Trust and trustworthiness
Trust depends on more than the trustworthiness of the other. Trust also depends on our own openness to trusting. For, although being trustworthy is a virtue; trusting is an art.
Benei Ysrael trusted Moshe and Aharon in last week’s Parsha: Va’ya’amein ha’am (“And the people believed….” [1]). Yet this week in 6:9, there is a turn of events in which they appear no longer to believe him.
In Shemot 6:9 according to the Targum and others, (“…and they would not accept Moshe’s words…”), Benei Ysrael showed no trust in Moshe. Their inability to trust Moshe was not because Moshe was an untrustworthy man. Rather it was because they had lost the art of trusting. How did they lose it and why?
Hearing does not always mean accepting
First let’s explore the meaning of that verse and how the Targum ands others see it as a loss of trust:
English and Hebrew are two of civilization’s richest languages but for opposite reasons. English, with a vocabulary of over 177,000 words, is rich in synonym. Many different English words may at times be used to describe a single idea, each word offering a subtly different shade of meaning. Hebrew on the other hand, has a very small vocabulary and a single word will often convey many disparate ideas and meanings. Hebrew, more than English, must be understood contextually. English is rich in its breadth. Hebrew is rich in its density and depth.
Here’s an example: The Hebrew word shomeah has different meanings. It can mean, “hear”, “listen”, “understand, “reflect upon”, or “accept”. Hearing is simply a sensory perception of a sound made by someone or something. Listening is giving ones attention to a sound. Understanding is perceiving not only a sound (or idea), but its meaning too. Reflecting-upon means to contemplate and meditate on the meaning of a sound or idea. To accept is to perceive not only the meaning of a sound or idea, but its validity too.
When shomeah simply means “hear”, it is almost always followed by the word et indicating the object of the sentence, the source of the sound that you hear. When shomeah has one of the other meanings it is usually followed by the word el; that to which you are listening.
The use of the word el rather than et in our verse, Shemot 6:9, clarifies why the Targum translates it as “and they (the Benei Ysrael) did not accept what Moshe said to them” rather than that they did not hear what he said to them. However the Targum’s translation raises other issues: If they hadn’t heard Moshe’s words, we could at worst have accused them of inattentiveness. But hearing his words and not accepting them, conveys a lack of trust in Moshe even though we are told in 4:31 that they did believe in him. Why would they suddenly have stopped trusting him?
Four interpretations:
Several different approaches are adopted by more subtle translations of the word ve’Loh Sham’u each one casting a different light on the meaning of trust.
- The Rashbam says there was a rational obstacle to accepting Moshe’s words and trusting them. Ve’Loh Sham’u means they could not understand Moshe’s comments. Ever since Moshe began to promise them redemption from Egypt, things had gotten progressively worse for them.
- Rashi says the inability to accept was not rationally based at all. Rather it was the inability to accept emotional and spiritual comfort from Moshe’s words.
- The Ramban says they did not pay attention to his words. They heard them but they did not listen to them in a mindful and attentive way.
- The Sforno says they did not reflect upon Moshe’s words. Such reflection would have brought them to a level of bitachon(trust in G-d) sufficient to guarantee them possession of Eretz Yisrael. Instead it was their children who gained that possession, not them.
Contemplation and reflection: the path to trust
Focusing on the Sforno, we learn something about the art of trust. Trust requires deep reflection. We need to convert data into emotion. We need to transform information into intuition. Trust is not about mental knowledge; it is about deep intuitive knowledge. Information comes from outside of us; trust comes from inside of us. Trust is not acquired by details of information alone, nor can information alone necessarily destroy it. Trust is not a science; it is an art. Like most art, trust is built as we contemplate and reflect on the big picture.
Contemplation and reflection require peace of mind, and peace of mind is one thing the Benei Yisrael did not have in Egypt. And so the Torah tells us they did not reflect on Moshe’s words Mikotzer ruach umei’Avodah Kasha (“... from narrowness of spirit and harshness of labor”).
Doubt erodes confidence, it dilutes our optimism and it saps our vigor. We doubt when we do not trust. We doubt ourselves when we do not trust ourselves. We doubt one another when we do not trust one another, and we doubt G-d when we do not trust Him. Trust is the balm for a soul troubled by doubt. Trust brings comfort and security; it fosters intimacy, it dissolves anxiety.
But, trust depends on more than the trustworthiness of the other. Trust also depends on our own openness to trusting, and our willingness to invest time and effort in contemplation and reflection. For, although being trustworthy is a virtue; trusting is an art.
Notes:
[1] Shemot 4:31
