Giv‘at Shaul (The Hill of Saul)

Sermon on Exodus

“R. Isaac said, Whoever takes pleasure in an optional banquet will eventually be exiled, for the Bible states, Who feast on lambs from the flock, and soon after Now they shall head the column of exiles (Amos 6:4, 7).

“Our rabbis taught, Whoever feasts excessively anywhere will eventually destroy his household, make his wife a widow and his fledglings orphans, and forget what he has learned. He will be the center of many conflicts, and his words will not be heeded. He profanes the Name of Heaven and the names of his father and his teacher; he gives a bad name to himself, his children, and his children’s children to the end of time.

“Abbaye said, They call him ‘oven heater.’

“Raba said, ‘tavern dancer.’

“R. Papa said, ‘dish licker.’

“R. Shemaiah said, ‘one who folds and lies down’ (B. Pes 49a).”

[ . . . ]

As parents discipline their children, so did the sages not hesitate to give all manner of ethical instruction that would discipline us, for our own benefit. They touched upon this subject directly in the passage cited at the beginning of the sermon, as is clear to all who understand their words. First, they prohibited all feasts and banquets unconnected with the performance of a commandment, saying, “Whoever takes pleasure in an optional banquet will eventually be exiled, for the Bible states, Who feast on lambs from the flocks, and soon after, Now they shall head the column of exiles (Amos 6:7).” A religious banquet is one for a circumcision, a wedding, completion of study of a talmudic tractate, Rejoicing in the Law [Simḥat Torah], redemption of the first-born son, Purim, Hanukkah, and other ordained festivals. All others are optional banquets.

Even with regard to a religious banquet, they went on to say: “Whoever feasts excessively anywhere.” It would not be necessary to say “anywhere” to refer to an optional banquet; this is intended to include the religious banquet. Whoever indulges excessively and unnecessarily in any one of these is destined to “destroy his household.” For these are linked together. If he makes a great feast with many delicacies, he will need a comparable style of clothing and furniture, as well as clothing for his wife and children, and in this way he will ruin his household. Afterward “he will make his wife a widow,” abandoning her and fleeing to another land, and she will have to wait for him as a widow with her husband still alive.

Further, “he will make his fledglings orphans.” Note how they called his children fledglings, implying that he leaves them as orphans with respect to the father’s obligation to provide food for his children, as birds do for their young. They are like orphans; the money needed for their food he spends on delicacies and other unnecessary things. He is like a raven that abandons its children, who call out to others and are sometimes answered and sometimes not. “He will forget what he has learned,” for this often requires one to forget God by going to a land of idolatry. This causes the fear of God he had learned to be forgotten.

“He will be the center of many controversies”: the end of it all is strife and controversy. “And his words are not heeded”: a wealthy man who has tried his utmost to preserve his wealth but has become impoverished, not because he has spent too much on luxuries, but because of chance misfortune, retains a position of respect. People have compassion upon him and heed his words. But one who becomes impoverished for the other reason is not heeded or thought of at all, for it is said that he has brought about his own downfall. This evil is like a sickness. People see examples of it every day, and they recognize the cause, yet they do not change.

Someone in this situation “profanes the name of his father, his teacher, . . . his children, and his children’s children to the end of time,” for the very same people who ate in his house, whom he considered his friends, who accepted gifts from him, will quickly forget all, scorning and mocking him in his poverty. They will become estranged from him and call him glutton, drunkard, fool.

The sages referred to this in the phrase “oven heater,” meaning one who cares only about eating and drinking; “tavern dancer”—one of those offensive people who dance in taverns; “dish licker”—one who burns after pleasures; “one who folds and lies down”—a drunkard who sleeps in the marketplace. This is the final reward from his friends. Above all, it is a great sin for those who are not concerned for the ruin of Joseph (Amos 6:6) and have not remembered that they are in exile, and that it is wrong for exiles to do such things.

In addition to this personal disaster that befalls them, the exile is made more onerous. For God despises this, and He makes the Gentiles among whom they are exiled despise them, as was the case with the Egyptians. The verse says, wa-ya‘aṣmu very greatly, and then, the land was full of them. This means that the land and its inhabitants were fed up with them and their deeds. When a person cannot stand another, we say that he is fed up with him. Then a new king arose (Exod. I:8), and sorrows increased. What was even worse, the more they afflicted them, the grander they became (Exod. 1:12). This means that, in the midst of their affliction, they remained arrogant. Such is our way today. All of us complain and weep about hard times but when we get something, we spend a fortune on banquets with wine. The same is true of all the other unnecessary things.

So it was with them, until God burdened them with sorrow upon sorrow. The Egyptians were disgusted with the Israelites, and they threw their sons into the Nile, may God protect us! And He took away from them their spacious houses, and their expensive clothes, and their tasty delicacies. Their spacious houses, as we see in the verse, I have also seen how the Egyptians crowd you together (Exod. 3:9); their expensive clothing, for they were covered with mud and clay; their tasty delicacies, for they mentioned fish and onions and garlic as a great thing (Num. 11:5), and we therefore say [in the Passover Haggadah], “This is the bread of impoverishment, which our ancestors ate [in the land of Egypt].” Unwilling to behave properly as a matter of choice, they descended to a level of greater abasement against their will.

This is how fools are instructed, as the Bible says, and a rod for the back of fools (Prov. 26:3). There is no foolishness greater than that of a person who has fields and vineyards for the support of his household but sells them to buy expensive clothing for himself and ornaments for his house, so that when the time of the harvest comes, he is hungry, with no field to reap. So it is with those of us who spend money on jewels and expensive clothing. We have no fields except for our money, and we must use it to serve God and to provide food for our household. Is it not utter foolishness to diminish it for no good purpose, so that when harvest comes, there will be no source of food?

I know full well that this has been the pattern from of old, that it is difficult even to begin to correct it, and that the full remedy is even harder. Other warnings, while not heeded by everyone, will at least benefit certain individuals. But in this matter, unless the entire community reform, the individual will be powerless, for a wise man among fools is thought to be a fool. And reform of an entire community is extremely difficult. But this communal reform is what we need for our own continual welfare of body and soul. We must remember our exile before God. May it be His will to send us our righteous Messiah, soon and in our days. Amen.