Why You Need A Rabbi (From the archives in 2008)

 

After the people in charge of building the Mishkan completed their work, they brought it to Moshe.  The Torah relates:

 

וירא משה את כל המלאכה והנה עשו אתה כאשר צוה ה' כן עשו ויברך אתם משה.

 

Moshe saw all the work – and behold, they had done it as Hashem had commanded, so did they do it.  Moshe blessed them.

 

Rashi tells us what blessing Moshe gave the people.  He said: יהי רצון שתשרה שכינה במעשה ידיכם– "May it be the will that the Shechinah shall reside in your handiwork." 

 

At first glance, this means that Moshe prayed that the Shechinah, the divine presence, should dwell in the Mishkan.

 

This prayer seems very puzzling.  After all, Hashem had stated very clearly when He first commanded the people to construct a Mishkan that He would dwell within it – ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם ("They shall make for Me a sanctuary, and I will then reside among them" – Shemot 25:8).  Once Moshe saw that the people constructed the Mishkan properly, he should have known that the Shechinah would come to reside within it, because this is precisely what Hashem had promised.  He did not need to pray for this to happen.

 

Rashi's comments seem difficult also for another reason.  Normally, when we offer a prayer that begins with the words יהי רצון ("May it be the will"), we explain that we are talking about Hashem's will.  We add, יהי רצון מלפניך ה' אלוקינו ואלוקי אבותינו – "May it be the will before You, Hashem our G-d, and G-d of our forefathers," or something to this effect.  In Moshe's prayer, however, as Rashi writes it, he simply said, יהי רצון, without specifying whose "will" this should be.

 

The Ketav Sofer answers these two questions by presenting an entirely new reading of Rashi's comment.  Moshe was not praying to Hashem, but was rather guiding and instructing the people.  He was telling them that their will should be that the Shechina should reside among them.  He was blessing them that מעשה ידיכם, everything they do, should be done with the hope of bringing Hashem into their lives.  In everything they do, even their ordinary, mundane affairs, their primary goal and aspiration should be connecting to Hashem.

 

If we would ask people what they think about Rabbis, and the role of a Rabbi, we would receive many different responses.  At one extreme, some people think that Rabbis are perfect, infallible figures who speak absolute truth all the time, and cannot ever make mistakes or be challenged.  On the opposite extreme, people dismiss Rabbis as charlatans, driven solely by personal agendas and politics.  In the middle, we find people who view Rabbis as formal functionaries, whom they call when their child is getting married to perform the ceremony.  Others think that a Rabbi's job is to provide halachic guidance, and no more.

 

I believe that the insight of the Ketav Sofer shows us what a Rabbi is supposed to be, and why we all need a Rabbi to look up to and learn from.

 

A real Rabbi is someone whose primary ambition is שתשרה שכינה במעשה ידיכם – to bring Hashem in their lives.  A real Rabbi is someone who works very hard, and makes considerable personal sacrifices, to achieve this goal, to immerse himself in Torah study, to selflessly help other people, and to serve Hashem and the His beloved nation.  This is what being a Rabbi means.  It doesn't mean that he is perfect, that he never makes a mistake, that he never says the wrong thing, that he doesn't have an ego, that he does not struggle with the vices and temptations that all human beings struggle with.  It just means that his primary goal, for which he invests a great deal of time and effort, and for which he makes a great deal of personal sacrifices, is to bring the Shechinah into his life, to connect with Hashem.  He might occasionally err, but he is constantly striving for spiritual greatness, and this is his main ambition in life.

 

And this is why we all need a Rabbi – to help us redirect our focus and attention.  It is so easy in our world to lose sight of our purpose, to get distracted by materialism, to pursue vanity instead of what really matters.  We all need someone who will set an example of the רצון שתשרה שכינה, the desire to connect with Hashem, to strive for something far greater than the ordinary, mundane things that we get bogged down with.  This is the role model we should be looking for, and the role model that we need, so that in all מעשה ידיכם, in everything we do, we have our priorities straight and understand the purpose for which we were brought into the world. - Rabbi Joey Haber

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