04 Jan PARASHAT BO: CONSTANT GROWTH

Parashat Bo
tells us of G-d’s
commands to
Beneh Yisrael
regarding the
Korban Pesah –
the paschal sacrifice which they offered on the night
of the Exodus, before they left Egypt.
G-d commanded Moshe to instruct the
people to place the blood of the sacrifice on the two sides of the doorposts
(“Mezuzot”) and on the top of
the doorframe (“Mashkof” –
12:7). Interestingly, however,
when Moshe relayed these commands to the people, he reversed
the sequence, instructing them
to place blood on the top of the
doorframe and then on the posts.
Why did Moshe deviate from Gd’s instructions, and reverse the
sequence?
King Shlomo teaches us in
Mishleh (3:16), “Orech Yamim
Bi’yminah Bi’smolah Osher
Ve’chavod” – “Longevity is to
the right [of Torah], and to the
left is wealth and honor.” It has
been suggested that the doorposts, which stand to the right
and to the left of a person as he
walks through, symbolize these
blessings of longevity, wealth
and honor. Sometimes a person
involves himself in Torah for
ulterior motives, hoping to earn
reward. He commits himself
not out of a genuine devotion to
the Almighty, but rather to receive the rewards promised for
involvement in Torah. The Gemara in Masechet Pesahim (50b)
famously teaches that although
learning “She’lo Li’shmah” – for
insincere motives – is less than
ideal, it is nevertheless acceptable. The reason is that once a
person begins getting involved
in Torah out of self-serving mo- tives, he will, with time, reach
the level of “Li’shmah” – learn- ing Torah for sincere, altruistic
reasons. Accordingly, G-d instructed Beneh Yisrael to begin
with the “doorposts” – the re- wards for Torah. Before we can
rise to the level of “Li’shmah,”
where we learn and practice out
of a deep-seated and genuine
love of G-d, we should first begin with the more modest level
of “She’lo Li’shmah,” involving
ourselves in Torah in order to
reap the practical benefits that it
offers us.
The question then becomes, why
did Moshe reverse the order?
Why did he tell the people to start
with the “top,” with the ideal level of “Li’shmah,” and only then
to descend to the “doorposts,” to
the ulterior motives for learning
Torah?
The answer is that growth is an
ongoing, lifelong process. Every
time we rise to a new level of
spiritual achievement, we must
look further to the next level.
The new level we have achieved
should, with time, seem to us
unsatisfactory, such that we then
set our sights upon a more ambitious level. This is indicated by the
Gemara’s formulation in Pesahim: “A
person should always engage in Torah
and Misvot even not for their sake…”
The Gemara teaches us that one should
always study and practice “She’lo
Li’shmah.” Once a person reaches a
level of “Li’shmah,” that level should
then seem like “She’lo Li’shmah.”
The level of sincerity we achieve now
should seem to us later as insincere. We
must constantly be striving to raise our
standards, to grow in our level of sincerity and purity of motives. And thus
Moshe told the people that after they
reach the “Mashkof,” the exalted level
of “Li’shmah,” they must then descend,
so-to-speak, and see themselves back
on the level of the “Mezuzot,” the level
of “She’lo Li’shmah.” What seems to
us as an admirable spiritual achievement now must seem insufficient as we
continue to grow and develop in our religious commitment.
This is one of the vital messages that
Beneh Yisrael were taught at this moment, as they were about to leave Egypt
and become G-d’s sacred nation. They
were told that they need to constantly
grow and advance, that no achievement is ever sufficient. Every new level
we reach should be celebrated, but we
mustn’t stop there. We must continue
working to progress and reach ever
greater heights, each day of our lives,
one modest achievement at a time.