NORMAN LAMM
Parashat Naso
THE JEWISH CENTER
JUIB
16, 1962
A JEWISH DEFINITION OF POWER
Our Haftorah t h i s morning t e l l s of the b i r t h of one of the most colorful
p e r s o n a l i t i e s i n b i b l i c a l h i s t o r y , Samson* He i s the only b i b l i c a l figure
known i n Jewish l i t e r a t u r e as gibbor, a hero or strongman*
His power was
proverbial,
This would not be remarkable if &a»aon were only a rare specimen of brute force
who ea^ slay a lion with his bare hand, throw fear into the hearts of his
enemies, && smite them with the jawbone of an ass, and cause a great building
to collapse by pulling down the p i l l a r s .
But Samson is also known to us as
one of the shoftim, the "Judges.H He experienced hashraat ha-Shekhinahj divine
inspiration and prophecy. And he was, from before his birth^ consecrated as
a Nazirite, one who for reasons of saintliness abstains from wine and the
cutting of his hair.
Does t h i s not indicate something unusual about him?
Indeed,
are we not here offered a new insight into the whole concept of gibbor and
gevurah, a new Jewish definition of power?
Our question: what i s that definition?
w
hat, in the context of the Jewish
tradition, i s gevurah, strength or heroism? I t obviously i s not mere brawn.
What then?
For an answer to our question, l e t us turn to the Kabbalah, that infinitely rich
mystical mine of Jewish ideas and ideals* The Kabbalah understood creation not
as a single event, but as a two-step process. The f i r s t step was hitpashtut, an
overflowing or emanation by God, a flood of divine creativity released at the
moment/ He determined to create the world.
However, t h i s alone i s not enough.
*or when an infinite God creates, the creation too tends to be i n f i n i t e , there i s
too much, i t proceeds without limit, and hence a real world cannot e^dst.
Therefore, there must be a second step to counteract this ever-spreading emanation
-2from God, and that i s tzimtgum; divine r e s t r a i n t , Godfs self-limitation*
^hus, God c a l l s a halt to His own creative endeavors. He limits.as i t were,
his own impulsei'to keep on producing world upon world.
The f i r s t step, the divine effusion, R±s overflowing and emanation, the
Kabbalists referred to the attribute of chessed, or love, because love
knows no bounds, i t always seeks to increase, grcW, and intensify.
However,
while we call i t chessed or love, the same idea of expansion can refer to any
drive or w i l l or passion*
The second element, that of restraint and self-limitation, i s referred by the
Kabbalists to the quality of gevurahs or strength* Gevurah thus means the
ability to limit oneyself, for i t certainly takes moral strength to know when
to stop*
This, then, i s essentially the definition of power or heroism: self-restraint,
self-contraction*
And as with God, so with man: gevurah means not brawn, not
grasping for more and more, but on the contrary - self-limitation, self-control*
True strength i s not the passion fcr power, but knowing when and when not to
use i t ; not the quest for bigness but recognizing when big becomes too big; not
ingrowth but in retrenchement; not in dominating others.but in dominating oneself,
Gevurah consists of knowing when to call a halt to mant> outgoing and outreaching
drives.
•
This i s , of course, true in every aspect c£ life*
much or too fast*
Growth is good, but not too
The body ! s cell which proliferate without end are the cause
of cancer. An economy which rises too quickly and without inner controls^ i s
liable to collapse in the long run. A child who grows but grows without limits^
i s actual I T sick. A teacher who t r i e s to impart a l l his knowledge to his charges
without modifying his information to f i t -Hie child — will be a failure*
Even the desire for knowledge, meritorious as i t i s , must be controlled by manfs
-3moral principles,
^he chessed or love of increased knowledge of the world,
as i t i s expressed in modern science and technology, can no doubt be a
good thing. We are a l l beneficiaries of the constantly ongoing programs for
unlocking the secrets of nature.
But if we moderns also are threatened with
sudden and calamitous extinction i t i s because we have not merged gevurah with
chessed; because we have not exercised moral restraint in directing the goals
and purposes of our scientific research.
