Fire of the Avos: A People That Dwells Alone

1“For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: behold, it is a people that dwells alone, and is not reckoned among the nations.”¹ The Targum Yonasan ben Uziel, the Aramaic translation of the Torah, says: “Bilam the wicked said: I look upon this people, who are led in the merit of their righteous fathers, who are likened to mountains, and in the merit of their mothers …”² Rashi explains it in a similar way: “I see them founded and strong like these rocks and hills, through the Avos and the Imahos,” the Patriarchs and Matriarchs.³ What does it mean that the way this people is led rests entirely on the merit of the Avos? And how does this connect with the rest of the verse, “behold, it is a people that dwells alone, and is not reckoned among the nations”?

2aWe can explain this as follows. There is a general rule that every good thing a person does should be done with vitality and holy fire. We see this in Yaakov Avinu, who said, “I have lived with Lavan.” Rashi explains, reading the letters of garti (גרתי), “I have lived,” as 613 (תרי״ג): “and I kept the 613 mitzvos, and I did not learn from his evil deeds.”⁴ The holy sefarim ask: is it such a great thing that Yaakov Avinu, the choicest of the Avos, did not learn from Lavan's deeds?⁵ They explain that Yaakov meant this: when he did mitzvos and learned Torah, he did not need to borrow his eagerness from the zeal and warmth with which Lavan did his evil deeds. He arrived at eagerness and fiery enthusiasm for Torah and mitzvos by himself, through his own great stature and in the merit of the Avos before him.

2bAlong the same lines, the holy sefarim comment on a teaching of Chazal: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Hoshea, ‘Your children have sinned …’ Hoshea said before Him, ‘Master of the world, the whole world is Yours; exchange them for another nation.’”⁶ This is very puzzling. How could the prophet say such a thing to Hashem, that He should abandon the people of Israel, Heaven forbid? They explain that Hoshea was arguing: “Please see whether You have anyone like them among the other nations!” Bnei Yisrael do cause blemishes, but compared with the blemishes the nations of the world cause, Bnei Yisrael are far better than even the finest and best of the nations. With this the Kedushas Levi, R' Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, explains our request in the Yehi Ratzon prayer said after Tehillim: “And may Bnei Yisrael not need one another, nor another nation.”⁷ That is, there should be no need to plead in Bnei Yisrael's defense by showing how good they are compared with another nation. Rather, may they be privileged to be good in their own right.

3It follows that in both “do good” and “turn from evil,” we should not need to take our measure from the deeds of the wicked.⁸ In “do good,” the positive commandments, we must stand on such a level that we need not learn from the eagerness and warmth with which the wicked do their deeds. And in “turn from evil” we must be guarded from all sin. Then we will not need anyone to defend us by measuring and comparing us against the nations of the world, to show that at least we are not as deficient in the negative commandments as the nations who transgress them.

4This lets us explain the whole verse here. “For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him”: these are the Avos and the Imahos. Bnei Yisrael are the seed of Avraham and carry holy fire from the Avos, in the spirit of the verse “And the seed of His servants shall inherit it.”⁹ By the power of that fire they stand on a level where they need not learn eagerness and vitality for mitzvos from the wicked. In the same way, “behold, it is a people that dwells alone” means that there is no need to compare them with the nations in order to say that they are better. In their own merit they are worthy to dwell [alone]. And this is also the meaning of “and is not reckoned among the nations,” uvagoyim lo yischashav: their worth need not be reckoned by comparison with the nations of the world.

5aAlong these lines, the holy sefer Knesses Yechezkel comments on a Midrash about the verse “And Bilam rose early.”¹⁰ The Midrash says: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: ‘Avraham has already preceded you,’ as it says, ‘And Avraham rose early.’”¹¹ This is very puzzling. What virtue was there in Bilam's rising early, that it called for this reply? The Knesses Yechezkel explains that Bilam thought he would gain power over Israel, Heaven forbid, because Israel would need to learn from him the trait of zerizus, alacrity. To this Hashem replied that Israel can already learn the good trait of rising early for avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem, from Avraham, and need not learn it from Bilam at all. That is the meaning of “Avraham has already preceded you.”

5bThe Knesses Yechezkel also tells a story about the holy Rebbe, R' Sar Shalom of Belz, zt"l. When R' Sar Shalom was young, a gentile blacksmith lived near him who rose early for his work. When the righteous Rebbetzin heard the sound of the blacksmith's hammer, she would tell her husband that the gentile was already up. This roused R' Sar Shalom to get up quickly and engage in avodas Hashem, for he would reason a kal vachomer, an argument from the lesser to the greater: how much more must he surely rise to serve the Creator! One day the holy Rebbe of Belz rose very early on his own, before the gentile was up, and on that day the gentile died. The holy Rebbe said: “This shows that the gentile's whole life-force came from his being the cause of my rising early to serve the Creator, blessed be He. Once I happened to rise early on my own, the thread of his life was cut, for his role in this world was gone.”

6This lets us understand why we begin the Shemoneh Esrei prayer with “the God of Avraham, the God of Yitzchak and the God of Yaakov.” We want to bind ourselves to the Avos and learn from them eagerness and holy fire in prayer, in Torah study and in doing the mitzvos.

7May the Holy One, blessed be He, grant that we be privileged to have some connection with the Avos and always to serve Him, and may the merit of the Avos protect us until the coming of our righteous Moshiach. Amen.