Two Minute Torah Podcast

Hayei Sarah 5772 by Rabbi Jack Moline

Shalom and welcome, my name is Jack Moline, rabbi of Agudas Achim Cong in Alex,va.  Welcome to KOACH's Two-Minute Torah; a project of the College Department of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism

In Pirkei Avot, chapter 6, is a wonderful description of 48 ways to acquire Torah.  One of the more peculiar methods is through fear.  In this formulation, the Hebrew word is eimah.  And while there are many Hebrew words for fear, including pachad, yir'ah, chashash and charad, this particular word carries with it the intimation of dread and terror, the kind of fear of the unknown that sends hearts pounding and almost paralyzes us.

What a peculiar way to learn Torah!  What could it possibly mean to acquire Torah through mind-numbing, blinding fear?

I purposely use these images because they resonate with a feeling of ignorance.  Not knowing which way to turn, what to do, what to say - we've all had the nightmare, and sometimes, unfortunately, that experience.  It would seem that such ignorance is the exact opposite of what we hope to acquire with Torah - insight, direction and, above all, wisdom.

The word eimah does not appear at all in Chayei Sarah, this week's Torah portion.  However, the hint of it can be found thanks to the interpretive technique called notarikon in Hebrew (acronym in English).  The root of eimah is aleph-yod-mem.  Such a sequence indeed appears in chapter 25, verse 5 in the words asher yatzata misham, meaning, "that you went out from." Abraham has instructed his servant Eliezer to return to Haran to find a bride for Isaac, and bring her to Canaan.  Eliezer asks Abraham what to do if the woman refuses to leave the land of Abraham's family - should he take Isaac back to Haran, the land asher yatzata misham, that you went out from.

Abraham is almost violent in his response.  Under no circumstances is Isaac to return to that place; better he should marry a local girl of questionable background than return to live in the place of eimah, of fear and ignorance.  It is that fear and ignorance that Abraham left behind, and only by leaving it behind was he able to arrive in a place of insight, direction and wisdom - that is, a place of Torah.

When Pirkei Avot suggests that fear is one of the ways to acquire Torah, it does not mean that we should seek out fright and terror to shock us into understanding.  It means that one way to make Torah our own is to face fear, and to use the wisdom of Torah to mediate the chilling effect that eimah, that fear can have upon us.  And if you can then use that sense of Torah to help others through that fear, to help others avoid that place asher yatzata misham, that you have left behind, then you are a genuine agent of redemption.

We live in a time, and you live in a time of life in which plenty of things can make us afraid.  When we acquire the learning and orientation of Torah, and when we teach it to others, we move forward, leaving behind that place of fear that we went out from.