When Moshe Rabbeinu ascended Har Sinai the Torah states, “Moshe arrived in the midst of the cloud and ascended the mountain; and Moshe was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.”
Ibn Ezra comments about those forty days in which Moshe did not eat or drink that “this was a great wonder; there was none like it before.”
Although Moshe’s ascension to heaven and his abstention from eating and drinking for forty days was surely a great miracle, was it greater than the miracles in Egypt or at the Splitting of the Sea?
Rav Chaim Kreisworth zt”l[4] explained that during those forty days Moshe became a quasi-angel, and that is why he did not need to eat or drink. During that time he did not have the challenges and struggles of this world because he was living an ethereal existence. However, if he did not have the struggles of this world he also could not be obligated in the daily performance of mitzvos as they apply to mortals. He could not receive reward for his actions because he did not have to overcome his free choice in order to perform them.
The fact that Moshe Rabbeinu, who understood the unimaginable reward for the performance of every mitzvah better than anyone else, was willing to give up forty days of that reward so that he could learn and teach Torah to Klal Yisroel is absolutely incredible. It is about that uncanny altruistic sacrifice that Ibn Ezra writes it was a greater wonder than anything that occurred until then.
One of the hallmarks of our Torah leaders is their profound understanding of the value of time. They are people who optimize their every minute and never have enough time for Torah study and the other efforts they expend on behalf of their people. Yet perhaps the most common feeling expressed by those who have the opportunity to spend even a few minutes with such leaders is an awed appreciation of how they made them feel special. “He spoke to me like there was nothing else in the world that mattered, like my issue was paramount in his mind.”
Rav Reuven Feinstein related that he once came to discuss a pressing matter about the yeshiva with his father, Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l. Before he had a chance to begin a well-dressed woman entered Rav Moshe’s office and began pouring out her troubles. It was quickly apparent that the woman was deranged. She related to Rav Moshe her harrowing experiences with aliens pursuing her. After a half-hour Rav Reuven prepared to stop her for his father’s sake. Rav Moshe stopped him and said, “Zee hot keinem nisht ihr ois tzuheren azeleche zachen – She has no one who will listen to her tell of such things.”
She continued talking for an hour and a half and only stopped because it was almost nightfall and that was when the aliens came out.[5]
This from a man who literally valued every moment of his life.
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[1] I am deeply grateful to Rabbi Noach Sauber (a rebbe and mentor from Camp Dora Golding) who related this story to me. I am particularly grateful because Jack Gold is my great-uncle (father’s mother’s oldest brother). I verified the details of the story with my cousin, R’ Avie Gold, a noted author, formerly with ArtScroll.
[2] Bava Basra 9b
[3] Tosafos note that one who gives a pauper both money and encouragement merits all seventeen blessings
[4] Quoted in Ohel Moshe (Rabbi Moshe Sheinerman)
[5] From “Reb Moshe” by Rabbi Shimon Finkelman
