28 Jan PARSHAS BO: THE POWER AND POTENTIAL OF GROUP COLLABORATION

Following Moshe’s
warning to the King
of Egypt of the
impending plague of
Locusts, the pasuk
says, “And he turned
and went out from
Pharaoh” [Shemos 10:6]. The Ramban writes:
Moshe knew that following the plague of Hail
that the Egyptian agricultural economy was
teetering and he was now warning that
anything left over from the hail would be
consumed by the locusts. Moshe walked out
from Pharaoh’s presence before the king had
a chance to respond one way or the other. The
Ramban explains that Moshe left so that the
Egyptians would be able to discuss their
situation among themselves. This is in fact
what happened, as the Torah quotes Pharaoh’s
advisers telling him “Do you not realize that
Egypt is on the verge of destruction?”
[Shemos 10:7]
The Ramban then says that Moshe sensed that
Pharaoh’s advisers believed what he was
telling them and left them alone with Pharaoh

so that they could propose to the king that
they all repent from their evil ways and thus
save the country. The Ramban suggests that
even though the Torah only describes this
scenario by the plague of Locusts, this is in
fact what Moshe did each time he came before
Pharoah and his advisors — he presented the
warning and ultimatum and then left to allow
them to consider it amongst themselves and
hopefully do Teshuva.
Rav Simcha Zissel Brodie shares two
profound insights regarding this Ramban.
First, Rav Simcha Zissel points out that we
see that Moshe made a point to leave so that
they could discuss his ultimatum. Moshe
carried a staff that contained the acronym
Detza”ch Ada”sh B’Ach”av – the acronym
that represents the 10 plagues. This staff
existed from the Six Days of Creation. Moshe
clearly knew that there were going to be a
total of 10 plagues before the Jews would be
allowed to leave. There was no question at all
in his mind as to the result of the
“deliberations” that would take place in
Pharaoh’s court. What then was the point of

his leaving so that “they could discuss it” so
that perhaps they would repent?
We see from this Ramban the amazing
power of discussion among human beings.
When people sit down with each other and
say “Listen, let’s talk this out” or “Let’s
think this thing through together,” amazing
things can happen. Sometimes a person
can’t necessarily come to the truth by
himself. However, when different people sit
down with each other and hash it out
together (I point out to you where you’re
wrong and you point out to me where I’m
wrong.), the power of discussion among
people can literally change their fate.
The power of discussion and group
collaboration is so strong that Moshe
Rabbeinu held out the hope that if he left them
alone to discuss the matter, they could have
changed their fate so to speak and come to the
recognition that “we better stop this madness
before it’s too late.”
On his own, man may have a tremendous
insight to his thoughts and feelings. However,
he also has tremendous personal bias
(“negius”). The Talmud tells us that a
person is his own relative (Adam karov
eitzel atzmo) and therefore just as a relative
cannot testify about another relative, a
person cannot be believed about himself
and cannot see the truth about himself.
Once one has a companion to bounce ideas
off of and to have a frank interchange of
opinions with, one can gain great insight —
far beyond what he could have
accomplished on his own, despite
prodigious powers of personal intellect.
The second point that Rav Brodie derives
from this Ramban is the following: If
Moshe saw that they were scared and that
his words were penetrating their outer shell
of stubbornness and confidence, why did
he leave right away? Why did he not stay in
the hope that his imposing presence would
have the desired effect of having them
agree to let the Jews leave immediately?
The answer is that human beings have a
tremendous inner resistance to outside
opinions. People do not like anyone telling
them what to do. This is why Moshe felt his
presence there would be detrimental. It
would be counterproductive. That is simply
how people are. It has to do with the ego of
a human being — the healthy ego. “I am
my own operator. I have my own opinions.
You do not tell me what to do!”

This brings us to a terrible dilemma. If I
cannot see my own faults and foibles and if I
cannot see where I am going wrong and if I
have a built in resistance to hearing an
objective opinion from somebody else, what
am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to
exist? How do we solve this problem?
The answer is that Hashem created something
in this world that helps us resolve this
dilemma. He created an institution called
“wives” and “husbands”. The Master of the
Universe had to create someone who is not
you but who at the same time is you to resolve
this dilemma. She/he is a person who is not
you — does not have your biases and yet is so
close to you that you will not view her/him as
an outsider and will not resist his/her sincere
advice to you. This institution of “ishto
k’gufo” (one’s wife is like himself) is how the
Almighty expected us to resolve this dilemma.
With this concept, we can understand the
interpretation of a Gemara in Yevamos [63a].
Rav Elazar says: “Any Adam [person] who
has no wife is not an Adam”. It is significant
that under the Chupah, as part of Sheva
Brochos, we recite the blessing “Yotzer
haAdam” [Who has created an Adam]. It
would seem more logical to recite that
blessing when a child is born or at a bris or
even at a Bar Mitzvah. Why do we wait until
the young man is 25 years old, standing under
the Chuppah to make the blessing “Who has
created a man”?
This is what Rabbi Elazar means — any man
who does not have a wife is not an Adam.
Only now by the wedding canopy, when man
acquires his wife that he is considered an
Adam. The reason is because until that point,
he has this problem of how to get through life
— on the one hand, he is too biased to see
appropriate solutions to his problems, yet on
the other hand, he is too stubborn to accept the
advice of others. Man needs someone to be
there to tell him what is wrong and he needs
that person to not be an outsider whose advice
he will spurn. Hello wife. You have now made
an Adam into an Adam.