Ethics Of Our Fathers

My Rebbe, HaGaon Rav Henoch Leibowitz, zt’l, would commonly say that the most powerful mussar lessons come directly from Chazal themselves. If you take your own ideas and insert them into Chazal, you may still inspire others. However, when you can demonstrate an ethical lesson from the words of Chazal, the lesson is so much more potent. People should be able to read the words of the sages and see the lesson themselves after it is pointed out.

A classic example can be demonstrated from a Gemara learned this week. Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu that he would kill every firstborn in Egypt at midnight. When Moshe repeated Hashem’s warning, he made a slight change. Instead of saying “at midnight,” he said “around midnight.”

Rebbe Zeira explains that Moshe Rabbeinu was able to pinpoint the exact time of midnight. However, he was afraid that Pharaoh’s astrologers would not be able to be so precise. Consequently, when the plague did not start precisely at midnight (according to their calculations) on the 15th of Nissan, they would call Moshe Rabbeinu a liar. Therefore, Moshe Rabbeinu said that the plague would start “around midnight,” to preclude this possibility.

The fact that the astrologers could call Moshe Rabbeinu a liar boggles the mind. The death of the firstborn was plague number ten. Pharaoh’s magicians already proclaimed that the plagues were the work of Hashem after the plague of lice. In addition, Moshe warned Pharaoh before most of the plagues, and exactly what he said would occur actually did occur. Further, Moshe Rabbeinu said that all the firstborn Egyptians would die on the night of the 15th. That was completely true. The fact that the astrologers thought that he was a few minutes off in relation to the start time should be of little consequence. Finally, couldn’t the astrologers have entertained the possibility that their timepieces might be a little off?

The Sifsei Chachamim states that because of the small inconsistency in time in the tenth plague, they would have denied that all the plagues were from Hashem. The following is a loose translation of the Sifsei Chachamim: “And if you’ll say: Just because of fools, should Moshe Rabbeinu change the words of Hashem from precisely ‘at midnight’ to ‘around midnight’? The answer is that from the third plague and on, the magicians of Egypt admitted that all the words uttered by Moshe Rabbeinu were indeed prophetic and true. Moshe Rabbeinu was afraid that Hashem’s name should not be disgraced at this final plague. Perhaps, because of the perceived imprecision now, they would deny all the prophecy retroactively.”

However, Chazal are pointing out that a person will believe what he wants to believe no matter how far-fetched it is. A disinterested third party would certainly see the truth that Moshe Rabbeinu’s warning was punctiliously correct. However, since Pharaoh and his astrologers had an agenda, they would have grasped at straws and denied reality.

This idea is further demonstrated from Rashi in Chumash. The Torah states that when Hashem killed the firstborn Egyptians, He killed the firstborn of all non-Jewish slaves as well. The commentators explain that they were deserving of punishment as well. But why did Hashem pick this moment to exact punishment on them? Rashi explains that had Hashem not done so, the slaves would have said that it was their god who was killing all the firstborn and that is why no slaves were slain that night. To prevent this claim, Hashem included them in the tenth plague as well.

The claim of the slaves seems patently ludicrous for all the reasons explained above. This plague came exactly when Moshe Rabbeniu said it would. This warning came true just like all his other warnings. Could a sane individual actually believe that it was the god of the slaves that was behind the plagues? Obviously not, but someone who is looking to distort the truth can see what he wants to see.

It is interesting that I have heard many complaints about various aspects of the Siyum HaShas. Some of them seem valid to me. However, let us not focus on small points. We should look at the massive kiddush Hashem and the tremendous number of man-hours put into the Siyum HaShas. The fact that such a monumental event took place is a testament to the hard work and dedication of Agudas Yisrael.