Behar : Who is the King and Who is the Servant

People are strange.  Really strange.

 

There are two types of conspiracy theories.  The normal one, which has a possibility of being true, such as…I don’t know…that this virus was a result of being accidentally released by China.  It may never be provable, but given the history of nations and governments, it’s possible.  Or that some in the US government knew of Pearl Harbor before it happened but kept silent.  There’s a slew of these examples, which are possible, and some have actually proven true over time, while some have proven false.

 

Then there’s a second type: It’s usually about the New World Order, the Rothschild family, mind control, new cellphone towers, vaccines  out to kill us on purpose (yep, I went there), government takeover using nanobots, etc. 

 

Many of these not only have no basis (and are sometimes grounded in anti-Semitism), but science generally contradicts them, and when their "proofs" are looked at individually, they are quickly unraveled.

 

Yet, so many people, including frum people, still believe Corona is some New World Order thing, dealing with 5G technology, big pharm, government mind control, and possibly lizardmen, and therefore, they shouldn’t be following any rules.

 

And do you know why?  Because they cannot come to admit that yes, Hashem is running the world.  "Yes," the frum ones will say, “Of COURSE He is, but…” No "buts" needed.  It’s as if people need SOMEBODY to blame, since it cannot possible be from some REAL higher source!  Our response must be according to the Torah and our belief must be that Hashem was the one who brought this on.

 

Okay, back to the parsha!

 

I guess I’m still in my Rav Nachman M’Breslov mood.

 

“For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants, whom I took out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God”  (Vayikra 25:55). 

 

Rav Nachman writes that most people eat, drink, and fulfill their desires, and this is not called being a servant.  Rather, following the Torah and its commandments is slavery to them.  Being, giving pleasure to the body, is freedom, and giving pleasure to the soul is slavery. So, the body is the king, who needs to be pampered, and the soul is the servant, who serves the king.

 

But we believe the opposite.  The soul is the king and the body serves the soul.  Just as the servant serves the king, the body is to serve the soul, and is to negate itself to the needs of the soul.

 

And even though a person’s body, continues Rav Nachman, has these physical desires (being those that take a person away from Hashem), as long as a person is working on breaking himself free of those, he is praiseworthy.  Being, in order to be praiseworthy, one does not necessarily need to be free of all physical desires.  Rather, he must be working on breaking away from them, and directing his body to fulfill only the needs of the soul.

 

Have a great Shabbos!