SOME GIANTS OF OUR PEOPLE
Dear Family,
I hope that everyone is well.
Refuah shleimah to Yechezkiel ben Ester.
This week highlighted some aspects of the lives of some of the greatest people in our history, which I wanted to share.
In this week's Sedra, Yisro, we learn how MOSHEH RABEINU was sitting and judging the people the whole day (ie people were coming to him to be taught Torah, settle disputes, seeking instruction and advice etc)
When his father-in-law Yisro saw this, he advised Mosheh that this job is too difficult for one person, and advised him to prophetically select a hierarchy of G-d fearing men of integrity to do the job, and only bring the more complex matters to Mosheh.
And Mosheh, after checking with Hashem, heeded his father-in-laws advice.
Now the Rebbe asks an obvious question:
Mosheh Rabeinu couldn't think about this solution himself? He needed Yisro to come and advise him to do this?
The Rebbe explained that there is a 2-track approach to this problem.
Mosheh, being a great leader, a Nasi, knew that he had the capacity to relate to every Jew individually, to make them more G-dly and to lift them up to his level.
When there is more G-dliness there will automatically be less dispute.
But the people had to hang in there to reach these levels.
And Moshe was fully prepared to do this huge work, and take this approach.
Yisro understood this, but his point of view was that we live in a real world, and one has to set up a hierarchy of systems to deal with the problems, in addition to Mosheh's input.
This gives one a better idea of what is the quality of a Nasi, and we have been very fortunate, in our generation, to see these qualities in THE REBBE.
What also came into focus this week was RAMBAM (MAIMONIDES) and his Magnum Opus work, Mishneh Torah!
This is an absolutely amazing work, bringing the whole of Torah into a highly organised, practical format, to be within the reach of every Jew, man, woman and child (Sefer HaMitzvot)
In 1984 the Rebbe made a Project of learning the whole of Mishneh Torah for men, women and children. There are 3 streams:
- Learning 3 chapters a day to finish in 1 year
- Learning 1 chapter a day to finish in 3 years
- Learning Sefer Hamitzvosi ie just the Mitzvos which relate to 3 chapters per day, and can be done by even children
This week both the streams of 3 chapters per day and 1 chapter per day, finished learning Mishneh Torah together, and we all started learning Rambam again from the beginning
I want to thank Batsheva for making the new Study Schedules for us which can be found on our Rambam website at https://rambampress.com/daily-study/. Many thanks Batsheva!!
And to end with a story, still connected to the above theme:
The grandson of Rambam, David HaNagid, wrote in Baal Seder Hadorot, that when Rambam finished writing Mishneh Torah, his father who had long passed on, came to him in a vision. Together with his father in the vision, was a very venerable looking man. Awed, Rambam asked his father who is this person? His father told him that this is Mosheh Rabeinu, and that he heard about your work and he has come to look at your book. Mosheh Rabeinu then said to the Rambam: I have inspected your work. Yasher Koach! (a great compliment)
Gut Shabbos to all