To Grab or Grip

Jun 7th, 2011 by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Portion of the Week, Spiritual Growth

1 Comment

“In man the most precise function that the hand is capable of is to place the tip of the thumb in opposition to the tip of the index finger, so they make maximum contact. In this position small objects can be manipulated with an unlimited potential for fine pressure adjustments or minute directional corrections. This is the hallmark of mankind. No non-human species can do it.” (John Napier – The Roots of Mankind)

This extra inch of the human thumb transforms the grasping power of the primate hand into the cast repertoire of the gripping precision of the human hand.

This week’s portion, Beha’alotecha, has a number of powerful lessons about the difference between grasping and gripping:

Moses and the Children of Israel are ready to cross into the Land of Canaan. They are just days away. Moses invites his father-in-law, Yitro, to join them, but he refused. He grabbed onto God and the Covenant with Israel, but he did not grip. He let go. He lacked the dexterity to make their future his own.

The Children of Israel were changing. All was ready and prepared for them to enter the Land. But, they were uncomfortable with their new lives. They began to complain about the Manna and lack of bread. They had grabbed onto God, but they did not grip. They, too, let go of their opportunity to achieve a new stage.

A powerful prayer experience offers the same choice. We can grab the chance and then run, or, we can grip carefully, by reifying the insights of the prayer and changing. The difference between the animal and the human is the ability ti grip, and make it truly our own.

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1 Comment

• moshe stepansky May 24, 2010 at 4:54 am

  In honor of opposoble thumbs, I’d like to propose an additional insight.
  Not only are we able to grip, we are also able TO LET GO.
  In fact, many times when it would be to our advantage to latch onto something, we miss the boat because we can’t let go of something whose time has passed.
  I hope you’ll forgive me for jumping to next week’s parsha Sh’lakh to the mistake of the M’raglim, the spies.
  In Jewish Thought,the distinction of Man from the Animal is Co’akh HaMidabeir- the Power of Speech. Speech(Dibbur) is the outward manifestation of Makh’shavah,thought.Dibbur is also connected to DaVaR,a tactile physicality.
  There are so many explanations of the M’raglim’s mistake.I’ll touch upon one of them. M’raglim is rooted in R G L which also connotes the force of habit(Hergeil – davar she’dashsh bo baregel)-you’re so used to something that you step all over it with your foot (ReGeL).The Spies couldn’t LET GO of their analysis that Ahm Yisroel in the desert (miDBaR) were living a miraculous existence figuratively under G-d’s umbrella.They were afraid once Ahm Yisroel would enter Eretz Yisroel,the miraculous existence would end, the people would have to till the land and Ahm Yisroel would not be so close to G-d.They did not grasp that by Ahm Yisroel’s sanctifying the mundane thru working the Land that perhaps an even greater connection to G-d could be achieved.(To a certain extent ,they took their closeness to G-d for granted.)
  Unfortunately, the end result was the M’RaGLim’s corruption of their Dibbur,speech.
  [דבר became דבה =speech became slander.The numerical difference is 195 = קצה =disgusted)

  I bless all of us to use our speech thoughtfully,never to take things for granted,to be able to get a grip and perhaps more importantly to be able to let go.