"Veanvehu" build him a sanctuary or beautify your way of doing mitzvot?
The timeless words of the Shirat Hayam are brought in our Parasha, the Torah relating (14:31 - 15:1-2):’Israel saw the great hand that Hashem inflicted upon Egypt; and the people revered Hashem, and they had faith in Hashem and in Moshe, His servant.
‘Then Moshe and the Children of Israel chose to sing this song to Hashem, and they said the following:’I shall sing to Hashem for He is exalted..; this is my G-d ואנוהו : and I will build Him a Sanctuary; the G-d of my father, and I will exalt Him.’
We have translated the word ואנוהו as ‘build Him a Sanctuary’, as the word is commonly translated.
We also find commentators who translate the word as: ‘I will beautify Him’ - Hashem.
Our Sages offer several other understandings of the word.
In the gemara (Shabbat 133:) our Sages expound the word in two seemingly different ways: One: as ‘beautify yourself before Him in mitzvot’.
This, as the gemara there itemizes, includes making a beautiful sukkah, having beautiful tzitzit, a beautiful shofar, and even extends to writing a torah scroll with a beautiful quill.
The second exposition, also brought in that Gemara, is based on the allusion in the word ואנוהו, to אני והוא: ‘I and He’, requiring us, as it were, ‘to be like Him’: just as He is compassionate and merciful, so too, we should be compassionate and merciful.
Rav Chaim Friedlander comments:’The wondrous events that Bnei Israel witnessed at the splitting of the sea, when they were able, as it were, to each proclaim:’this is my G-d’, brought them to an acceptance that, in their avodat Hashem, they were obligated to ואנוהו : not only to perform the mitzvot, accepting upon themselves, the yoke of Hashem’s kingship, but also to perform them beautifully.
The Maharal asks rhetorically: ’can man truly beautify his Maker’? Yes! He beautifies Him when he performs mitzvot in a beautiful manner, as the world thereby comes to know that Hashem is glorious: מהודר.
The beauty in the manner that we perform the mitzvot, shows their supreme importance in our eyes of doing Hashem’s Will; by not being content to ‘mere’ performance of His Will, but showing thereby our great love of His mitzvot, by beautifying the way we perform them.
‘By these ‘adornments’, which appear to be but secondary - such as using a beautiful quill when writing a sefer torah - we truly show how much we value the mitzvot.
‘Our Sages also saw an allusion in the word ואנוהו to an acceptance ‘to be like Him’, to be compassionate and merciful as He is.
When Bnei Israel saw His wondrous acts, they yearned with all their being, to be ‘like Him’.
‘Here we ask:’how can we ‘be like Him’? The answer: By learning His ways and His attributes, and going in them, we can ‘be like Him’, as far as human beings can be.
The Maharsha combines two of these views, saying that, by going in His ways, we are an adornment to Hashem.’
Rav Aryeh Leib Heiman brings the Sages teaching, as to beautifying yourself in the performance of mitzvot, commenting:’This is a chiddush, as there are reasons for being concerned that this might adversely effect the performance of the essence of the mitzvah.
‘Amongst these concerns, is that undue emphasis on the external aspects of the mitzvah - its appearance - may be from concern of our own honor, and thus, at the expense of the honor of Hashem, as it were.
‘In an extreme case, the focus on the external aspect may even lead the unwary to wrongly forego performing a mitzvah, if he deems himself unable to perform it ‘beautifully’.
In short, great care must be taken not to replace the essence -performing Hashem’s mitzvot, due to this external, and secondary, aspect.’
Rav Elya Lopian brings a deeper understanding as to the other exposition, ‘being like Him’.
He expounds:’Hashem created this world so that He could do chessed for His creations, and He demands from His creations that they too, build this world on the foundation of doing chessed for one another.
‘This is the underlying teaching of our Sages, from our pasuk, that ‘we be like Him’, in our conduct.
This means that, ‘just as He is compassionate and merciful’, not because it benefits Him in any way, , but solely because of His goodness - that He wants to do chessed - so too, you, do chessed and good without expectation of any reward or benefit yourself.
‘Understand this, for it is a great principle.
