 |  | Parshat Pinchas teaches us about the change of leadership from Moshe to Yehoshua, as it says, “Moshe did as the Lord had commanded him, and he took Yehoshua and presented him before Eleazar the priest and before the entire congregation. He laid his hands upon him and commanded him, in accordance with what the Lord had spoken to Moshe” (Bamidbar 27:22-23). According to Rav Soloveitchik, Moshe’s laying of both his hands upon Yehoshua represents two different types of traditions he was bestowing upon him. The first type is the tradition of Torah learning, of plumbing the depths of Torah through intellectual exertion and spiritual acumen. The second type is the tradition of experiencing Judaism. As the Rav writes, “One can know the entire Tractate Shabbat and yet still not know what Shabbat is. To truly know what Shabbat is, one has to spend time in a Yiddishe home…To truly understand what Shabbat is, it is insufficient to merely know the halakhot (laws) of Shabbat. One should experience a chasidishe shtiebel for Shalosh Seudos. Not far from where our family lived in Warsaw there was a Modzitzer shtiebel where I would occasionally go for Shalosh Seudos. The chasidim would be singing…because they did not allow Shabbat to leave. I remember an encounter in this shtiebel as a small child. One of the men who had been singing most enthusiastically, wearing a kapota consisting of more holes than material, approached me and asked if I recognized him. I told him that I did not, and he introduced himself as Yankel the Porter. Now, during the week, I knew Yankel the Porter as someone very ordinary, wearing shabby clothing, walking around with a rope. I could not imagine that an individual of such regal bearing could be the same person. Yet on Shabbat, he wore a kapota and a shtreimel. That is because his soul wasn’t Yankel the Porter, but Yankel the Prince. Well after nightfall, I naively asked him, ‘When do we daven Ma’ariv?’ He replied: ‘Do you miss the weekdays so much that you cannot wait to daven Ma’ariv?’” (Chumash Mesoret HaRav, Parshat Pinchas pp 221-222).
The Rav is stressing a fundamental aspect of Judaism: It must be lived not just studied. Judaism is not a relic or artifact to be discovered and admired for what it was. It must be a living, breathing component of our everyday lives that makes us who we are. Judaism is not just an idea, it is a sensory experience to be had – to feel, taste, smell and see. Says the Rav, “I can explain Yom Kippur to my students. From an intellectual standpoint there is much I can transmit. What I cannot pass on are the experiences that I myself underwent on those days…In the synagogue, the echo of the Amen that followed the Shehecheyanu blessing after Kol Nidrei…I cannot impart this – it had to be lived” (Ibid., p 223).
Yehoshua not only received the tradition from Moshe as to how to do Torah, but more importantly, how to live Torah – how to live Judaism, to experience and embrace it. The Torah tells us, “His attendant, Yehoshua, the son of Nun, a lad, would not depart from the tent” (Shemot 33:11). Says the Rav, “Yehoshua never left Moshe’s side: he saw how Moshe davened Mincha, how he ate, how he bentched, how he accepted Shabbat…He therefore accepted both [traditions]: the [tradition] of the mind and the [tradition] of the heart” (Chumash Mesoret HaRav, Parshat Pinchas p 223).
Judaism is not just intellectual, it is also experiential. One must taste, feel, smell and see Torah, and the best way to do this is to get involved with community. May we all feel that our Judaism involves the whole community – what we do, how we interact, what we say and how we feel. Judaism is meant to be lived, not just studied. We need both the intellectual and the experiential. Let us all strive to live our Jewish lives with these two traditions in mind: the intellectual and the experiential. Let us all seek to imbue a love for the study of Torah and its living to our family, friends and community members. And may we always hope to find meaning in every aspect of our Jewish lives so that we may uplift ourselves and others as well to embrace the totality of what it means to live a Jewish life!
Shabbat Shalom!
-Rabbi Dan
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