Are you willing to risk everything?

One question we often ask of ourselves is "do I take a stand"?

Moses, in this week's Torah portion, tells G-d: If you destroy the Jewish people, I am out!

I am not willing to be a leader who lives for the people if they are going to be destroyed.Moses took a risk. His life was dedicated to the Jewish people. He was the leader. G-d was willing to make him the leader of the future Jewish people who would be His children and grandchildren. But Moses refused! Being a leader has nothing to do with me, it has to do with what I am dedicated to.There is a similar study in the talmud about a man named Rabbi Shimon Ha’amsuni. His magnum opus was based on every time the Torah includes the seemingly extra word 'es' it is to tell us that it wants to include something else. [For example: Honor (es) your father and mother, includes your older brother.] However, when he reached the verse, “Es HaShem Elokecha Tirah,” which translates “(es) the L-rd your G-d shall you revere,” he retracted, saying there was nothing that could be considered adjunct to G-d and included in the command to revere Him.

It remained this way until R’ Akiva came along and said it came to include Torah scholars. He felt that Shimon Ha’amsuni’s willingness to give up his life mission proved that all he did and said was not for his own glory, but to fulfill the will of G-d. By not forcing an explanation into the formula, he showed he was willing to abandon "his hypothesis" if it was not G-d’s truth. By retracting, he expressed his conviction that the purpose of man in life is to do what G-d wants of him.

In doing so, Shimon Ha’amsuni answered the question of what could be adjunct to G-d. It is the Talmid Chacham, literally the ‘wise student’, who makes himself or herself completely subordinate to G-d’s will.If you are willing to give up everything to do what G-d wants, you are no longer merely a mortal, but “of G-d”.

Are you willing to risk everything to stand up for your beliefs?

Have a good Shabbos!

Rabbi Kushi Schusterman