Not Just a Midrash #2 — two fundamental teachings
On blindness:
Bereishis 21:19 states:
ויפקח אלהים את עיניה ותרא באר מים ותלך ותמלא את החמת מים ותשק את הנער
And Hashem opened her eyes, and she saw a water well, and she went and filled the flask with water and gave the lad to drink.
The pasuk could have simply stated that Hagar saw a well. By stating that Hashem opened her eyes, the Torah indicates that Hashem gave her special assistance in discovering the well, without which she would not have seen it.
The Midrash Rabba in 53:14 takes it a big step further, teaching us a fundamental lesson:
וַיִּפְקַח אֶת עֵינֶיהָ, אָמַר רַבִּי בִּנְיָמִין הַכֹּל בְּחֶזְקַת סוּמִין עַד שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מֵאִיר אֶת עֵינֵיהֶם, מִן הָכָא וַיִּפְקַח אֱלֹהִים אֶת עֵינֶיהָ.
And He opened her eyes: Rabbi Binyamin said, everyone is presumptively blind until Hashem enlightens their eyes, as we learn from here, “And Hashem opened her eyes.”
Maharzu explains:
שאף שנזדמן לה באר דבר גשמי הנראה לא הרגישה עד שהקב”ה האיר עיניה
Even though a well was prepared for her, something physical that is visible, she did not sense it until Hashem enlightened her eyes.
The Eitz Yosef explains:
שאין העין יכול לראות אלא במה שניתן לו רשות אע”פ שהיה הדבר לפניו
For the eye can only see what it is given permission to see, even though something is in front of it.
It is true that Hagar received special divine assistance, which is why the Torah makes a point of it, but Chazal teach us that everyone can see only because Hashem enables them to see, and they only see that which Hashem enables them to see.
Indeed, when we say the bracha of פוקח עורים every morning, thanking Hashem for giving sight to the blind, we’re talking about ourselves!
Even though it is the way of the world for healthy people to see, we should never take it for granted. We’ve all had the experience of somehow missing something that was right before us, and also just “happening” to notice something important that we could easily have missed. A Torah-minded, God-conscious person will understand that there is a spiritual cause behind even these seemingly mundane events; they are not mere coincidences.
We can take this a step further. If we need Hashem’s assistance to see physical things before us, without which we are essentially blind, how much more do we need Hashem’s assistance to see things that are not physical, with our mind’s eye!
Indeed, in the language of Chazal a פקח is someone with a healthy mind, a sharp mind.
All around us are zombies, people with generally high intelligence, yet blind to things that are right before them. They cannot think clearly. They cannot reason or be reasoned with. They cannot accept facts that should be self-evident, and they misuse their intelligence to make convoluted arguments against plain reality.
Have you heard some of the ridiculous rationalizations people regurgitate to explain away October 7, so they can maintain delusions about a regime and the monsters who betrayed them?
There is definitely free choice involved with their tragic condition, but we should not be so arrogant as to believe we are vastly superior to them. Even if we are “awake” about certain things, we too were oblivious for a long time, and should not take full credit for seeing what we eventually saw. Hashem gave us plenty of assistance, otherwise we too would have remained blind.
No doubt we still have plenty of blind spots as it is.
So we should be very grateful to Hashem for opening our eyes and our mind’s eye, and continuously pray for assistance. We should ask Hashem to help us understand the Torah correctly and draw proper conclusions. And we should never take our vision for granted.
On partnering with the wicked:
The Yalkut Shimoni on Yehoshua, Remez 3, mentions several people in Tanach whose names are written defectively because of something improper they did. One of them is Yehonadav, who was later referred to as Yonadav. The Midrash states as follows:
וכן אתה מוצא ביונדב שמתחלה נקרא יהונדב ומשבא לאותו מעשה מנעו ממנו אות אחד ונקרא יונדב שנאמר בהתחברך (לרשע) [עם אחזיהו] וגו’
And so you find with Yonadav, that at first he is called Yehonadav, and when he came to that deed a letter was held back from him and he is called Yonadav, as it says “When you partnered [with Achazyahu] etc.
The Zeis Ra’anan explains that the Midrash might be referring to Yonadav. the friend of Amnon, who advised him on how to take advantage of Tamar, or to Yehonadav ben Reichav, who partnered with Yehu, a king who became an idolater. The Zeis Ra’anan deems the latter explanation more plausible; it certainly fits much better.
The partnership with Achazyahu is in reference to Yehoshafat, a righteous king from the house of David, who became close to Achazyahu, a wicked king of the ten tribes. They partnered on a business venture that became a total loss. The navi attributes Yehoshafat’s loss to his partnership with a wicked person, for which Hashem made a breach in that which he did (Divrei Hayamim II 20:37).
The Midrash concludes as follows:
מכאן אמרו חז”ל אל יתחבר אדם לרשע אפילו לקרבו לתורה
From here Chazal said that one should not partner with a wicked person, even to draw him closer to Torah.
It seems that both Yonadav and Yehoshafat partnered with wicked kings of the ten tribes kiruv purposes. Despite their good intentions, this was improper, a degradation of the Torah for which they were criticized and suffered losses.
A God-fearing, Torah-minded Jew must keep a certain distance from wicked people. Even if he must associate with them, he should not become close to them. If a tzaddik becomes friends or partners with a rasha, he should not expect to turn the rasha into a tzaddik; either way, it is inevitable that the rasha will degrade him and damage his relationship with Hashem.
When one befriends or partners with a wicked person, to a certain extent he is legitimizing and condoning wickedness, if not explicitly then implicitly. No matter how he rationalizes it, he is engaging in chanufa and disgracing the Torah he claims to hold dear.
This lesson from Chazal has massive implications for how kiruv should and should not be conducted. By all means, be friendly with people and spread the light of Torah — but don’t get too close to people who trample all over the Torah. Don’t partner with them.
It also obliterates one of the core arguments many Jews make in favor of partnering with the wicked in a Hellenist government and joining their un-Jewish army. We’ll do kiruv! We’ll draw them closer to Torah! We’ll change things from within! We’ll turn the whole state around, eventually! You’ll see!
That experiment has been tried for many generations already, and the results are terribly lopsided. As Rav Elchonon Wasserman warned way back in 1912, decades before the wicked Zionists declared a state, the Religious Zionists who foolishly partnered with them in contravention of the Torah would not succeed in drawing them closer to Torah — but the Zionists would succeed in drawing them away from it.
In an open letter to Mizrachi rabbis that remains unanswered more than a century later, Rav Wasserman wrote:
Do you think that by joining with them you will bring them back to the good? Or that you will make them “Mizrachi” people? No, Rabbosai, a hundred Mizrachi people will turn into Zionists faster than one Zionist will turn into a “Mizrachi”. And why? Because deviating from the straight path is very easy, but climbing up is very difficult.
See the complete open letter here
Open Letter to Mizrachi Rabbis by Rav Elchonon Wasserman (1912)
Chazal make it very clear that one must not partner with reshaim, even with the intention of drawing them close to Torah.
It’s not just a Midrash. It’s Hashem’s timeless truth.
In related news:
Lucy promises she won't pull away the football next time.
Interesting comment:
The observation that half of religious soldiers lose most or all of their observance in the “Jewish” army will be corroborated by many. I doubt many grow in their observance at all, unless they started off with little to begin with and turned to Hashem in desperation.
As usual, Chazal were right. Maybe we should finally listen to them.
Contact me at weissmans@protonmail.com.
