Parshas Eikev: The Significance of Stubbornness and the 'Stiff-necked' Nature in Jewish Tradition and Survival

They tell an old, famous and pretty classic Jewish joke and the joke really makes you picture four happy old Jewish men sitting around perhaps an old age home, maybe they're Gamora's on the table in front of them, laughing, the tennis balls on the bottom of their walker. And one of them tells his friend. He says you know, why are so many Jewish people chiropractors? And they all say, well, I don't know. And he tells them well, moshe called us. I'm Kishay Oref, a stiff-necked nation. But I'm not sure if you've heard this joke before or not. It seems like it's no laughing matter. Moshe Rabbenu, he goes into a bit more detail about what really happened at the episode of the Golden Calf, the Egel HaZohov, and what she says, and he mickates. It was at the end of our boy yoyim, our boy and lailo nosan. Hashem e'ila'i eshne luchos ha'avonim, luchos ha'bris. Moshe Rabbenu learning the Torah up in the heavens. And then Hashem says yoyimir, hashem e'ila'i. Hashem told Moshe Rabbenu come, get up, raid, go down from the mountain, maher, quickly, sprint mi zah from here. Kishiches amchoh, for the nation has defiled itself. Asher hoidseisa mim etzraim, the nation that I brought out of Egypt, soryu maher min haderh. They have strayed quickly from the path, asher tzivisim, that I have commanded them to follow. Osu lohem maseicha. They have made themselves a molten image. This was the ultimate catastrophe. Chazal tell us that there isn't a single punishment or suffering that goes on in even this generation that doesn't have some form of a kaparah, a form of atonement for the agel ha'zav. It was the Jewish people at the foot of Harsinai dancing around an avod azarah like a kala being unfaithful underneath the chuppah. Ramban adds that they were being misachek. There was some sort of joy in this defilement Moshe Rabbenu spiking these mighty and sacred tablets down on the floor, smashing them to smithereens. But before we get into this week's idea, I would like to examine Moshe Rabbenu's recapitulation of this episode with a couple different questions to try to focus on one idea, perhaps even one body part that holds the key to this idea, based on the odd lush in that Moshe Rabbenu used in his muster to the nation, and with the Almighty's help, we will hopefully have something practical that we can take from it that will help us connect to the Almighty and be an aid in our avod azarah. At times it can be a bit cabalistic, but let us give it our best shot. The first question I want to ask on this. Posseq and all of this comes from the great Rabiruch l'ovitz, the mascheeach of Yashiva's mirror, during the roaring 20s, along with pieces from the great Sheim Mishmu'el. It's very interesting here that Moshe Rabbenu was told to sprint down the mountain. They're doing avod azarah Run right now. My hair Quickly sprint. It's said that you know Kaisal has violated the commandment of not to be involved in idolatry Avodh-Zara countless times. It's sad to say and it's hard to admit, but this isn't the first time that Jewish people at least, and even in the wilderness, were involved in Avodh-Zara. Why here? Was it so bad that Moshe Rabbeinu had to stop learning in the heavens? Hashem said get up and run down the mountain. Secondly, moshe Rabbeinu is told to go down because of the sins that the congregation is committing down below, but it's not immediately apparent what the sin is. Hashem says run down because this nation is defiling itself. And Moshe Rabbeinu gets down there and says why am I? Hashem a lie? Hashem told me lame are I see as hum? I see a nation as a vine. I'm kashay orif. They're stubborn. Who, so what exactly was the sin? Hashem in the heavens, it sounds like told Moshe Rabbeinu that they are a stubborn nation. It's not, apparently, immediately apparent what the sin was. It's just that they were acting in a stubborn manner. Was it Avodh-Zara? So why not say it was the idolatry? Was it the dancing around it, perhaps? Maybe put a stronger emphasis on that? But it just says that we were stubborn. That's Moshe Rabbeinu's message. And then, lastly, perhaps the strongest question and the one I want to use as the springboard for the rest of the questions, to answer the rest of the questions why was the stubbornness of the Jewish people told over in the form of stiff necks? We are deemed a very stubborn nation that has defiled themselves. The words are I'm kashay orif, I'm a nation. Kashay, that is rigid, that is stiff, and orif means a neck, a stiff neck nation. But just tell us they are stubborn Jewish people. Why are you sinning? Why are you so obstinate and unwilling to change your path and finally actually buy into what the Almighty wants? Why the neck? What does that body part have to do with the meadah of stubbornness? So it's interesting. When you look at the human body, a couple things stick out. Don't you think that it seems odd that the head, which is the house for all of the most vital faculties that our body really relies on the brain, the eyes, all of it that goes on in the head is perched up very precariously upon this small golf-like tee called the neck. It's almost like a very wobbly bowling ball is sitting on top of this shaky, small, narrow passage. Wouldn't it make more sense if you were creating a human body to have this all-important body part called the roach, the head, attached to the rest of the body, to the trunk? But the way that the body is designed is that