"I Have Given It to You as a Heritage"
STUDENT
SUMMARIES OF SICHOT OF THE ROSHEI YESHIVA
Parashat
VAEra
SICHA OF HARAV AHARON
LICHTENSTEIN SHLIT"A
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With gratitude and
in honor of the bar mitzvah,
this year b'ezrat Hashem, of our twin sons,
Michael and Joshua - Steven Weiner and Lisa Wise
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This shiur is
dedicated by Mr and Mrs Alan Kravitz on behalf of Elie
Kravitz
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I Have Given It
to You as a Heritage
Adapted by
Translated by
And I shall bring you to the land
which I undertook to give to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov, and I have
given it to you as a heritage (morasha); I am the Lord. (Shemot
6:8)
What is the meaning of the term
morasha (heritage)? The Gemara (Bava Batra 117b)
debates the question of whether the division of the land among the twelve tribes
was carried out on the basis of the number of those who left
In the Yerushalmi (Bava Batra
8:2) the matter is presented differently:
And I will bring you to the land of
your forefathers etc. if [the land] is a gift, why is it [referred to as] an
inheritance? And if it is an inheritance, why is it a gift? The answer is that
since it was given to the son as a gift, it is given over again to the son as an
inheritance.
Here it is clear that the meaning here
has nothing to do with monetary considerations: from a monetary point of view,
if something is given as a gift then the receiver has full rights over it; there
is no need for it to be given to him also as a heritage or inheritance. It would
seem, then, that the significance of the concept of heritage pertains to the
receivers relationship with the object. When a person receives something as a
heritage, he relates to it in a way that is completely different from his
attitude towards a gift. A persons relationship with an object received as a
gift is rather weak; his ownership of it is sudden and, to a certain extent,
temporary: formerly this object belonged to someone else, from a different
family, and now it has arrived in his hands. The situation is different when he
receives something as a heritage. When he knows that an object has belonged to
his family for many generations, he feels a special connection with it. In his
eyes the object is worth more than its market value. It symbolizes his
connection with the past, and also connects him with the future: as he received
it from his parents, so he is bound to pass it on to his children. As he holds
the object he has a sense of being part of a long chain, and he guards it with
greater care than he would an ordinary object.
Beyond the issue of connection, the
concept of heritage has significance in another sense as well. The prophet
Yechezkel describes a dispute between the inhabitants of
Your brethren, your brothers, your
next of kin, and all the house of
Therefore say, So says the Lord God:
Although I have cast them far off among the nations, and have scattered them
among the countries, and have been a little sanctuary for them in the countries
where they have come to
I shall gather you up from all of the nations
(Yechezkel 11:15-17)
The claim of the inhabitants of
We may draw a number of practical
conclusions from the above.
1.
Our connection with Eretz Yisrael must
be based on historical consciousness. We must regard ourselves as part of a long
chain, connecting the past and the future not just the present. This is in
contrast to the view of secular Israelis, who desperately seek an answer to the
question of why we are connected to the land, and ultimately base their
connection on various periods in Jewish history (hence the drive to delve ever
more deeply into archaeology).
2.
A perennial subject of hot debate in
3.
The discussion concerning territorial
concessions likewise arises on a frequent basis. The secular position views the
question in terms of profit or loss to the citizens of the State: is the
The term heritage contains a certain
paradox. In contrast to an acquisition or a gift, where a person is required to
perform some act of acquisition (and sometimes to exert some effort in order to
obtain them), a heritage passes to a person naturally. We may say that the
object remains where it is; only its owners are replaced. On the one hand, the
object comes to me naturally; on the other hand, I must guard and protect it and
cherish it far more than I would any ordinary object. We are obligated to exert
effort to acquire Eretz Yisrael, insofar as it is given to us as a gift and
not only as a heritage.
Am Yisrael also has another heritage: Moshe
commanded us the Torah as a heritage for the congregation of Yaakov
(Devarim 33:4). Here, too, heritage expresses both our connection and
our responsibility. On the one hand, we must feel that the Torah is not given
to us, but rather that we are a link in a chain, and we must connect ourselves
to it. We must regard the Torah as a precious asset that has belonged to our
people for all generations, and we must guard it well in order to pass it on to
the generations to come. On the other hand, we must also view ourselves as
representatives of all of Am Yisrael, and to guard the Torah specifically
for the sake of those who do not grasp it themselves. The Yerushalmi cited above
goes on to say, Wherever the text says morasha, it is alluding to the
future. The Yerushalmi then asks, What of, a heritage for the house of
Yaakov? In other words, does the same rule apply? And it answers: There is
nothing that is more strongly connected to the future than this (the
Torah).
(This sicha was delivered at seuda
shelishit, Shabbat Parashat Vaera 5753 [1993].)
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