Opinion: Excepting the Torah

In My View

By Joyce Lempel Semel

Issue of May 29, 2009 / 6 Sivan 5769

his year, with the approach of Shavuot, the festival of the giving (and receiving) of the Torah, a Midrash I was taught in day school came to mind more vividly than in recent memory. In the famous story about how the Jewish people came to receive the Torah with the words “Na’aseh V’Nishma,” the Midrash recounts how G-d approached each of the peoples of the world to ask if they were interested in accepting His Torah, only to be turned down one by one.

First, we are told, G-d approached the children of Esau and asked, “Will you accept the Torah?” The children of Esau asked about the Torah’s content and, upon hearing G-d’s answer, replied, “We would accept your Torah except that it says not to murder, and that goes against our nature. Sorry.”

He then went to the children of Ammon and Moab, who also asked what the Torah was about. Upon hearing G-d’s reply they responded, “We would accept your Torah except that it says not to be unfaithful and that goes against our way of life. Sorry.”

Next, G-d asked the children of Ishmael is they would accept the Torah. They, too, wanted to know what was contained within and, upon hearing G-d’s answer said, “We would accept your Torah except that it says not to steal, and that goes against our nature. Sorry.”

On and on, G-d approached each and every one of the peoples of the world, and each had the same reaction: “We would accept your Torah except...”

Until, finally, the Midrash relates, G-d approached the Jewish people, who said immediately and without hesitation, “Na’aseh V’Nishma,” we will do and then we will hear.

The story left a powerful imprint on me as a child. But it’s taken on a sort of haunting quality more recently.

After all, in a year when the most famous Jew on Earth is named Bernard Madoff and his name has become indelibly linked with the “einekel” (grandson) of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and Rabbi Issac Breuer, both paragons and patriarchs of devout Jewish Orthodoxy, the question might be asked: Have we accepted the Torah... or have we too excepted the Torah?

In a year when the largest kosher meat-packing plant in the United States was shut down after repeated accusations of mistreatment of people and animals, an event which has since been indignantly characterized by a leading Orthodox newspaper as a “modern-day blood libel,” the question might be asked: Have we accepted the Torah... or have we too excepted the Torah?

In a year when Agudath Yisroel and Torah Umesorah have openly chosen to protect the institutions they represent with a resolve that many feel leaves children unprotected from terrible dangers at the hands of sexual predators within their schools, the question might be asked: Have we accepted the Torah... or have we too excepted the Torah?

Another story comes to mind. It was related by Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky, dean of the Yeshiva of South Shore, in this paper, about a year or so ago. In the story, Rabbi Kamenetzky describes how his grandfather, Rabbi Yaacov Kamenetzky zt”l, was once approached by U.S. Customs to help capture an ostensibly Orthodox Jewish man who had been smuggling diamonds in his tallis bag.

The dilemma was clear. In fact, the debate on “maasering,” informing on other Jews to the authorities, has again reached a fever pitch in our community on issues ranging from reporting on pedophiles to small and large scale financial crimes.

For his part, Rabbi Kamenetzky’s resolve was clear. The rabbi cooperated fully with Customs to capture the smuggler. The question might be asked: Was Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetzky excepting the Torah or accepting the Torah?

Finally, a story I was reminded of recently while studying Chumash with my daughter. It is of the encounter of the biblical Yosef HaTzadik with the wife of Potiphar, his Egyptian master. When Potiphar’s wife attempts to entice Yosef into improper behavior, he lays bare his thought process and resolve in the pages of the Torah. He says: “My master has entrusted his entire household to me, holding back nothing, except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such evil against him? It would be a sin against G-d.”

As I re-read this story I thought to myself and said to my daughter, “This is what I’ve always thought it meant to be a Jew, Yosef’s pure and simple honesty and trustworthiness. This is what it means to accept the Torah.”