An Unobstructed View

 By Rabbi Yisroel Ackerman

The passuk says, "His sons carried him to the land of Canaan and they buried him in the cave of the Machpelah field, the field that Abraham had bought as a burial estate from Ephron the Hittite, facing Mamre."(50:13) Unmentioned in the Torah is the showdown between Eisav and Yaakov's sons. The Gemara ( Sotah 13a) as well as Targum Yonason recount Eisav's appearance at the cave and his attempt to bar Yaakov's burial with the claim that as the firstborn he, Eisav, was entitled to the coveted burial plot. When the brothers tried to remind Eisav that their father had legally acquired the firstborn rights from him, Eisav denied their argument and demanded proof of the sale. Fleet-footed Naphtali was dispatched to Egypt to retrieve the bill-of-sale. Meanwhile, Chushim the son of Dan, who was deaf and therefore unaware of the situation, asked what was causing the delay. When informed that his not-so-great-uncle Eisav was denying his grandfather access to the cave, he exclaimed, "And until Naphtali returns from Egypt my grandfather will lie here in disgrace?!" He promptly drew his sword and decapitated Eisav.
The obvious question begs to be asked: What did Chushim see so differently from the others at the scene that resulted in him taking action while the others stood by passively? Further, why does the Gemara stress that he was deaf?
Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz Zt"l ,a past Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Mir, in his monumental work "Sichos Mussar ", explains using a fundamental principle. As human beings, our nature is that we easily get "caught up in the moment" and lose sight of the broader picture. It can be a slow and insidious process, but before we know it we can get sucked into and accustomed to the recently established status quo. Yaakov's sons were caught up in the conversation with Eisav and as they attempted to reason with him, they began to get "comfortable" with the situation without realizing it. Chushim, being deaf, was completely uninvolved in the conversation and was therefore able to step back and see the problem for what it was, that Eisav was illegally blocking passage for his grandfather whose corpse was lying in disgrace. Therefore, to him the course of action was clear, removing the obstruction.
This situation is something that is quite common in our lives. We can get caught up in an issue and lose sight of the forest and be unable to see the obvious course of action. It is precisely for this reason that it is imperative to "make for yourself a Rav and acquire for yourself a friend" (Avos 1:6) because an outsider has the ability to view the situation from an objective, unbiased standpoint. Let us strive to acquire for ourselves a Rabbi and faithful friends who can help guide us through our lives and the challenges we will inevitably face.

By  Rabbi Yochanan Eskenazi