Rabbi's Blog

This dvar Torah is in memory of Marilyn Silver, Miriam Bas Barry on her Yahrzeit this past week.

A few weeks ago I was learning with one of my chavrusos (study partner), Lionel Kahn, who is actually the longest-standing chavrusa I’ve had in my life.    We have been learning together for close to twenty years now. Our weekly learning is exactly that….learning with very few interruptions or sidetrack discussions. Any outside discussion is directly related to the subject matter at hand. Without going into the details of the Torah-related matter, Lionel made the following accurate statement: “An old person looks back at the past while a young person looks toward the future.” As the old saying goes, ‘age is only a number’ and in this sense it is absolutely true. I have been with chronologically young people who are constantly talking about the past;  that is being old. On the other hand, I have been with chronologically elderly people who are still looking towards the future, and they are really young!

Looking back,  recalling with nostalgia the days of old shows and events, a person is living in the past with little hope of the future. On the other hand someone who looks  towards the future remains young, just as a person in his youth looks to accomplish, grow, and experience new things, they, too, still look to accomplish and grow. Moshe Rabbeinu was considered forever young despite his age of one hundred and twenty. Moshe, until the very last day of his life, hoped,  looked forward to entering Eretz Yisrael.  He did not recount his days from his youth in Egypt nor did he dwell on the trek of the last forty years in the desert.

Thinking this concept through, a certain scenario which takes place every week in our Shul life dawned upon me. In our weekly Shul announcements we list birthdays, anniversaries and other special personal days. From time to time a person’s event is listed two weeks in a row. Sometimes this is due to the fact the Hebrew and English dates are often a week apart. Anyone can call in and ask to have these occasions listed, and we would honor the listing two weeks in a row. But there are other times that Shabbos falls exactly in the middle - from the incoming week or the outgoing week. Therefore, the office established a ‘formula’ that we follow: we print and announce any event from the Friday immediately before Shabbos until the following Thursday. I know what you’re thinking, “It doesn’t always come out that way!” That may be true, but give us a break we are only human!

Throughout life we look forward to what the future will bring while at the same time we look back at what happened in our lives. One important reason to look back on life is to make sure we don’t repeat past errors and to learn from our mistakes. In the Torah we read about the past and the future, but sometimes looking at the past gets us into trouble.

In this week’s Parsha B’Haaloscha Numbers 11:5 the Torah states: “Zacharnu Es HaDaga Asher Nochal B’Mitzrayim Chinam, Eis Haishuim V’Eis Ha’Avatichim V’Es HeChatzir V’Es HaBitzalim V’Es HaShumim” “We fondly remember the fish that we could eat in Egypt at no cost, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.” The Jews complained, remembering that they had such good food in Egypt, but  now their spirits are dried up with nothing but manna to eat which fell before them day after day. Despite the fact the manna from heaven could taste like anything they desired, they still complained. On top of the complaints came a questionable claim of having such delicious fruits and vegetables and fish! Did the B’Nei Yisrael lie straight out or was this perhaps the Eirev Rav speaking? How in the world could they claim that they were able to eat those delicious delicacies? The commentaries give an answer for each and every food type they claimed to eat and explain why this statement wasn’t a lie. One commentator, Rabbeinu Bachya, explains how it is true that they ate fish. It is true that they ate  all of the foods listed in these verses. The question is what the status of that food category and, in particular, just what was the condition of  the fish? Rabbeinu Bachya points out the word used for fish is not dag, but rather dagah, with a ‘hey’ at the end. Dagah refers to fish that is already four or five days old which had already dried up after being caught. The fresh fish that was caught daily was not on the Jew’s menu. Only the Egyptians ate the better-tasting fresh fish. In at least two other places in Tanach we find this same word ”dagah” and in both instances it refers to older dried-out fish. The first, in Shmos 7:18 after the first plague of Dam, turned the Nile into a river of blood causing all the fish to die. As soon as they died, the river became putrid and repulsive. Who would even want to eat fish that died in a river of blood? The second instance is with Yonah. In the second chapter of Yonah (the Haftorah on Yom Kippur afternoon) 2:1 states: VaYiman Hashem Dag Gadol - God then summoned a large fish to swallow Yonah. Later on when Yonah davens to Hashem from the belly of the Dagah  it is from the depths of the stomach of the fish -  like a death.  So, in truth, the Jews did have fish, fruits and vegetables but they were not really as edible.

All in all, the issue isn’t necessarily focused on whether or not they had these foods. Rather, the issue was the lack of foresight with regard to looking ahead at the beauty of Eretz Yisrael. By looking back they were acting old, ready to give up and die rather than look forward to life and living on. Psychologically, it may be tiring to look forward when you are older and figure it is easier to live in the past rather than making a new future. But success lies in the young or the young-at-heart and mind who want to look to build and do more and not rely on the past accomplishments. In every aspect of life we should not dwell on the pasts.  We should always look forward to the potential of the future!

It is the hope and the looking to the future times of Moshiach that has made the Jewish people become an ageless and vibrant nation.

Ah Gut Shabbos

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky