Hard Work
Welcome to Daily Bitachon. The next words in our pasuk describe how the Mitzrim put upon them בעבודה קשה Avodah Kasha . Simply speaking, Avodah Kasha means hard work . The pasuk says, בַּעֲבֹדָ֣ה קָשָׁ֗ה בְּחֹ֙מֶר֙ וּבִלְבֵנִ֔ים וּבְכׇל־עֲבֹדָ֖ה בַּשָּׂדֶ֑ה אֵ֚ת כׇּל־עֲבֹ֣דָתָ֔ם אֲשֶׁר־עָבְד֥וּ בָהֶ֖ם בְּפָֽרֶךְ׃ Simply speaking, this means They gave them hard work with mud, bricks and all sorts of work in the field But there is an interesting Zohar in section Raya Mehemna , vol 3, page 153a, that explains the pasuk as follows: It says, - בחמר bechomer which simply means with mud refers to a kal vachomer , which is a type of approach when we want to learn something out of a pasuk , called a kal vachomer . -U'bilveinim , which simply means bricks , refers to libun halacha , clarifying the Halacha ( the root of the word is Lavan / white , as white things are clean and clear) - Avodah basadeh/Work in the field, refers to the part of the Gemara called the Braita , which means outside of the Mishnayot. -V'chol avodatam asher avdu bahem b'farech . Parech means backbreaking work , referring to Teiku , a question that has no answer - That's the backbreaking work. When the Haggadah says, Vayavdu Mitzrayim et Bnei Yisrael b'farech , that's the backbreaking work of a question without an answer. What's going on here? What does this pasuk, which is talking about hard work, have to do with these concepts of learning? In the sefer Or Gedalyahu on Parashat Shemot , Rav Gedalia Schorr explains that a either person can toil in Torah, or a person can toil in the fields or other work. The person can decide, so to say, where he wants to place his hard work. We see this in a Mishna in Avot Perek ג Mishna ה , where Rabi Nechunya ben HaKanah says, Whoever accepts accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah, the yoke of the kingdom and of physical work is removed from him . We see from here, says the Bet HaLevi , that it's up to the person:What yoke does he want? As the Gemara in Sanhedrin 99b says, Kol adam l'amal yulad . Everyone was born to toil. As the pasuk in Iyov 5:7 says, Adam l'amal yulad . Man was born to toil. But it's up to him to decide which toil he wants. Does he want to toil in areas of religion, Torah, mitzvot , etc? Or does he want to put his toil into something else? Of course it's not a question of whether you want to toil, but where you choose to do it. There's an unbelievable Yalkut Shimoni Devarim , Remez 850, in the name of Rav Bisna : En adam b'olam b'lo yissurim / There is no one in the world who doesn't have suffering. Choshesh b'shinav / If you have a toothache, ein yakhol lishon you can't sleep b 'einav , If you have an eye ache, ein yakhol lishon, you can't sleep. Yaga b'Torah , If you stay up at night learning, ein yeshan,, you're not sleeping either. Zeh er v'zeh er, they're both awake. Ashrei ha'gever asher teyasrenu Yah, u'mitoratcha telamdenu/Fortunate is the one that Hashem pains and he's learning Torah. It's a pasuk in Tehillim 94:12 and he explains it to mean that You're going to have difficulties. The question is, where? It's up to the person to decide whether to channel the difficulties into his Torah and Avodat Hashem . There's a story told of the Chofetz Chaim that occuree when he was at the Knessiah Gedolah in Vienna (the source of the famous picture resurfaced a few years ago). There was a successful working man from Germany who was putting a lot of his time into chesed. He spent half his business day working on acts of kindness, and his family was upset by this. " You can't do this, " they said. " You're neglecting your business. We want you to go to the Chafetz Chaim." When he heard the Chafetz Chaim was going to be in Vienna, which is not far from Germany, he went. He got there in the middle of Seudah Shlishit , when it's customary for people to say Mizmor L'David Hashem ro'i lo echsar , and the Chafetz Chaim was explaining the pasuk . Now this man had not yet asked his question, he was just standing in the crowd. But the Chafetz Chaim was known to prophetically give people answers, quite often, without even hearing the question. He was explaining the pasuk : Ach tov va'chesed yirdefuni kol yemei chayai / Kindness and good should chase me my whole life. He asked, What does that mean? The word rodef usually means you're being chased and hounded. If someone is a rodef , that means he's chasing you. So what does it mean that " Goodness and kindness should chase me all the days of my life?" He explained that sometimes a Jew is doing many acts of kindness, so people start chasing him. He may say to himself, What's going on? I start doing kindness and now they're hounding me, chasing me down? He says, you should know that in Shamayim , it was decreed on Rosh Hashanah that you were going to have people chasing and hounding you. But you have a choice. Would you rather have people banging on your door because they want you to do acts of chesed in the middle of the night, Or would you rather have the IRS banging on your door in the middle of the night? Therefore he says, ach tov va'chesed yirdefuni . Who should be the ones that are chasing me down and hounding me? It should be the acts of kindness and chesed ! When the man heard this, he didn't even ask his question. He went right back to his family, and told them he has the answer. This is an extremely important concept that we learn from Galut Mitzrayim . The Megaleh Amukot , Parashat Korach says something fascinating. He asks, Why is it that Shevet Levi did not have to have the yoke of Galut Mitzrayim ? Because, as we've said, Shevet Levi was learning. They chose their yissurim to be in learning. So a person can choose, or decide where he wants to place the yoke. Lastly, in Shaarei Teshuvah shaar ד Rabbeinu Yonah tells us that a person that sinned is supposed to have upon himself whatever the punishment is. So what should he do? He quotes from a Midrash Rabbah Vayikra 25:1 If the person used to learn one chapter, learn two. If he did one parashah, do two. Whatever you did, put more effort into your learning. And that way, his words are, yashit amalo baTorah b'tachovo/Place your toil and difficulty in Torah. Va'asher tidad shnato me'einav , and the fact that your eyes are being hurt from a lack of sleep, that will be your yissurim. This is not just learning in Torah , this is in any area of that person puts forth effort and really toils for Torah and mitzvot . That's the avodah kasha . You can fulfill the heavy workload in another way. What a beautiful lesson that we see from Galut Mitzrayim on what Avodah Kasha actually means.
México