Forging Of A Nation

Rashi (2:14) says that Moshe understood that the reason for the harsh enslavement of Klal Yisroel was because Klal Yisroel spoke loshon harah about each other.  What is the middad k’neged middah of lashon harah and slavery?  What is the relationship between the lashan harah and the lack of redemption?  The Sfas Emes points out in parshas Vayechi that Yaakov only had a thought of revealing the katz when all the shevotim were assembled because it is only through unity that geulah can be accomplished.  He explains that’s why Moshe asked for Shabbos to be the day of rest from the labor in Egypt for Shabbos unites everyone (as it says in kegavna,) and that through unity we could achieve geulah.  Why is unity a prerequisite for geulah?  The Meshech Chochma asks why does it say (3:7 ) רָאִ֛יתִי אֶת־עֳנִ֥י עַמִּ֖י אֲשֶׁ֣ר בְּמִצְרָ֑יִם וְאֶת־צַֽעֲקָתָ֤ם שָׁמַ֨עְתִּי֙, it should say צעקתה  in the singular for its talking about the nation as one collective group?  He explains that it was the cry of every individual crying for the rest of the nation that aroused mercy.  It was the crying for one’s neighbor’s pain that evoked heavenly mercy.  It was the unity felt for other people that merited the prayers to be accepted.  Why was this unity necessary for the prayers to be accepted?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that the pre-Exodus Klal Yisroel and post-Exodus Klal Yisroel were very distinct.  When coming down to Egypt they were a bunch of families bounded together by family relationship.  However, they weren’t one unit, one nation.  They were like the various Mongolian tribes pre-Genghis Khan.  It was after the Exodus that we truly became Klal Yisroel.  It was only then that all the families became one unit, one cohesive nation united in their service of God.  This idea is explicit in the Book of Ezekiel chapter 16.   Now we understand why unity was an imperative, a necessity, a must for geulah.  For if we couldn’t unite, we couldn’t become one nation.  It is indeed the bonding together, the shared pain, that would mold us together as one nation.   It was the separation of people through lashon harah that would hold back the geulah and a prayer for your brothers’ pain that would bring it about (see LIkutay Sichos volume 31.)

However, we still need to understand that Rashi doesn’t say that it was hatred amongst the children of Israel or a lack of unity that was the cause of the terrible servitude, it was lashan harah?  Why is it specifically the sin of loshon harah more than any other display of terrible servitude?  Chazal equate the sin of lashan harah with the three cardinal sins that one must give up his/her life for.  Why is lashan harah viewed in such an extreme negative light?  What’s the big deal about saying a few bad words about someone?  The Shem M'Shmuel in parshas Metzora explains the severity of the sin of loshon harah is because there is a unique quality to the force of speech.  Most sins are done with the physical body, they are acts that don’t directly destroy the spiritual wellbeing of the person.  Speech on the other hand, is not a mere physical act but requires both the power of the physical and spiritual dimensions of the person כידוע  from Unklos who translates the nishmas chaim put into a person as the ability to speak.  Speech is the point of unity between the physical and spiritual dimensions of the person.  Loshon harah is a misuse of this unification and directly deforms one’s spiritual well-being.  (The same yesod can be used to explain the severity of a false shevua.  As on aside I merited to be at the siyum of two friends who finished Tractate Shavous, for one of them it was a siyum on all of nezikin, power to them for learning even masectos they haven’t studied in yeshiva and may we merit to at least aspire to reach they’re great heights.)  This destruction of the bond between the spiritual and physical being of a person on the micro-level is reflected on the macro-level between each individual.  Klal Yisroel is divided into many physical bodies, however they are united by their neshomos which stem from one general neshoma (see Tanya chapter 32.) Loshon harah severs a person’s physical makeup from his/her spiritual inside and therefore, sever the great bond that exists between us all.  The Zohar (parshas Vaerah) says that in Egypt the speech was in golus and Pesach is pe-sach, פה סח - the mouth was redeemed.   What does this mean that speech was exiled, our entire body was in exile?  Based upon what we have said we may suggest that it is the speech, the harmonious existence both on the individual level and on the national level that was the cause of golus and geulah. 

 Rashi (3:12) says that was the זכות we had to leave Egypt was kabbalos hatorah.  It not the peshat that there was an Exodus and then 50 days later mattan torah, it was part and parcel and indeed the very reason for the Exodus.  (The Exodus was just the beginning of a process as we express lael peshach in dayenu, ואכמ"ל.)  That’s why we find there was an emphasis on the unity of Klal Yisroel by kabbalas hatorah as Rashi says they stood ki’eish eched belav echad.  That eish eched belav echad is part of the forging of a nation that accorded as an account of the Exodus.  The Shla asks why was the Torah given only at Sinai and not to the Avos?  He explains that the torah wasn’t given to wise, holy, righteous individuals who recognized God, it was given to the nation of Klal Yisroel.  There had to first be a Klal Yisroel and only after that can there be a kabbalos hatorah (וזה יסוד חשוב ביהדות שהרבה אין מבינים ואכמ"ל.)  The eish echad feeling proved we were one holistic nation united at the core, at that point we were ready to receive the torah. 

The lesson is obvious, may we merit to see the final geulah speedily in our days, תיכף ומיד ממש