Shabbos HaGadol- Inspiration
For this year of Parsha Lesson, I will be focusing on one area of character growth, to think about in the week ahead and the benefits that a person would have from becoming better in that area.
Background
This Shabbos is referred to as ‘Shabbos HaGadol’ or ‘The Great Shabbos’. One of the reasons why this Shabbos is called by this special name is because of the great miracle that occurred on that day many years ago in Egypt.
On the 10th day of Nissan, Hashem commanded the Jewish people to take a lamb and tie it to their bedposts to be brought as a korban on the 14th day of Nissan. When the Egyptians saw the Jews bringing lambs (which they considered to be one of their gods) into their homes, they asked what was going on? Upon hearing that the Jews were going to be bringing this as a sacrifice, they were undoubtedly very upset. However, Hashem did not allow any of them to inflict any harm on the Jewish people.
Question
If so, the Beis Yosef (R’ Yosef Caro, also known as the ‘Mechaber’ or author of the Shulchan Aruch, 1488-1575) asks- why is only Shabbos considered to have had a great miracle? Why not Sunday, Monday and Tuesday as well? Every day that the Egyptians saw the Jews with their lambs, readying them for slaughter, and they were not able to respond, that is a great miracle!
Answer
The Beis Yosef explains that since on the first day, Shabbos, they were not able to act on their anger, the subsequent days were not miracles anymore. It is the natural way of the world, and of people, that when someone is angry and cannot react right away, their anger will no longer prompt them to action.
Lesson
There is a great lesson to be learned from here! If one can only temper their initial emotional awakening to do something wrong, it will be much, much easier to refrain from doing wrong afterwards.
In fact, the Ramchal in the Mesillas Yesharim shares that the Yetzer Hara (Satan and evil inclination) does all he can to not allow a person time to slow down and think and contemplate. Rather, the Yetzer Hara is constantly pushing a person to act immediately on their emotions to do bad.
On the flip side, when a person is inspired to do something which is good- it is of vital importance to act immediately! Any delay in reacting will allow the inspiration, energy and excitement for good to dissipate, and the outcome will be that the person is stuck in the grind and unable to do good without great difficulty.
Benefits of this…
When a person realizes that the Yetzer Hara prods them to do bad hastily and to be slow and deliberate in doing good, a person will be much more knowledgeable and informed in waging the battle of good and evil within one’s self.
When one can shift their perspective and way of thinking such that when something is identified as being good- it is acted upon without delay; and when something is bad or at least questionable- it is to be deliberated, the person will be much more prepared to direct their actions in the right direction.
How many times do we bemoan the loss of inspiration and remain unchanged even after being uplifted significantly? How many times do we kick ourselves for having acted rashly out of anger or the like, and come to regret our mistakes? The answer is we must flip the script on the Yetzer Hara and beat him at his own game.
Wishing you and your family a wonderful Shabbos!
