This is a well-known story received over the Internet long ago; if you gain nothing else from this week’s Tastings of Torah but reading this story, it will have been worth it.
One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I noticed a kid from my class walking home from school, who looked like he was carrying all of his books. His name was Kyle, and I wondered why would anyone bring all his books home on a Friday? I figured he must be a real nerd. I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends the next afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and continued on my way.
As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him. He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes.
My heart went out to him, so I jogged over to help him look for his glasses. He was on his hands and knees crawling around looking for them, and I saw a tear in his eye. Spotting his glasses a few feet away, I handed them to him and said:
“Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives.”
He looked at me and said, “Hey thanks!” There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude. I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had been in a private school until recently. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before. We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books.
He turned out to be a pretty cool kid, so I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends and me. We ended up hanging out together all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, as did my friends.
Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again. I stopped him and said, “Boy, you are gonna build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!”
He just laughed and handed me half the books. Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends. When we were seniors, we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown, and I was going to Duke. Somehow, I knew we would always be friends, and that the miles would never be a problem. He was going to be a doctor, and I had decided to study business on a football scholarship.
Kyle ended up being the valedictorian of our class. I still teased him all the time about being a nerd, recalling those piles of books he had been carrying when we first met. He had to prepare a speech for graduation, and I was so glad it wasn’t me having to get up there and speak.
Graduation day finally arrived, and Kyle looked great. He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school; he had filled out and actually looked good in glasses. In fact, he had more dates than I did and all the girls loved him.
I could see that he was nervous about his speech, so I smacked him on the back and said, “Hey, big guy, you’ll be great!” He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled. “Thanks,” he said.
As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began:
“Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years: your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach…but mostly your friends. I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story.
And I just stared at my friend with disbelief as he told the real story of the first day we met. He had planned to kill himself over the weekend, and he had decided to clean out his locker so his Mom wouldn’t have to do it later. This was why he was carrying all his stuff home. He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile.
“Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable.” I heard the crowd gasp as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment. I saw his mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize its depth.
Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small gesture you can change a person’s life, for better or for worse. G-d puts us all in each other’s lives to impact one another in some way.
We all admire those instances when someone is really present for someone else. It is a trait that is easy to admire, but challenging to maintain. And this admirable goal may be at the root of one of the most puzzling stories in the entire Torah, found in this week’s portion, Shemot.
This week we begin the second book of the Torah, Shemot, or Exodus, which will see the family of Yaakov transformed into the nation of Israel. The first portion focuses on the development of Moshe as a leader, detailing his birth as a slave, his rise as a Prince of Egypt and subsequent fall from grace and escape to the deserts of Midyan, his encounter with G-d at the Burning Bush and assumption of the mantle of leadership as he prepares to undertake the mission of bringing the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt.
While there is no shortage of stories and sub plots this week, the most challenging event in the emergence of Moshe as the savior of the Jewish People, occurs just as he is finally ready to return to Egypt and set his people free. Stopping at a small inn before the last leg of the journey home, G-d actually attempts to put Moses to death!
After no less than thirty nine verses (Exodus 3; 1-4: 19) in which G-d ‘convinces’ Moshe to leave Midyan and accept the mission of bringing the Jewish people out of Egypt, Moshe finally accepts, and, taking his wife and children with him, sets forth on the journey south back to Egypt.
Suddenly, just as he has nearly arrived at his destination:
“And it was, on the way, in the inn, and G-d encountered him (Moshe) and desired to kill him. And Tsiporah took a rock and cut the foreskin of her son. and said: “For you are a groom of blood to me. And he (it?) abated (let go) from him (Moshe), and then she said: ” A groom of blood of circumcision.” (4:24-26)
Essentially, just as Moshe is finally ready to fulfill G-d’s request, G-d wants to kill him! What of Moshe’s mission? What is going on? And how does Moshe’s wife, Tsiporah, somehow save the day, by circumcising their son? What has Moshe done wrong, to warrant this wrathful decree from G-d? The Torah itself does not seem to offer any explanation. In fact, a close look at the context of these verses makes it seems as though this incident is an interruption of the flow of the story, with almost no rhyme or reason.
Indeed, if a narrator were sharing the biblical narrative it would sound something like:
‘And G-d told Moshe as he journeyed back to Egypt that He would perform mighty wonders through him, and they stopped at a motel, and G-d tried to kill Moshe, but Tsiporah quickly circumcised their son with a rock, and. back to our program! Huh??
What is going on here? The Talmud (Nedarim 31a) suggests that Moshe had not yet circumcised his newborn son (Eliezer), and was being held accountable now, because previously they had been journeying, and one does not perform a circumcision if one will be forced to travel, for fear of endangering the health of the baby. However, now that they had finally stopped at an inn, there was no reason not to perform the circumcision, and the decision not to do this immediately, was what nearly got Moshe killed.
Of course, this does not actually resolve the issue; if anything, it exacerbates it. Was Moshe nearly killed simply because he procrastinated?
Interestingly, there is also another difficulty within this story. Technically, one is not allowed to perform a circumcision if one is on a journey, because the infant must, for safety’s sake, have three days with which to recover, and the journey is dangerous to the child’s health. Therefore, suggests the Talmud, Moshe was not obligated to perform the circumcision for his son, as he had been commanded to journey to Egypt to get the Jewish people out of Egypt, and the commandment to go to Egypt excused him from the commandment to circumcise his son, which would have delayed his journey for three more days. However, suggests