Parshat Eikev - 5764

“Let Your Eyes Behold Your Teachers”

The Talmud emphasizes the principle of "Let your eyes behold your teachers." Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi explained his greatness as being entirely due to the fact that he'd seen his “rebbe,” his teacher of Torah, Rabbi Meir, from the rear. Perhaps this is the response that Moshe received when he prayed that Hashem show him His Glory, and he was told (Shemot 33:20,23), "You will not be able to view My 'face', for no person can 'see' Me and live...But you will be able to 'see My back'.... "

In order to behold King David, who as the Head of the Sanhedrin was one of our immortal teachers of Torah, at least with our mind's eye, it is interesting to note that he was a "redhead." There are at least two sources, both in I Samuel. The first is when Shmuel is sent to anoint a son of Yeshai, where David is described in the following way, "...he was ruddy, with fair eyes, and good looking." (16:12) The second is found in connection with David's battle with Galyat, "...And he (Galyat) saw David and was contemptuous, for he was but a youth, though ruddy, and good looking." (17:42)

Some six hundred years earlier, another famous Biblical character was described as "ruddy." This was "Esav HaRasha," "Esav, the evil one," the biological first-born of Yitzchak and Rivka, about whom it is written "And the first came out ruddy, all over like a hairy carpet..." (Bereshis 25:25).

Esav is there described as "a cunning hunter, a man of the field...;" David is described to King Shaul, when the later was looking for a musician to drive away his depression, in somewhat similar terms, as one who "knows how to play, and a fine warrior, and a man of war,...". (Shmuel 1, 17:18)

David attributes his success in killing the lion and the bear to assistance from G-d. Esav, the hunter, harbors no such spiritual values. He asks that the "red, red soup" be poured down his throat, saying, "Of what use to me is the birthright?" David examines shades of red, in order to permit a wife to her husband.

Esav and his "spiritual" descendant Galyat, spill human blood wantonly, saying G-d doesn't care; David wants to build the holy Temple, but is forbidden to do so for one generation by G-d, and the task falls to his son, Shlomo, because of the blood he has spilled in battle.

Galyat, the giant, relies on his great strength, saying what Moshe warned the Jewish People never to say "My power and the strength of my hand have gained for me my victories" (Eikev, 8:17). David counters with "...You come to me with a sword and a spear, and a javelin; but I come to you in the Name of the L-rd of hosts, the G-d of the armies of Israel, Whom you have taunted" (I Samuel 17:45).

The sword and the spirit have been in continuous battle for millennia; "when Rome prevails, Yerushalayim is in decline; when Yerushalayim prevails, Rome is brought low." In this final stage of History, our major battle is with Yishmael. May the promise in today's Haftarah, which has begun to be fulfilled, finally come true:

"For the L-rd shall comfort Zion,
He will comfort all her ruins;
And He will make her desert like Eden,
And her wilderness like the garden of the L-rd;
Joy and gladness shall be found in her,
Thanksgiving, and the voice of song." (Yeshayahu, 51:3)

And then our eyes will behold our Great Teacher:

"The voice of your watchmen is heard,
They lift up the voice,
Together shall they sing;
For they shall see eye to eye,
The L-rd, returning to Zion." (Yeshayahu, 52:8)

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel

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