07 Feb YITRO: THE MEANING OF SUCCESS

Parashat Yitro tells the
story of Ma’amad Har

Sinai – Hashem’s revela-
tion to Beneh Yisrael at

Mount Sinai. We read
that the people came to
the mountain ויתיצבו
ההר בתחתית” – and they stood underneath the
mountain.”
The Gemara in Masechet Shabbat takes
this phrase very literally, to mean that Beneh
Yisrael were actually beneath the mountain,

which was held on top of them. Hashem up-
rooted the mountain and held it over the peo-
ple, threatening to bury them underneath the

mountain if they did not accept the Torah.
Many commentaries raised the question of
why Hashem needed to force Beneh Yisrael

to accept the Torah, given that they had pro-
claimed ונשמע נעשה”– we will do and we will

hear,” enthusiastically promising to observe
all of Hashem’s commands even before they

were given. They accepted the Torah volun-
tarily – why did they need to be forced by

being threatened?
One of the answers given is that of Rav
Eliyahu Dessler, in Michtav Me’Eliyahu. He

explains that Hashem did not actually sus-
pend the mountain over the people. The Ge-
mara means that it was so obvious to the peo-
ple that they should accept the Torah, that it

was as though they were coerced. The Rab-
bis say that at the time of Ma’amad Har Si-
nai, the people were at the pristine spiritual

level of Adam and Havah before their sin.
They had cleansed themselves of the yetzer
ha’ra (evil inclination). At this level, the
proclamation of ונשמע נעשה was instinctive
and intuitive. It was as clear to them that

they should obey everything Hashem com-
mands even before knowing what was en-
tailed, as it would have been if He had sus-
pended the mountain over them and forced

them to accept His will.
This pristine level was lost after the sin of
the golden calf. Once the people fell from
the level they had reached at Ma’amad Har
Sinai, they no longer had נעשה – the instinct
to do the right thing. It is no longer clear and
obvious to us that we must follow Hashem’s
will. We have lures and temptations, that we
need to struggle against.

We lost נעשה ,but we still have נשמע – lis-
tening and obeying. Even though we are not

naturally inclined to follow Hashem’s will,
we still have the ability to do so. And this

must be our most important goal and ambi-
tion – נשמע ,to do the right thing, to follow

Hashem’s script, even when it is not conve-
nient and even when we feel like acting dif-
ferently.

In contemporary society, we associate suc-
cess with doing something extraordinary,

with standing out, with fame, with being a

celebrity. Even within our religious frame-
work, we think that success means being a

famous Rabbi, a famous philanthropist, or
some kind of public figure.
But this is a mistake. From the Torah’s

perspective, success means נשמע ,follow-
ing the script, doing the right thing. It

means being a devoted spouse and parent;

reciting the required tefilot each day; recit-
ing the required berachot before and after

eating; maintaining proper standards of
kashrut; observing the laws of Shabbat;
and doing all the things the Torah tells us

to do. A person does not have to be a fa-
mous Rabbi with thousands of students or

congregants, or to donate millions to char-
ity, to be a good Jew. He just needs to suc-
ceed in the day-to-day struggle of נשמע ,of

following Hashem’s commands.
The fable is told of a wealthy aristocrat
who handed buckets to his servants, and
instructed them to full those buckets with
water from the river, and bring them to the
well, ten times. The servants complied – but
there was one problem: the buckets all had
holes in the bottom. By the time they got to

the well, the buckets were empty. As faith-
ful, obedient servants, they nevertheless did

exactly what they were told.

When they were finished, the master ap-
proached them and praised them for their

work.
“But we didn’t do anything,” they said.
“The buckets all had holes. No water got into
the well!”

“I didn’t want water in the well,” the mas-
ter replied. “I wanted the buckets to get

cleaned. And you did exactly that!”
In the business world, the CEO is expected

to produce results, to “fill the well,” to in-
crease profits. But in Torah life, the goal is

not to the end result, but rather to obey the
Master’s commands, regardless of what ends
up in the “well.”
May we all be truly successful Jews –
faithful and obedient servants of Hashem,
following the Torah’s script for how to live
our lives.