the neck, the spine, has 33 different vertebrae and the top seven vertebrae make up the neck region. We're talking here between the bottom of the skull until the shoulder blades, and the neck is filled with some other tissue and some ligaments. The neck is the juncture that connects the head to the body. It is the spot, actually, that makes us quite vulnerable to attacks. And if somebody will say off with your head, or somebody will, god forbid, be sentenced to death and attack on the head, you don't attack the head, you go for the neck, because the head needs the neck and therefore, don't you think it's odd? Why not make it much safer? Let's protect, let's invest heavenly heavily in the safety of the roast ahead and actually connect it to the body, just kind of move everything down, let that gullet and the windpipe and the jugulars be inside of the torso, along with the other organs. What is the purpose of the neck? For the Almighty created the perfect human body. What can we learn from this OREF? And here we go. Hope you went to the mikvah and we are in a state of purity. Let's jump into some Zohars, some Kabbalah. I don't think it's above our pay grade and hopefully it actually will be quite insightful. See, there's a G'suid from the Arizal that tells us that the neck is actually the spot that connects Ruchnius to Gashmius, spirituality to the physical world. And it comes from a verse in Shir HaShirim in which Shlomo HaMelach calls the base HaMikdash the neck of the world. It's also mentioned like this further on in Saffur Divarum. God willing, we'll have the chance to talk about it. The base HaMikdash deems the OREF the neck. It says the Arizal, because the spot in which the Almighty connects with the world, the portal to heaven, the conduit from the heavens down to the earth, is the base HaMikdash, the neck, the conduit, the connector Ruchnius to Gashmius. And furthermore, the Arizal brings a proof, or the Shemishmuel really elaborates on this idea at this point and tell you, in the famous episode of the meet and greet between Yosef and Binyam and the long lost brothers who finally meet again after such an extended period of time and they cry upon each other's Savorim, upon each other's necks. And Rashi points out why does the Torah tell us that they cried on each other's necks, specifically, why that body part? Because they were crying about the future impending destructions of the Mishkan and the base HaMikdashes, these holy structures that were going to be in their territory respectively, that were going to be condemned, destroyed. And the commentators are all grappling, trying to understand. Where in the verse does Rashi HaKadosh find an illusion to the base HaMikdash's impending destruction? And this is why the brothers were crying. And the Shemishmuel elaborates and bringing this Zohar telling us that, because the neck always represents the base HaMikdash, because the neck, like the base HaMikdash, is that which connects the upper worlds to the lower worlds the Rosh, the place of Sechel, the place of intelligence, the Makhim of Kedusha. It connects it down to the rest of the body. The base HaMikdash, like the neck, is the touch point, the connector between the spiritual and the physical. The Kabbalah sources further attach this to the concept of why the Tefillin knot on the back of the Shel Rosh, that little knot of the Yud in the back of the Shel Rosh, is placed on the back of the neck. There's something deep here going on with trying to penetrate Kedusha and open up that narrow passage in the neck to connect the Rosh to the Goof that is the Avoda of the neck. Furthermore, if the head should just be without the neck sitting down, very nice and tight with the rest of the body, it would be too close of a connection between the Ruchnius and the Ghashmius Very interesting idea here being conveyed. But it seems like there should be some sort of separation. Actually, it comes to mind there is an idea from the Chavitzchayim. This is why the three out of the four species that we shake on, sukkis, the Lula of the Esrog, the Arovos and the Hadasim, the Esrog is actually held separate. That represents the one that has taste and smell Perhaps you've heard that idea before and the Tzadik should hold himself somewhat together but somewhat separate, aloof, alone, as Bene? Levy with the Almighty sacrosanct. But to be too separate, to have the head totally disattached, sending messages perhaps through the airways back to the body, that would be too far. A leader, a king, a holy Tzadik should be connected through the neck, some sort of partial connection in which the Kedusha can connect back and forth. So back at the ranch. Perhaps we have an idea now. Perhaps this is why Moshe Rabbeinu found the stubbornness that the Jewish people were exposing in their character traits to be a false and putrid manifestation of what a person's neck is actually supposed to be. You are, as a Jewish person, tasked with that moral obligation to take the ideas in the head that which you know, viadatta, that which you know and move it down into your heart. Viadatta ha'joim v'hashayvosa el levav'cha. And yet we know that the great Rebus'ra'el Solonter, the great leader of the Musser movement, told us that there isn't a larger, a greater distance in the world than between a person's head and a person's heart. We know what we are supposed to be doing. We could probably tell you the Ten Commandments by heart. We know the words viadatta l'ureyacha kamaycha and vihegisa bayyayman ba'laila. But perhaps our