* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
How many golden opportunities are missed because we are too busy to notice them? Can wonderful news fail to reach us, simply because we have lost the capacity to hear?
In this week’s Torah portion, Moses turns to the people with fantastic news. After years of slavery in Egypt, the Exodus is about to begin.
Yet the nation responds to his stirring words as follows: “They did not hear Moses due to spiritual numbness and hard labor.” The enormous physical hardship of slavery and the evil decrees made it impossible for them to hear the most uplifting news.
Speaking to later generations, our commentators wonder if it’s possible to be so preoccupied that we do not hear a door opening to true freedom. Can what is supposedly urgent take precedence over what is truly important? Can the ephemeral silence what could be of lasting historic significance?
Yes, this gloomy scenario can occur when we become spiritually numb, which is what happened to our ancestors in Egypt. Pharaoh burdened them with such enervating labor that they lacked the capacity to notice anything else or respond emotionally to the best news they could have heard. This is the doing of the evil inclination, an affliction which is still with us today.
In his book “Mesilat Yesharim” (The Path of the Just), Moshe Chaim Luzzatto writes that we must be wary of this form of enslavement:
“One of the cunning strategies of the evil inclination is to weigh down the hearts of people with so much work that no relief is possible, with no room to reflect upon which path to take.”
Are we tuned in to every option, allowing ourselves room and time to reflect?
Everyone is invited to pay attention to the danger of “emotional numbness and hard labor”, so that we do not miss out on great things.
