Leftover Ink and Beams of Light
Toward the end of our parsha, the Torah describes how Moshe's face was shining after he received the Torah from hashem and descended Mount Sinai.
The Midrash[1] records a fascinating discussion regarding the beams of light which shone forth from Moshe’s face[2]:
From where did Moshe merit receiving those beams of glory? There was ink left over from the writing of the Torah. He took the ink and smeared it on his face, and from there he received the beams of light.”
Needless to say, this very enigmatic passagae raises some basic questions:
- How does smearing leftover ink on one’s face cause it to shine?
- Moreover, why was there any leftover ink in the first place? Presumably Hashem was able to calculate exactly how much ink was required to write the Torah, and that is how much ink should have been available, no more and no less!
- Additionally, our parsha is less than halfway through the Torah. If so, how does Moshe even know that the ink that remains is spare? Perhaps it will be needed for writing future sections!
R’ Yosef Leib Bloch,[3] the Rosh Yeshivah of Telz, explains: Every mitzvah in the Torah contains a lesson for how to live life, and there are many situations beyond the actual performance of that mitzvah where those lessons can be applied. The more a person has absorbed the message of the mitzvah into his being, the more he will be able to apply Torah lessons to life’s various situations.
This is the “leftover ink” from the writing of the Torah. Even when the mitzvos have been presented in full, there is still more to be “written,” in terms of applying the principles in a broader setting. Moshe attained the ultimate level of incorporating Torah lessons within his every move; hence the leftover ink became “smeared on his face” and embedded in his being so that the resulting elevation caused his face to shine.
The Talmud Yerushalmi[4] tells of a certain woman who used to attend Rabbi Meir’s lectures. Her husband became so enraged he told her not to return home until she spat in Rabbi Meir’s eye. When Rabbi Meir heard of this, he approached the woman and said, “Please excuse me, I have a terrible pain in my eye, and I know that the only thing which will relieve the pain is if you spit in my eye.” Somewhat stunned, and unable to believe her luck, the woman complied, and thus returned home to her husband.
When the students heard this, they were mortified. How could the great Rabbi Meir allow himself to suffer this indignity for the sake of a jealous husband? Rabbi Meir responded that his conduct was a simple application of a section on the Torah. When a man suspects his wife of adultery, he brings her to the Temple and she drinks the sotah waters, which contain the parchment with the verses of sotah written on them.[5] Putting this parchment into the water causes Hashem’s name to be erased, but nevertheless it is done in order to clear her of her husband’s suspicions. Said Rabbi Meir, “If Hashem allows His name to be erased in order to restore peace to a Jewish home, then the name of Rabbi Meir can certainly undergo some indignity for the same cause.”
We will appreciate that it is possible to review the section of sotah many times and not see the practical lesson which Rabbi Meir derived from it. His behavior in that situation represented the “leftover ink” from that section.
Noticing the Little Things in Life
R’ Elazar Menachem Shach, the Rosh Yeshivah of Ponevezh, used to do his own shopping in the local grocery store. People tried to prevail upon him to go straight to the front of the line, but he would not hear of it, saying that whoever is first in the line should be served first, and it is not right to go ahead of them.
It was then suggested that at least he should be able to go in front of the children, whose concerns were presumably less weighty. To this Rav Shach instantly responded, “That is even worse than going in front of an adult, for the waiving of rights of a minor has no validity!”
This idea of a minor being unable to waive his rights features numerous times in the Talmud, and is a well-known and much discussed concept. However, the instant and instinctive application of this Talmudic principle to a shopping line in the grocery store was the product of full absorption of this lesson which was embodied by Rav Shach.
May we merit to heed the messages of the mitzvos, absorbing their themes and values to the point where we can take them out of the Sanctuary and put them into our diary.
[1] Shemos Rabbah 47:6.
[2] See Shemos 34:29.
[3] Shiurei Daas, “Chomer ve’Tzurah.”
[4] Sotah 1:4.
[5] See Bamidbar 5:11–31.