If more nations wer® to learn how
to make Atom pombs, as they surely will^and each of them were to conduct
atmospheric t e s t s , there i s no doubt that the function of chessed would be
achieved: more scientific knowledge would be accumulated.
But because of the
lack of moral heroism in self-control and denying one's self t h i s increased
scientific information, the whole world may destroy i t s e l f or, at the very
l e a s t , irrevocably cripple a l l future generations,
Chessed without gevurah,
in science as well as in the formation of the vorld, leads to destruction and
not to creation.
Consider another example, a more personal one, of the moral courage called
gevurah, ^ove i s a wonderful thing.
But i t sometimes can be so overdone, that
i t destroys the object of affection - reminding us of the b i t t e r observation
of Oscar Wilde that "e-very man k i l l the thing he loves. 11 I refer to too much
love expressed by parents for children, love given in such excess that i t becomes
possessive and interferes in the life of a child.
This kind of unrestrained
.chessed has rightly been called "another love." All parents know this instinctively.
More sophisticated ones are aware of i t (X)v\}cp\J^M • Yet i t bears repetition
and reminder.
Too much paternal and maternal affection can lead to making too many
decisions for the child so that he never learns to think for himself, choose for
himself, or decide for himself. An overdose of chessed can make a child*s
personality permanently immature. A parent whose heart overflows with tender
affection for a child needs the divine quality of gevurah, of moral courage to
discipline, control, and guide his or her parental love* or at least the
expression of i t — for the good of the child.
Unless a parent control his
outgoing love for a child, unless he limits i t intelligently and at the right
t i n s s , the child will never learn that l i f e has i t s harsh aspects, that
without discipline one cannot live in a civilised society, that one must be
prepared to deal with people who w i l l view him c r i t i c a l l y and object!TOly and not
always with unthinking admiration and affection.
The problems of Jewish education are also affected by the combination of chessed
and gevurah. As a Rabbi, I have heard every good and legitimate reason for a
— NT
loving parent
subjecting *ii& child to the regimen of the study of Torah: there i s
too l i t t l e tinB for fresh a i r , there is too great a competition for getting into
better High Schools and Colleges, there are so many oiher things that one must
learn in order to achieve a "rounded personality*" And so parents often love
iheir children so much that they deny them the opportunity to learn the ireaning
of l i f e , the roots of their people, the history and destiny of their own s p i r i t •
Perhaps i t is for t h i s reason that in Yiddish, a wealthy man of delcent instincts
i s often called a gevir, a word which is derived from gevurah or heroism, strength*
True wealth, in the Jewish sense, i s the exercise of gevurah as we have defined i t s
moral r e s t r a i n t , refraining from ostentation, self indulgence, or domination of
otherSJ ethical control in acquiring riches and character control in spending them£
a quality of graciousness and generosity. '^his i s true heroism, true gevurah«
this kind of man i s never a nouveau riche; he i s a true gevir*
In today*s Sidra we read the commandment of God that the Kohanim blessqp the
children of Israel with the three-fold blessing*
The f i r s t one i s : Yevarekhekha
ha-Shem ve*Yishmorekha, "the Lord bless thee and keep thee."
Blessing or
berakhah has always been understood in our tradition to means hosafah increase,
growth, expansion.
I t i s a quality of chessed.
"Keeping," shermirah, always
refer*; to moral control and ethical limitation, as in hishamer lekha pen. Thus,
the Kohanim extend to us the blessing of Gods May you have a great deal, more than
(AY
you have now.
But may your berakhah be JMMBfed with shemirah.
May you leam
how tonkeepH your naturalness and humility in tact, regard your money and
your wealth as a trust, may you learn how to retain your dignity and suppress
arogance and haughtiness so that you will achieve true blessing.
