‫בס"ד‬

‫פרשת וארא תש"ע‬ ‫שיחות רב עוזר‬

Insights into Torah and Halacha from Rav Ozer Glickman ‫שליט"א‬
‫ר"ם בישיבת רבנו יצחק אלחנן‬
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The Words of the Prophets may be written on Virtual Walls

‫׃‬1ֽ ֶ‫ ִי ֽ ְה ֶי ֥ה נְבִיא‬1‫אָחי‬
֖ ִ ‫הים ְלפ ְַר ֑ע ֹה וְאַ ֽה ֲ֥ר ֹן‬Aֱ
֖ ִ ‫ א‬1‫שׁה ְראֵ ֛ה נְתַ ֥תִ ּי‬
ֶ ֔ ֹ ‫וַיּ ֹ֤אמֶר י ְהוָה֙ אֶל־מ‬
In the curious world that is the New York City Subway System, passengers pre-
tend complaisance when they encounter the grotesque. One can tell the tourists by how
they betray the human reaction of shock, fascination, and fear we all feel. The seasoned
New Yorker knows never to show even a glimmer of interest lest it provide an opening
for approach. We look down, we pretend we haven't heard, we feign preoccupation. We
do not want to lock eyes with the stranger lest we be pressed for money, conversation,
or worse.
In the heyday of the Dinkins Administration, there were many more strange
types on the train. We took pride in how much we could avoid the underground trains.
"I haven't been on the subway in eighteen months," I once boasted. It took years to woo
many of us back and now the subway is a regular part of my working week.
As the economy has spiraled downward, I have noticed the return of the under-
ground panhandlers, poets, performers, and prophets. They seem less threatening than
they were 30 years ago when I rode the train from NYU to Washington Heights. Per-
haps this is more a measure of me than of them but I look up from my book sometimes
to catch a glimpse of the subway car preacher declaiming on the A-Train, though care-
ful still not to make eye contact. I've been in New York much too long for that.
In American cultural parlance, the word "prophet" has a countercultural conno-
tation that suggests rebellion and an underground message. "The words of the prophets
are written on the subway walls and tenement halls... (Paul Simon)" While the ‫נביאים‬
certainly stood as a countervailing force to a sometimes corrupt leadership, ‫ נבואה‬re-
quires a much more nuanced definition in our cultural vocabulary, drawn not from six-
ties folk music but from the literary sources and sacred history of ‫עם ישראל‬.
An early usage of the word ‫ נביא‬is found in this week's ‫פרשה‬. When ‫משה רבנו‬
protests his inability to fulfill the mission to ‫'פרעה‬s court due to deficiencies as a speaker,
‫ הקב"ה‬sends his brother ‫ אהרן‬along as ‫ נביא‬to ‫'משה‬s role as ‫להים‬-‫ א‬to ‫פרעה‬. The ‫ נביא‬here is
an intermediary. ‫ רש"י‬cites ‫ אונקלוס‬who translates/interprets the word as ‫מתורגמן‬. This
function was well known in the time of ‫אונקלוס‬, by tradition a student of ‫רבי עקיבא‬. The
‫ מתורגמן‬would both translate and interpret the ‫ פסוקים‬of the weekly ‫קריאה‬, interpolating
‫ מדרשי הלכה ואגדה‬so that the audience would receive ‫ תורה שבעל פה‬alongside the reading of
the ‫תורה שבכתב‬. The essential character of the ‫ תרגום‬as ‫ תורה שבעל פה‬mandated that it be
transmitted orally and the ‫ מתורגמן‬would not use a text.
When ‫ אונקלוס‬defines ‫'אהרן‬s role as ‫ נביא‬as a ‫מתורגמן‬, we understand that ‫ אהרן‬was
to expand and explicate ‫'משה‬s message. ‫ משה‬would stand in relationship to ‫ פרעה‬as ‫להים‬-‫א‬
in that he would be in ‫'פרעה‬s eyes as the source of the message demanding unreasoning
obedience. ‫ רש"י‬interprets ‫להים‬-‫ א‬as ‫( אדון‬master), also influenced by ‫ אונקלוס‬who renders
it as ‫רב‬. There is no implication, of course, of divinity as both explications make clear.
 The ‫ נביא‬then has a pedagogic function. He remains an intermediary but is called
upon to expand and interpret the message according to his abilities.
This observation helps to explain a difficult passage in ‫בבא קמא‬:
‫ אין נמחל לו עד שיבקש‬,‫ אפי' הביא כל אילי נביות שבעולם‬-‫ אבל צערו‬,‫ כל אלו שאמרו דמי בושתו‬:‫ת"ר‬
‫" דאשת נביא בעי אהדורי; אשת אחר לא‬.‫ "השב אשת האיש כי נביא הוא ויתפלל בעדך‬:‫ שנאמר‬,‫ממנו‬
‫ מכל מקום! ודקא אמרת‬-‫ השב אשת האיש‬:‫בעי אהדורי?! אמר רבי שמואל בר נחמני אמר ר' יונתן‬
‫ אחי הוא?! נביא‬:‫ אחותי היא והיא גם היא אמרה‬:‫ הלא הוא אמר לי‬,‫)בראשית כ( הגוי גם צדיק תהרוג‬
‫ אכסנאי שבא לעיר על עסקי אכילה ושתיה שואלין אותו או על עסקי אשתו שואלין‬:‫ וכבר לימד‬,‫הוא‬
?‫ אשתך היא? אחותך היא‬:‫אותו‬