actions at times, those mysem that are governed by the heart, don't always personify that which we know in the head and what is in the way. What is the conduit and what is the bridge connecting what we know in the head and the heart, perhaps it is very much the neck and the Jewish people. They knew what they were supposed to be doing, but yet their actions fell short and they were deemed stubborn in the neck. I'm Kashi'i, rev. You know what you're supposed to be doing, so why aren't you doing it? And Rabbi Rukham? He tells us a very scary line, and this is where we're going to answer the next question. This is why Moshe Rabbeinu was told to hustle down the mountain, sprint, for there are many spiritual maladies, many different shortcomings that we can live life with, and our job is chuva, to repent, to eradicate the evil tendencies. All midos can be perfected. That is indeed our job on this earth, cesar Rabbeinu, rukham. Though, however, there is one horrible, wretched spiritual malady that, if you stretch yourself too far and fall too deep into this Meda, there is no coming back and there can be no complete repentance. And that Meda is being I'm Kashi'i O'Rev. Being stubborn, for even the thoughts of chuva never penetrate because you are so entrenched in your ways. Even if a mensch, god forbid, is involved in the three cardinal sins, but he still hasn't heard Huray chuva, he still understands that what he's doing isn't right, then he still has all the chance in the world. But the second that he buys in and becomes so absent and he's unwilling to change, or to even hear thoughts of chuva, to hear any muscer from his Rebbe, well then he is left without any hope, bleeding out on the ground alone. So, moshe, yes, sprint down this mountain and save them, not just because the sin of the Egil HaZav, perhaps even the Simcha that they are displaying in it, dancing like Simchas Tyra, around this magical idolatrous calf. But no, run down because they're being obstinate, they are stubborn and stubbornness. There's no coming back from it. In fact, just a couple psukim later, in our parasha, when Moshe Rabbeinu, continuing in his final drusha, his final testament, his tzavah, his soliloquy, his famous and Majestic monologue, he says the words umaltem as orlas levavchem, and you shall cut away the barrier of your heart, the orpachem Loisak shu-od, and no longer stiffen your neck. And there's a fascinating ramban here describing how the Jewish people, humans, we are created with a certain orla, a force skin on our hearts. It's our job to do a brismila on the heart, shaila vavchem posuach, says the ramban that their hearts were not open. Our hearts are not created open. Lada, so emus like a share season mad. I am shaloy, not an ashem. Lochem, leave Ladas vaynei. Leroy's was nine. Wish Maya. It takes a brismila on the heart to get rid of the stiffening of the neck, the orpachem and the stiff neck. Loisak shu-od Says the ramban shalot, yak avay seikhem to not be like that Generation, the door so ira or myra, the generation that went wayward, that they were ones who had learned bad practices in Egypt. They him kashem la azov darkham, and they were struggling. It was very hard to get rid of these practices. Kim Moshe, us who, like they, did a so ego who curah shum and Moshe testified about them. Amkeshe, or if they are Stubborn, they know what to do, yet they cannot rid themselves of the practices of the mitzrem Shaloy. A shoover min hatos. They can't repent from their mistakes. She nikh nas belieb on that have entered into their hearts. Lachov, she aishto elas b'avaydas amalachem to really believe and understand the greatness of what it means To be a part of the Jewish nation. Oh Tzavu Hashem I I unbelievable words. The Jewish people. We have an orla, a foreskin, on our heart. There's this narrow passage called the neck that is separating between the mind and the heart and there's some sort of Blockage, some sort of the inborn clog, and it's our job To split that open and to let the idea settle inside of the crevices, the nooks and crannies of our hearts. But is the neck that stands in the way and is the neck that Moshe Rabbein who pinpointed as the issue Jewish people? I'm Shay, oh, your F is your sin. Stop with the abstinence, stop with the stubbornness and please repent before it it's too late. Circumcise your heart while you still have time and let the ideas penetrate into that heart. Now it is noteworthy that the neck region is responsible for another motion in the body, another responsibility that the neck has to the head, and that is bowing the ability to let that head prostrate itself in a form of subservience, in a form of obedience. We are told, during Shmina Esrae, to bow the head multiple times in the showing of our Subjugation to the creator of the world. And indeed a melech, a king must, tells us the Ram Baam, bow down the entire Shmina Esrae, for he may naturally be more inclined, based on his position of power, for a lack of Subjugation to the creator of the world. So he bows the whole time. And and one of the most famous Denials of leadership and political Marches, the holy Mordechai at sadic during the poor, and the story when Hulman, our Russia, was walking past with an idol on his neck and everyone was commanded to bow down to him. And the Apostle says but Mordechai lo yechira the lo yechachavah, he would not even budge and he would not bow down the Raal Baghe. He points out that the Jewish people, the stubbornness, is also our godless. He has a beautiful and fascinating