FACE TO FACE WITH THE SNAKE

We are not meant to crush Egypt with sticks but to find a voice of leadership and confront even the biggest snake. Then the opposition itself willingly helps the redemption. * As the world rapidly changes, the Rebbe’s innovative leadership changes on a dime.

 

By Rabbi Boruch Merkur

 

 

This week, it awaits us. Chamber within chamber, deep within the palace, slithering, hissing - fear.

 

Part of us grew up here, near the Nile, under the shadow of the throne. On these marble floors played young Moshe.

 

Was that really his adoptive father? A tyranny of light and life, Pharaoh himself, whose crown Moshe reached for, with purest intentions, to take as his own. 

 

The shrieks that followed were from a child whose mouth is washed out with hot coals… 

 

You will never be king and savior! Who can lead with such imp-imp-imp-pediments?! – mock and scorn. 

 

Even when Moshe did open his mouth in defense of his people - taking the life of an oppressor, slaying him with sound - that too is met with scorn, and for decades, Moshe’s voice is cast into exile.

 

If You wish to redeem us from bondage and captivity, Moshe demands of G-d, “Shlach na b’yad tishlach - send Moshiach himself!” 

 

Moshiach can lead the people. He can be the prophet of Moshe’s “beyond” (his Tohu). Jews will surely believe in Moshiach and follow his lead, because they can relate to him. He speaks their language. The people will forever be inspired and uplifted.

 

But G-d insists: “Moshe, be the first redeemer.” 

 

The reluctant Jewish leader knew that the Almighty empowers this self-deified emperor, this Great Serpent, this King Tut, whose words spoken in his palace rule across the globe. How can even the greatest of men approach him and live? And if not, what of the mission?

 

“I will come with you,” Moshe is assured by his Maker.

 

Moshe Rabbeinu was not healed of his speech impediment until Mount Sinai (when all the Jewish people were healed), but G-d was with him. Miraculously Moshe spoke with authority to Pharaoh, as well as having at his side Aharon as his spokesman, his prophet.  

 

Following this verbal confrontation, Pharaoh was forced to emerge from his palace in search of Moshe, pleading for mercy. Although he walked with a big stick, Moshe’s arsenal was delivered with words:

 

Since the intent of the exodus from Egypt was to make a dwelling for G-d in the physical world, the ultimate expression of that is (not by breaking it but) specifically when the physical domain itself, even the opposition itself (the Egyptians) willingly agrees to help accommodate (to whatever extent possible) the redemption.  … It’s only when you have no choice that you resort to silencing and destroying the opposition … striving thereafter to proceed amicably.[1]

 

*

 

That’s the story as the Rebbe told it in 1992 - the exact opposite of the message he delivered the year before,[2] a month prior to the end of the Gulf War:

 

First off there must be the breaking and the evisceration of the strength and entrenchment of evil. This approach results in the complete destruction and annihilation of the evil. In terms of personal avoda, first one must break and eradicate whatever it is within him that tempts him the most, as a result of which all other concerns fall away on their own.

 

After the Gulf War, the world had changed. The time for breaking had passed and the Rebbe drew our attention towards transformation, is’hapcha. Not compelled to stay the course when his people need dynamic leadership and direction, the Rebbe changes course on a dime. 

 

The 10th and 11th of Shvat honor the anniversary of the Rebbe’s leadership through our commitment to being his spokesmen, his “prophets.” It is our job, with open-minded flexibility and innovation, to take the Rebbe’s razor-sharp vision and communicate it in a way that people take to heart.

 

NOTES:

[1] Seifer HaSichos 5752, pg. 289-290

[2] Seifer HaSichos 5751, pg. 281, Shabbos Parshas Bo, the 19th of January 1991