Our rabbis taught: All the sums that they stated [in the mishnah] are compensation for
his degradation; but for bruised feelings- even if he brought all the rams of Nevaiyot, he
is not pardoned until he asks him for such, as it is said: "Restore the man's wife for he is
a navi and he will pray for you." Now a navi's wife must be restored but another man's
not? R. Shmuel bar Nachmani said in the name of R. Yonatan: Restore the man's wife-
with no qualifications. As to your allegation "Will you slay even righteous people? He
said to me: she is my sister; and she also said he is my brother?!" "He is a prophet," and
he has already taught: when a guest comes to town do we ask him about his arrange-
ments for eating and drinking or regarding his wife: is she your sister? Is she your
wife?
‫ רבי יונתן‬explains why ‫ אבימלך‬is told in his dream by ‫ הקב"ה‬that ‫ אברהם אבינו‬is a ‫נביא‬.
Any man's wife should be sacrosanct. What does the dream add by stipulating that he is
a prophet?
The word ‫ נביא‬signals that ‫ אברהם אבינו‬had taught the world the lesson of ‫הכנסת‬
‫ אורחים‬and that ‫ אבימלך‬had been forewarned as to his proper responsibilities. In the con-
text of our discussion, we understand how ‫ רבי יונתן‬can see in the word ‫ נביא‬a comment
on moral education. The ‫ נביא‬is primarily an explicator, as ‫ אהרן‬is here in our ‫פרשה‬.
From time to time, I receive emails from subscribers to these ‫ שיחות‬which I am al-
ways happy to answer. Frequently, they include an item from the internet; blog post-
ings most of all. The nature of communication has changed for many of us as we get our
news digitally and not always from reliable sources.
There are angry blogs that are the cyber version of the subway walls and tene-
ment halls. I am not certain that there would have been as vociferous a protest of certain
unfortunate developments in the world of ‫ גיור‬and ‫ קירוב‬without the dissemination of
such by the democratized medium of the internet. More established organs are regular-
ly scooped by the blogsophere and some of the better ones may be monitoring the inter-
net for their own lead stories.
With democratization comes a concommitant measure of chaos. Since there are
no barriers to entry, anyone may post. We gain enormously by the freedom of informa-
tion while we lose civility as a by-product. Someone recently spotted a reference to a
d'rasha I gave on the road not long ago. The blogger gave a very short summary. A
anonymous commenter who neither heard the d'rasha nor asked for clarification wrote
an insulting dismissal. Such is the price of freedom of expression. I think the benefits
may have outweighed any bruising of my own feelings.
There are blogs that assume more of a pedagogic function. Some fascinating
posts have been sent to me on Hebrew grammar. I do admit to reading my friend R. Gil
Student's blog for its weekly links and audio reviews by Joel Rich. I keep up with Pro-
fessor Rabbi Jeffrey Woolf's blog for his take on Israel affairs. All three gentlemen are
accomplished ‫ בני תורה‬and write with respect and perspicacity.
Every once in a while, though, someone sends me a posting from one of the more
virulent blogs. I find them discomfiting and I think that this may be a good thing. We
do not grow without being shaken periodically from our slumber. I may not like the
language used and I object strongly to anonymous comments on a person's public
attributed writings or personality. It occurs to me, though, that our Jewish community
is in need of reformation in how we honor wealth, how we manage the distribution of
precious philanthropic dollars, and what we're doing to contain yeshiva tuition and the
demands on young families. An occasional over-the-top blog posting in my inbox is
sorely needed.
‫שבת שלום‬
These sichos are published by students of Rav Ozer Glickman shlit"a. We can be reached at ravglickmanshiur@gmail.com
Rav Glickman can be reached directly at ozer.glickman@yu.edu

Come hear Rav Glickman on the road:

February 6, Northeast Philadelphia.
February 20, Dallas in honor of our yeshiva's Chag ha-Semikhah and musmakhim Rabbis Joe
Hirsch and Jay Weinstein.
Details to follow

TO BRING RAV GLICKMAN TO YOUR COMMUNITY, KINDLY CONTACT:

Ms. Rebecca Goldberg
YU Center for the Jewish Future
rebecca.goldberg@yu.edu
212-960-5400 ext.6350