CHOCMAS NASHIM: PARSHAT B’SHALACH, SHABBOS SHIRA
By: Suri Davis
This is the parshah of derech eretz, because we know that derech eretz kadmah l’torah, and next week is the parshah in which the torah is given.
In Az Yashir, the verse states Zeh Keli v’anvehu, the Mechilta expounds that V’anvehu, and I will glorify Him, is a contraction of Ani v’hu, He, Hashem, and I.
How do we glorify G-d, by doing His mitzvoth, how does G-d glorify us by giving us the mitzvoth, in that we were each born with tzelem elokim, in G-d’s image, with a great potential to be G-dlike, we are desparate to actualize the Godliness in ourselves, and would be an absolute loss, if G-d had birthed us without a Torah.
So often we scream out, “this baby did not come with a manual”, so not true, the Torah is our manual, it is a guide in all situations.
Next week we read Yisro, the parshah in which G-d gives us the Torah. But the Rabbis tell us that Derech Eretz kadmah l’torah, literally translated, the path of the Earth comes before the Torah. Coloquially we understand this to mean that the way we treat others, the mitzvoth between man and his fellow man takes precedence over learning Torah, for after all what is learning the mitzvoth if we do not perform the mitzvoth.
I want to submit to you that we break down the term Derech Eretz to its literal translation, the ways of the Earth and its connection with our becoming Godlike.
Moshe could not bring forth the first and second plague because it meant hitting the water. Moses could not hit the water because the water protected Moshe when he was an infant and Miriam hid him in the basket on the water.
Moshe could not bring forth the third plague because he would have had to have hit the earth. He could not hit the earth because when he lived in Pharoah’s home and saw the Egyptian kill a Jew, and in turn Moshe hit the Egyptian and killed him, it was the earth that opened its mouth to swallow the Egyptian and literally bury the evidence.
Furthermore, this week’s parshah, discussed the manna with which God nourished the Jews in the desert. Moses warns the Jews that they must collect a double portion of Manna on Fridays because on Shabbos they may not collect the manna because of the rules of Shabbos. The manna fell nevertheless and to prevent the Jews from violating the laws of Shabbos by collecting the manna, the birds ate the manna on Shabbos to prevent the violation of the Shabbos. This is why it is customary on the Friday before Shabbos shira to feed the birds, to thank them and repay them the kindness thousands of years after the birds in the desert saved the Jews from sinning.
After all these years, we still have to thank the birds? Why?
Let us hearken to another shira, this time perek shira. Before we sang our praise to Hashem, all the creations of the earth, both animate and inanimate, sang their praises to G-d. We can read these praises in perek shira.
Interestingly, this is Shabbos shira, where we thank the birds, this is the Shabbos of our redemption, when our pursuers were wiped off the face of the earth, so they could no longer be a threat to us, let us see how the birds praise G-d as revealed in perek shira. They state Psalm 84:4:
“Even a bird found a house and a swallow her nest, where she placed her chicks upon Your altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my G-d.” This psalm was written by David as he fled into exile and yearned for the place of the altar and Ark.
The birds sing of redemption, of chicks nesting in the altar, as the Jews lost their home. All these years, as we are in exile, it is as though we empathize with these birds who sing about yearning for redemption, for their home again. The Lubavitcher rebbe’s zmirot book has the song of the little bird yearning for its home. It resonates, as the Jews are being redeemed from Egypt, they too look for their home.
We tend to look down on animate and inanimate objects as they are lower forms of being. Yet they too sing G-d’s praises, and we learn from the respect that Moshe had to defer to the Nile and to the Earth in gratitude for what they did for him, that we have to feed the birds to show gratitude thousands of years later, that this is the beginning of Derech Eretz, the path of the earth. It starts here.
The Tanya teaches us that G-d’s energy fell down to earth to the lowest forms of His creation. When we use these creations for a mitzvah, e.g., using stone to build an altar for sacrifice, or wood tree to build a sukkah, we release from within these inanimate object G-d’s energy and elevate them, thereby, in the service of G-d. In that same way, if we meet a Jew who is not Torah focused and we invite him to do a mitzvah/a good deed, we release in him, light on fire, his spark from within his soul, releasing some of the potential which G-d created in him, which was hidden, thereby elevating him in the service of G-d.
There is a paragraph that is said after Perek Shira, in which Rabbi Yeshaya, a student of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa fasted 85 fasts because he wanted an answer from G-d to his question as to what did dogs do to merit being able to sing G-d’s praises. G-d answered that he was a great man, for he would not have answered this question for anyone of lesser caliber. First, when the Jews were being redeemed, “lo yecheratz kelev l’shono/the dogs stopped themselves from barking” and giving the plan away. Also, in those days the dog feces were used to tan the klaph/parchment on which mezuzot and tefillin/phylacteries were written.
Finally, what do we learn about derech eretz when it comes to our enemies. The Egyptians were horrible to us truly. It was our forefather, Joseph, who saved Egypt from famine, and built its tax system, that provided its wealth, yet they turn on us and enslave us for 210 years and took pleasure in increasing our burden and pain.
By every right, when the Egyptians drowned we should have been jumping up and down with joy. We turn our happiness towards Heaven, to our G-d who saved us, but in this we even have a lesson. We know that on Pesach, we do not say a complete Hallel as we say on other holidays. Why not? Hashem tells us: “maasay yadai tovim b’yam, v’atem omrim shirah/my creations are drowning in the sea, and you want to sing praises?” Even as our wicked enemies are drowning and by every right we should be allowed to celebrate, G-d teaches us the sensitivity that we should not gloat as His creations are drowning.
Derech eretz kadmah l’torah/being a decent person is a foundation before being able to learn torah.
This Monday, February 6th, we celebrate Tu B’shvat, the new year for fruit with regards to the laws of Orlah and Shmittah and Maasrot. Here too, we rejoice over the bounty of fruit that G-d provides us with gratitude for sustenance. It is an auspicious day to daven that the Esrog that we are destined to get in the autumn, becomes robust with the rain that newly fell in Eretz Yisrael.
G-d will give us His Torah next week, but not before we understand that we must treat all with respect. Lower beings, higher beings, we are all created by G-d. But we are His chosen nation, we are created in His image, we are to do His commandments for our betterment, so we can actualize our potential of Godliness within ourselves, that will bring us closer with Him and with our purpose in life.
Gut Shabbos. Don’t forget to feed the birds Friday before Shabbos.
Joyous tu’bshvat.
-Suri