"TANACH= HEALTHY SOULS IN HEALTHY BODIES"- Parshat VaYetzeh | Rabbi Ari Shvat | Beit Midrash

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Torah Portion and Tanach
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A seemingly innocent event in this week's parsha demands explanation: The Torah considers it important to tell us that Ya'akov Avinu was so strong that he could remove the rock which covered the well, even though all of the shepherds and watchmen of three flocks together couldn't budge it! Explains the Ramban (Breishit 29, 2-3) that this seemingly irrelevant event comes to teach us that "those who yearn for Hashem have renewed power" (Yeshayahu 49, 31), and that "awe of Hashem grants strength" (see Mishlei 10, 29). Teaching us that in addition to spirituality, physical strength is also important.
Even the name of our nation, Yisrael, stems from Ya'akov's successful wrestling match against the angel, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because you have wrestled ("sarita") with [an angel of] God and with men, and you have prevailed." (Breishit 32, 29). Rav Kook points out that this is not a coincidence, but clearly an oft-missed point which needs to be stressed: "Upon examination of the olden days, of which we are told about in the Tanach, those generations that were very occupied with war, [we find that] these are The Heroes to whom we relate to with fondness and holy-greatness…" (Orot, 13-14) .
How do most people not notice that just about all of the super-heroes of the Tanach, in addition to their spirituality and morality, were also physically strong! Avaraham Avinu lived for 175 years, but we are told relatively a tiny proportion about his life and actions. Not only aren't we told what he ate for breakfast, but we know very little about his family life or day-to-day activities, which were surely great. Accordingly, if the Torah goes out of her way to detail that those four kings of the north were so much stronger than the five kings of the south, just to highlight Avraham's victory over them, apparently it must be very significant for us to know.
How much more so that it must be super-significant if we find that same physical and military strength reinforced regarding just about every single one of our spiritual fathers!
First impressions are always important. The very first act imbedded in our memory of Moshe Rabbenu, the greatest person of all time (Rosh HaShana 21b), is when he smites the Egyptian who was beating the Jew (Shmot 2, 12). Fast-forward to Moshe's last major action is leading the army to conquer the giant Og, and Sichon the kings of the Emori, and the super-steep and difficult terrain of the Golan Heights (without cable-cars & under fire!), at the age of 119 (Bamidbar 21, 34-35), where "his vision had not dimmed, nor did he lose his natural freshness"(Devarim 34, 7)! The entire book of Yehoshua is about conquering and dividing Eretz Yisrael, and just about all we know about the Judges, e.g. Yiftach, Gideon, Samson, et al, is that they were great war heroes. Kings Saul and David were also outstanding warriors, and so it goes throughout the Tanach, and even afterwards among the Maccabees which we will celebrate shortly on Chanukah, and the students of Rabbi Akiva who were the backbone of the Bar Kochva rebellion.
To sharpen the phenomenon, not only is it puzzling why physical/military strength is consistently stressed by the Tanach as one of the traits of its heroes, but to the CONTRARY, we usually picture the righteous as old and feeble. When drawing a picture of a tzaddik, and afterwards, a picture of a powerful person, they definitely wouldn't be the same picture! The stereotype of the boxer who is "all brawn and no brains", as opposed to the absent-minded professor who is a "98 pound weakling" with terrible vision, is imbedded in western subconscious.
The explanation, as Rav Kook points out, is that the IDEAL JEW is a "Healthy soul in a healthy body" (Orot HaTeshuva 5, 11). True, 2,000 years of exile warped the picture of the ideal Jew, to match the common stereotype of Christianity & their hero, that the holy don't deal with the physical world. We can understand those who fail to master and harmonize both the spiritual and physical, because in exile, there's no holiness in the land, and surely not in the army. But now that we are returning to Eretz Yisrael (the HOLY+LAND), the time has come to revive the ideal Jew, as seen throughout the Tanach (Orot, 13-14), and as seen ONCE AGAIN today in the Hesder Yeshivot and Mechinot. They are forming the new but authentic Israeli leadership in the IDF, and we pray that those suitable, will ASAP bring a new breath of Torah idealism into Israeli politics, and bridge the gap in Israeli society between the religious and the Zionists. Adding the learning of Tanach, mussar and Jewish thought to ALL the yeshiva syllabuses is what will make the difference! Shabbat Shalom! Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)

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