(from Haamek Davar on Shemot)
Preparing for Holiness
The Torah seems to unnecessarily repeat a fact when it tells the story of the giving of the Torah. We are told (Shemot 19:2), “They traveled from Refidim and they came to the Wilderness of Sinai,” even though we already know (Shemot 17:1) that they were in Refidim [and did not go anywhere else in the interim]. Why does the Torah repeat that they were in Refidim?
The Mekhilta answers, “Just as they came to Sinai intending to receive the Torah, so they left Refidim intending to receive the Torah.” This answer – to teach us their positive mind set as they left Refidim – leaves us with another question – why is this significant? Ultimately they will receive the Torah with the right intentions. Why does it matter when these intentions began?
According to the Netziv, this Mekhilta teaches us a fundamental principle about the world of kedusha, “A man’s openness for holiness depends on how much he prepares for it.” The earlier the People of Israel began preparing for the giving of the Torah, the more holiness they would be able to receive. That crucial extra preparation that began when they left Refidim left a lasting mark on the people of Israel’s Matan Torah experience.
This principle is behind Rabbi Chiya’s efforts to preserve the Torah, so praised in the Gemara (Bava Metzia 85b). Rabbi Chiya, we are told, planted flax, spun thread, wove nets, trapped animals, skinned them, made parchment from their hides, and wrote Torah scrolls. After that, he would gather five children, teach Bereishit to one, Shemot to the second and Vayikra, Bemidbar, and Devarim to the other three, then have them teach each other, thereby “causing Torah not to be forgotten in Israel”.
The Netziv asks a simple question on this aggadta. Why did Rabbi Chiya have to plant flax, weave nets, trap animals, skin them, and make the parchment? If he was concerned about making sure the parchment had the necessary sanctity for a Chumash, he could have just bought hides and tanned them for the sake of the sanctity of a Torah scroll.
Rabbi Chiya, says the Netziv, was motivated by the same principle the Mekhilta speaks about. Openness for holiness depends on the amount of preparation put into it. The children’s receptivity for holiness would not have been the same had they learned from just any scrolls. Rabbi Chiya’s extra preparation for the Torah’s holiness made a difference. So did the extra level caused by Rabbi Chiya weaving the nets, and spinning the thread, and planting the flax. Rabbi Chiya was involved in his young students’ learning, even from the very first step of preparations – and that brought about a special flow of holiness through the Torah they learned.
[prepared by Eliezer Kwass]
