, and provides the respective Pesukim from the Chumash which hint to their names. Oddly, the Gemara also asks, “Where is ‘Moshe’ found in the Torah?” Unlike the personalities from the Purim Megillah who lived long after the conclusion of Sefer Devarim, Moshe’s name appears explicitly throughout the ‘Five Books of Moses’. Why would anyone need to find a ‘source’ for ‘Moshe’ in the Chumash.
Even stranger is the Gemara’s answer. Rather than bringing a Pasuk with the word ‘Moshe’, or at least a play on words with the letters of his name, as was done for the personalities from the Megillah, the Gemara brings a verse from Parshas Beraishis, “B’Shagam Hu Basar” (Beraishis 6:3), “since man is but flesh, his days shall be one hundred and twenty years”. Rashi in Chulin comments that the word ‘B’Shegam’ [since] has the numerical Gematria of 345, equivalent to the numerical value of the word ‘Moshe’, and that the 120 years mentioned in the Pasuk correspond to the 120 years of Moshe’s life.
In line with the statement of the Vilna Gaon, it seems that the Gemara is illustrating that even within the Book of Beraishis, the only Sefer of the Chumash before the birth of Moshe, which does not contain his name explicitly, there are still hints to the future existence of Moshe Rabbeinu. To continue where the Gemara left off, using the method of the Vilna Gaon, I would like to suggest where Moshe Rabbeinu is hinted to in the first word of the Torah – ‘Beraishis’.
The aforementioned Pasuk from Beraishis 6:3 states “B’Shegam Hu Basar”, which may be understood as ‘B’Shegam’ is ‘Basar’, meaning that not only is ‘B’Shegam’ a allusion to Moshe, but the word ‘Basar’ as well – a reference to Moshe Rabbeinu being a human being of flesh and blood. The word ‘Basar’ uses the lettersב-ש-ר from the word ב-ר-א-ש-י-ת. The remaining lettersא-י-ת can be used to form an acrostic “Ish Yetain Torah”. Putting this altogether we have ‘(to) a man of flesh [Moshe] the He gave the Torah’.
As the Midrash explains, when Moshe ascended Har Sinai to receive the Torah, the angels protested that Man was not worthy to receive the Torah, to which Hashem instructed Moshe to respond to the claims of the angels. Moshe then proceeded to show that the content of the Aseres HaDibros that was already given to the Jewish People did not apply to the angels. Moshe recited the First Commandment, “I am Hashem your G-d who took you out of Egypt…” and asked the angels, “Were you in bondage in Mitzrayim”? This continued until the Tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbors your fellow’s wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey…”, whereupon Moshe asked them, “Do you have wives, servants, or animals”? (Midrash Agadah, Bamidbar 17:11)
This is a reminder to us that the Torah was designed for human beings – not for angels. In order to obtain atonement on Yom Kippur, Klal Yisroel emulates the angels by dressing in white, refraining from eating and drinking, etc. However, the remainder of the year, starting with Succos preparations the day after Yom Kippur (Rema O.C. 625:1), begins the mission to live a life of Torah and Mitzvos. As stated in the conclusion of Megillah that we read on Shabbos Chol HaMoed Succos, “The bottom line after all has been considered, one must fear God and keep His commandments, since that is the sole function of Man” (Koheles 12:14).
As we finish the cycle of the Yomim Noraim, ending with the joyous festivals of Succos and Simchas Torah, and begin the Torah anew with Parshas Beraishis, we will inevitably return to our everyday routine of our ordinary lives. It is specifically at this time, as we turn a fresh new page in our respective Book of Life, that it is most important to internalize the message that serving Hashem through studying and observing the Torah is in the capability of every one of us – specifically because ‘man is but flesh’ whose existence is not more than ‘one hundred and twenty years’.--