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Parasha Va'Era - 2025 -Rabbi Lumbroso

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Va’Era  

 Ethics of Godly Leaders, Part Two 

וגם אני ׁשמעתי את־נאקת בני יׂשראל אׁשר מצרים מעבדים אתם ואזכר את־בריתי׃ 

Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. 

– Exodus 6:5 

In Chasam Sofer, Rabbi Moshe Sofer explained why the word “also” is included in the verse even though it may seem superfluous (of course, there are no superfluous words in the Torah). He says that the “also”  implies that it is not only HaShem who heard the “groanings,” but the people also heard one another’s cries. Even though the entire Jewish people were enslaved and afflicted, they did not forget the plight of  their fellow man. By this, HaShem encourages us not to be so wrapped up in our own problems that we forget to empathize and be concerned for the plight of those around us who may, after all, be under an even heavier burden. Out of concern for others, they may be refusing to impose their burdens on those around them through verbal complaints. Consider the following anecdote. The mother of Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv had a custom to collect money for the poor at funerals. At the funeral of her only daughter, she also collected charity. When asked how she was able to compose herself at the height of her grief, she replied, “Just because I am suffering doesn’t mean that the poor have to suffer also.” (Tnuas Hamussar, vol. 2, p. 28)


Our Master has certainly left us an example to follow on this matter. He himself is described by Isaiah the prophet as “...a man of suffering and acquainted with disease...He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted, he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:3–7). Fully aware of what awaited him within the next few days in Jerusalem, he stopped on his way to comfort Lazarus’s two sisters, who had just lost their brother. Yochanan records that at that moment, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). Anticipating the soon-coming destruction of the Temple and of the city, even at the height of his suffering, he made sure to empathize with the “daughters of Jerusalem” saying, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children” (Luke 23:28)! As he unjustly hung on the tree, he cared for the thief who, admitting his guilt, begged to be remembered: “He said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise’” (Luke 23:42–43). Finally, just before the end, our Master also made sure that his mother, as well as his youngest disciple, would be cared for after his departure: Therefore, when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”  From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. (John 19:26–27) But we might say, “Oh, but this is Yeshua! He can do that, but we can’t!” When Aharon lost his two sons, he was in the middle of a great dedication ceremony, but the faithful Levite refused to mourn while in the service of HaShem. Not only did he not want to draw negative attention away from this very important moment and to himself, but he also didn’t want to dampen the joy it meant for the people of Israel. Later, he went to mourn his two sons in the privacy of his own tent with his own relatives. 


The Master’s dear apostle gave us the commandment to practice empathy: “Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). This command doesn’t seem to be conditional to our state of mind at the time. While following Yeshua’s example, we are not to indulge in burdening others with our problems but are to be aware and concerned with their problems.  With all that said, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t share our personal issues with others in order to get help, counsel, prayer, or even comfort and sympathy, but we are to do so in private, with the leaders of the congregation, so as not to burden the whole congregation with our personal issues. While we are to give that sympathy, we are not to indulge in milking it from others. Sad to say, congregational “prayer request” times can sometimes be hijacked to become pity parties. The dear apostle Paul said to the Roman congregation, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). 


Following the example of the Master, Paul and his traveling companion Silas were unjustly imprisoned. They cared more for their jailer than for themselves and even their own freedom. Here is the account that Luke, Paul’s biographer, left us regarding that episode: The multitude rose up together against them and the magistrates tore their clothes from them, then commanded them to be beaten with rods. When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw  them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely, who, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison, and secured their feet in the stocks. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were loosened. The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, “Don’t harm yourself, for we are all here!” He called for lights, sprang in, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. (Acts 16:22–29) 


Paul’s motto was: “We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure” (1 Corinthians 4:12). James, the Master’s brother, also tells us how to handle the adversities of life: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2–4) 


If we do not take today’s afflictions with patience and joy, how will we be able to emulate the example of the early Jewish Messianic martyrs to whom the writer of the letter to the Hebrews (Jewish believers in first century Israel) issued the following challenge: 

What more shall I say? For the time would fail me if I told of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,  David, Samuel, and the prophets; who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness,  obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of  the sword, from weakness were made strong, grew mighty in war, and caused foreign armies to  flee. Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn apart.  They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth. These all, having had testimony given to them through their faith, didn’t receive the promise, God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:32–40)


May we, with all the martyrs of the faith throughout the ages, take our trials and tribulations patiently. May we, like the Master, use them as a learning experience to provoke in us empathy for others rather than sympathy for ourselves.


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