‘Our Sages do not say: ‘do chessed’, but ‘BE charitable’, internalize Hashem’s attributes, as far as possible, and love them, so that they become your own attributes.’
Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl sweetens our appreciation of the great value that Hashem places on ‘being like Him’.
This emerges from an original insight into the language Moshe Rabbeinu chose to use, in his final plea, that the decree that he not enter the Land, be annulled.
We read, in Parashat Vaetchanan, that (3:25) Moshe pleads:’Let me, I pray, אעברה נא: cross over and see the good land, on the other side of the Jordan..; ..but Hashem said to me:’Enough! Never speak to Me of this matter.’’
Expounds the Rav:’For the first time, after his previous 515 ‘ordinary‘ prayers went unheeded, Moshe in his overwhelming yearning to enter the land, decided to utilize a ‘weapon’ that Hashem had promised would never go unheeded: the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, that Hashem had taught him - the attributes by which Hashem, in His attribute of Chessed, conducted this world.
‘Note that Moshe did not say:’I will enter and see’, but אעברה: ‘I will cross’.
‘What was he alluding to in choosing אעברה: ‘I will cross’?
Answers the Rav:’He was thereby alluding to the passuk:(Ki Tissa 34:6): ‘ויעבור ה' על פניו': ‘And the Lord passed before him’, and taught him His thirteen attributes of chessed, and, as our Sages expound ( Rosh Hashanah 17.) entered into a covenant with him, that they would always be heeded.
‘As. a desperate last resort, Moshe seeks to utilize this weapon - not just ‘another’ prayer, but one that has been promised to always be accepted.
‘At this point, when Moshe alludes, but does not actually use this weapon, Hashem asks of him:’Enough! Never speak to Me of this matter’.
‘And the faithful servant nullifies his dearest wish, to the Will of His creator.
Here you ask: How does this relate to our query? The answer is that it directly relates to our translation of ואנוהו, as ‘be like Hashem’.
Clearly, ‘the most faithful servant of Hashem’s household’ - as Hashem called Moshe - followed the ways of his Master in everything that he did - certainly in the thirteen attributes of chessed.
‘In his great wisdom - and matchless humility - in choosing his words, Moshe was hinting that, as far as it is possible for man to do so, in everything he did, he fulfilled the commitment of ואנוהו: to ‘be like Hashem’.
‘Hashem acknowledged this, as it were, by ‘asking’ him not to raise this matter, as proof that, had he done so, his wish would have been granted - and the decree annulled.’
Concludes the Rav: ‘our Sages, in expounding on Hashem’s promise, stress that Hashem said to Moshe:’whenever Bnei Israel transgress, they should ACT in this order, and I shall forgive them’ - we have to perform these thirteen attributes, not merely to say them, to be forgiven’.
In other words: be like Hashem - in our conduct, as clearly Moshe Rabbeinu (Vezot Habracha 33:1) ‘the man of G-d’, always was.
Rav Baruch Halevi Epstein adds:’The Sage who proffered the second of the two expositions as to the allusion in the word ואנוהו - ‘be like Him’ - did not come to disagree with the first exposition - ‘beautify yourself before Him in mitzvot’ - but came to add, that it is not enough to beautify ourselves in mitzvot between man and his maker, but one needs also to do so in the mitzvot between man and man.
‘Both are needed to fulfill the pasuk, as one without the other can, רחמנא לצלן, lead to chillul Hashem - instead of exalting Him.’
A parting thought: we brought at the outset the literal interpretation of ואנוהו: ‘build Him a Sanctuary’.
Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch expounds:’We are obligated to be a home for Him, that in all that we do, we should merit that He should say:’and I will dwell in their midst’.
Adds the Alshich Hakadosh:’Bnei Israel, at their exalted level at the splitting of the sea, knew with their ruach hakodesh, that they were then truly a Sanctuary for Hashem; as it says ‘I will dwell in their midst’, not ‘in it’, but ‘in their midst’- they themselves were the Sanctuary for Hashem.’
Rav Friedlander comments: ‘this exalted level, as a result of that experience, is still within each of us’.
This, might we add, is why the Shirat Hayam is in the future tens: ‘אז ישיר’ : ‘then WILL sing..’- may we merit to be the generation that fulfills that prophecy!
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