Indeed, the quality of gevurah is a fundamental prerequisite for the religious
life of the Jew. ^hat distinguishes the Jewish religion i s not the holidays *
for other people have them too; not a synagogue - other people have their
chnrches or mosques; but rather, the Halakhah, the Jewish regimen of life tfiich
extends into every aspect of a per son f s existence.
A life of Jewish law, of
HLtzvot, i s an expression of the moral courage we have called gevurah, for i t
means that the Jew must learn to restrain himself and his appetites in every phase
of l i f e .
His desire t o eat indiscriminately must be curbed l>y the inner strength
that conies from observing the rules of Kashruth.
His desire to exploit nature,
by means of industry or farming or doing business, iaust be curbed by the inner
discipline that causes him to rest on the Sabbath in the manner decreed by Jewish
law.
His l u s t and his passion, what the Torah in one place has called chessed
and Freud called the libido, must be restrained by the gevurah of the Torah1 s code
f\
—"
of sexual morality,
^he disciplined l i f e of the Jew i s his greatest strength.
Ein giborim ela giborei Torah, there are none as heroic as the heroes of Torah.
(Avot defRabbi Nathan) # Physical strength i s transitory; military power i s
ephemeral; political influence is impermanent.
Only ihe moral strength of Torah
is abiding and everlasting.
Now, I belisve, we may understand why one of the most cherished of biblical
characters i s called Sanroon the gibbor, the man of strength, the hero.
If Samson
had only possessed koach, brute physical power, he would have been no better than
any Phillistine.
But he was charged to keep Ms great physical strength secondary
and subordinate to his gevurah, his spiritual power and moral courage. His
greatness lay in t^at he was consecrated to exercise greater power over himself than
over other s .
Unfortunately, Samson was not consistently successful*
At a crucial moment
in his life when he failed, when he forfeited his moral gevurah and became a
spiritual weakling - allowing himself to be tempted by Delilah - his physical
power proved to be useless and insignificant too. The strength of Samson lay
not in his muscles, but in his moralsj not in his bicep/^s but in his s p i r i t .
When the spirit and -foe morals failed, a l l else was valueless*
No wonder that Samson was commanded to be a Nazirite, to abstain from wine, as
were his parents from the moment that - as recorded in today's Haftorah - they
were informed by the angel that bbey would have a child. FOr wine releases
iohibitions, i t weakens onesa^f control, i t makes a man effusive and gives
him a feeling of omnipotence. He becones a l l chessed, no gevurah.
The abstention
from wine was therefore both a symbol and charge to Samson to exercise the moral
self-limitation which i s the gevurah of a religious man.
Perhaps a l l this can be summed up in the words of the Rabbis in the "Ethics of
the Father": ezehu gibor, ha-kovesh et yitzro, who i s strong? - he who suppresses
his (evil) inclination.
jyetzirahy creation.
The word for inclination, yetzer, derives from the Hebrew
The passions and inclinations of man are directad towards
self-aggrandizement, reaching out for more power, more conquest, moi£ insight, more
affection, more influence,
^hs f i r s t impulse of creativity, with man as with God,
is^yetzirjji or yetzyer - the centrifugal movement, the outward expansion of force,
character, desire, and i n t e r e s t .
But a world cannot exist with this alone.
needs the quality of gevurah, of limitation.
It
And therefore: who i s the glbbor,
the true hero or strong man? - He who can suppress his yetzer, his chessed, his
S-t
$3sire to go and grow farthsr and fanlrter*
We conclude with the words of David: Lekha ha-Shem ha-gedulah ve!hagevurah ve ! hat i f e r e t - "To thee 0 God, is the greatness and the strength and the beauty." The
Kabbalah has taught that when both tendencies — that of expansion, called
chessed or gedulah, and that of contraction, called gevurah — are united in the
-7proper proportions, the result i s : t i f e r e t , beauty, harmony, majesty. From
God!s example we human beings may learn the great secret of combining chessed
and gevurah to produce tiferet*
May we and a l l the world be blessed with the
quality of tiferet - beauty of l i f e , majesty of ideals, and *fae nobility of
destiny.