approach to this topic, based on where Moshe Rabbeinu actually, at the earlier and initial Telling of the episode of the golden calf, in which Moshe Rabbeinu discusses that of the Obstinence of the Jewish people, the Amkashay, or if in the Raal Baghe, actually learns that this is the argument that Moshe Rabbeinu Used to save the Jewish people, for he argued that acting in a stubborn manner was going to be a necessity In order to live through the generations. The Jewish peoples actually living and dying best attribute, that which has enabled our existence throughout the sands of time, is exactly our stubbornness, the fact that even in the face of terror, mordechai lo yechravalo yechachavah, he wouldn't budge. And we have hirs Expanding, expounding, digressing and explaining about this topic. He tells us how many different poshete yidin have walked in the face of doom and said not today, you will not break my will, I will not budge. You can't help but think about Hannah and her sons when the king told them bow down, and they wouldn't even Move even the slightest vertebrae. In that neck region, the kshei ayref of a Yid is what has enabled us to endure. The stubbornness and the stalwart observance of that holy moral law Is perhaps the only conceivable way that the Jewish people still exist. When you think about how many kudushe elia and how many individuals perished and died All kiddush Hashem by the hands of the Nazis within the last couple hundred years, how would it be possible without this me de of stiff neckt nation? Amk shei ayref is our call to glory. When you imagine that famous episode in which Ben Gurion said we're gonna draft all of the Jewish girls into the army, a place unsuitable for a holy Jewish daughter, for a Bastia Israel totally unfitting. And the Chasen ish said absolutely Not. And then Ben Gurion said but we have an army and we're not afraid to shoot. What gave the Chasen ish the kayak to open up his jacket and say go ahead and shoot. And who is stronger? Somebody who's prepared to shoot or somebody who's prepared to take the bullet if not for this me de of obstinance, of stubbornness. A Famous nation, a glorious nation, and I'm kishay ayref. It's just unconscionable To think of any way that a nation so small the Torah tells us where to be small and so scattered, so dispersed amongst the other nations, throughout all of the different parts of the world, the corners of the earth, that we can still survive, and not only survive but flourish stubbornness. I'm kishay ayref. When you look at the great ones, and even in the faith of such adversity, with such an onslaught of Immorality and ideas that the Jewish people don't believe in pouring in To our communities and homes, but the great ones, they remember the words of Shloyma Hamelich at the end of Shirah Shirah, I'm a, I'm a wall, I Am stonewall, I cannot be moved, I'm stubborn, I will not relent. Perhaps is the meadah of stubbornness that is our key, him, what establishes our survival on earth. So is the head precariously perched up high, like a golf ball upon a golf tee, upon that narrow passage called the neck, connecting it down to the human body, and does it put us in a certain place of peril? Well, yes, but was it done by perfect design? Yes, and the Mosher of a new, single out the neck as the Connection between the head, the spiritual, the body, the gosh me as? Yes, and does Russia Kudos Tell us that when Yosef and Benjamin cried on each other's necks, it was a symbol of the base on Midgish, just like Shlomo, I'm a lot told us in dialing, dialing at the base on Midgish as the conduit, the connection between the Kaddish and the gosh Me is yes, and is the neck the spot of when the Jewish people can, and only can, endure on this earth? Yes, and is our stubbornness our ultimate downfall? Yes, and is our stubbornness, portrayed in the neck, something that, if it stretches too far, something that is such a malady that there's no coming back from? Yes, and is it why Mosher a bay new ran down the mountain to stop us from this stubborn tree? Yes, but, however, is the neck also what Mordechai refused to bend, even the slightest Centimeter when Haman walked by? Yes, and have thousands of Jews, throughout our diaspora and history Refused to bend their neck in a face of Adversity and the winds of change begging them to give up their hopes of Godless? Yes, is the neck the spot that forms the bridge between the what we know in our heads and what we must let settle comfortably inside of our hearts. Yes, so when Mosher a bay new, he ran down that mountain and he focused on the necks of the Jewish people being rigid, being stiff. It makes a lot of sense to us. We know what a neck is and we also know what we have to do. We know where to be stubborn, where to be obstinate, where to be resolute and refraining from even this slightest Iota of giving in to the winds of change. To those that ask us to give up on our moral obligations and to say oh, we're so far from high, harsh, seen, I give it a break. It's not possible. You won't reach Godless. Yeah, we're stubborn and that is our key them and that, the same token, diametrically opposed to this, it is also the neck that must be opened. Then we must give a mountain, we must give a brissel mela on the neck to open it up and let the ideas that we know in the head settle and make an impact Inside of our hearts. Stubbornness, obstinence is everything to a Jew. It is just very crucial that we pick, select and choose when to use this media, for our very lives hang in the balance.